LoFi: Lo-Fi Instrument Plugin by DopeSONIX

The patches are grouped into four sets of 50. DopeSONIX says the first set focuses on the grimy sound of the Akai MPC 60 MKII, known for its mid-range tone, colored saturation and narrow bandwidth. The second set draws on analog and acoustic sources, including vintage synths and homemade tone generators. The third set covers tape-style material such as cinematic strings, textures, haunting leads and grungy pads. The final set includes chopped samples, crackly synths and warped vocals, all coated in vinyl noise.

The developer's approach is that the character comes as much from how sounds are recorded and processed as from the sources themselves, so many patches include reverb, delay and saturation already applied.

Each patch includes built-in pitch, pan, glide and volume controls, flexible ADSR envelope settings, and a high and low pass filter. A classic-sounding reverb is also built in. You can play the instrument in mono, poly or legato mode, and choose soft, normal or hard velocity response.

Melodies can be programmed manually or played from a MIDI or USB controller, keyboard or MPD pad controller.

DopeSONIX positions LoFi as light on processing, with ultra-low CPU usage that suits laptops, tablets and lower-spec computers. Patches load quickly, so you can browse through the library without long waits. The plugin runs as a 64-bit instrument on macOS and as a 32-bit or 64-bit VST on Windows.