I’ve been a big vaporwave fan for a long time. Vaporwave is music often created by slowing down a song, adding lots of reverb, and compressing the audio file. Theoretically, you could vaporwave your song in 10 minutes with Audacity. When I saw an assignment to modify a song without outside sounds, my mind immediately jumped to vaporwave.
One of my favorite vaporwave mixes is this mix which compiles various songs from the video game Sonic CD. Depending on what region you played the game in, you got a completely different soundtrack. The North American soundtrack works surprisingly well as vaporwave. I decided to continue the creator’s work by slowing down another song from the game, Stardust Speedway Present.
- The song is not available regularly, so I had to download it via YouTube to MP3.
- After opening the file in Audacity, I slowed down the audio.
- Next, I increased the treble to “lower” the sound quality.
- I added lots of reverb next, making the song sound like it was being played in a large empty room.
- Finally, I compressed the audio until it clipped slightly.
3 responses to “Modifying An Original Song Without Outside Sounds”
Oh hey, vaporwave! I’ve worked with vaporwave artists in the past, the whole aesthetic is super interesting. Interestingly enough, this also isn’t the first time I’ve heard Sonic done up like this, small world! I love how you modified the song into a new experience, but maintained what made it great. This felt a lot like daycore as well, which I love. Great stuff!
This sounds really cool, the effects you added in really push the feeling of an open space with almost antique vibes. Huge fan of vaporwave in general so this was a great listen, and the inspiration you had for this is really interesting too.
yeahhh! i love how space-y this feels. the soundtrack to sega games are already pretty cool, but your track manages to give this song an extra layer of chill (and that is a good thing).