Lossy

Name: Lossy
Price: 79 USD
Author: Goodhertz

by Goodhertz · Distortion · Lossy codec artifact effect

Not rated yet

Lossy recreates the sound of heavily compressed digital audio such as low-bitrate MP3s, internet streams and phone calls, in real time.

It is a creative degradation effect with an advanced controls page, and costs $79.

Best for: Vocals, Keys & Synths, Drums, Sound Design. Genres: Lo-Fi, Electronic & EDM, Hip-Hop & Trap, Ambient & Cinematic.

Keywords: lo-fi, advanced, creative, hardware emulation, sound design, 80s, auto-gain, digital-sounding, drums, heavy, inspired by, metering, mixing, parallel processing, single-band, spectral, vocals.

What it does

Lossy offers "digital artifacts, on demand." Goodhertz built it to recreate the sound of "crappy mp3's, broken cellphones, streaming videos" in real time; the manual notes it is not based on any particular codec, so it is a creative tool rather than a codec simulator.

Loss modes: Standard (low-bitrate MP3-style), Inverse, Phase Jitter, Packet Repeat and Packet Loss, plus Standard + Packet Loss and Standard + Packet Repeat combinations.
Loss controls: Amount (0 to 100%) sets the degradation; Speed changes the character from spectral smearing when slow to garbled artifacts when fast; Gain has a built-in peak meter.
Filter: low and high cuts from 20 Hz to 20 kHz with a 6 to 96 dB per octave slope, in Normal (band-pass) or Inverted (band-reject) mode, for phone and small-speaker tones.
Verb: a reverb inspired by 1980s Keith Barr digital algorithms, placed before or after the loss stage, with decay on the advanced page.
Advanced page: Auto Gain, Gate Threshold, Stereo, Joint Stereo or Mono processing, Perceptual or Flat weighting, and input and output trims.
Mix and bypass: a Master Mix for parallel use and a Master On/Off that bypasses without artifacts.

Goodhertz's downloads page lists version 3.14.1 (June 2026) for its plugin line; it runs mono, mono-to-stereo or stereo. A 30-day free trial is available.

Source: Goodhertz product page

When to use it

Lossy is the pick when you want something to sound streamed, phoned in or badly encoded, rather than simply crushed or distorted. Compared with Decimort 2 and Trash, it is not mainly a bit-depth or sample-rate reducer; it smears and garbles the spectrum and can drop or repeat packets like a failing connection. Saturn 2 and Thermal cover far more distortion types, but none of them reproduces this specific codec texture. Its built-in band filter and reverb also mean one instance can make a whole phone or old-video effect.

Best for: lo-fi textures, phone and internet-audio effects, degraded intros, and sound design.
Genres: lo-fi, electronic, hip-hop and film sound.
Look elsewhere if: you want classic bit crushing or analog distortion; Decimort 2 or Saturn 2 fit better.
Tip: switch it with Master On/Off rather than the DAW's bypass, as the manual advises, to avoid digital artifacts.

What producers say

Users and reviewers like it as a unique, fast lo-fi effect, though it is a niche tool.

Sound On Sound (June 2018) found it quick to dial in degraded speaker sounds and used it for character on song intros: "I like tools that make me look good."
Elektronauts forum users called it "really good and unique," with one adding it "won't be for everyone."

Where to buy

Goodhertz: $79

Tutorials and reviews

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