How To Lofi

Lo-Fi Hip Hop has become one of the most popular music genres in the world thanks to some Massive internet radio stations based on YouTube. What is meant by Lo-Fi? What are the roots of this approach to making music and how can you apply the Lo-Fi Aesthetics and techniques to your own genre and music? This course aims to lay out the history and fundamentals of lo-fi music and will give you a practical demonstration of how to create a track utilising Lo-Fi techniques. You’ll learn about the hardware of Lo-Fi music and how to create the sound of in the box using Ableton.

Part 1 – Introduction

In part 1 you will learn what is meant by the word lo-fi & what is meant by the genre lo-fi, You will learn what tools are used to create lo-fi music including hardware and their software equivalence. We will look at the key elements of lo-fi are how they are used and will cover tape, vinyl, Saturation, distortion and digital audio quality.

Part 2 – Track Breakdown

In part 2 there will be a full track breakdown of how to compose Drums, Chords, melodies and bass. Audio effects will be used to create lo-fi sounding material seeking to emulate old hardware such as retro samplers, tape machines and record players. You’ll also learn how to master your track using a lo-fi aesthetic.

Part 3 – Track Arrangement

In Part 3 You’ll learn how to arrange your lo-fi track using Ableton session view recording a live jam into the arrangement view. We will be using some of our lo-fi effects to create interest and variation. For example some of the sp404 effects from Rolands famous sampler have been recreated as a Ableton Live rack that can add interest and progression to your arrangement Style.

Part 4 – Final track and summary

In Part 4 We will check out the final track and there will be a summary of the techniques and tools learnt within this course.