Guides

Slowed and Reverb Settings by Genre: Rap, Pop, R&B, EDM and More

2026-10-11

Exact speed, reverb, space, bass, tone and width values for nine genres, from trap to Bollywood to K-pop, with the reasoning behind each so you can adapt them to any song.

A good slowed edit of a trap song and a good slowed edit of a Bollywood ballad are made with different numbers, and not slightly different. The trap edit wants a short reverb and a lot of bass. The ballad wants a long tail and restraint on the low end, or the sitar and strings turn into soup. Applying one preset to everything is how channels end up with a catalogue that sounds right on a third of their uploads.

This guide gives a settings row for nine genres and, more usefully, explains why each value is where it is. The settings are for the free slowed reverb maker, where you can type them in directly or start from the Haze Chamber or Wave Drift preset and adjust. Save the rows you use as custom presets with the Create preset button so you only do this once.

The full table

The rest of this guide takes each row in turn. Treat the numbers as a centre, not a rule. A song that is unusual for its genre, a sparse rap track or a dense indie production, will want to borrow from a neighbouring row.

Rap and trap

0.83x, 32%, 2.0 s, +7, -3, 1.0

Rap gives you the most room on speed and the least room on reverb. The vocal is rhythmic rather than melodic, so a four-semitone drop does not sound wrong the way it can on a sung melody; it just sounds heavier. Deep voices at 0.80x can become texture, so 0.83x is a compromise that still lands well below the standard 0.85x.

Reverb has to stay low because consonants are the whole point of a rap vocal. Above 35% mix the syllables start running together on fast verses. The short Space of 2.0 s is for the drums: trap hi-hats at 0.83x are already a shuffle, and a long tail on top of them turns the rhythm into a smear.

Bass is where this genre lives. +7 dB on a low shelf makes the 808s physical on headphones. Watch for distortion on tracks that already have a lot of sub; if the kick starts to flutter, come down to +5. Width stays at 1.0 because rap mixes put almost everything in the centre and widening does nothing except thin the bass on phones.

If you want a more extreme Houston-style treatment, with the vocal fully submerged, the chopped and screwed maker page covers those settings. The editor cannot do the chop itself, only the screw.

Pop

0.86x, 40%, 2.8 s, +4, -2, 1.1

Pop is the genre the slowed + reverb sound was more or less designed for. Big, polished productions with a melodic lead vocal and a lot of layered synths take to the pitch drop beautifully. The risk is going too far, because modern pop masters are already loud and dense, and extra bass or reverb has nowhere to go.

0.86x rather than 0.85x is a small hedge for the vocal. Most pop vocals are in a high register and gain warmth from the drop, but a hundredth of speed either way is cheap insurance. 40% mix with a 2.8 s decay gives you the recognisable style while keeping the chorus lyrics intact, which matters more in pop than anywhere else because the hook is what people came for.

Bass at +4 is deliberately moderate. Pop low end is already sculpted; the shelf just adds weight. Tone at -2 takes the sheen off a bright master without dulling it. Width at 1.1 widens the pads and backing vocals a touch while the lead stays centred.

R&B and soul

0.85x, 44%, 3.2 s, +5, -3, 1.15

R&B gets the longest reverb of any vocal genre, and it is the genre where slowed edits most often sound like they could have been the original. Slow tempos, long held notes, space between phrases, and a vocal performance that is about tone as much as words all argue for a bigger room.

44% is the highest mix in the vocal rows, and it works because R&B phrasing leaves gaps the tail can fill. The 3.2 s Space fills them. On a track with a fast, syllabic verse, pull Space back to 2.6 s for the verses in your head and accept that you are setting it for the chorus.

Bass at +5 supports the warm low mids this genre is built on. Tone at -3 adds the slight haze that suits late-night listening. Width at 1.15 opens up the harmonies and keys around a centred lead.

Rock and indie

0.87x, 36%, 2.6 s, +2, -2, 1.1

Guitars are the challenge. Distorted and even clean electric guitars occupy a wide band of the midrange, and when you slow them down they get thicker and lower, crowding the vocal. Rock also depends on drive, and too much slowing kills the push of the drums.

So the speed is light, 0.87x, about two and a half semitones. The reverb is modest at 36% because rock mixes are already full; there is less empty space for a tail to occupy than in R&B. The 2.6 s decay is enough for a hall without turning a snare backbeat into a wash.

Bass gets just +2. Rock low end is bass guitar and kick, and both get muddy fast with a shelf boost once they have already dropped two semitones. Tone at -2 softens cymbals, which slowing tends to make harsh. For indie with a quieter, more atmospheric production, you can push toward the pop row: 0.85x, 40%, 2.8 s.

EDM and house

0.80x, 48%, 3.4 s, +5, -4, 1.2

Electronic dance music is the genre that most rewards going deep. Tracks at 125 to 130 BPM have tempo to spare, and at 0.80x a house track lands at 100 to 104 BPM, which is still a groove. Vocals in EDM are often sparse, processed and repetitive, so clarity is less fragile.

The reverb is high at 48% because the arrangements are built from synths with little natural ambience, and the long 3.4 s decay turns a club track into something cinematic. The pairing works because the kick is usually sidechained in the original mix, which leaves rhythmic gaps the tail can breathe through.

Bass at +5 keeps the kick present. Tone at -4 tames the bright supersaws and white-noise risers that get piercing when stretched. Width at 1.2 exaggerates the stereo movement most EDM already has. Check the result on a phone speaker, because 1.2 can thin out when summed to mono.

Lo-fi and ambient

0.76x, 62%, 5.0 s, +3, -5, 1.25

This row is the outlier because the goal is different. Lo-fi and ambient edits are not about a recognisable song slowed down; they are about turning a song into an atmosphere. Everything is pushed further.

0.76x is five semitones down. Vocals become texture, which is the intent. Reverb at 62% and Space at 5.0 s make the track a wash with the original audible inside it. Bass at +3 is modest, because at this speed the low end is already enormous and more would eat everything. Tone at -5 adds the warm, distant quality that defines the style. Width at 1.25 is the widest in the table, and it works here because there is no centred vocal to protect.

For a dedicated starting point, the lo-fi maker page uses values close to these.

Bollywood

0.87x, 42%, 3.0 s, +2, -1, 1.15

Bollywood productions are dense: full string sections, percussion layers, multiple lead vocals, and often a wide dynamic range from a quiet verse to a huge chorus. They also feature expressive, ornamented vocals that live in the upper midrange.

Speed stays light at 0.87x. Any lower and the ornamentation in the vocal starts to blur into the strings. Reverb at 42% with a 3.0 s hall adds grandeur that suits orchestral arrangements. The two most important numbers are Bass at +2 and Tone at -1, both restrained. Bollywood mixes already have a lot of low-mid energy from percussion and strings; a heavy shelf boost makes them boom. And the top end carries the detail of the vocal and the tabla; cutting it hard loses what makes the arrangement interesting. Width at 1.15 suits the wide orchestral image.

K-pop

0.85x, 38%, 2.6 s, +4, -2, 1.1

K-pop productions share a lot with Western pop but with two differences that matter for slowing: vocal stacks are denser, with several singers trading lines and harmonising, and the arrangements change style mid-song more often. Both argue for the standard 0.85x and against anything deeper, because stacked vocals lose their separation as they go lower.

Reverb at 38% is a shade under pop because of those stacks: five voices in a wet mix blur faster than one. The 2.6 s decay handles the frequent section changes without a tail from a ballad bridge ringing into a rap verse. Bass at +4 and Tone at -2 are standard pop values. K-pop masters are very bright, so if the result sounds harsh, Tone to -3 is the first adjustment.

Latin pop and reggaeton

0.86x, 38%, 2.4 s, +5, -2, 1.05

Reggaeton and Latin pop are built on the dembow rhythm, and the rhythm is the first thing a slowed edit threatens. Keep the speed at 0.86x so the pattern still pushes. The short 2.4 s decay protects it too; a long tail fills the gaps between the kicks and snares that give the beat its bounce.

38% mix keeps the vocal upfront. Spanish-language vocals in this genre are rhythmically dense, closer to rap than to a ballad, so they want the same protection. Bass at +5 supports the kick without overwhelming it. Width at 1.05 is nearly mono because these mixes are centre-heavy and widening buys nothing.

Adjusting a row for the specific song

A row is a starting point. The adjustments that come up most:

Using the presets as shortcuts

The two slowed presets map onto this table loosely:

• Haze Chamber (0.85x, 54%, 1.2 s, +12, -10, 1.5) is an exaggerated version of the rap row: huge bass, very short decay, very dark. Pull Bass to +7, Tone to -3, Reverb to 32% and Width to 1.0 and you have the rap settings.
• Wave Drift (0.90x, 50%, 2.8 s, +2, -1, 1.08) is closest to the Bollywood and rock rows: light speed, long decay, restrained bass and tone. Speed down to 0.87x and Reverb to 40% gets you there.

For a batch where every track is the same genre, apply the row once with Select All Tracks and export a ZIP. For a mixed batch, select the tracks of each genre in turn.

Open the free editor: upload MP3, WAV, AAC, OGG or FLAC, adjust speed, reverb, bass, tone, width and space, then export MP3 or a ZIP of many tracks. Everything runs in your browser.