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Justin Bieber 800% Slower

turinpt2
Music
YouTube
2 HN users recommended this music video2 months2012–2024 score 2.5
Years with an HN recommendation, 2007–2026

HN points to it as the canonical example of extreme audio stretching making pop music into something entirely different and relaxing.

A Justin Bieber song slowed down 800% with the PaulStretch program, turning a pop track into a long ambient drone.

“I'm not even kidding. It's superb.” (HN, 2015)

1 strong recommendations · 1 recommendations · 2 citations · Music

4 Hacker News comments

From the HN archive; up to 20 kept per video, favoring different commenters. Recommendations first.

@david-given Apr 2015 Strongly recommends
on HN thread Paul's Extreme Sound Stretch
You can't mention PaulStretch without linking to Justin Biebier's totally amazing ambient orchestral piece, U Smile: [this video] I'm not even kidding. It's superb. Put it on, turn the lights out, imagine yourself on an alien beach, and feel the stress drift away...
Relaxing ambient piece made by stretching a pop song.
@epsylon Jun 2013 Recommends
on HN thread Music to Let you Concentrate
Read more
For the lazy, here's the song mentioned: [this video] This was created using paulstretch [1], a program to transform normal audio using extreme stretches. I've tried it on a few songs I liked and it does really an excellent jobs of creating extremely fluid ambiances. The triple parentheses on the first video is a nod to Sunn O))) [2], an American drone / noise / ambient metal band which features super long songs with droning saturated guitars (playing on vintage cranked up to 11 Sunn Model T amps) and usually no drums. One of my favorite songs from them and perhaps one of the best introduction to their music for the non-initiated is titled Alice [3], though perhaps it's not as representative of their music as, say, Ra at Dusk [4]. (Sunn O))) was heavily influenced by the pioneer drone metal band Earth, and their mindblowing album Earth²: special low frequency version [5]). [1] [link] [2] [link] [3] [link] [4] [link] [5] [link]
The mentioned song stretched with paulstretch into fluid ambiance.

Citations, criticism and jokes

@ChrisNorstrom Dec 2012 Cites it
on HN thread Show HN: Nasdaq Dubstep
lol You've succeeded. Well it sounds awful. Just the way dubstep does. For your next project try using "paul stretch" to create a serene ambient track. It's software that allows you to stretch audio tracks from 101% to 800% and up. Here's Justin Bieber's song "U Smile" 800% slower [this video] You could use all sorts of data to make ambient music. Heck, call it Ambient Data and release numerous tracks. Make dark themed tracks with rain in the background and ambient music created using how many wars have happened in human history and when.
Example of extreme audio stretching producing ambient sound.
@tgv Mar 2024 Cites it
on HN thread My favourite animation trick: exponential smoothing (2023)
The 8x slow-down argument is so naive, it's bad. Perception and interpretation change with speed. Listen to a song you slowed down. It becomes something entirely different. Compare [link] and [this video] If you can't see the difference at normal speed, there is no difference.
Example that slowed audio becomes something entirely different.

Video list and Hacker News comment labels from HackerTube (prompted by @karpathy), released under ODC-By 1.0, built on the open-index/hacker-news archive. Hacker News data is provided by Y Combinator; comments remain the work of their authors. Video titles, channel names and thumbnails belong to their creators and are shown via YouTube. HackerTube Watch is an unofficial edition. Data export of 2026-10-31.

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