Source Audio - Artifakt Lo-Fi

There's a certain magic in imperfection — the way a warped tape hiss can make a melody feel lived-in, or how a lo-fi crackle can turn a clean chord into something that sounds like it's been sitting in a dusty crate for forty years. The Source Audio Artifakt Lo-Fi Elements pedal leans all the way into that world, and then keeps going. Seven modes. Seven adjustable parameters each. That's a lot of rabbit holes, and every single one of them is worth falling into. Source Audio suggests treating the Artifakt less like a traditional effects pedal and more like a mega-delay or mega-reverb — something you build around, not just tack on. Start broad, shape the space, then start dialing in texture. Crackle, saturation, bit crushing, sample rate reduction, random glitching — it's all here, and it responds to tweaking with the kind of unpredictability that keeps sessions interesting. You'll set out to add a little warmth and end up somewhere completely unexpected, which is half the fun. **Radio** mode nails that warm, frequency-filtered static of a transistor radio barely catching a signal. **Tape** goes wide — slapback delay, chorus, doubling, flutter, pitch wobble, saturation — everything you'd get from a vintage tape unit that's been loved a little too hard. **µVerb** is genuinely strange in the best way, channeling the primitive reverb of early 8 and 16-bit gaming hardware into something that sounds rustic and alive at the same time. **Crush** gets clinical and brutal: bit-depth quantizing, sample rate reduction, and a resonant ladder filter that chews signal into glitchy digital rubble. **Ladder** mode dives deep into Moog-style filter territory — fat, warm sweeps driven by envelope or LFO modulation that can go from subtle movement to full-on wobble. **Vinyl** does exactly what it promises: crackle, pop, and surface noise ranging from a fresh 180-gram press to something that sounds like it was salvaged from a garage sale in 1962. And **Glitch** is pure controlled chaos — random pitch and speed variations that gurgle and stutter in ways that feel almost alive. The Destruct, Filter, Mix, Vary, Mod, and Type knobs give you real hands-on control, and the Bandwidth and Rate/Depth/Shape switches let you get surgical when you need to. Stereo I/O means it opens up beautifully in a stereo rig, and MIDI support (via 1/8" TRS) unlocks 128 user presets through Source Audio's Neuro software — so you can dial in that perfect degraded tone and actually save it. Four onboard presets are there for quick access when you're mid-set and need to get weird on command. It's the kind of pedal that rewards patience and punishes boredom. The more time you spend with it, the more it gives back. --- **Specifications** - Pedal Type: Lo-Fi Multi-FX - Effects Modes: Radio, Tape, µVerb, Crush, Ladder, Vinyl, Glitch - Parameters per Mode: 7 adjustable parameters - Presets: 4 onboard / 128 user (via MIDI) - Signal Path: Digital - Stereo: Yes - Controls: Destruct, Filter, Mix, Vary, Mod, Type knobs; Bandwidth, Rate/Depth/Shape switches - Footswitches: 2 - Inputs: 2 x 1/4" - Outputs: 2 x 1/4" - MIDI I/O: 2 x 1/8" TRS (In, Thru) - Companion Software: Source Audio Neuro (desktop and mobile) - OS Requirements (Mac): macOS 10.10 or later / iOS 10.0 or later - OS Requirements (PC): Windows 10 or later / Android 5.0 or later - Power: 9V DC power supply (sold separately) - SKU: SA280