We can appreciate five knobs in ORIGIN that will allow us to find the vintage lofi tone we need for our musical creation. The main ‘Resample Freq’ knob (in the middle of the GUI), the other four knobs control Tape Saturation, Noise, Movement, and Chorus. We can get the retro sound provided by those old tape machines with a little adjustment of these simple parameters.

Resample Freq: The resampler, which alters the sample rate of the audio signal in real-time, is the core of ORIGIN. It makes use of the Nyquist-Shannon sampling theorem, which asserts that in the digital domain, the greatest possible frequency is half the sample frequency. That is to say, lowering the sample rate of digital audio reduces the number of high frequencies that may be heard. Lowering the sample rate, on the other hand, will result in “images,” which are bitcrusher-style artifacts. These can be advantageous in many situations. When these images are removed, the effect is comparable to that of a brick wall low pass filter, but with a completely distinct sonic character.

Filters: The post-resampling anti-aliasing filter can be used to remove image artifacts caused by the resampling process. The preamp’s coarse filter reduces high frequencies at the input stage before the resampler, decreasing image artifacts even more. The high pass filter is a typical filter that removes unwanted low frequencies by setting it to 200Hz.

Saturations: Non-linear saturation is created by driving old gear inputs, which color and characterizes the sound. After the resampler in the signal path, ORIGIN has a selection of tube and controller overdrive effects. On a resampled source, turning this up can help recover some of the harmonics lost during the resampling process.

Movement: The pitch fluctuations of an old tape are stimulated by the movement module. On Origin, there are two distinct motion modes that range from slight to dramatic pitch modulation. The Random mode modifies the signal’s pitch in a random manner, similar to how wrinkles and warps on an analog tape provide an effect. The second type of maneuver is based on an older reel-to-reel deck’s Wow / Flutter combination. Increasing the quantity for this type will amplify the slower Wow mod’s effect, leading the faster Flutter mod to gradually cross the 50% mark.

Noise: The noise module includes a variety of noise sources originating from older technology. The switch under the knob allows it to be put before or after the resampler. Placing the noise source before the resampler allows for a beautiful blurring of the cutoff.

Chorus: Chorus is based on the renowned Juno-60 synthesizer’s characteristic bucket-brigade chip. The switch alternates between the Juno-60’s two chorus speeds. Any monotonous monophonic sound is transformed into a beautiful, vivid kaleidoscope (as it has for decades).