Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site ut-sally.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxr!mhuxt!houxm!whuxl!whuxlm!akgua!gatech!ut-sally!crandell From: crandell@ut-sally.UUCP (Jim Crandell) Newsgroups: net.audio Subject: Re: Re: SuperFi LPs (This does make sense folks!) Message-ID: <1647@ut-sally.UUCP> Date: Thu, 18-Apr-85 14:58:17 EST Article-I.D.: ut-sally.1647 Posted: Thu Apr 18 14:58:17 1985 Date-Received: Sat, 20-Apr-85 07:30:28 EST References: <7000001@petrus.UUCP> <1593@ukma.UUCP> <463@edison.UUCP> Organization: U. Texas CS Dept., Austin, Texas Lines: 73 > > > SSI plans to offer to the public the ultimate analog recording-- > > > half-speed direct-to-disc LPs. "We won't just be offering the > > > Chipmunks," Speakes said, "there are many instruments, particularly > > > in the woodwind family, that can be played one octave below score, > > > and sound natural when the playback speed is doubled." > > > > > Play the music one octave lower than normal (i.e. half > > the normal frequency) at half the normal tempo. This would allow > > the musician to play complicated passages with a greater degree > > of "correctness". Good grief! Is this discussion still going on? I'll probably regret getting involved in this, and I fully realize that it's perfectly ridiculous to imagine that the words of one who has actually used this technique (albeit not recently) could possibly settle the matter, but for what it's worth, here's my two cents' worth, after adjustment for inflation. (Actually, it was tape recording, not D-D, and not because D-D was unheard of in those days. We all knew what that was. It was a radical new concept which arose more or less contemporaneously with direct-to-cylinder recording.) The mention of the Chipmunks in the original posting was particularly apropos. Listen to their spoken sections, in particular, and note Theodore's relaxed, deliberate delivery. Sounds perfectly natural, doesn't it? I think it's fairly obvious that I'm being sarcastic here, but to anyone who still doesn't understand what's wrong with this idea, I strongly recommend taking in the Chipmunk Experience, because it may offer some insight into the problem. Now, I had to ponder for a bit to come up with an example of this technique in recorded instrumental music, aside from my experiments, which unsurpris- ingly were never made publicly available. There surely are other examples, but the one that came to mind was one of Julius Wechter's (Baja Marimba Band) rather typically madcap performances. On what was to be his farewell album (I've forgotten its title, but it was released about 1971, if memory serves (and that IS a questionable assumption)) was recorded an outrageous arrangement, from the pen of none other than Roger Kellaway, of ``Spanish Flea'', one of Wechter's own compositions (although of course it was Herb Alpert who made all the money from it). The part of the ``flea'' is performed on a piccolo, as I recall. Doesn't sound quite like piccolos you've heard? Oh, that's because you're playing the record at the wrong speed. Set the turntable for 16-2/3 and you've got it. Of course, the rest of the track sounds pretty gross at that speed, but such is life, no? Here again is, I think, a fairly representative example of the use of this technique -- special effects, especially those of the comic variety, are unquestionably its real forte. As you may suspect, I got some enormous jollies out of this technique. Its greatest fascination for me was its remarkable ability to transform the sound of one instrument into that of another. Recording at half speed, a cello turns into a viola (as perhaps only Jimi Hendrix could have played it). A flute becomes an almost unearthly light and flexible piccolo. A trombone evolves into a wispy, whimsical slide trumpet. A concert grand piano is reduced to a frivolous toy which could only accompany Laurel and Hardy in their wildest, looniest, most slapsticky pursuits. Some of the greasiest guitar licks ever heard flow effortlessly from an electric bass. Double-speed recording is a hoot, too. Great for lazy, laid-back blues and first-rate cryin'-in-your-beer schmaltzzz. Try the flute again -- dry ice, man. A common baritone turns into the slobbiest, tubbiest old tuba you ever heard. Aching to sing basso profano? Go for it! That stuff was all fun and games, of course, but I certainly don't mean to imply that the effects have no legitimate uses in electronic music. Even there, however, making artistic use of speed doubling for all of the material on an entire disk (remember that no other treatment is EVER available under this scenario) would severely tax anyone's creative abilities. The only ways I've ever heard it used in the electronic context are similar to the way Bagdasarian, Wechter and I used it in that it was applied only to certain elements of the tonal fabric and in specific places. Serious recording of the classical repertoire? C'mon, gimme a break! -- Jim Crandell, C. S. Dept., The University of Texas at Austin {ihnp4,seismo,ctvax}!ut-sally!crandell