Ambient Dial-Up Modem Music Is Terrifying, Awesome

The internet loves to slow stuff down. Sure, people have been speeding up songs for years, and yes the chipmunked versions of songs are quite funny (for 30 seconds). But the real beauty of messing wit...
Ambient Dial-Up Modem Music Is Terrifying, Awesome
Written by Josh Wolford
  • The internet loves to slow stuff down. Sure, people have been speeding up songs for years, and yes the chipmunked versions of songs are quite funny (for 30 seconds). But the real beauty of messing with a track’s length comes when you slow it down to super slow speeds. Five minute tracks become hour long epics, and total crap can become a transcendent masterpiece.

    The slowed-down music trend, or “Ambient” tracks, first became incredibly popular when a version of Justin Bieber’s “U Smile” stretched out to 800% slower became a viral sensation. Some didn’t believe that it was really the same song, only slower – but it totally was. If you sped it back up, you would be met with, well, the entirely unimpressive original Bieber song.

    One YouTube user describes the Ambient Bieber as “a water bomb exploding, a droplet of water landing in a puddle, the sunrise through to sunset, waves crashing, a hummingbird in flight, a panning view of our galaxy.” OK, buddy, it’s pretty neat but…

    Today (with a hat tip to Vulture) I bring you the techie version of the Ambient music movement. Using PaulStretch, the free software that many of these ambient songs are made with, YouTube user Darkfalky has slowed a dial-up modem down 700%. The results? Creepy, epic, ambient genius. Check it out below –

    Doesn’t this bring you back to the days before broadband? It’s nerdy nostalgia, with a musical twist.

    Ambient versions of tons of songs from all different genres exist on YouTube. A quick search of “Ambient” or “slowed down” will net results for slower versions of Taylor Swift, Movie Theme Music, Reading Rainbow Theme Song, Daft Punk, Slipknot, and so many more. Of course, listening to one of these tracks is time consuming – but it is called Ambient, remember? Put it on while you meditate, cook dinner, or walk your dog.

    The coolest one that I’ve ever had the patience to sit through is this version of the Jurassic Park Theme Music, played at 1000 times slower than normal. As described by a Soundcloud user,

    “There was a well documented version of Justin Biebers ‘U Smile’ by musician Nick Pittsinger, who used the software ‘PaulStretch’ to slow the track by 800% to achieve a similar effect. That seems to have ignited a bit of a craze for this sort of thing, however, although this may not be an original idea, it is a fantastic piece of music, both at its original tempo and its new state.”

    Check it out (if you have the time) –

    Jurassic Park Theme (1000% Slower) by birdfeeder

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