Enjoying 9 Beet Stretch and its spacious-density of colors, I thought I’d try my own hand with the software PaulStretch, by Nasca Octavian Paul. This little app (originally available in Win and Unix flavors) allows stretching of audio over time, minimizing “digital artifacts” from the process. Bullet-time for music, if you will.
I applied stretch to various contemporary works to hear the effect, discover new textures, and test time. I’ve pulled select elements from full render to give you a taste. Listen as if you both know and don’t know the original source.
For me, one of the lessons here is that there’s lots of interesting aspects to be found in subtlety; be it music, dance, art, science, humanity, etc. Read between the lines once in a while. Discussion and feedback welcome. Much more I could say on what’s happening here, and I might in the future, but just going to let the music play for a bit…
ABBA_Cadabra.DQ
Dancing Queen : ABBA. Stretched 25x from 3:51 to 96:01. I think it works alright here, as similar to Beethoven’s 9th in the original, ABBA utilized dense harmonies and wall of sound type production.
- ABBA Cadabra Intro (4:00)
- Mid File (:43)
- Mid File 2 (:39)
Way Pokey Face
Poker Face:Lady Gaga. Stretched 25x from 3:59 to 98:50. This might be a case where having a heavy dance beat doesn’t render out well at 25x as I feel like I’m right in the surf zone where the resulting beat waves are constantly crashing into me. Slower or a tad fast might be the ticket to ride.
The result is a pretty dark and menacing flow. There is a whole lot going on in this tune, even more audible stretched out, which is maybe representative of why dance music has its name. The high production value of largely digital synthesis results in a quite polished sound with tight harmonics; again, even stretched out results are pretty clean. On successive listening, I’m actually liking these results a bit more. With some digging around and piecing together, one could make something cinematically pensive worthy.
Teenage Timewaster
Baba O’Riley : The Who. Stretched 25x from 5:09 to 128:32. Piano’s and other rich harmonic elements prove to be fun anyway you stretch them, forwards or backward. The noise of the guitar distortion + piano really creates some rich sonic waves. Even the yelling of Pete adds some interest in between the lines. This render really turned out quite interesting.
- Intro (2:47)
- First Piano (:50)
- First Vocal (1:13)
- A cappella (1:34)
Believe In Space and Time
Can’t Believe It : T-Pain. Stretched 25x from 3:51 to 114:14. Different feel than I expected (like you didn’t expect something 25x slower?). The drum hits get a little rumbly, but overall, this is a pretty chill render. T-Pain comes in like a metallic ghost, and everything else is just trippin’.
T-Pain at 25x sound like, well, T-Pain at 25x; however, if you subscribe to a minimalist ear and theory, after a bit “he” becomes “it”, and takes a life of his/it’s own (like rapid arpeggiation a la Philip Glass). And to me, that’s interesting.
While ok at 25x, I think this might have sounded a bit better, avoiding this weird middle time space of not knowing to stay or go, and stretching around 12x or 50x.
- Intro (1:14)
- Long Vocal (1:13)
- Mid Space (:33)
7448 Seconds to Mars
The massed choir-crowd provides an interesting texture that peaks out around the synth and guitar. I might not have expected such a large spacious gap in the placement between these elements, but the verb effect in the original mix served the choir well.
Jared Leto’s middle a cappella behaves as one might expect. I’d almost say nothing special, save for when subtle string chords come in for support. A bit of flavor.
I did, however, include the climax of the piece with the lead singer ending on a screamer, and the mass choir crowd rolls in like a tsunami wave. Full flavor ON is found rolling into 5:28 in the Closing Screamer. Can’t beat that. Long, but worth it.
- Intro (:38)
- Verse (1:34)
- A Cappella (1:05)
- Mass Closer (7:55)
