# Time Stretch 800 Slower Time Stretch / 800% Slower is an audio manipulation trend that took off in August 2010 when Florida musician Nick Pittsinger slowed Justin Bieber's "U Smile" by 800%, turning a three-minute pop song into a 35-minute ambient soundscape[1]. The technique, powered by free software called PaulStretch, transformed familiar pop tracks into ghostly, cathedral-like drones and kicked off a wave of extreme time-stretching experiments across the internet[4]. ## Origin On August 16, 2010, Nick Pittsinger, a Florida-based musician and producer who went by the alias Shamantis, posted a link to Reddit's r/music subreddit[4]. The link led to a SoundCloud track titled "U Smile 800 Percent Slower," a manipulated version of Justin Bieber's hit stretched from its original 3:17 runtime to over 35 minutes[1]. Pittsinger created the track using PaulStretch, a free open-source program built by Romanian programmer Paul Nasca[1]. The software works by chopping audio into tiny segments, stretching each one, then overlapping them to create a continuous, cohesive body of sound. When NPR tracked down Nasca to explain the process, he described the technique as creating "smeared chunks" that, when placed next to each other, elongate the track in tiny increments rather than stretching the whole song at once[1]. - **Platform:** Reddit (r/music), SoundCloud - **Creator:** Nick Pittsinger (musician, original "U Smile 800% Slower" track), Paul Nasca (PaulStretch software creator) - **Date:** 2010 ## Overview The 800% Slower trend involves using audio time-stretching software to dramatically slow down a song while preserving its original pitch. Unlike simply reducing playback speed (which lowers pitch and creates a "chipmunk in reverse" effect), the technique breaks audio into tiny overlapping segments and stretches each one individually[1]. The result strips away rhythm, lyrics, and structure, leaving behind vast washes of sound that feel more like ambient music or a church choir than anything resembling the source material. The most famous example turned Justin Bieber's sugary pop single "U Smile" into what NPR's Stephen Thompson described as a "celestial choirboy" performance[1]. The stark contrast between the original bubblegum pop and the resulting ethereal drone was a huge part of the appeal. People who would never willingly listen to Bieber found themselves captivated by the transformed version. ## How It Spread The track spread fast. Two days after Pittsinger's Reddit post, on August 18, 2010, NPR published a detailed breakdown of the technique, interviewing PaulStretch creator Paul Nasca about how the software worked[1]. The same day, Gizmodo ran an article titled "How To Make Justin Bieber Sound Incredible"[2]. By August 20, CleverTV had uploaded a video report on the track[4]. The ghostly reinterpretation caught fire partly because of the irony. This was peak Bieber backlash era, and the joke was that making Bieber "sound incredible" required fundamentally dismantling everything recognizable about his music. As NPR put it, "neither the singer nor the DJ, but instead the programmer, deserves the artist's credit"[1]. A 4chan-originated hoax soon followed. A fake band calling themselves the "Photon Wave Orchestra" claimed the track wasn't Bieber slowed down at all, but an original composition called "Echoes Across The Astral Wasteland"[4]. Pittsinger debunked this by uploading screenshots to Imgur proving he had created the track. By January 2011, the trend of extreme time-stretching had gained enough momentum that a Reddit user named GrandDPurple launched r/SloMusic, a dedicated subreddit for slowed-down tracks[4]. People were running everything through PaulStretch: pop songs, film scores, video game soundtracks, even speech. Search interest for "800% slower" peaked sharply in August 2010, the same month as Pittsinger's original post, then settled into a long tail as the technique became a known tool in the internet music toolkit[4]. ## How to Use The classic approach: 1. **Download PaulStretch** (free, open-source) or use any DAW with advanced time-stretching capabilities (Ableton Live, Audacity with the Paulstretch plugin) 2. **Load a song**, ideally something with strong melodic content. Pop songs with clear vocal harmonies work particularly well 3. **Set the stretch factor** to 8x (800%) or higher. The original Bieber track used 8x; Bear in Heaven used 4,000x 4. **Render the output** and listen to what's left. Vocals typically become shimmering overtones, bass lines turn into low rumbles, and drum hits stretch into rolling thunder 5. **Share the result** with a title format like "[Song Name] 800% Slower" or "[Song Name] Slowed Down 800%" ## Cultural Impact NPR covered the trend across multiple programs, with both *All Songs Considered* and *All Things Considered* running segments on the slowed Bieber track[1]. The coverage was notable because it treated internet music manipulation as a legitimate form of creative expression, with NPR suggesting that PaulStretch creator Paul Nasca deserved more artistic credit than either Bieber or Pittsinger[1]. Bear in Heaven's 400,000% album stream attracted coverage from major music publications including Pitchfork and Paste Magazine, and HuffPost called it "gimmicky but ingenious"[5]. The project drew comparisons to John Cage's "As Slow As Possible," an organ performance in a German church designed to last 639 years[5]. The trend also connected to broader conversations about the nature of recorded music. By demonstrating that a three-minute pop song contained 35 minutes of hidden sonic texture, time-stretching challenged assumptions about what "counts" as music and raised questions about authorship when software does the creative heavy lifting[1]. ## Fun Facts - The PaulStretch software that powered the trend was created by Paul Nasca, a Romanian programmer, and distributed for free as open-source software[1] - When NPR's audio engineers sped the slowed Bieber track back up to its original tempo, they found the audio had been processed before stretching, meaning it wasn't a simple one-step manipulation[1] - Bear in Heaven said they hadn't actually listened to their own 400,000% slowed album in full, since every single second of the original lasts over an hour in the stretched version[3] - The band described the result of their extreme stretch as having "the potential to lull you to sleep while feeding your nightmares"[3] ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What is Time Stretch / 800% Slower? It's an audio manipulation trend where songs are slowed down by extreme amounts (typically 800% or more) while preserving their original pitch, turning pop music into lengthy ambient soundscapes[1]. ### Where did Time Stretch / 800% Slower come from? Florida musician Nick Pittsinger (alias Shamantis) posted a version of Justin Bieber's "U Smile" slowed down 800% to Reddit's r/music on August 16, 2010[4]. ### What does Time Stretch / 800% Slower mean? The "800% Slower" label means the track plays at one-eighth its original speed. A 3-minute song becomes roughly 35 minutes long, with all its musical elements stretched into slow, overlapping waves of sound[1]. ### How do you use Time Stretch / 800% Slower? Download PaulStretch (free software) or use a DAW with time-stretching capabilities, load a song, set the stretch factor to 8x or higher, and render the output[1]. ### Is Time Stretch / 800% Slower still popular? The specific "800% Slower" format peaked in 2010-2011, but its influence lives on in the widely popular "slowed + reverb" music trend across YouTube and SoundCloud[4]. ### What software was used to create the original 800% Slower track? Nick Pittsinger used PaulStretch, a free open-source program created by Romanian programmer Paul Nasca that uses an overlap-add stretching algorithm[1]. ### What was the Photon Wave Orchestra hoax? A fake band originating from 4chan claimed the slowed Bieber track was actually their original song "Echoes Across The Astral Wasteland." Pittsinger debunked the hoax by posting screenshots to Imgur[4]. ### What was Bear in Heaven's 400,000% album stream? In December 2011, Brooklyn band Bear in Heaven streamed their album *I Love You, It's Cool* stretched by 400,000%, making it play exactly once over four months before the album's release[3]. ### How does time stretching differ from simply slowing down a recording? Simple slowdown lowers both speed and pitch. Time stretching uses algorithms to change duration while preserving the original pitch, avoiding the deep "chipmunk in reverse" effect[6]. ### Did Hans Zimmer use the 800% Slower technique for Inception? YouTube analysis revealed that Zimmer's *Inception* score was built from a slowed-down version of Edith Piaf's "Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien," using a similar time-stretching approach[4]. ## References 1. [How It Works: The Art Of Time-Stretching Bieber : The Record : NPR]() 2. [Bear In Heaven Experiment With Longest, Slowest Album Stream Ever : All Songs Considered : NPR]() 3. [Bear In Heaven, 'I Love You, It's Cool' Album Stream Slowed To Last 4 Months (VIDEO) | HuffPost Culture]() 4. [Time Stretch / 800% Slower - Know Your Meme]() 5. [List of Internet phenomena]() 6. [Audio time stretching and pitch scaling - Wikipedia]() 7. [Redirect Notice]() 8. [How It Works: The Art Of Time-Stretching Bieber : The Record : NPR]() 9. [Gizmodo | The Future Is Here]() 10. [Bear In Heaven Experiment With Longest, Slowest Album Stream Ever : All Songs Considered : NPR]() 11. [Bear In Heaven, 'I Love You, It's Cool' Album Stream Slowed To Last 4 Months (VIDEO) | HuffPost UK Culture]() --- Source: https://meme.com/memes/time-stretch-800-slower Published by meme.com — The Internet Meme Library