Source Audio Artifakt Lo-Fi Elements review – the ultimate lo-fi pedal?
$349, sourceaudio.com
Over the last few years, we’ve observed a trend where boutique pedal companies, known for their hi-fi reverbs and delays, have ventured into the lo-fi pedal market, adding their unique warble to the mix. But unlike say a popular mythical overdrive pedal, the trend hasn’t inspired an army of clones all doing the same thing – perhaps because of the weird and wonderful nature of lo-fi effects, each new pedal of this type seems to do its own thing.
READ MORE: Chase Bliss Onward review – is this Chase Bliss’ most accessible pedal yet?
That being said, there’s perhaps an argument to be made that a lot of them do end up going a different route to end up at the same artificially distressed destination – such is often the nature of ambient lo-fi effects.
Enter then, the Source Audio Artifakt – a pedal that’s caused quite a few eyebrows to be raised by its distinctive approach to the form. In essence, the Artifakt aims to distill every kind of lo-fi sound you could want. If it’s hazy, scratchy, wobbly or broken, so Source Audio claims, you’ll find it in here.
In practice, you’ll find replications of vinyl and old radio, tape modulation and saturation, bit crushing, sample rate reduction, dark reverb and echo, filtering, compression, glitches, ancient echoes and more. Let’s see what’s going on here…
Image: Jason Mays
Is the Artifakt Lo-Fi Elements easy to use?
When you have so many sounds and options distilled into a compact pedal, the most important and pressing question is simple, is it easy to use? There’s no point having a pedal that does everything if getting it to do anything requires some sort of coding qualification.
Thankfully, the Artifakt is not just easy to use, it’s surprisingly intuitive given the fact that some of its editing features are tied into the companion Neuro 3 app (more on that later). With nary a screen to be seen (it’s lo-fi after all!) instead the vast majority of what you want and what you need to know is laid out right there on the pedal.
On the pedal itself you get six knobs, a pair of footswitches, a couple of toggle switches and a preset button. Somehow it also squeezes in stereo in and out jacks, MIDI in and thru, a USB-C port and a controller input.
The most important knob however, is the central rotary control that lets you select one of seven distinct core algorithms; Radio, Tape, µVerb, Crush, Ladder, Vinyl and Glitch. Each sound shares a common set of parameters that can be tweaked, including bandwidth, modulation, filter, plus the destruct and vary knobs which change their function depending on which mode you have selected.
You can save up to 16 presets onboard (12 are loaded up in the factory) and there are up to 128 storable via MIDI. If you’re going to do that, you’ll probably want to check out the Neuro 3 companion app, as here you can check out a library of over 10,000 downloadable user presets to get you going.
It’s a simple enough interface to navigate, but if you never choose to use it, there’s still a huge amount of fun to be had on the pedal itself.
Image: Jason Mays
Does the Artifakt Lo-Fi Elements sound good?
I decided to explore this new pedal with my Jazzmaster running through my trusty Matchless Nighthawk 15 combo. I stuck it at the end of my signal chain and instantly I found myself grinning at the interesting and fascinating sonic avenues the various modes and presets encouraged me to explore.
The Radio algorithm shines on as the effect that most folks will probably gravitate toward. It perfectly captures the lo-fi intro to Wish You Were Here – in fact for some players, just nailing this tone will be a selling point all by itself. To capture it in a small pedal that can sit on the end of your board is all the more impressive.
Bit crushers are always a little controversial among guitarists – I personally love them, and if you too enjoy the heavily processed sounds then the Crush algorithm should be one of your first ports of call here. It’s probably the best implementation of the sound I’ve heard since the superlative AC Noises Ama. Sonically, it blurs the lines between 8-bit sounds and lo-fi breakup – like Blade Runner meets Toro Y Moi, if you will.
The Vinyl algorithm is another standout – I found that by turning the destruct knob beyond 1 o’clock, it unlocked the sort of hazy lo-fi textures you’d hear on a Jack White record, just without having to build your own old-timey recording studio and vinyl pressing plant.
The one setting that I had a bit of difficulty taming was Glitch. It feels a bit more sample-based than an out-and-out glitch pedal – more in line with the Chase Bliss Onward or Montreal Assembly Count To 5. By default, you might not realise that your samples will play back when you stop playing, which threw me for a bit of a loop (no pun intended). Once you understand what it is rather than isn’t however, it’s much more intuitive.
Image: Jason Mays
Should I buy the Artifakt Lo-Fi Elements?
The risk with trying to cram everything into one pedal was always that the Artifakt would be unwieldy or unintuitive – even in the world of unpredictable lo-fi sounds, you still want to have a firm grasp of when and how things are going to get weird after all.
While there are some undoubted caveats – the Glitch mode takes some getting used to, and you’ll need the Neuro 3 to get into deep editing – there’s no doubt that Source Audio has managed to make something that is user-friendly.
The really impressive thing though, is that while you can get deep into the weeds with MIDI and editing if you’re a seasoned lo-fi junkie, it’s simple enough that this could be your first pedal of this kind and not feel overawed.
In this way, the Artifakt is a bit of a game-changer – it should allow enthusiasts to have more flexibility and options than ever before (a true desert island lo-fi box) while also adding advanced features and flexibility. It also sounds fantastic, and even at $349, when you consider how many sounds and standalone pedals this could replace for some players, it also offers impressive value – provided you use it to its full potential.
Source Audio Artifakt Lo-Fi Elements alternatives
The Artifakt claims to be the first all-in-one lo-fi solution and there certainly aren’t many direct competitors out there. If you’re looking for similarly innovative lo-fi pedals however, there are some fun options for you, including the Chase Bliss Lossy ($399/€469), Kinotone’s Ribbons ($399) and the Fairfield Circuitry Shallow Water (CA$389/£319).
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