I figured it was some experimental lo-fi thing but it turns out the guy just recorded himself having a cold and hitting random keys, has anyone else bought something that turned out way worse than the description made it sound?
I always thought the cringey auto-tune was the bad part until I heard it on a blown-out car speaker at a gas station in Wichita last Tuesday and suddenly the offbeat clap track made the whole thing click as pure accidental genius, anyone else have a song flip on them like that?
I was digging through old MIDI files on a thrifted MT-540 at a garage sale in Phoenix and that same trashy snare sound popped up in a track I used to blast in middle school. Has anyone else accidentally stumbled on a beat machine glitch that ended up in a real song?
Picked up this old plastic keyboard with the built in demo songs, and the drum machine sounds like someone dropping marbles on a pizza box. I layered that into a GarageBand loop and it turned into the worst/best synth solo I've ever made. Has anyone else used broken kids toys for beats or am I the only one digging through the toy aisle?
Read it in a Sound on Sound article from 1997 that someone scanned and posted. They just had John Williams bang out a quick sketch on a toy piano and called it done for the whole scene. Has anyone else stumbled onto a famous track that was basically a throwaway take?
I been making these glitchy ambient tracks under a fake alias since 2019. Kept wondering why every remix I tried to collab on sounded like a train wreck. Last week I pulled up Ableton and realized my default template was set to 88 BPM instead of the usual 120-130. I made like 40 songs at half speed on accident. Has anyone else mixed up a basic setting for that long?
I grabbed a busted old Yamaha PSS-480 for 5 bucks last weekend just for laughs. Hooked it up to my interface and those cheesy preset drum loops are insane for lofi beats. The auto-accompaniment sounds like a drunk robot falling down stairs but somehow it works. Anyone else found hidden gems in dollar bin keyboards?
I picked up a beat-up Yamaha RX5 at a pawn shop in Tucson for $2 last year. Everyone online says these are garbage, but I plugged it in and the kick drum sounds like a dying robot that somehow slaps harder than my proper gear. Ran it through a blown amp speaker and got this lofi crunch that nothing else can touch. Am I crazy or did I just stumble on a secret weapon for making trashy gold tracks?
I clicked on a 'chill beats to study to' stream last Wednesday and about 15 minutes in the 'piano' started doing this weird glitchy thing where it repeated the same 3 notes in a loop but the cadence was all wrong. I thought my headphones were dying, so I checked the comments and someone pointed out the whole thing was probably made by a bot. The worst part was the 'rain sound' underneath was just a static file with a randomized volume filter, and now I can't unhear it. Has anyone else had that creepy uncanny valley feeling from these algorithm-generated tracks?
Found a dusty shoebox at my uncle's garage sale last month and popped in a tape labeled 'Demo #7' that had a guy yelling about his toaster coming to life over a cheap drum machine beat and it was so bad I've listened to it five times now, does anyone else have a hidden gem like this from someone's basement recording session?
I've been going back and forth on this all week after listening to that old track 'I Ran' by A Flock of Seagulls. The drum machine on that song is so clunky and off, it's almost painful. But the lyrics are just as weird talking about running so far away. Which part actually makes it so bad it's good for you guys? I had a buddy who swears it's the beat that carries the whole thing, but I think the nonsense lyrics are what make me laugh. What do you all think matters more for these so-bad-they're-good songs?
Used to think they were just lazy cash grabs (and some still are honestly). But last week I found a guy on Soundcloud who remade that Billie Eilish song using only a Game Boy sound chip from 1989. Took him 3 weeks of coding hex values by hand to get the bass right. Now I actually look for these covers instead of skipping them. Anyone else have a genre they wrote off too fast?
I picked up a Casio SK-1 at a garage sale last month for 5 bucks. At first I was just using the preset drum patterns and mangling the demo songs, which was fun but kinda boring. Then I figured out you can tap your own rhythm into the memory bank one hit at a time, no quantizing at all. The timing is all over the place but it gives these crazy off-kilter loops that sound like a robot having a seizure. Has anyone else messed with those old keyboards just for the wonky beats?
I always thought auto-tune was just pop garbage, but last weekend I found a cassette where my uncle and his buddies tried to record a cover of 'Take On Me' with zero pitch correction. The warbling was so bad it actually made me laugh and then appreciate why engineers use the stuff. Has anyone else heard a raw recording that flipped your opinion on a production trick?
Stumbled on a 2008 MySpace song called "Crunk Juice Crisis" and the beat is just a guy banging on a shipping box with a pencil. Took me 20 minutes of rewinding to make sure I wasn't losing my mind. Has anyone else found a song where the 'drums' are clearly household items?
I was at a garage sale last Saturday and found this old 90s house tape where the kick drum was completely off tempo from the vocals. The guy selling it laughed and said that's what makes it good, but I couldn't get past how off it felt. On one hand, the wonky beat gives it this weird charm you can't plan for. On the other hand, it's just sloppy production that beats the whole purpose. Which side do you lean on for these so-bad-they're-good songs?
Found it in a box at my uncle's garage sale last weekend. The beat sounds like a skipping CD player mixed with someone dropping pots and pans, but the lyrics are about a sandwich. Makes me wonder what other accidental masterpieces are hiding in old boxes?
I bought this old Alesis SR-16 off Craigslist from a guy who said it worked fine. Got it home and it only runs at 120 BPM no matter what buttons I push. The kick drum sounds like someone tapping on a cardboard box and the hi-hat cuts out halfway through every pattern. I tried factory resetting it three times and even opened it up to check for loose wires but nothing helps. Instead of sending it back I've been using it to record lo-fi demos where the bad rhythm actually adds character. My bandmates hate it but I think we finally found our sound. Has anyone else held onto a broken piece of gear because the flaws made it interesting?