A patch for making things sound old, rusty, and broken, with a unique AGE control to smoothly morph from clean to filtered, warbly, and distorted.

I know, silly name, but the thought was that a Fake ID can make you appear a bit older, but a fake BEARD, now that can REALLY add some years! This started as an attempt to emulate those old radio broadcasts (where newsreaders sound like they are recorded through tin cans), but it grew from there and became a quite flexible and unique sounding lo-fi patch. There are the obligated lo-fi features (filtering, saturation/distortion, pitch wobble), but then things get more unique, with dynamic noisy crackling and popping that responds to input levels (so it’s not simply an added layer of static noise), and a ‘dropout’ feature that adds occasional dips in pitch and level, like a badly damaged vinyl record. That last one can really decimate the audio back to the stone age, in the best way possible!
One key feature of this patch is that you can fluently change from clean/pristine to degraded/wobbly; there’s no MIX control, only an AGE macro control that morphs all the different elements from 0 to their set values. It’s pretty cool!

I’ve been using this one for a few years now and I thought it’s a shame to keep it to myself, so I’ve finally ‘finished’ it, cleaned up the routing and gave it a nice user interface.
There are two files included: the regular “MISO” version (Mono in, Stereo out), but I also included a full stereo version (labelled “ST”), which preserves incoming stereo audio but that comes at the cost of a slightly simplified user interface (without AGE morphing controls). With the hype for pedals like the Gen Loss lately I hope folks will get some joy out of this different flavour of lo-fi degradation effect.

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[OVERVIEW]
-Input/Output: Mono in/Stereo out (or the alternate stereo patch: Stereo in/Stereo out)
-CPU load: Around 80% (but you need a LOT of headroom to modulate multi-filters!)
-Build: Initial version built with firmware 2.80
-MIDI: I always use channel 10. If controls are set to CC’s I use CC channels 21/36 (see CONTROLS section for details).
-CV Inputs: Unused.
-CV Inputs: Unused.

[REVISIONS]
1.0: Initial patch.

[CONTROLS]
All the main controls are on PAGE0 and are labeled (see below for a “Picture Manual” in the comments). Some additional controls and the Stereo Output module with gain parameter is on PAGE1.

AGE UP/DOWN (increase/decrease intensity of all aging effects; max depth per effect is set via below controls marked with *. This control is simplified on the Full Stereo version to a single Value module called AGE, which might cause some clipping/crackling when turned)

DRIVE* (sets gain level and mix amount of distorted audio)
FILTER DEPTH* (sets max filter depth)
WOBBLE* (sets max vibrato depth)

CRACKLE ON/OFF (toggles dynamic noise crackling)
CRACKLE OCCURENCE (sets the density of random noise crackles)
CRACKLE LEVEL* (sets max level of noise)
CRACKLE COLOR (bandpass filter for the crackle noise)

DROPOUTS ON/OFF (toggles random dropout effect)
DROPOUT OCCURENCE (sets the density of random dropouts)
DROPOUT LEVEL* (sets the max amount of volume loss per drop)
DROPOUT SIZE (sets how long each drop lasts)

Some additional controls found on PAGE1:
FILTER PRESETS 1/2/3/4/LIVE (toggles between some pre-defined filter settings; the last option uses the live LPF/HPF/Q values. Only exists in MISO version)

LPF/HPF (sets cutoff frequency of low shelve/high shelve filters; in the STEREO version, this is on PAGE0)
Q (sets resonance of both filters; in the STEREO version, this is on PAGE0)
DROPOUT WARBLE (sets amount of pitch warble coinciding with the level drops)

* = Affected by AGE macro control.

ZEBU LEFT/RIGHT button = AGE UP/DOWN.
ZOIA LEFT/RIGHT stomp = AGE UP/DOWN.
ZOIA MID stomp = Unused.

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[PATCH STRUCTURE]
The audio pathway has all the elements for a ‘lo-fi’ effect:
[Input*] + [Dynamic noise] >> [Drive*] >> [Filtering] >> [Dropouts] >> [Pitch artefacts and vibrato] >> [Output].
*The [Input] and [Drive] sections are mono, everything else is stereo. I included an alternative patch “Fake Beard ST”, which is stereo throughout, but due to the CPU cost of two overdrive modules that one couldn’t handle morphing too well. That’s why the AGE control is just a Value module; it does work, but it can clip at times.

The [Drive] section is mix of clean signal and an OD/Distortion module, but it uses Panner modules to send the audio to the OD or to a Buffer delay (to prevent phase issues), and those are summed in the next section. The Panner acts as a sot-of parallel mixer, but by mixing at the INPUTS instead of the OUTPUTS the drive behaves better, as it is much gentler at low input levels. Also you can morph to 0% overdrive this way.

The [Filtering] section consists of 2 sets of 2 Multi-Filters: a High-shelf and Low-shelf in series for L and R. I use Multi-Filters because they can sound more neutral due to lower resonance than SV filters (also cheaper CPU-wise than SV filters), but mainly… because they offer the High-/Low-shelf options! With the shelf options you can not only set the cutoff frequency, but also the GAIN it reduces, so this allows for morphing between neutral and deeply filtered without needing to modulate the cutoff frequency. The downside is they REALLY don’t like being modulated (~8% spikes when modulating, let alone modulating FOUR of them!), so I’m using a little round-robin S&H trick to prevent all 4 being changed at the same time. It still needs about 8% CPU headroom to not clip, but it’s worth it in this case.
In the MISO version, there are some filter presets you can choose from on PAGE1; those were just set by me and give some nice flavours, but the last ‘preset’ option lets you control LPF /HPF/Q with the Value modules on that same page.

The [Dropouts] section is just two VCAs (L and R), being modulated negatively by short ADSR spikes that are randomly triggered by two Bernoulli-gates (=random generated gates). L and R sides are semi-independent, but by partially sharing the same Random modules to generate the spikes they will usually overlap, with minor stereo variation (I tried fully independent stereo; it’s pretty nauseating, so no thanks!).
This can be toggled ON/OFF separately.

The [Pitch artefacts and vibrato] is two short Delay Lines (L and R) being modulated by the same mechanism as the [Dropouts] spikes (so they coincide; a pretty convincing malfunctioning glitching sound IMO!). There is also a slower, quasi-random modulation that gives a nice wobbly instability. One thing of interest here: as the Mod depth is decreased to 0, they delay time also decreases, so you can – again – gradually morph between clean/stable to drunken/wobbly, without needing a dry/wet MIX control (as that would always go through some chorus-y effect in the middle).

There’s also a Bit Modulator XOR’ing both inputs as a ‘dynamic noise’ source (so it’s silent when there’s no input), going into a bandpass filter to colour the noise. That’s sent through 2 VCAs (L and R) which are modulated in stereo with short, randomish bursts (similar to the [Dropouts] section), and it’s all added into the audio chain before the [Drive] section. Noise can be toggled ON/OFF separately.

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[TIPS/TRICKS]
>>> Set the AGE control to maximum, then tweak your preferred lo-fi sound. Now you can morph between that sound and your clean, unaffected signal by morphing the AGE up or down!
>>> Try one of the 4 different pre-programmed filter presets on PAGE1 to instantly land on some good ol’ broken tones.

[THOUGHTS/IDEAS/PLANS]
I really enjoy this patch; I use it live all the time and it is featured (quite prominently) on a few of my releases (with my band Drone Assembly, check us out! [/shamelessselfpromotion]). This one has regularly evolved, but for now I think it’s reached a stable point without future plans.

If there’s any bugs/questions/remarks/requests or suggestions for improvement, please let me know!
Enjoy!

(Image: Unknown)