Check Out Our SloMusic YouTube Playlist
Eight years ago, musician Nick Pittsinger made Justin Bieber’s “U Smile” sound like the ambient pop band Sigur Rós byslowing it down by 800% . The Bieber Haters celebrated this great revision, and since then, people have been slowing songs down by 800%, 1000% or more and uploading them to YouTube and SoundCloud. The genre’s smooth sounding and lack of legible lyrics make it a great background music for creative work, which is why we’ve compiled some of the best in YouTube ‘s All Music Sounds Good at 1 / 10th Speed playlist .
Our playlist starts with a few pop edits, followed by a few famous themed songs, and then a wider assortment of sources. For example, the original version of “Hide and Seek” by Imogen Heap already sounds ghostly; editing, as the downloader calls it, is“a symphony of the human voice in octaves.”
Some additional processing is required to slow down the tempo while maintaining the original pitch (and without producing an ugly stirring sound). Most of these edits, including those by Bieber Pittsinger, use Paulstretch’s free audio software , which smears the sound by stretching overlapping pieces of music. This gives the pop vocals a waterfall effect, but leaves the simpler instrumental parts smooth.
If you like our playlist, you can hear a few more tracks on SoundCloud or via the SloMusic subreddit . There is not much of this music in public, especially since it is vulnerable to copyright. But with Paulstretch, you can always make your own. For every regular pop song you slow down, you’ll have half an hour of new background vibe.