Image is to pixelated as a song is to ___?
The closest I could think of is "low quality" but that is not as specific as I'd like, it could also mean that the music is bad.
Example:
I like this song, but you should really get the CD. This sounds _______
"Downsampled" is the literal equivalent for sound. In both cases -- pixellation and downsampling -- analog reality is overly quantitized, leading to perceptible artifacts.
In the particular example sentence, though, I might say "this sounds like a bad rip."
Lo-fi, from low fidelity:
- the production or reproduction of audio characterized by an unpolished or rough sound quality (MW)
- (of sound reproduction) of or giving an impression of poor quality (Collins)
Also lo fi and low-fi (TFD). Wikipedia:
a type of sound recording which contains technical flaws that make the recording sound different compared with the live sound being recorded, such as distortion, hum, background noise, or limited frequency response.
In digital audio, the term "lo-fi" usually refers to an audio file with a lower bit rate or sampling rate, and thus a lower sound quality.
Distorted
From The Free Dictionary (emphasis mine):
- (Electronics) electronics a. an undesired change in the shape of an electromagnetic wave or signal b. the result of such a change in waveform, esp a loss of clarity in radio reception or sound reproduction
Distortion can be caused by a variety of methods, one of which is downsampling (which is digitally analogous to pixelation). Overuse of lossy compression can also cause distortion. It covers all use cases of "bad audio" that is not related to the actual music being played.
Another (slightly more technical) option is "lossy". Reference
At first I thought garbled, but that's more about distortion.
Low quality sound, especially music, sounds tinny. An example is music on a telephone; the audio has been through a low-pass filter so it doesn't sound as rich as it should.