Artificial production technique

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Artificial production technique

Postby RationalKeith » Sun Mar 31, 2013 10:41 am

DJ Jim Parsons claims that to produce the 1963 RnR hit “Wonderful Summer” the producers wrapped splicing tape around the capstan to speed the recording up to sound more like a teenager, labelling the resulting record as by “Robin Ward”.


Robin was daughter of the actual singer Jackie Wilson. Under her own name she was quite successful doing demos, backup singing in recording sessions, TV and movie theme songs, and dubbing for stars lip-synching on screen.
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Re: Artificial production technique

Postby Mike Cleaver » Sun Mar 31, 2013 1:40 pm

The "tape on the capstan" was a trick commonly used back then when all of today's computer tricks were just figments of the imagination.
It was done to slightly increase tape speed, increase turntable speed, etc.
By increasing the turntable speeds slightly, it meant you could cram an extra record into an hour, giving credence to the "more music" mantra of top 40 stations.
Variable speed controls (on turntables and tape machines) weren't common until later and of course, with computers and their related software, it's a simple matter to modify anything and mangle it completely out of shape and even make total no talents sound as if they're the best singers in the world.
Which begs the question, is this really progress when it allows poseurs to pretend they have talent?
I had lunch with a musician and recording engineer yesterday who's considerably younger than me who believes in the mantra of finding really talented musicians and vocalists and putting them into the studio together to perform live and recording those takes with very little technical augmentation, just as it was done in "the olden days."
Listening to some of his material after we had lunch demonstrates the additional magic of real people playing real instruments and singing together without a bunch of "behind the curtain" computer hocus pocus.
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Re: Artificial production technique

Postby jon » Sun Mar 31, 2013 3:22 pm

I've heard jokes about "48 rpm", from Markets where both Top 40 stations sped up their records in a seemingly never-ending game of faster and faster.

But, the only Program Directors I've talked to about the subject who had first-hand knowledge were in Seattle. There it was done not to cram more music into each hour -- in fact, the Top 40 stations involved were NOT Drake style "Much More Music" but personality radio -- but to give the stations a more "up" sound. Dave McCormick went so far as to say that KJR's speeding up of records made KOL sound like they were running a mortuary, despite Dave's well-crafted Drake style as PD of KOL.

I only learned about the practice in the last dozen or so years. And was initially aghast simply because it must have sounded to many listeners like out of tune instruments and voices on every record being played.
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Re: Artificial production technique

Postby Mike Cleaver » Sun Mar 31, 2013 8:41 pm

CHUM used to do this as well during the 60s and early 70s when they still played mostly records.
Not certain if the practice continued when they switched most music (on AM to carts.)
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Re: Artificial production technique

Postby Eldon-Mr.CFAY » Mon Apr 01, 2013 1:28 pm

Greetings,
Again interesting topic on Radio West. I also did not know licensed commercial radio stations did this with their turntables and records. Was quite surprised to learn about this Jon and Mike! Thanks for mentioning it. I would add that I can imagine a turntable going faster or slower by a few rpms if it was not working properly! We had that happen to us at our Part 15 and pirate station cfay a few times but we were using lower cost turntables not pro. models. When that happened we either got rid of that turntable and put a new one in or I tried to clean the rubber drive wheel etc.. and metal on the underneath where everything contacted. A couple of times it was simply dust and dirt that had to be cleaned! I imagine Mike has had plenty of time cleaning up turntables back in the day, probably replaced a few turntable motors etc. too unless the station just replaced the entire turntable! I always liked turntable technology for broadcasting vinyl records, still do to this day. Its probably because I am an avid vinyl record collector especially of 45 rpm records to this day. RadioFan I really like your 45 of the Day on Facebook, good stuff! Also some of the featured tunes on Radio West page or artist hits is great to see as well!

Anyway thanks for bringing the info. about speeding turntables up Jon and Mike. Got a laugh out of what Dave said to you about KOL sounding like a mortuary!!! Good April Fools comment!

73s Eldon
Bye . . Mr. CFAY "Frequently On The Frequency"
The CFAY Website: http://cfayradio.wordpress.com
CFAY Radio: http://tinyurl.com/l9qqmh
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Re: Artificial production technique

Postby RationalKeith » Mon Jun 16, 2014 8:44 am

Fancy turntables have speed adjustment, which I expect could be used to mis-adjust speed.
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Re: Artificial production technique

Postby drmusic » Mon Jun 16, 2014 2:54 pm

Even predating tape, I believe Warner Bros. used some sort of mechanical process to speed up some of Mel Blanc's higher-pitched cartoon voices, like Daffy Duck and Tweety.
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Re: Artificial production technique

Postby jon » Mon Jun 16, 2014 7:01 pm

From what I've read about the era before Tape, larger radio stations generally only had one turntable with a variable speed control, and it would be located in Production. Presumably, they were a lot more expensive.

As for tape, all the professional machines that I've ever seen, i.e. - those likely to be in radio stations, have an adjustment for speed. In what was likely the vast majority of cases, the speed control wasn't a user-friendly knob, but required a screwdriver and sometimes even removing the case to get at it.

Of course, I'm not talking about the setting for the standard speeds, like 7 1/2, 15 and 3 3/4 ips for tape, and 78, 45, 33 1/3 and 16 2/3 rpm for turntables. But the variable adjustment for speeds in between.
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