Lo-Fi House
House · 2015 · 118 to 125 BPM · also known as Lofi House, Lo Fi House, Outsider House
Lo-fi house is house music deliberately degraded, soaked in hiss and tape noise, born on YouTube and Bandcamp in the mid-2010s. The machines run slightly out of tune, the compression crushes everything flat, and a VHS aesthetic and joke pseudonyms are part of the gesture. Behind the irony sits a genuine return to the sentimental house of Chicago and New Jersey, recorded like a memory rather than a document.
12 reference tracks
- Ross from Friends: Talk to Me You'll Understand (2015)
- DJ Boring: Winona (2016)
- Mall Grab: Menace II Society (2016)
- Baltra: Fadeaway (2016)
- DJ Seinfeld: U (2017)
- DJ Boring: Like Water (2020)
- DJ Seinfeld: These Things Will Come To Be (2021)
- Ross From Friends: Love Divide (2021)
- Mall Grab: Happiness
- Ross From Friends: Bootman
- Baltra: O'Neal
- Mall Grab: Feel U
At a glance
- Tempo: 118 to 125 BPM
- First appeared: around 2015
- Machines: Ableton Live, Magnétophone à cassette, Akai MPC
- The sound: Émulations 707 et 909 saturées, Saturation de bande et bitcrush, Nappes voilées, Enregistrement volontairement sale
- Labels: Lobster Theremin, 1080p, Steel City Dance Discs, X-Kalay, Mall Grab
- Key artists: DJ Boring, Mall Grab, Ross From Friends, DJ Seinfeld, Baltra
Producing Lo-Fi House
Lo-fi house sits at 118 to 126 BPM, slower than the deep house it descends from, and deliberately a little off: the machines slightly detuned, the tempo allowed to float, the hat swing pushed to 56 or 60 percent, so everything lands early or late like a found cassette. Build the drums from saturated 707 and 909 emulations, a kick with a long decay filtered above 8kHz, a clap softened by sampler reverb, and sixteenth-note hats, run through a cassette chain, tape saturation, a bitcrusher and a lowpass filter. The bass is a supple deep house line on minor seventh roots, slightly detuned and saturated, its low end blurring into the kick rather than a clean sub. Layer veiled pads on top, a Juno preset holding minor chords through chorus and wow, plus a stretched vocal sample from 90s R&B.
The full production course, in French: tempo, drums, bass, sounds, arrangement, mix, plugins and machines, and a step by step start.
Frequently asked
What is Lo-Fi House?
Lo-fi house is house music deliberately degraded, soaked in hiss and tape noise, born on YouTube and Bandcamp in the mid-2010s. The machines run slightly out of tune, the compression crushes everything flat, and a VHS aesthetic and joke pseudonyms are part of the gesture. Behind the irony sits a…
What tempo is Lo-Fi House played at?
Between 118 and 125 BPM.
Who are the key Lo-Fi House artists?
DJ Boring, Mall Grab, Ross From Friends, DJ Seinfeld, Baltra.
