Instrumentals Sped up,in the Studio. Reasons?

Eric West · Post by **Eric West** » 16 Jan 2006 8:49 pm

Which ones have been? When, How, and Why, if you know.

Does it matter to you as a player?

A listener?

Just asking.

It doesn't matter a whole lot to me other than the "trivia" factor, but you never know how the application to Jeopardy will come out...

EJL

Joseph Meditz · Post by **Joseph Meditz** » 16 Jan 2006 10:19 pm

I think everything on radio stations KUSS and KSON is sped up so that it comes out a 1/4 tone sharp. Since I don't have perfect pitch it doesn't bother me when I listen. But when I try to strum along I notice that I'm way out of tune. On another station a radio anouncer once talked about how they used to do this at his previous station to make other stations seem dull in comparison.

I actually emailed KUSS asking them if what I thought was really true, but I did not get a reply.

Joe

Eric West · Post by **Eric West** » 16 Jan 2006 11:20 pm

I've also heard amd experienced that, and for some "esoteric" reasoning of different keys being more conducive to certain moods.
On guitar, Eb has always put me in a less than perfect space. B on the C6 neck..

Cuts I "grab" from local radio stations for my own educational purposes are sometimes out of tune with the CDs I buy later.

EJL<font size="1" color="#8e236b"><p align="center">[This message was edited by Eric West on 16 January 2006 at 11:21 PM.]</p></FONT>

Tony Prior · Post by **Tony Prior** » 17 Jan 2006 3:25 am

maybe they want to SELL more records in a SHORTER amount of time ?

Jack Stoner · Post by **Jack Stoner** » 17 Jan 2006 4:28 am

As noted many stations "speed up" the songs they play. One station in Kansas City sped up every other song. They can advertise they play "x" number of songs per hour but still get more time for commercials.

The first recording session I did, in 1961 at Carpenter's Music in Biloxi, Miss, the recording engineer (Peewee Maddox) slightly sped up the song when he cut our "demo" records and said it sounded better at the slightly faster speed. I've heard others that did that back then so it must have been a relatively common practice.

Ernie Renn · Post by **Ernie Renn** » 17 Jan 2006 5:45 am

I think it was Steven Wright who said that he had a microwave fireplace and could spend the evening lounging in front of the fire in only 8 minutes.

Maybe it's akin to that...

------------------
My best,
Ernie

www.BuddyEmmons.com

Ray Minich · Post by **Ray Minich** » 17 Jan 2006 5:59 am

More Music per Hour! WABC (770 NYC) circa 1970. Speed up the turn table. Shoulda heard Linda Ronstadt's "When Will I Be Loved" coming over the AM Radio. Sounded like a duck quacking it was so fast.

David Doggett · Post by **David Doggett** » 17 Jan 2006 6:21 am

I have always heard it was an old recording trick to "brighten things up." Many LPs and CDs I have are not standard pitch. But it never occurred to me that radio stations do it.

Tony Harris · Post by **Tony Harris** » 17 Jan 2006 7:02 am

I heard that juke boxes used to play fast - more records per hour = more cash!

Dave White · Post by **Dave White** » 17 Jan 2006 1:35 pm

It's happening in the commercial television industry, as well. Many TV shows and movies are digitally "sped up" by removing certain frames at regular intervals, to allow more time for commercials. This is in addition to the normal "editing for television" they do with movies.

Jim Phelps · Post by **Jim Phelps** » 17 Jan 2006 2:19 pm

I noticed the speeding-up on several radio stations in the last few years. Just one more good reason for me to not listen to them.

Jack Stoner · Post by **Jack Stoner** » 17 Jan 2006 3:29 pm

I worked for a Juke Box company in the mid 60's. We had Seeburg (mostly) and some Wurlitzer. None of ours were sped up and no one that I knew in other Juke Box companies in the Harrisburg (Pa) area did anything like that. I was one of 3 repair techs in the company.