By now, you may have heard of wubmachine.com, which will take your audio and treat it to an automated wubbing process that makes it a bona fide Dubstep track (among other genres). Naturally, I was curious. So I ran a few tracks through it, and the results are kind of awesome.
DNA feat. Suzanne Vega vs Nine Inch Nails – “Down In Tom’s Diner (Wub Machine Remix)” (Download)
Duran Duran vs VNV Nation – “Girls On Film (Saviour Mix) (Wub Machine Remix)” (Download)
Clearly, the methodology employed isn’t terribly sophisticated in terms of making a coherent song, but that seems to be in line with the Dubstep aesthetic in any case, so I feel it’s reasonably successful. It does hint to how sophisticated our software has become and the trap that such advancements have laid at the tips of modern musicians’ fingers. When an entire genre can be boiled down to an algorithm, one must reexamine how and why such tools are developed and employed in the ongoing quest for originality and expression.
In the meantime, it makes for some fun noise.