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How to make lofi beats

Gazillion Industries · September 14, 2026

Somewhere a cartoon girl has been studying at the same desk, in the same window light, for years, while a stream of dusty, swaying beats plays under her to an audience that never seems to leave. Lofi became the sound of concentrating on something else, which is a strange destiny for music this carefully made.

Lofi beats come from a few moves done with restraint: a slow tempo (usually somewhere around 70 to 90 BPM), jazzy extended chords or a soft sample, drums with heavy swing and their top end rolled off, a gentle crush of bit depth or sample rate, some tape wobble and noise, and a little sidechain pump so the chords breathe with the kick. Nothing should sound brand new, and nothing should be loud.

The short version

What makes a beat sound lofi

Lofi means low fidelity, and the sound is a deliberate list of flaws: a top end that stops early, a little noise underneath, pitch that drifts, drums that sound like they came off a record and not a sample pack. Its roots run through beat tapes and hip hop that sampled soul and jazz, and through producers like Nujabes, whose work on the Samurai Champloo soundtrack (2004) is a standard reference point for the mood. The trick is taste: flaws that sound chosen, not accidental.

Chords and samples

Lofi harmony is soft and a little unresolved. Seventh and ninth chords on electric piano, a muted guitar, or a chopped jazz or soul sample give it that late-night feel. Voice chords close together and keep velocities gentle. If you sample, pitch the sample down slightly and filter it; the slower, darker version usually sounds more like the genre than the original.

Drums

The drums carry the whole mood. Keep patterns simple, swing them hard so the hats lean, and roll off the top so nothing clicks. A kick and snare that sound a little crushed and a little far away do more than a pristine kit ever will. The full method is in how to make lofi drums.

Texture: crush, noise and wobble

Texture is what turns a chill beat into a lofi one. Reduce the bit depth or sample rate a little so the sound gets grainy and the top folds back on itself. Add a quiet noise bed. Let the pitch drift slowly, the way a worn tape or a warped record does. Each one should be subtle alone; together they make the whole beat sound like a memory. The details are in bitcrushing explained and how to make a sample sound old.

F(ilter)12 puts the crush, a filter and movement in one place. There's a demo on the page.

Movement

Lofi breathes. A gentle sidechain from the kick on the chords makes them swell between hits; a slow filter moving on the pads keeps a four-bar loop from feeling static. See auto filter effect for the filter side.

How to make a lofi beat

1. Set the tempo somewhere between 70 and 90 BPM.
2. Write four bars of seventh or ninth chords, or chop a soft sample.
3. Program a simple kick and snare pattern with heavy swing on the hats.
4. Low-pass the drums and the chords so the top end is soft.
5. Add a little bit or sample rate reduction to the drums or the whole beat.
6. Add a quiet noise bed and a slow pitch wobble.
7. Sidechain the chords lightly to the kick.
8. Keep the master gentle: warm, not loud.

Questions people ask

How do I make a beat sound lofi?

Roll off the high end, add swing to the drums, reduce bit depth or sample rate a little, add a quiet noise bed and some slow pitch wobble, and keep the chords soft and jazzy. Subtle flaws, stacked, make the sound.

How do I turn a song into lofi?

Slow it down slightly, low-pass it, add bit or sample rate reduction, a noise bed and tape-style wobble, and sidechain it gently to a swung drum loop. For a finished record, those moves are an effect rather than a new production.

What BPM is lofi?

Most lofi hip hop sits somewhere around 70 to 90 BPM, slow enough for heavy swing and a relaxed feel.

Stock plugins that do this

What F(ilter)12 does

F(ilter)12 is our 12 bit sauce filter: a filter with a lo-fi section in front of it and an adaptive correction called AURA on top. SAMPLE RATE and BIT are the crush pair, and twelve bits is as clean as it gets. The filter has five shapes and eight resonance shapes that travel with the knob, and AUTO FILTER moves it on a clock with SWING. AURA makes things sit better, invisible butter, air and lift, without sounding like anything was done.

The cartoon girl is still at her desk. Now there's something new playing under her.

Keep reading

• How to make lofi drums — Soft hits, heavy swing, low-pass, a little crush, saturation and a dark room.
• Bitcrushing explained — Bit depth, quantization noise, sample rate reduction and what 12-bit and 8-bit sound like.
• How to make a filter sweep — High-pass and low-pass builds, automation curve, resonance, and what to sweep.

Gazillion Industries LLC · reading material