What makes classic recordings stand out? Generally, analog recording equipment.
As digital recording began to evolve, analog recording gear and methods were left in the dust – but not for long. They soon became in vogue again, and in a way, they never really left mainstream consciousness.
If you’re chasing that warm, gritty, flavorful lo-fi sound, then you need the right tools to make it happen. And in this guide, we highlight the best free VST plugins for lo-fi music.
Contents
Vinyl by iZotope
If you don’t know anything about iZotope, all you need to know is that their premium mixing suite, Neutron, is among one the best. It should not come as much of a surprise, then, that they take pride, even in their free plugins.
iZotope’s Vinyl is relatively self-explanatory. If you want to add instant and authentic-sounding vinyl record vibes to your tracks, you will find none better than Vinyl (at least not for free).
With a simple, attractive interface, there aren’t any “wrong” settings for this lo-fi virtual effect (which, incidentally, includes an 80s hip-hop vibe “lo-fi” effect).
To take advantage of Vinyl, simply select from a few different decades (1930, 1950, 1960, 1970, 1980, and 2000), dial in your settings (dust, scratch, warp, etc.) and you’ll be off to the races.
While Vinyl is a one-trick pony, most free plugins are. What it does, it does at a high level.
Vinyl works on Mac and Windows in most Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) hosts.
Download: iZotope
LABS – Obsolete Machines by Spitfire Audio
When it comes to premium, realistic-sounding composer-oriented virtual instruments, and libraries, no one’s smashing it quite as hard as Spitfire Audio is right now. And their freebies are no slouches either.
LABS – Obsolete Machines is one of the latest additions to Spitfire Audio’s free LABS initiative (as of this writing), and boy, this is an odd one for sure.
Utilizing a combination of music machines, LABS – Obsolete Machines fuses the sounds of a 1000-oscillator Megadrone, Sega MegaDrive Synth, and GameBoy Megamachine for video game-like textures.
This virtual instrument is delightfully glitchy, strange, and evolving. For composers and sound designers, it could become an instant moody go-to.
It could just be me, but I think LABS – Obsolete Machines offers some cool possibilities for your lo-fi beats, especially if you want to add some textural complexity to your tracks to fill up some space in your mixes. Give it a try and see what you can come up with.
LABS – Obsolete Machine is compatible with Mac and Windows.
Download: Spitfire Audio
LABS – Vintage Keys by Spitfire Audio
The electric piano is a go-to in lo-fi music. From dreamy and calming to barky and funky, the instrument can produce a variety of tones depending on what’s needed.
LABS – Vintage Keys is a sampled Fender Rhodes Mark I Stage 73. The virtual instrument comes with four presets to allow access to the many rich tonal qualities that make the instrument a classic to this day.
This virtual instrument/sample library is warm and gritty, rich with analog flavor out of the box. If you want to color it further, though, be our guest – hook up a custom processing chain to suit your needs.
Finding another free electric piano VST should not prove a challenge, but finding one that sounds this good? Good luck with that.
You can use LABS – Vintage Keys on Mac or Windows.
Download: Spitfire Audio
LABS – Cassette Synth by Spitfire Audio
The name almost says it all. LABS – Cassette Synth features sounds from a 1980s Yamaha CS-80 synthesizer, which was played through 100 cassette players.
Naturally, the cassette players add a delightfully unstable, lo-fi vibe that will bring texture and depth to your tracks without effort. You probably won’t need to add an effects chain to this sucker!
Composers and sound designers alike are sure to get a kick out of LABS – Cassette Synth.
But there’s certainly no denying its huge appeal to lo-fi producers as well, especially if you like unpredictable pad sounds. Check it out for yourself. I doubt you’ll be sorry you did.
You can get this baby going on Mac and Windows.
Download: Spitfire Audio
LABS – Tape Piano by Spitfire Audio
You’ve got to love the fact that Spitfire Audio puts so many possibilities for your lo-fi tracks right at your fingertips. We’re at entry number four via Spitfire Audio, and we’ve still got more to go.
LABS – Tape Piano is a sampled modern upright piano that’s been processed using vintage tape machines. The sound of a piano is another essential in lo-fi music, and this one gives you the option of starting your projects with a piano sound that needs no alteration.
This plugin features a magnetic card reader, echoes, and tape loops. The variation slider lets you move through the tonal palette with ease. LABS instruments don’t always come with additional features, so that’s a bonus!
If you love the wobble and grittiness that comes from tape, you will love this entry, which you can get for Mac or Windows.
Download: Spitfire Audio
LABS – Tape Orchestra by Spitfire Audio
Here’s one last Spitfire Audio entry that may be of interest to you. Of course, now that you know what they’ve got in store, you might want to bookmark their website so you can return to the well for inspiration when you’re running dry.
LABS – Tape Orchestra brings together orchestral and synth recordings, which were processed using pre-distressed tape loops and cassettes and fed into a Tascam Portastudio. The tapes were intentionally crinkled to give the sounds a distorted quality.
The result is a virtual instrument that’s perfect for lush, textural, atmospheric pad sounds.
Grab it for Mac or Windows.
Download: Spitfire Audio
Krush by Tritik
Tritik’s Krush combines downsampling and bit-crushing algorithms, bringing together the realms of digital and virtual analog processing.
Krush features a drive stage, bit depth reduction, sample rate reduction, analog-modeled resonant filters (low-pass and high-pass), and a powerful modulation section that lets you affect any parameter (now there’s something you don’t always see in a free plugin!).
In all, Krush includes four modulation waveforms, as well as free or tempo-synced modulation speed options.
Krush allows for extreme processing, which allows you to alter your tracks beyond recognition. From adding a bit of character to injecting your tracks with impact, Krush is surprisingly versatile and useful for crushing and distorting your tracks, especially for a free plugin.
Conveniently, Krush is available for Mac and Windows.
Download: Tritik
HY-Lofi by HY-Plugins
HY-Plugins describes HY-Lofi as an FSU effect. It features a filter, waveshaper, and bit quantizer.
As you can probably tell from its appearance, this is a very simplistic plugin. But with the turn of a dial, you can crush and distort your tracks, while altering frequencies using the onboard filters.
The quantizer features two modes, and the drive module comes with three waveshaper modes as well.
Altogether, HY-Lofi is simple but surprisingly versatile for adding some grit and dirt to your tracks. It’s somewhat comparable to Tritik’s Krush in functionality, but HY-Lofi does have its unique character.
Hy-Lofi is only for Windows.
Download: PLUGINS 4 FREE
Retro Boy VST Plug-In by Sound-Base Audio, LLC
If you’ve been looking for single oscillator subtractive chiptune synths (and who isn’t), look no further. Retro Boy is a lightweight solution featuring one- to four-note polyphony, seven waveforms (Pulse 1, Pulse 2, Pulse 3, Triangle, Sine, Saw, Noise), effects (vibrato, decimation), and a linear ADSR envelope.
If you’ve never heard the term “chiptune” before, it refers to the 8-bit video game music of the yesteryear, utilized in the Game Boy and other similar handheld gaming consoles.
This synthesizer may not be of much interest to you if you’re not looking to incorporate video game-style elements into your tracks, but otherwise, there’s no doubt in my mind you’re going to have a blast with this.
Retro Boy is available for Windows only.
Download: Sound-Base Audio, LLC
Lo-Fi Noise by Yuri Semenov
Yuri Semenov’s Lo-Fi Noise isn’t a miracle worker. Very Simply, it’s a white noise and pink noise generator. If you don’t already have something like it, though, this could prove a godsend.
You can control the effect using the onboard parameters – in, out, wide, lo-cut, hi-cut, and so on. It has mono, stereo, and dual modes too.
When you need to produce random waveforms and add noise to your tracks, there’s nothing quite like Lo-Fi Noise.
Lo-Fi Noise is Mac and Windows compatible for maximum flexibility.
Download: PLUGINS 4 FREE
Lo-Fizer by ToneBytes
ToneBytes’ Lo-Fizer is a solid all-in-one lo-fi effect. It has 10 types of devices (effects), including vinyl, hiss, hum, monoizer, lo-bit, speaker sim, crusher, vowel, and GLS. Up to four devices can be combined simultaneously for all types of lo-fi chains.
Lo-Fizer also comes with a built-in preset manager so you can save your favorite settings for later. MIDI learning and VST automation are also built-in.
We do wish there was a better video demo of this plugin out there, however, because it doesn’t cast the BST in the best light.
Lo-Fizer is available for Windows only.
Download: PLUGINS 4 FREE
Gramophony by Martinheterjag
Gramophony was inspired by Boards of Canada’s lo-fi sound, combining compression, vibrato, and filtering.
This is a great effect for adding a bit of dirt and slightly out-of-tune character to your tracks.
Operating the Gramophony VST plugin could not be more braindead, with five basic parameters for compression, tone, vibe, and dry.
Try it out for yourself and see whether you like the effect.
Gramophony is a Windows exclusive.
Download: PLUGINS 4 FREE
OBZYLON by shuttleplugs
shuttleplugs’ OBZYLON is kind of like a demented toy piano or lo-fi organ-type instrument.
Closer examination shows parameters for a ring mod effect (which is always delightfully weird), cutoff, bend, portamento, stereo, volume, and more.
These types of VST instruments are available in abundance, especially if you start dumpster diving for them in classic VST plugin archives, but if you think you might need more weird-sounding instruments to layer into your tracks, you might get a kick out of this one.
You can get OBZYLON for Windows.
Download: shuttleplugs
Saturation Knob by Softube
Not just for lo-fi… Softube’s Saturation Knob is simple, popular, and just versatile, and powerful enough to be considered a steal of a deal. It will probably remain free, but just in case it doesn’t, you’d better grab it while you can.
The thing that’s often missing in clean, pristine, sterile modern recordings is a bit of grit. It may have been a secret at one point, but it isn’t anymore, that analog (or virtual analog) equipment can grace a track with the character that makes it warm and full.
Saturation Knob is the “easy button” for all-purpose saturation. Pick from one of three modes (keep high, neutral, and keep low), and dial in the exact amount of saturation you need. That’s all there is to it. Simple but effective.
Use Saturation Knob on drums, vocals, basslines, synths, or whatever you want. How you build your lo-fi tracks is up to you.
Download: Softube
Spectral Lemuring by Fugue State Audio
Fugue State Audio’s Spectral Lemuring is a legacy plugin inspired by a legacy plugin. The spectral processing effect allows for the separate processing of high-magnitude and low-magnitude FFT signals. It also comes with “freeze” functionality.
For all your lo-fi pitch-shifting needs, Spectral Lemuring is sure to bring a smile to your face.
If you’ve got Windows, you can use this. Otherwise, you might be out of luck.
Download: Fugue State Audio
PCM2612 Retro Decimator Unit by Inphonik
This free bit crusher effect offers a Sega Genesis-style 8-bit quantized and aliased effect.
Altogether, PCM2612 comes with 32-steps scalable 8-bit decimation, dry / wet controls, stereo / mono modes, switchable output filtering (Crystal Clear for digital sounds and Legacy for Sega Genesis Model 1 sounds), and scalable GUI.
PCM2612 also features two interfaces – vertical and horizontal – depending on what you like best. The interface is quite sleek overall, especially for a free plugin.
PCM2612 Retro Decimator Unit is compatible with Mac, Windows, and even Linux.
Download: Plugin Boutique
CHOW Tape Model by ChowDSP
Based on the Sony TC-260 analog tape machine, CHOW Tape Model offers analog tape emulation in an experimental capacity. Research project notwithstanding, the plugin has received a perfect rating from the producer community at large.
CHOW Tape Model features a simple interface. There’s a gain / filters module with input, dry / wet, and output gain, a tape / tone module with bias, saturation, and drive, a loss / degrade / CHEW module, as well as a flutter / wow module with depth and rate.
Check out the video demo and you’ll probably see why this baby has managed to gain favor with an array of producers and creators.
Download: Plugin Boutique
Warmy EP1A Tube EQ V2 by Kiive Audio
Based on the infamous Pultec EQs, Kiive Audio’s Warmy EP1A Tube EQ V2 is an analog-modeled EQ with a modern spin.
Warmy EP1A comes with high cut and boost, low cut and boost, two high-frequency selectors, a tube emulation mix knob, oversampling, and a resizable GUI.
You’re probably going to be using EQ on most of your tracks anyway (unless you’re working with perfectly tuned samples). You may as well grab yourself an analog-style EQ for some tube-style saturation and vintage feel.
Warmy EP1A Tube EQ V2 is workable for Mac and Windows.
Download: Plugin Boutique
Tape Cassette 2 by Caelum Audio
If you love the sound of old tape cassettes, then you might end up loving Caelum Audio’s Tape Cassette 2 as well.
With the latest version, the developer created a selectable Type 1 Cassette Impulse Response, improved the saturation algorithm, enhanced the wow & flutter engine, and employed real sampled tape noise.
Tape Cassette 2 can be used on individual tracks for added texture and warmth, and it can be pushed to extremes and used as a sound design tool as well.
Grab Tape Cassette 2 for Mac or Windows on Plugin Boutique.
Download: Plugin Boutique
Tube Saturator Vintage by Wave Arts
Tube Saturator Vintage takes advantage of circuit simulation technology to reproduce the tones of a dual triode preamp. Tube Saturator 2 is the more CPU-efficient upgrade, but some users preferred the sound of the original, which is why Wave Arts offers Tube Saturator Vintage as a free plugin.
So, yes, Tube Saturator Vintage is a resource hog. You should expect some slowdown while using it unless your computer is state of the art. But the circuit simulation allows for every detail and nuance of the analog circuit to be modeled, Wave Arts even claims that it’s nearly 100% accurate.
In all, Tube Saturator Vintage includes two common cathode 12AX7 preamp stages, Baxandall three-band EQ, drive control, EQ bypass, FAT mode, analog-style metering, and mono or stereo mode.
For a touch of analog warmth or even distortion, Tube Saturator Vintage may well be worth a look.
Download: Plugin Boutique
Top Free VST Plugins For Lofi, Final Thoughts
From instruments to effects, there isn’t a shortage of free lo-fi VST plugins available. Some are older, some are newer. Some offer more, some offer less. But if you know what you’re doing in terms of production, you can use just about any sound in your lo-fi beats and still come out on top.
So, while there is some awesome premium lo-fi VST plugins out there, don’t knock the free ones until you’ve tried them. Some are surprisingly versatile and great sounding.
With that, have fun!