BigRedX wrote: ↑Sun Oct 17, 2021 12:24 pm IMO in music "LoFi" only really becomes a thing once "HiFi" is easily available to anyone who wants it.
Right up until the mid 90s almost everything I did could be termed "LoFi" because that was simply all the technology I could afford a the time for creating, playing and recording music could achieve. On the few occasions that we went into a "proper" recording studio, financial constraints meant that either it was only a slight step up in quality or we simply couldn't afford the time to really do the songs(s) recorded justice. A lot of the time a "good" take was one in which all of the band got all the way through the song without producing any glaring errors. And then of course the results were released to the pubic on compact cassette or budget vinyl pressings.
I think it is unsurprising that once "perfect" sound reproduction is the norm, that people look to add some "dirt" back into the proceedings. However it is very much select dirt and while it might not sound like it to most listeners you can bet that the artist producing it has carefully tweaked the dirt to exactly their requirements. It's very rarely uncontrollable dirt produced because the instruments or recording process are incapable of anything else.
Interesting, I’m still using my Tascam cassette Portastudio, and if you use it "normally" it’s quite hi-fi, to make it sound really dirty you have to abuse it in certain ways. use bad tape, don’t clean the heads, mess about with the noise reduction, turn the speeds right down, overload it.
There is no such thing as a broken piece of equipment for me, I have various tape machines, that have quite major faults, but they are then like pedals, or effects units, they do something unique, it’s uncontrollable sometimes, but you either want it, or not.
