Lamplit Studios has launched Small Hours, a lofi effect plugin for Windows and macOS. Developed by solo developer Ryan Hilton, the plugin is designed to process audio through a room-based interface alongside a Classic view that presents its controls in a conventional list.
Small Hours uses a visual night-time room in which interface objects correspond to processing functions. The tape deck controls pitch movement, the record player controls crackle, the sampler provides vintage-style digital character, the window accesses rain recordings, and the lamp adjusts the wet and dry mix. Users can hover over objects for control descriptions and click them to open their associated parameters.
The plugin includes 13 modules, four macros, and a Magnitude control that adjusts the overall amount of processing. Its saturation section offers tape, tube, transistor, and wavefold modes, while additional processing covers wow, flutter, drift, tape dropouts, crinkle, filters with head bump, vinyl noise, a streaming codec, compression, and reverb.
- Tape, tube, transistor, and wavefold saturation
- Vintage sampler characters, including 12-bit and 8-bit-style processing
- Vinyl crackle, hiss, rumble, and hum controls
- Room, spring, and plate reverb options
- Tape stops, stutters, and pitch dips, with synchronisation options
The Age, Warmth, Wobble, and Dust macros provide grouped control over the plugin’s processing. Small Hours also includes four modulation slots. Tape stops can be triggered from the host transport or used as cues, while stutters and pitch dips can be synchronised to the project.
The Media Chain section allows up to four media sources to be placed in series with automatic level matching. Available source types are vinyl, cassette, VHS, reel-to-reel tape, sampler, MP3 stream, AM radio, phone, and pocket tape.
Small Hours also includes environmental recordings intended to accompany processed audio. These include rain on a window, metal roof, plastic roof, leaves, and puddles, with controls for heaviness, wind, distance, and thunder. Additional room sounds include a fireplace, café, night city ambience, crickets, and dawn birds. Lamplit Studios states that these recordings follow the song timeline so rendered audio matches playback.
The interface includes animated visual responses to incoming audio, including moving rain, VU meters, valve illumination, record movement, and tape-stop animation. The Classic interface mode presents the plugin’s parameters in a single conventional control layout.
Small Hours is available in VST3, CLAP, and standalone formats for Windows 10 and Windows 11. On macOS 11 and later, it is available as an Audio Unit, VST3, CLAP, and standalone application, with support for Apple silicon and Intel systems. Licensing uses an offline activation key and does not require an account or iLok.
Small Hours is listed at $59, with a launch price of $29, described as a 51% discount. A fully functional 14-day trial is available without a payment card.
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