A sampler and groovebox inspired by the lo-fi character of vintage classics. Greg Scarth finds out what this bargain box has to offer.
Sonicware is a relatively young company, but over the course of the last year or so, the Japanese brand has quietly built up a fascinating product portfolio. The Liven series of grooveboxes takes centre stage, all based around a similar portable format, with a built-in sequencer paired with a sound engine. The Sonicware Liven Lofi-12 is the sampler of the series, allowing you to construct tracks from snippets of sound and process them for a lo-fi texture. It’s suitable for any genre or style of music, but it might appeal most to producers of hip-hop beats, lo-fi house and other styles which embrace gritty, retro sounds.
There are two key aspects to every Liven groovebox: the sound engine and the sequencer. In the case of the Lofi-12, the sound engine is entirely sample-based. The colour scheme is a clear nod to the Akai MPC60, a legendary 80s sampler with a distinctive 12-bit character and powerful built-in sequencer. The Lofi-12 is by no means an MPC rip-off, though; its keyboard-based step-sequencing approach makes it a mash-up of 12-bit samplers, retro keyboard samplers like the Ensoniq ASR-10 and the sequencing approach of old Roland drum machines. It’s a nice combination, and one which gives it a distinctive flavour of its own.
The unit comes pre-loaded with a selection of factory samples for you to play with, but the real fun comes from recording your own sounds. You can record directly into the unit or load samples via MIDI. Samples can then be played chromatically up and down the keyboard. The original release of the Lofi-12 felt heavily focussed on chromatic samples rather than, say, drum kits or breakbeats, but it’s well worth noting that the recent version 2.0 firmware release added a lot of functionality to the Liven. You can now auto slice samples and resample sounds, all of which helps to make it easier to create drum kits and multi-part samples on any of the unit’s four tracks. With your samples loaded and edited, there are lots of sound options including effects and virtual analogue filters. The most interesting option, however, is 12-bit mode, which can be activated independently for each track, giving an instant lo-fi feel with no processing time. This is where the character of the unit really shines, allowing you to add a veneer of vintage grit to any sound.
The sequencing aspect of the Liven grooveboxes is based around a basic push-button keyboard and step sequencer approach, which is deceptively powerful. The four tracks all include some fairly advanced options like parameter locks, allowing you to record or program parameter changes over the course of a sequence. Despite the complexity of some functions, the basics are still easy enough to get to grips with for beginners. One unique feature of the Lofi-12 is the Laid-Back knob, described by Sonicware as delaying sound timing for ‘drunk’ beats. It’s a supplement to the regular swing control, allowing you to delay individual tracks or sample triggers to create a woozy, off-grid, unquantised effect. You can channel your inner J Dilla with great results.
With just four tracks to play with, you might assume that the Lofi-12 is limited, and that’s true to an extent, but as Sonicware point out, “limitations extend your imagination”. In practice, it’s possible to get surprisingly complex, nuanced grooves out of the Lofi-12 and put together fully realised tracks. Sonically, lots of Lofi-12 demos lean heavily into the general category which might best be described as Lo-fi Beats To Study To. Clearly, the combination of 12-bit sound and Laid-Back timing hits a certain niche, but really you could use the Liven to create anything from techno to drum’n’bass. You could think of it as a portable sketch tool (the Livens all run on batteries and include built-in speakers), a way to come up with demo ideas before polishing them using other equipment, or as a centrepiece for your entire creative process. It’s entirely up to you how serious you want to get.
As with any budget instrument, there are compromises to keep the price down. The Liven feels more plasticky than something like a Roland Boutique, and the push-button keyboard doesn’t offer great feel. That’s acceptable at this price point, where you’re not expecting a full-on synth-action keyboard, and you can of course plug in a MIDI keyboard or pad controller to get a more responsive feel. Despite that, the Lofi-12 is a thoroughly engaging little instrument. At just over £280, it’s fairly priced for a groovebox with plenty of creative potential, much more capable than the cheaper Korg Volca Sample and offering a strong challenge to the more expensive Roland SP-404 MKII.
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