Even Eric Clapton is into lo-fi guitar tones now – and Source Audio’s Artifakt promises all the broken-sounding weirdness you could ever want
Source Audio has dropped the Artifakt – an all-in-one delay, reverb, bitcrusher, and everything-in-between effects pedal that promises to be the only lo-fi stompbox you’ll ever need.
Lo-fi guitar tones have become incredibly popular over the past few years ever since the ‘lo-fi beats boom’ of the late 2010s. Heck, even Eric Clapton is a self-professed fan of lo-fi guitar, having recently singled out experimental indie artist Mk.gee as one of his favorite new players.
As such, many pedal makers are attempting to deliver high-tech solutions to sounding as low-tech as possible. In other words, create pedals that can make your guitar sound hazy, scratchy, wobbly and broken, without actually breaking any of your gear.
Chase Bliss’s Lossy is a prime example, as is EHX’s Mainframe bit-crusher. Now, Source Audio has thrown the Artifakt into the mix.
It’s humble in size and layout, and looks like a number of existing units that cater to low-fidelity effects, but Source Audio stresses the Artifakt is very much “the first pedal of its kind” capable of a suite of appropriate sounds.
Such sounds range from old vinyl replications, tape modulation and saturation, bit crushing, sample rate reduction, dark reverb and echo, filtering, compression, glitch, radio static, primitive echoes and more.
To access all the above, there’s a central dial control that moves between the seven effects types, which can be further fiddled with via Vary, Mod, Mix, Filter and Destruct parameters.
It’s worth noting those effects types are inspired by some particularly popular pieces of kit, including the R-2R ladder filter, a Moog, and classic 8-bit gaming systems.
Two toggle switches to help you dive deeper into the world of lo-fi guitar tones, and some preset buttons that help navigate the 16 available slots, also make the cut.
Elsewhere, the Artifakt has MIDI compatibility that can be used to recall up to 128 presets, and a USB-C port for the Neuro 3.0 effects downloading and editing software, as well as an external expression pedal output.
Other notable appointments include active analog or true bypass, and stereo inputs and outputs.
“We discovered during the creation of Nemesis and Ventris that lo-fi is fun, sounds awesome, and we were really good at it,” explains Source Audio President Roger K. Smith. “So, we’ve spent the last three years developing the ultimate lo-fi experience.
“When we started out, we had no idea that Artifakt would become the most fun pedal we have ever created.”
The Artifakt is available now for $349.
Head over to Source Audio to find out more.
