"X But It's Played In An Empty Mall" - And Similar Derivatives

[Syaoran Li]

I'm sure most of you know about the meme of taking popular songs (usually from the 80's and 90's) and remixing the audio to make it sound like it's playing in an empty mall over the loudspeakers. I'll admit that I actually enjoy these videos unironically and I also appreciate a lot of the weird spin-offs that usually have a theme like "Dancing Queen but you're in the bathroom at Prom", "Country Roads but you're already home", or "Pumped Up Kicks but it's a school shooting" and I know a lot of the people who make these remixes use Audacity for the audio, but I'm still trying to get the proper effects right.

This is probably the first video of this nature, and definitely the one that made it into a trend.

I've been meaning to make my own videos, but whenever I try to make it into a video, the audio screws up and doesn't work, despite the sound itself working out just fine by itself.

 

[The Last Stand]

I know what you're talking about. I like the ambience of having music playing from a little speaker.

This is loading screen music from EA's Skate. Cheap Trick's Surrender, NWA's Express Yourself and Devo's Gut Feeling remixed into I believe it sounds like elevator music.

Thanks for rekindling a forgotten gem.

 

[Give Her The D]

Ooh, yeah, these! I didn't think much of these, but I think there's some that give me that ambient effect.

This one of The 1975's "Somebody Else" has a concert sound with the boosted vocals, which I kind of like.

 

[Syaoran Li]

Anybody know how to do these remixes in Audacity without screwing up the audio when you sync it up with an image for the video?

Granted, I'm using one of those shoddy free video editors that's sort of like the old Windows Movie Maker, but I figured that would've been enough for the "still image plus music" video style.

Been thinking of doing a video for "Whole World Round but you're in the Appalachian wilderness", since it's a bluegrass classic by The Dillards, or maybe some holiday-themed and historical-themed videos as well.

 

[sasazuka]

It hasn't been remixed to sound like it's coming from a small speaker with ambient sound effects playing over it but one piece of music I very much associate with "empty malls" is Paul Mauriat's "Love is Bleu" (L'amour est bleu) since I was standing in a dead mall for several hours a day collecting for charity a few years ago and the speakers would usually play that particular piece of music several times a shift between the Christmas songs.

 

[inexplicable ethos]

Anybody know how to do these remixes in Audacity without screwing up the audio when you sync it up with an image for the video?

Granted, I'm using one of those shoddy free video editors that's sort of like the old Windows Movie Maker, but I figured that would've been enough for the "still image plus music" video style.

Been thinking of doing a video for "Whole World Round but you're in the Appalachian wilderness", since it's a bluegrass classic by The Dillards, or maybe some holiday-themed and historical-themed videos as well.

What exactly about the audio is "screwing up"? Do you mean it just isn't working or it's coming out distorted somehow? Which program are you using and what filetypes?

 

[Syaoran Li]

It's coming out distorted, and I'm using OpenShot Video Editor for the video editing program and my sound files are MP3's.

 

[Thornforg]

Nearly all of Sinatra's songs work in this format/template. It's beautiful.

 

[inexplicable ethos]

It's coming out distorted, and I'm using OpenShot Video Editor for the video editing program and my sound files are MP3's.

That's bizarre. I just downloaded the program, threw an mp3 and a jpg together, and exported with the default 720p30 mp4 settings and it worked perfectly with no sound distortion. Are you using the default settings for mp3 export when you edit the audio in Audacity? I can't think of anything else that would be causing it other than some codec issues, but that really shouldn't be happening.

 

[Syaoran Li]

That's bizarre. I just downloaded the program, threw an mp3 and a jpg together, and exported with the default 720p30 mp4 settings and it worked perfectly with no sound distortion. Are you using the default settings for mp3 export when you edit the audio in Audacity? I can't think of anything else that would be causing it other than some codec issues, but that really shouldn't be happening.

I don't know. I probably should double-check since I'm also a newbie at Audacity.

 

[Product Intervention]

This is really interesting. I have some advice for you though.

My job takes me into many large shopping malls all around the United States. This sound trick is pretty close but all of the audio sounds muffled as if it were coming out of low quality speakers. I can assure you that most profitable/open shopping malls have very high quality speakers built into their structure. You're hearing a full range of sound from the tracks being played; so when I hear Toto sounding like it is coming from a 50 cent mono speaker the illusion is broken. It's close, but you aren't recreating what my ear would consider a shopping mall soundtrack.

The audio fidelity should remain largely intact. Recreating reverb, echo, and ambient sound will bring you closer to a proper "shopping mall" experience. Remember these places are usually filled with sheetrock, glass, and tile, so your sound is going to bounce and travel.

Also you'll get major bonus points (from me) if all of the music you choose is a cover that almost sounds like the original. These shopping mall owners won't pay for the rights to the real song when you can get something that sounds almost exactly like it for a quarter of the price. They actually play Africa at one of the mall locations near our HQ and the cover is almost identical. But for the "mall reverb" you won't hear that it is a cover unless you listen closely.

It's a pretty neat trick.

 

[Fougaro]

 

[sasazuka]

My job takes me into many large shopping malls all around the United States. This sound trick is pretty close but all of the audio sounds muffled as if it were coming out of low quality speakers. I can assure you that most profitable/open shopping malls have very high quality speakers built into their structure. You're hearing a full range of sound from the tracks being played; so when I hear Toto sounding like it is coming from a 50 cent mono speaker the illusion is broken. It's close, but you aren't recreating what my ear would consider a shopping mall soundtrack.

The cheap speaker effect for the Toto "Africa" video in the opening post is pretty damn close to the speakers at the dead mall I was talking about before, which was one of the first indoor malls in the Ottawa area and which is now in the early stages of being demolished.

Most malls I go to have better sounding speakers than that, like you said, but I think there are older malls that are still either using some of the same speakers that were put in when they were opened over half a century ago or are using speakers which haven't been replaced in decades.

 

[Raging Capybara]

 

[Mister Qwerty]

I'd like to hear a Muzak version of the Dead Kennedys "Kill The Poor" playing in elevators and shopping malls.

 

[Masquerade]

Nearly all of Sinatra's songs work in this format/template. It's beautiful.

I came in this thread to post that exact video. You beat me to it.

 

[Cedric_Eff]

Can someone do a shopping mall version of this song?

It’s Shin Takarajima.

 

[sasazuka]

Can someone do a shopping mall version of this song?
It’s Shin Takarajima.

Do you mind a WAV file? My Audacity doesn't have the thingie needed to convert to MP3.

I converted it to mono and applied a high pass filter and then reverb effects.

 

[Cedric_Eff]

Do you mind a WAV file? My Audacity doesn't have the thingie needed to convert to MP3.

I converted it to mono and applied a high pass filter and then reverb effects.

I love it!

add some cars passing by and this image would make an great pair to that song!

 

[sasazuka]

I don't know how to composite moving cars onto a still image; that sounds like a lot more work than just adding a few filters and plugging in a few numbers/adjusting sliders in Audacity.

I do have access to AfterEffects via Adobe Creative Cloud which I have a subscription for through college but I really only use Photoshop and Acrobat, I've never tried AfterEffects.

EDIT: I could always film a few Tomica Japanese utility vehicles and Hot Wheels JDM cars whizzing by a camera on a blue background and then try dicking around in AfterEffects to add it to that image, though I don't think I'll get time to do anything like that before the weekend.