In this tutorial, pointblank LA’s lecturer, Adal Jamil, shows how to add Macros to your lo-fi hip-hop beats in Ableton Live.
The term lo-fi comes from “low fidelity”, which refers to a low-quality recording with audible imperfections. These can include anything from background noise to performance mistakes and recordings created with inexpensive equipment. Lo-fi hip-hop is a popular sub-genre within the lo-fi sound that couples these techniques with simplistic rap beats.
Whether you’re new to the world of lo-fi beats or you’ve spent countless hours watching Lofi Girl and her cat (if you know, you know), this tutorial is perfect for helping you adorn your music with that dreamy aesthetic.
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During the video, Adal loads up his lo-fi hip-hop chord project from the last session and adds Macros to the chord sample rack. He then starts mapping different controls from the chord sampler to the Macros, including volume, pitch, fades, LFO shape, LFO speed and more. Using the Macro random function, Adal shows how you can create some happy accidents by changing all the Macro settings simultaneously to generate new and exciting effects.
Make sure you check out the previous video in the series, where Adal Jamil shows how to set up your dreamy lo-fi chord samples. Want to learn more about crafting beats of your own? Then check out our LA-based Beatmaking Classes.
If you’re keen to make some lo-fi hip-hop chords using the same pack as our lecturer, you can download it from Ableton for free.