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Justin Bieber slowed down

Rob Beschizza at 7:11 am Tue, Aug 17, 2010

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"Turn Justin Bieber into Sigur Ros in one easy step," writes in reader Yossarian . Slowed down 800%, the young star's inane "U Smile" becomes a languid, half-hour ambient epic. [via Submitterator] Update: If that link is dead, try this one. Update: hoax claim!

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  • pidg

    Since that link’s down, here’s Svefn-G-Englar sped up from 8 mins to 2 mins. It becomes quite a foot-tapping ditty.

    http://soundcloud.com/aphextwin/sigur-ros-svefn-g-englar-sped-up-version

    • EichaelThe0ne

      That was a good idea. Enjoyable.

  • ill lich

    I used to do this with old 78s, played at 33 even uptempo swing is pretty mellow.

    • Gilbert Wham

      Mellow? Not when the Caretaker’s finished with ‘em: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKFcxRSLCHg&feature=related

  • Anonymous

    I’m actually listening to this *right now*

    I’ll reserve judgement until someone provides me with some 800% sped up sigur ros.

  • Anonymous

    I would be curious to know what tools were used. It seems like there is some reverb or other sustain added to the slowed-down track.

  • Anonymous

    Is the reverse true? If you speed up Sigur Ros…

  • Rob Beschizza

    The new magic is being able to slow stuff down without changing the pitch *and* without it creating horrible stretching artifacts in the sound. Not to be missed.

    • jackdavinci

      Did we miss the announcement explaining grey-enhanced comments?

  • Rob Beschizza

    Gray box comments are editors and mods.

  • whisper dog

    So does this mean if you speed up Sigor Ros it sounds like Bieber?

    • phillamb168

      Dear Internet, Can you please fix it for me what I can hear Sigur Ros sped up?

  • MattB

    You can’t slow down by more than 100%. It’s really slowed down 91%, so it plays back at 9% or 1/11 speed.

    • Yossarian

      Sure you can, it just means that it has been stretched out to last eight times longer.

  • kawayama

    moby already did this in 1994 with “Hymn.Alt.Quiet.Version” (33:43).
    sounds about the same, anyway.

  • hassenpfeffer

    Update: The protocol name at the start of the hoax claim link has an extra “h” in it! Try this.

  • Anonymous

    Yes, and the hoax claim is a hoax anyhoo. Two hoaxes make a legit, right?

  • Anonymous

    Played out of sync in two tabs simultaneously is extra-weird, but kind of sublime too.

  • howaboutthisdangit

    Wow, this is a major improvement for JB. I figured I’d give it a minute or two, and now 15 minutes later I realize that it is still playing in the background.

  • Rob Beschizza

    I just tried speeding Hafsol up by 800% and, well, no. Trying some others :D

    • Anonymous

      Speeding up Vidvar Vel Til Loftarasa by 100% isn’t bad, actually. Not as epic, but decent.

  • Gregory Bloom

    @MrScience Wow! The artifacts in the re-sped-up version grind off the icky bubblegum veneer and make that into a very listenable, catchy and slightly trippy song. Gonna have to try that on a few more of Mr. Bieber’s gummy treats.

  • sdmikev

    See, I you never know what two things might have in common. I’d rather go deaf than listen to either.
    Actually, Bieber might be more honest, though. Sigur Ros is the embodiment of the emperor wearing no clothes..

    • Raj77

      Having seen them perform, I couldn’t disagree more. They may not be to your taste, but they are very talented.

  • DanC

    Yeah, I sped it up too. It’s real. Also, awful.

  • Anonymous

    Bieber is so talented. He was talked about in a video on YouTube because he was the Top Trending Topic of the day – http://www.youtube.com/user/TopTrendingTopics#p/u/0/I6sH2cUu-mI. You should check it out. :)

  • StCredZero

    I just did the same thing with two rounds of Amazing Slow Downer and Audio Hijack Pro. It’s legit!

  • hacky

    that’s http.

  • Anonymous

    here’s the proof

    http://soundcloud.com/shamantis/j-biebz-u-smile-800-slower

  • axoplasm

    This would probably be funnier if I had any idea what the original sounded like. Is it the kind of music 40 year old indie dorks like me usually like?

  • Itsumishi

    Your ‘Hoax claim’ link is broken. There’s an extra h before http…

  • Maurice Reeves

    F***ing Slowed down Justin Bieber sounding like Sigur Ros, how does it work?

  • MrScience

    Holy cow. I just threw this through the open source Audacity, did a Tempo Change of 800%, and came up with this. Legit!

  • Anonymous

    Someone at the site brought this track to our attention. We may have been had.
    http://photonwaveorchestra.bandcamp.com/

  • VagabondAstronomer

    Wow… Justin Bieber, only more tolerable…

  • Anonymous

    It’s apparently fake:

    http://photonwaveorchestra.bandcamp.com/

    Seems it’s just a renamed Photon Wave Orchestra song.

  • Anonymous

    Thanks for the download link!!

  • tedrock

    Hoax.
    This is actually some one else’s music:
    http://photonwaveorchestra.bandcamp.com/

    • annoyingmouse

      Much as you’re right about there being a hoax here, you’ve obviously not spotted the upload date of the Photon Wave Orchestra song to see which song is the hoax.

      • tedrock

        You are right –
        I am trying to figure out how two separate individuals decided to speed up the same song at the same rate independent of one another. Something about this seems VERY fishy…

    • shaunoneil

      It’s not a fake .. it’s a fake fake .. or something. If you take that track, speed it up 8x, the result really is bubblegum.

      It’s been run thru some filters, but it’s unmistakable.

      It seems this Photon Wave track, released April 1st (according to your link), managed to troll us some 6 months later. And the article is accurate (or close to, it is post-processed, not purely 1/8th speed).

  • Anonymous

    I used “Paul’s Extreme Sound Stretch”/”Paulstretch” to put the file back to normal. You can do this yourself. It really is Justin Bieber.

    But the song seems to be altered, it’s very hollow, fading in and out with a lot of flanging and reverb.

  • robulus

    This Mortal Coil…

  • benjie

    I just used the app soundstretch (from libSoundTouch) to speed the track back up by 1000%, and it gets it back to a close enough tempo that my iPhone (using SoundHound) recognizes it as U Smile.

    I think the hollowness might just be an artifact of stretching it so dramatically.

  • Rob Beschizza

    Alas, Sigur Ros sped up does not sound like Justin Bieber.

    http://www.boingboing.net/2010/08/17/but-sigur-ros-sped-u.html

  • Anonymous

    I just sped up the track and this is not a hoax. it wasn’t exactly 800% and there was definitely a lot of reverb and stuff added afterwards, but it is still very much the Bieb.

  • Anonymous

    Photon Wave Orchestra does not exist at all.
    Cheers.

  • Rex Manning Day

    For anyone interested, here’s what it sounds like if you speed up Sigur Rós (Svefn-G-Englar, to be more specific) by 300% or so- http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1996817/02%20Svefn-G-Englar%20300%25%20Speed.mp3

    (via The Daily What)

  • Anonymous

    Not a hoax. Download Paul’s Extreme Sound Stretch and try it.

  • Anonymous

    Reminds me of 9 Beet Stretch:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/9_Beet_Stretch

  • Anonymous

    a good program for this sort of stretching is paulstretch:

    http://hypermammut.sourceforge.net/paulstretch/

    i used it to make a 3+ hour version of barber’s “adagio for strings,” which i call “adagissississississississississississimo for strings.”

    http://www.shitteo.com/adagio.mp3

  • stridulate

    post-bubblegum pop? i love it. since i have never heard the 8oox faster bieber, i have to say i’m a fan. but i have always been a sucker for canadian music! i was in buffalo, ny the same week j.bieb was in toronto for a concert. there were fliers and radio stations pushing the show and concert tix up for grabs if one registered. had i know it was going to sound like this, i’d have totally made the effort to attend! i wonder if he is going to hook up with godspeed you black emperor!? would that be “post-canadian”?