GUIDE · BEATS · ANY DAW
How to make lo-fi beats.
Lo-fi is mostly about what you take away: high end, perfect timing, clean tone. Here's the recipe from chords to the final dusty bounce.
By Jordon Lumley, producer and maker of SCRAMBLE. · Nov 2026
Step by step.
With your DAW's stock plugins. The numbers are starting points: trust your ears.
- Chords. Use 7th and 9th chords (jazzy voicings) on keys or a Rhodes. Slow tempo, 70-90 BPM.
- Swing the drums. Quantize less, add 55-65% swing, and keep the kick and snare a little soft.
- Low-pass everything. A low-pass filter around 6-10 kHz on the chords (and the master) gives the muffled sound.
- Tape + wobble. Tape saturation plus a slow pitch wobble (wow and flutter) makes it feel old.
- Vinyl. Quiet vinyl crackle under the beat, just loud enough to notice.
- Sidechain. A gentle sidechain from the kick to the chords gives the classic breathing feel.
Or do it with one free plugin.
SCRAMBLE's AFTER HOURS mode muffles, pitches down and adds tape and a dark space in one twist; MORE FX adds VINYL and RADIO. The LO-FI TAPE preset pack is a free pack of the week on Dec 28.
Free preset packs every week: see this week's free packs →
SCRAMBLE is free.
SCRAMBLE is a free FX plugin you play like a Rubik's cube: 43,252,003,274,489,856,000 positions, each a different FX chain. It works on drum buses, 808s and bass, hats, loops, vocals and the master bus, not just loops. 237 presets + 10 vocal chains free, Mac + Windows.
Questions
What BPM is lo-fi?
Usually 70-90 BPM, often with swing.
Do I need RC-20?
No. Free tape and vinyl plugins plus a low-pass filter get you most of the way. See /best-free-lofi-plugins/.