Replicat Audio Has Released LowFire ($25+) and LowFire Lite (free) lo-fi multi-effect plugins for Windows and macOS.
Replicat Audio has released its take on the lo-fi craze, with the aptly named LowFire providing a bevy of familiar effects in an easy-to-use package. LowFire itself is reasonably priced, with Replicat Audio asking $25 for the full license. LowFire Lite bears identical functionality but will ask the user to upgrade through a reminder every few minutes.
LowFire is a testament to clear and effective design. It features a variety of lo-fi effects, all easily selected on the front panel. Directly above the effects controls is the effects matrix which allows the user to select one of seven routing algorithms for how the sound is processed through LowFire.
There are seven effects in total for users to manipulate as they see fit.
The filters need very little introduction for most producers, offering up a respective high and low pass with accompanying resonance controls. Self-oscillation with these is certainly possible, but make sure you’re running a track limiter or soft clipper to protect your ears and monitors.
Gain Up and Gain Down correspond to overdrive or LowFire’s take on the overdriven guitar amplifier. Overdrive is a very pleasing effect overall, with lower values adding some much-needed warmth and higher values giving a nice crunch and crust to sounds.
Noise generators add grit, and the internal routing selections in LowFire can allow for the included noise module to radically alter the sound depending on the algorithm selected.
The downsampling and bitcrusher also work well together. The downsampling does change depending on the routing algorithm chosen. This can run the gamut from clean and somewhat milder downsampling to rather extreme applications on some algorithms. This pair of effects is probably the one that urges the most in terms of experimentation.
LowFire and LowFire Lite are easy to install, with users just dragging and dropping the VST3 file to their intended directory. No registration is required for downloading and using Lite, but an account on Itch.io allows for saving to your collection.
LowFire Lite is free to use without any functionality limitations. The only limitation is that it shows an upgrade reminder popup every few minutes (you can see how that looks in the cover image).
LowFire supports VST3 on Windows computers. VST3 and AU are both supported for macOS.
Download: LowFire Lite
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6 Comments
alex
onInteresting … It’s neither lite nor free and still it’s called lite and free …
frozenjaZz
onWell, the “lite” version has fewer functionality than the full, so it is really “lite”.
And you can download it for $0, so it is somehow “free”…
sparella
onIt could be called a demo, or it could be called nag-ware, but freeware is not.
frozenjaZz
onoh, and as opposed to some sites, you can even directly download, without having to create an account.
But I tried it, and I totally hate the way you control the buttons… why, why, why…
You have to “follow the curve”, so when you go up, it reaches 50% max and then you have to go to the right…
I hate when developper take this route…
Tomislav Zlatic
onYes, it’s much more intuitive when you can simply drag a knob up or down to adjust the value.
MRG
on+1 on the circular knobs… >_< You can use the mousewheel, but it isn't precise. The checkboxes are a nice idea, if they were reversed, used to disable instead of enable fx. Not a bad plugin, not exactly revolutionary either.
It does connect to internet at launch, and the nags are too often to make it useable, would be better to either make it non-modal like a text on the display that goes on and off instead of the oscilloscope, or just once when you open the plugin.
The visual feedback is looking great, tho.