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Speeding up Tracks - Questions

C

ChannelFlipper

I know the practice of speeding up tracks slightly has been around for a while now, but this subject doesn't get discussed much.

Who did it first and when did the practice catch on?

How prevalent is the practice? Is everyone doing it or only a select few?


And most importantly, I feel this is an insult to the listener, even if they are not aware of it. Seems blatantly dishonest and, at least in my mind, unethical. Anyone else feel this way?
 
> I know the practice of speeding up tracks slightly has been
> around for a while now, but this subject doesn't get
> discussed much.
>
> Who did it first and when did the practice catch on?
>
> How prevalent is the practice? Is everyone doing it or only
> a select few?
>
>
> And most importantly, I feel this is an insult to the
> listener, even if they are not aware of it. Seems blatantly
> dishonest and, at least in my mind, unethical. Anyone else
> feel this way?
>

The practice has been around forever. Going back to the days of 45's being played on the air. Before pitch control they use to feed the turntables a little extra "juice" to get them goin' faster.

As for L.A., The Mighty 690 was the only station in this market, that I can recall, to take it to an extreme of 10%. Los Angeles, unlike many Eastern U.S. markets, has never been big on "sweetening" music. But it has been a practice that has been used for about as long as Top 40 has been around. And it has been done to some extent by most every top 40 station ever in Los Angeles.

A little bit makes your music sound hip but the 5% that KBIG is now doing - up from 3% - is noticeable.
 
By speeding up the music, a station can squeeze in more songs per hour enabling them to claim 'more music per hour'.


> I know the practice of speeding up tracks slightly has been
> around for a while now, but this subject doesn't get
> discussed much.
>
> Who did it first and when did the practice catch on?
>
> How prevalent is the practice? Is everyone doing it or only
> a select few?
>
>
> And most importantly, I feel this is an insult to the
> listener, even if they are not aware of it. Seems blatantly
> dishonest and, at least in my mind, unethical. Anyone else
> feel this way?
>
 
Speeding up, and slowing down

At the Radio Network we used "timed records" at the top of the hour, and during selected optional spot breaks. At first we just used a Harmonizer, and it worked but the pitch remained unchanged. Then we rented a "Lexicon" which changed speed & pitch. This device was used for speeding up TV programs as well. Now you can find the "Lexicon" as a free option in certain Digital audio programs.

> I know the practice of speeding up tracks slightly has been
> around for a while now, but this subject doesn't get
> discussed much.
>
> Who did it first and when did the practice catch on?

This has been done for over 50 years. And it's not just music. Commercials are also adjusted to fit time windows.

> How prevalent is the practice? Is everyone doing it or only
> a select few?

> And most importantly, I feel this is an insult to the
> listener, even if they are not aware of it. Seems blatantly
> dishonest and, at least in my mind, unethical. Anyone else
> feel this way?

Not really. With Television they can squeeze an extra minute or two out of each hour, and the viewer can't tell. Audio is a little more noticeable however...
 
Re: Speeding up, and slowing down

The CD players the mixers at KBIG use have the capability of speeding up songs without changing the pitch. This can be accomplished in Adobe Audition and I'm certain in many other audio software applications. I don't know if Prophet can do that, but if one feels it absolutely necessary to speed up the music, you should do it without changing pitch. If the pitch is up too, listeners might not know what it is, but they'll hear something different and it will sound "funny" to them.<P ID="signature">______________
Archer
http://spaces.msn.com/robertarcher</P>
 
Not really Rob?

If you speed up the song, you would want to slow down the pitch to compensate. Of course I'm speaking from my vast Analog experience, and you are probably coming from a modern digital point of view.

> The CD players the mixers at KBIG use have the capability of
> speeding up songs without changing the pitch. This can be
> accomplished in Adobe Audition and I'm certain in many other
> audio software applications. I don't know if Prophet can do
> that, but if one feels it absolutely necessary to speed up
> the music, you should do it without changing pitch. If the
> pitch is up too, listeners might not know what it is, but
> they'll hear something different and it will sound "funny"
> to them.
>
 
> The practice has been around forever. Going back to the days
> of 45's being played on the air. Before pitch control they
> use to feed the turntables a little extra "juice" to get
> them goin' faster.

From what I've read, around 46 to 47 RPM, instead of 45 RPM.


> As for L.A., The Mighty 690 was the only station in this
> market, that I can recall, to take it to an extreme of 10%.
> Los Angeles, unlike many Eastern U.S. markets, has never
> been big on "sweetening" music. But it has been a practice
> that has been used for about as long as Top 40 has been
> around. And it has been done to some extent by most every
> top 40 station ever in Los Angeles.
>
> A little bit makes your music sound hip but the 5% that KBIG
> is now doing - up from 3% - is noticeable.
>
<P ID="signature">______________

Member of the Los Angeles, Phoenix Radio, and California TV moderation team</P>
 
Re: Not really Rob?

> If you speed up the song, you would want to slow down the
> pitch to compensate. Of course I'm speaking from my vast
> Analog experience, and you are probably coming from a modern
> digital point of view.

Yep. It's digital sampling that allows you to do both (speed up tempo, keep pitch sounding the same) at the same time.

Kind of like fast forwarding a CD -- you're not speeding up the pitch, just sampling over longer stretches.<P ID="signature">______________
Archer
http://spaces.msn.com/robertarcher</P>
 
Re: Speeding up, and slowing down

>
> This has been done for over 50 years. And it's not just
> music. Commercials are also adjusted to fit time windows.
>
Amen to that!! My business partner does voiceovers and when I monitored how they sounded, I KNOW that they were sped up!!
 
Re: Speeding up, and slowing down

> Not really. With Television they can squeeze an extra minute
> or two out of each hour, and the viewer can't tell. Audio is
> a little more noticeable however...
>
The NBC affiliate in Nashville tried that several years ago: NBC
found out about it and sent a C&D, threatening loss of their affiliation!
Of course, this is the same group than pulled "The Book Of Daniel"
after the first week due to bible-thumper pressure. Small time group. <P ID="signature">______________
but wait...there's more!</P>
 
> > The practice has been around forever. Going back to the
> days
> > of 45's being played on the air. Before pitch control they
>
> > use to feed the turntables a little extra "juice" to get
> > them goin' faster.
>
> From what I've read, around 46 to 47 RPM, instead of 45 RPM.
>
>
>
> > As for L.A., The Mighty 690 was the only station in this
> > market, that I can recall, to take it to an extreme of
> 10%.
> > Los Angeles, unlike many Eastern U.S. markets, has never
> > been big on "sweetening" music. But it has been a practice
>
> > that has been used for about as long as Top 40 has been
> > around. And it has been done to some extent by most every
> > top 40 station ever in Los Angeles.
> >
> > A little bit makes your music sound hip but the 5% that
> KBIG
> > is now doing - up from 3% - is noticeable.
> >
>

I first noticed this with the Mighty 690 as well and then later on Scott Shannon's "Pirate Radio" back in 1989 & '90... it was funny listening to Pirate and then flipping over to KIIS and hearing the song on KIIS it sounded SLOW! The song "Patience" by Guns N' Roses seemed to be more sped up though than the rest for some reason.
 
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