HEAVY CHOP · 120 BPM → 94 BPM
Haunted Humbling
Drum-heavy, so it gets the busy treatment: a quick stutter every fourth beat, a tight low end and a narrow, dark room.
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◆ LAB · CHOPPED & SCREWED
ScrewLab
Chopped and screwed came out of Houston in the early '90s. DJ Screw would slow a record way down until the voices went deep and syrupy, then cut it up live: doubling a line, stuttering a beat, letting a word hang. I've loved it forever, so I built my own setup to do it.
These are three of my own songs run through it, plus one from my friend Ash Sekito. Hit play, then flip between Original and Screwed while it's going. It picks up at the same spot in the song so you hear exactly what changed.
▍ BEFORE / AFTER
MY SONGS + ONE FROM A FRIENDLIGHT CHOP · 78 BPM → 61 BPM
HappyHood
Slower and more spacious, so the chops get spread out: one clean double every two bars, a longer tail and a wider room.
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HEAVY CHOP · 160 BPM → 125 BPM
RapDnD
Fast enough that the slowdown turns it into a whole different song. Same stutter pattern as Haunted Humbling.
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HEAVY CHOP · 161 BPM → 126 BPM
Kool Wit Me
Ash Sekito's song, chopped with his blessing. He put the original out himself, so go show him some love.
Original by Ash Sekito on SoundCloud ↗0:00 / 0:00
▍ WHAT'S HAPPENING
78%Playback speed. Pitch drops with it, about four semitones, the way a slowed record does. No time-stretching.
1 in 4Beats that get chopped in the busier style: stuttered, doubled or cut, always landing on the beat.
4 secThe record stop that ends every one of them, where the platter winds down to nothing.
The heavy chop is modeled on how far DJ Purpberry slows his records. The light chop follows OG Ron C, whose whole motto is “chopped not slopped”: fewer cuts, each one on purpose. Everything also gets a little tape warmth and a room around it, because a screw that sounds too clean doesn't sound like a screw.
Just for fun
This one's a side project. If you make music and need a site for it, that I do build.