After seen the incredible and fun BISCUIT video by OTO machines I wonder what your usual lofi effects rack may look like (being virtual or real). In my own there is still mostly the PSP Nitro mounted and occasionally the freeware KTgranulator besides some vinyl sort of effects. The UAD Roland SpaceEcho emu is in the rack too and in HW a 610 preamp replica sometimes gets abused when recording from outboard.
sound affairs & audio effect design
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Variety Of Sound 
Here’s my little list – I mostly do low tempo hip hop & dubstep stuff.
112dB Morgana (VSTi), Camel Audio Alchemy & CamelPhat, Crysonic nXtasy, D16 Group Decimort, GSi GS-201 (Roland SpaceEcho emu – I’d like to know how it compares to UAD emu) & OtiumFX Sonitex (Love this one, but can be heavy on the CPU) are my most frequently used paid ones.
I’m also looking for a good tape emu… oh wait, I have one FerricTDS š – Admittedly, I do start to drool whenever the thought of an Anamod ATS-1 comes to mind
Cheers
Lou
In my VSTplugins folder, I have 2 subfolders: Hard and Subtle.
Subtle contains:
am-phibia (Samplitude plugin)
MixSaturator2
NASTYtableTop
NastyVSD
Redline Preamp
TAL-Tube (although this should probably be in Hard folder)
TesslaPRO
Hard contains:
AcmeBarGig Scar Unlimited
AUM Bitcrush
E-Phonic LOFI
iZotope Vinyl
Killapluggies 7 Inch Nails
Nick Crow’s TubeDriver
Voxengo Tube Amp
These are plugin I would normally use for
‘unrealistic distortion’.
I do have a separate Amp Sims folder, which is divided into amp sims and pedal sims (like the Mokafix plugs which are AMAAAAAAZING!)
Hey Bootsy,
Why don’t you build a plugin of this?
I really like the idea of being able to set any bit to Normal, Always On, Always Off or Invert.
In fact, I had a GUI idea on how to easily implement that without the ‘8-bit only’ restriction while maintaining an easy to use interface.
Shoot me an email if you’re interested.
Cheers,
Dax.
I don’t use many really lo-fi effects, but the ones I use that might count would be:
Audio Damage Roughrider
E-phonic Tapedelay
Fuzzplus
Izotope Vinyl
That a nice little box, I want one!
As for plugs I recently found an awesome 8bit plug called “Magical 8bit Plug” check it out:
http://www.ymck.net/english/download/index.html
Chuck an Arp into it and you’ve got hours of fun, best of all its free!
This is what I might use, having been a freeware junkie I have lots more, some I’ve grown tired of and some I’ve not yet tried but some of these are bound to appear in almost everything I do.
SATURATION EFFECTS:
-Cakewalk TL64 tube leveler (has replaced TAL, TbT and Rubytube)
-Bootsy plugs (love ’em!)
-Jeroen Breebart Ferox (though I mostly use Ferric nowadays)
-Cakewalk FX2 Tape Sim (though I mostly use Ferric nowadays)
-TriTone ColotTone Free (rarely used but sounds really good)
-Nebula3 CM-edition (rarely used but sounds really good)
-Oh, and I run almost everything through Focusrite Liquid Mix or some analogue modeling like Nomad Factory British Bundle or T-Racks 3 Deluxe for a some subtle color.
LO-FI EFFECTS:
-iZotope Vinyl (sometimes I use a vinyl sample in the background instead…)
-Jeroen Breebart Timemachine
-Cakewalk AliasFactor
-KTGranulator
ALL ROUNDER
-PSP Nitro
DELAY and REVERB (with harware/retro sound, not necessarily lo-fi):
-ArchDev ET-200 (a bit buggy at times though but great sound, would love one more Space Echo type plug though… Please Bootsy?)
-Kjaerhus Classic
-Interruptor’s different delays
-Cakewalk Perfect Space convolution reverb (and signaltonoize got some great donationware samples from classic hardware)
-IK CSR
-Bootsy EpicVerb (just starting to learn it, great sound)
Just E-Phonic LoFi for some extreme bit crushings and D16 Redoptor for some warm distortion.
Effectrix, KTgranulator and CamelSpace for weird, creative and destructive processing.
Wouldnt mind to have a Culture Vulture for further distortion though..
So do i need to buy today Sonalksis TBK2 or Bootsie already planning to make some bitcrusher/downsampler?
The free ‘Camel Crusher’ as a send is probably my most used.
Very versatile for adding a bit of valve style anger to an otherwise insipid sounding track. Not the obvious choice for tube emulation maybe but I recommend the ‘Ultra Phat’ preset as a starting point if you want to check it for yourself and dial in just enough send to taste.
A great little dirtbag of a plug.
Other than that I’m a total Ferric TDS convert.
I see Blood Overdrive has not been mentioned yet. It’s still my favourite distortion – organic and throaty as all get out. Free too.
well, fo’ the good ol’ vinyl i use this one
http://www.vetrixmusic.com/download_vstplugins.html
which is free end extremely flexible and realistic.
then,for the distortion,
ferric(of course)
voxengo warmifier,
delamancha imperfection
retro sampling twisted tube(curious 2nd order exciter with inverted phase tricks)
and extensive use of the wonderful glitch by illformed(coupling the g button and the solo button on the different effects you can build amazing combos!-specially if you play with the envelope)
then tons of other shapers or psychoacoustic stuff tuned appositely by me
and if you have money to spend on plugs, the distortion on the softube trident works well too.
ah, and Kiritansu Music Factory tampa 2,it’s reeeally lofi,if you can use it…(i couldn’t,i wasn’t able š )
as i saw some different simple waveshapers in the posts, i would like to suggest tou to build your own flavours: nxtasy,ruby tube, blood overdrive and many others can be simulated by the christortion plugin for free. you can find oversampled waveshapers too, but usually if you use them, you won’t need an hifi antialiasing… in the reajs by cockos http://reaper.fm/reaplugs/index.php there’s everything,included my very last suggestion, a true (meaning faithful) emulation of transistor’s behaviour – NONLINEAR – look for it.
Will Variety of Sound perhaps design a plug like the BISCUIT?
That will be great…
Biscuit ends up costing something close to $700 when it arrived in Canada. insane! i use the D16 effects for my lo-fi and bitcrusher, but they are too high on the cpu to be completely useful every day.
@ Lou
I’ve read that the UAD Space Echo oscillates better at extreme levels and has better distortion than the GSi GS-201.
However, the same people said that the UAD sounds too hi-fi and shiny and not as authentic/murky as the GS-201 so some prefer the GS-201.
For the money, the GS-201 tape Echo is an absolute steal and a much better deal than the UAD version. No 2 units sound the same anyway and rest assured,Guido does model everything from his own collection.
GSi are also at this moment holding the no.1 Hammond Drawbar title (VB3) and it was close when the B3 was around anyway so GSi are right up there.
You also get a free WEM CopiCat into the bargain as well.
Great stuff.