90s sound effect alike

Audacity 2.3.3 for Windows 10


Hi there,

How are you? I hope you are safe from this pandemic!

I have created a short track using a 90s soundpool, but the audio quality is “too” high for such style and I would like to make it sound as it were recorded back then. Could you please tell me what steps I should follow? Thanks a lot and have a nice day!

This free, (Windows only), plug-in has cassette, vinyl, & CD emulations …

Thanks a lot, but I meant that I would like to save it with that quality. My bad, sorry!

I’m not sure what "sound’ you are after. Can you try to explain what you want? More/less bass or more/less highs? Some background noise/hiss? Do you want the sound of a low-quality MP3? …It’s usually easier to degrade sound than to improve it.

There was nothing wrong with 1990s sound quality. (The music, recording and production is a matter of taste.) When CDs were introduced in 1982 consumer recordings suddenlybecame “better than human hearing”. Analog studio recording was getting really good by the 1970s but there was no easy-standard way to get that sound at home before the CD.

Indeed, you’re right. I am looking for lower MP3 audio quality. Thanks a lot!

Try exporting as MP3. Set “Bit rate mode” to “Constant” and “Quality” to 64 kbps or less (the lower the bit rate, the lower the quality).

The MP3 could be imported back into Audacity (along with its reduced sound quality) for further editing / processing, or if you just want to convert it to another format.

I’ll try right now! Is there any effect I shoud add? How about the project rate? Thanks a lot for your patience and support!

The free plugin I directed you to has a cheap mp3-player effect …

cheapest settings.png

Thanks a lot!