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by weinzierl 932 days ago
Looks similar in spirit to Goodhertz' Lossy plugin [1], described as:

"The infinitely desirable sound of crappy mp3’s, broken cellphones, streaming videos, and much more."

I think Lossy approaches the same idea from a more artistic angle in contrast to MAIM which comes to a similar end from a more technical direction.

Coming from the 8-bit generation I find it interesting and refreshing that the younger generation seems to leave the harsh sound of the bit crusher behind and brings more sophistication into digital degradation. It's no surprise, of course, because low quality lossy compression is what they grew up with, in contrast to 4-bit 4 kHz bit banged crash, my generation would consider lo-fi.

Another plugin that is similar in spirit in the sense that it goes beyond simple downsampling to make things retro is AudioThing's Speakers. It has convolution samples from many old devices like the Gameboy or several old phones. I think it would be the perfect companion to listen to MP3 degraded sound with a speaker from your past.

[1] https://goodhertz.com/lossy/

[2] https://www.audiothing.net/effects/speakers/

I'm not affiliated with any of the companies mentioned. These are just plugins from my collection that came to my mind. Usually I do not post links to paid products at all, but I also think the VST plugin space is somewhat special in that it seems to allow many small companies to exist (maybe even prosper?), which is rare today, so I made an exception here.

2 comments

Yes, absolutely! Lossy was one of my main inspirations in coding MAIM, and I would recommend their plugin highly: it sounds beautiful, although it is perhaps a bit less "accurate," since it does not use real MP3 encoders.
Thank you wildergarden for giving MAIM out for free!

Most other usable plugins in that realm cost real money (Lossy is USD 79 for example) so I like to take the liberty to highlight the donation link:

https://ko-fi.com/wildergardenaudio

Love what OP has created and is releasing free (thank you!)

Did want to point out some other cheap/free bitcrushers out there for people to try (in addition to MAIM)

https://www.deniseaudio.com/plugins/my-crush is currently free with newsletter sub and was super cheap when I first purchased it.

Some other free vst of note https://bedroomproducersblog.com/2012/03/09/bpb-freeware-stu...

I also like https://camelcrusher.com/

very cool to hear lossy was an inspiration, and to know there's a more accurate version of the same idea out there in the world. and yes that's a totally accurate characterization re: accuracy when it comes to lossy. the loosely-based-on-mp3-ness also lets us be creative with certain engineering constraints, like getting it onto a guitar pedal: https://www.chasebliss.com/lossy
Thanks for the comment! I really love the quality and attention to detail you folks put into your plugins, and I had no idea you made Lossy into a pedal. So cool!
It seems digital compression artifacts have replaced the previous generations' audiophiles liking for the "colour" that tubes and vinyl imparted to the sound.
I don’t think so. I’m probably of the ‘current generation’, but tubes and vinyl and tape etc. do have a certain undeniable and pleasant analogue warmth. Digital artifacts have no such quality; they just happen to induce some nostalgia amongst those of us who (in my case just about) remember when they were a necessity.

No one’s going to be converting their music library to old-fashioned low bitrate MP3s, whereas vinyl is more popular than ever. (Okay, maybe not ever, but it’s actually growing again.)

> whereas vinyl is more popular than ever. (Okay, maybe not ever, but it’s actually growing gain.)

let's not confuse "the only format available at the time" with popular by choice. each time a new format was created, it was adopted to the point of vinyl nearly becoming obsolete. what is old is new again is part of vinyl's resurrection. it's doubtful most hipsters buying vinyl today even have sound systems other than bookshelf speakers to hear a difference in any format.

I’m not confusing those; by popular I simply meant… well, popular. It was what everyone used because it’s what there was.

My point was that vinyl, as well as being (1) pleasingly retro and (2) physical rather than existing in the cloud somewhere, also has (3) fundamentally desirable traits as an audio format — ‘analogue warmth’, etc. Bad lossy digital compression has (1) but not (2) or (3).

You’re right about vinyl’s current popularity not having much to do with that though: it’s mainly (1) and (2) I think.

I always thought an interesting format would have been the plastic disc with a physical track similar to vinyl, but read optically so that it could be a disc that was compact like that other digital format. The loss in fidelity would naturally cause the format to have a charm of its own. Sort of like those old films with an optical audio track that have a distinctive sound.
Laserdisc is analog optical, but not so compact.
Optical turntables exist.