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Radio stations that speed up songs/change pitch

The early (70's) methods were as simple as carefully putting a sleeve of plastic tubing or tape around the capstan of the turntable motor. Then we got devices that changed the cycle rate of the electricity fed to the turntable motor.

Today, it is done electronically, and the songs can both be sped up while having their pitch stay the same so the sound is not changed.
My trick is to use this app and combine pitch and speed to 102%.
 
My trick is to use this app and combine pitch and speed to 102%.
Remember, in the 70's and 80's the idea was to increase the pitch so that the song sounded "brighter" than it might have sounded on another competitive station.
 
In the 1970s and early '80s there were some 45s which were lower pitched than the album versions. I wonder if this was done to counteract the trend of radio stations pitching up their music?

Examples:
Allman Brothers Band - "Ramblin' Man"
Bertie Higgins - "Key Largo"
Bob Seger - "We've Got Tonite"
Lobo - "I'd Love You to Want Me"
Paul Davis - "I Go Crazy"
Stephen Stills - "Love The One You're With"

The original 45s of these play slower than what you hear on CDs/digital downloads today.

Of course, there were also some 45s which played faster than the album versions, most notably the Doors' "Light My Fire", Gerry Rafferty's two big hits, and the original edited 45 of "Margaritaville".
 
It depends if you playing your music at 102.7% your gonna make your audio pitch be 0.46 semitones. If your gonna play your music 102.3% as iHeartRadio stations do, it'll be 0.39 semitones.

If you just raise pitch it'll start to sound echo-y and weird on some songs. If you do it the correct way by making the audio faster and pitch it be done "right".
 
One issue with speeding up songs by a fractions of a semitone is the segue. Unless all music is pitched up by exactly the same amount, a segue between two songs will not sound good. The slight change in pitch will be very noticeable.
 
The bigger question is: Why would you want to? There has proven to be no benefit.
In the 70's when just a few station discovered the process, it made the same music on a competitor sound draggy. There was a definite perceived benefit that one could measure when doing research.
 
In the 70's when just a few station discovered the process, it made the same music on a competitor sound draggy. There was a definite perceived benefit that one could measure when doing research.
Maybe a perceived benefit, (according to the PD who wanted it) but to my knowledge, none that had any documented benefit.
 
The early (70's) methods were as simple as carefully putting a sleeve of plastic tubing or tape around the capstan of the turntable motor. Then we got devices that changed the cycle rate of the electricity fed to the turntable motor.

Today, it is done electronically, and the songs can both be sped up while having their pitch stay the same so the sound is not changed.
This would be called digital compression...just another reason why so many of us love our vinyl...
 
In the 1970s and early '80s there were some 45s which were lower pitched than the album versions. I wonder if this was done to counteract the trend of radio stations pitching up their music?

Examples:
Allman Brothers Band - "Ramblin' Man"
Bertie Higgins - "Key Largo"
Bob Seger - "We've Got Tonite"
Lobo - "I'd Love You to Want Me"
Paul Davis - "I Go Crazy"
Stephen Stills - "Love The One You're With"

The original 45s of these play slower than what you hear on CDs/digital downloads today.

Of course, there were also some 45s which played faster than the album versions, most notably the Doors' "Light My Fire", Gerry Rafferty's two big hits, and the original edited 45 of "Margaritaville".
The Doors Light My Fire 45 was of course the short version of the tune and was very heavily compressed to sound much louder than the long version on the LP. The 45 single was a perfect example of a musical brick wall. Probably no more than 3 or maybe 4dB dynamic range. By comparison the album version sounded laid back.
 
While we're on this subject, Jazz fans reported that the re-issue of Miles Davis' classic "Kind of Blue" album on vinyl was the first time, other than the original LP, that this recording is actually on pitch. Supposedly all the CD runs were off by at least a semi-tone or more.
 
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