These four audio files contain examples that demonstrate the kinds of lo-fi style processing options I discuss in the Cubase Workshop in SOS November 2024. All the examples are based around a combination of a single four-bar drum loop and a four-bar piano chord progression.
www.soundonsound.com/techniques/cubase-13-creating-lo-fi-effects
Cubase 13 Lo-Fi Effects Audio Example 01.wav
As described in the workshop article, this audio example illustrates the kinds of lo-fi processing possibilities possible using just Cubase’s stock plugins. It’s divided into three main sections featuring, in turn, the piano loop, the drum loop and both loops played together (to set the sounds into a basic musical context). In all examples, when you hear the processed versions, the sound is 100% ‘wet’ — not a blend of the unprocessed and processed versions. In each case, you hear the loop multiple times, as follows:
i) The unprocessed loop.
ii) The loop with an instance of the Grungelizer plug-in adding simulated ‘turntable’ noise.
iii) The loop processed by FX Modulator, to add pitch variation. The influence of this on the piano loop is much more obvious (and perhaps a bit extreme for many of you!) than on the drum loop.
iv) The loop with a single band of Quadrafuzz’s tube-based distortion applied.
v) The loop with bit-reduction processing from BitCrusher.
vi) The loop with an instance of the Modmachine delay plug-in — this perhaps works better on the drums than a reverb-based effect would.
vii) The loop an instance of the RoomWorks plug-in adding reverb.
viii) The loop bracket-filtered using the High-Cut and Low-Cut filters in the track’s main Pre-section, to limit the bandwidth.
Cubase 13 Lo-Fi Effects Audio Example 02.wav
The second example illustrates further variations that mix and match the various effects in the signal-chain. It’s divided into two main sections featuring, in turn, the piano loop and then the drum loop. Again, the processed versions are 100% ‘wet’ rather than a blend of the unprocessed and processed signals. In each case, you hear the loop multiple times:
i) For reference, the loop processed with all of the effects in the signal-chain, as in the last section of audio example 1.
ii) The loop with processing from a combination of FX Modulator, Quadrafuzz, BitCrusher and ModMachine.
iii) The loop with processing from a combination of FX Modulator, Quadrafuzz, and BitCrusher.
iv) The loop with processing from a combination of FX Modulator, Quadrafuzz, and BitCrusher again, but this time with more extreme parameter settings. The influence of BitCrusher is particularly obvious here.
v) The loop with processing from a combination of the Flanger plugin (used as an alternative to FX Modulator) and BitCrusher.
vi) The loop processed using only BitCrusher, but with some fairly extreme settings.
Cubase 13 Lo-Fi Effects Audio Example 03.wav
The third example illustrates two further options discussed in the main article: blending the unprocessed signal with the processed signal; and additional possibilities provided by two free-to-download additional plug-ins. It’s divided into two main sections featuring, in turn, the piano loop and then the drum loop. In each case, you hear the loop multiple times:
i) A blend of the unprocessed loop and a version processed by iZotope’s free Vinyl plug-in, to emulate turntable degradation.
ii) A blend of the unprocessed loop and a version processed by Caelum Audio’s Cassette Tape 2 plug-in, to emulate playback from a worn cassette tape.
iii) A blend of the unprocessed loop and a version processed by iZotope Vinyl and Cassette Tape 2, but also combined with the stock plug-ins Quadrafuzz 2, BitCrusher and RoomWorks.
Cubase 13 Lo-Fi Effects Audio Example 04.wav
For comparative purposes, the fourth audio example uses the same piano and drum audio loops but illustrates sound created using XLN Audio’s RC-20 Retro Color plug-in. Again, you hear the loop multiple times in each case.
The first two instances in the example provide a reference, and were created with the stock plug-in processing and the stock-plus-freebie plug-ins. The five repeats then feature just RC-20 processing — a number of different presets are used, each featuring a different combination of the included effects modules. The final one features some fairly extreme pitch variation, which may induce a sense of musical unease in the more sensitive listener!
While the specific details of the processing provided by RC-20 are obviously different than that demonstrated for the stock and stock+freebie examples, I’d say they’re in the same sonic ballpark.