Slowed + reverb on any song, live, on your iPhone

What the effect is

Take a track, slow it to about 80–90 percent so the pitch falls with the speed (that is the important part: time-stretching that keeps pitch sounds wrong here), and add a reverb long enough that the elements smear into each other. Vocals get heavier, drums get lazier, everything feels a little underwater. It became a genre on YouTube and it works on almost anything.

Why varispeed sounds right

The classic versions were made by literally slowing tape or a turntable, so pitch and tempo fall together. MP95 does the same: the machine runs from half speed up, and the mechanism follows. On the reel-to-reel the reels slow, on the cassette deck the hubs slow, and the VU meters breathe more slowly. There is no time-stretch, so there are no artefacts.

Steps

1. Play a track in MP95.
2. Open Settings → Sound (on the Mac, pull up the desk).
3. Switch on SLOWED. It sets the speed and the reverb together.
4. Want it subtler or deeper? Drag the speed slider yourself. Hold PGM to store the result in a memory slot.

Combine it

Slowed with the cassette chain gives the warped-tape sound. Slowed with 8D orbits the slowed track around your head. All of it is live, so switch between them mid-song.

Exporting

MP95 is a player, not an editor; it does not render or export the slowed version. It plays your file slowed, now. Slowed + reverb is part of MP95 Pro and works on the music files you own.