Lo-Fi Effect: Make a Song or Beat Sound Lo-Fi
Make any beat sound lo-fi and vintage.
12-bit sampler crunch, wobbly cassette tape, vinyl crackle and a hard clipper, in a chain you control. Free, in your browser.
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Sound
Sampler into tape into vinyl: the whole dusty lo-fi sound.
Want just the drums? Split the song first with the Stem Separator, or make a whole lo-fi song with AI.
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How it works
Choose the beat or song
MP3, WAV, M4A, FLAC or a video file. Drums or a sample loop give the most classic result.
Pick a sound
Start from a preset: 90s sampler, Cassette tape, Dusty vinyl, Hard clipper, Full lo-fi chain or Crushed 8-bit.
Shape it by ear
Turn each stage on or off, then set bit depth, sample rate, wow and flutter, saturation, hiss, crackle and clipping. Use Mix to blend in the original.
Make it and download
Press Make it lo-fi, listen, then save MP3 or WAV.
About the Lo-Fi Effect: Make a Song or Beat Sound Lo-Fi
Completely free: free account, no credits, no limit. It runs in your browser, so your audio stays on your device.
The Lo-Fi & Vintage Sampler Effect runs your beat, loop or song through four stages in a row, the way producers once ran drums through old gear: a sampler stage that lowers the bit depth and sample rate, a tape stage with wow and flutter, saturation, a softer top end and hiss, a vinyl stage with crackle and a narrow old-record tone, and a hard clipper that squares off the loudest peaks.
Each stage can be switched on or off and set by ear, and a mix control blends the lo-fi sound with the original. Presets start you off: 90s sampler (12-bit at 26.04 kHz, the rate early drum samplers used), cassette tape, dusty vinyl, hard clipper, the full lo-fi chain and a crushed 8-bit sound.
It is a set of general recipes for the sound of old equipment, not a copy of any one machine. Everything runs on your device, so the file is never uploaded.
What you can use it for
- ✓Give clean digital drums boom-bap grit
- ✓Make a lo-fi hip-hop or chillhop version of a song
- ✓Add cassette wobble and hiss to a melody loop
- ✓Clip drums for a louder, punchier beat
Step-by-step guide: How to Make a Song or Beat Sound Lo-Fi (Free, Online)
Frequently asked questions
What makes a song sound lo-fi?
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Fewer bits and a lower sample rate (the gritty “crunch”), tape effects (a slightly wobbling pitch, soft saturation and less treble), vinyl noise, and often a softer, narrower tone. This tool lets you add each of these on its own or all together.
What does 12-bit, 26 kHz mean?
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Many early drum samplers stored sound with 12 bits at about 26 to 40 kHz, far less than a CD (16 bits, 44.1 kHz). The missing detail is the grit people hear in 90s hip-hop drums. The Sampler stage recreates that by lowering the bit depth and the sample rate.
Does it model a real MPC, SP-1200 or tape deck?
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No. It uses the same ideas (bit reduction, sample-and-hold, wow and flutter, saturation and clipping), set to taste. It does not claim to sound exactly like any brand’s hardware.
Should I use it on the whole song or just the drums?
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Both work. For the classic sound, use it on the drums or the sample, then mix them with clean vocals. Split a song first with the Stem Separator if you only have the full mix.
Can I use the lo-fi version in FL Studio, Ableton or Logic?
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Yes. Download a WAV and drag it into any DAW. A common workflow is to bounce the drums or the sample loop, run it through the chain here, and put the lo-fi version back under clean vocals.
What BPM is lo-fi hip-hop?
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Usually 70 to 90 BPM, with 80–85 the classic head-nod tempo. The full beat-making walkthrough, from drums to texture, is in our guide How to Make Lo-Fi Hip-Hop Beats on the SongUp AI blog.
Does it work on iPhone and Android?
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Yes. It runs in the phone browser (Safari or Chrome) and saves the MP3 or WAV to your files. Long songs render faster on a computer.
What do I get?
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An MP3 (192 kbps) or a WAV file, whichever you choose, ready to download straight away.
Is it really free?
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Yes. It is completely free, with a free account: no limit and no watermark. It runs in your browser, so your audio stays on your device.