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So, it turns out you've been listening to Robert Johnson 20% too fast...

post #1 of 12
5/30/10 at 10:23am
Thread Starter 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/musicblog/2010/may/27/robert-johnson-blues

 

Quote:
And now, nearly 50 years after Columbia first packaged his work as King of the Delta Blues, we discover that we've been listening to these immortal songs at the wrong speed all along. Either the recordings were accidentally speeded up when first committed to 78, or else they were deliberately speeded up to make them sound more exciting. Whatever, the common consensus among musicologists is that we've been listening to Johnson at least 20% too fast.

 

Pretty interesting, I think - I slowed some down at home (if you have Audacity, you can slow the Tempo down 20%) and I was surprised at how good it sounded. Granted, I was never really a big fan of Robert Johnson, but I'm listening to the slowed-down versions now and heck... this stuff does sound better. It sounds a little less pinched and the added resonance on the guitar playing was nice. Basically, the songs feel much more smooth, warm and natural than on the original.

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post #2 of 12
5/30/10 at 11:20am

Crap!! Must try to slow them down too!

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post #3 of 12
5/30/10 at 8:57pm

omg what's up with all the squares.  Am I the only person seeing squares all over the above two posts, and all over the Guardian's website?  They're taking over!

 

as to the topic, that's really interesting, i'd really like to hear them at the right speed.  Hopefully the jackasses at columbia with release a new album.

 

edit: in regard to the squares, I meant physical squares, not people squares.  and I restarted firefox and they went away...


Edited by rhythmdevils - 5/30/10 at 8:59pm
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post #4 of 12
5/31/10 at 12:26am

Sqaures in a browser ... might be language encoding settings that jumped maybe?
 

Quote:
Originally Posted by rhythmdevils View Post

omg what's up with all the squares.  Am I the only person seeing squares all over the above two posts, and all over the Guardian's website?  They're taking over!

 

as to the topic, that's really interesting, i'd really like to hear them at the right speed.  Hopefully the jackasses at columbia with release a new album.

 

edit: in regard to the squares, I meant physical squares, not people squares.  and I restarted firefox and they went away...

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post #5 of 12
5/31/10 at 1:03am
I said that back when that box came out. It sounded chipmunk. There are quite a few transcriptions of 78s that are at the wrong speed. I once bought a cd of big band stuff that had been transferred at 45 rpm, and they never transcoded it up to the proper speed. It sounded terrible.
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post #6 of 12
6/1/10 at 11:45am
Quote:
Originally Posted by rhythmdevils View Post

Hopefully the jackasses at columbia with release a new album.

 

 


Are you kidding? A reissue is the one thing we can be absolutely certain of. Somebody just got a bonus for finding a new way to sell Robert Johnson albums…

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post #7 of 12
6/1/10 at 1:01pm
You might as well rip the CDs and transcode them down. That's exactly what the label will do.
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post #8 of 12
6/1/10 at 1:06pm

how can I do that on a mac?  I could do it in Final Cut Pro, but seems like there's probabaly a better way.

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post #9 of 12
6/1/10 at 5:04pm
Rip to aiff, then sin Audacity or AmadeusPro, transcode down. Make sure you transcode and don't just pitch shift
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post #10 of 12
6/1/10 at 5:15pm

What do you mean by "transcode down"?  What's Audacity (or other audio editor) doing when you do that?

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post #11 of 12
6/1/10 at 5:43pm

the interesting implication here is this:

if clapton and page, among others, idolized johnson's guitar playing and speedy hands, were they worshipping a false idol, then? 

 

 

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post #12 of 12
6/2/10 at 12:08am

Transcoding down is just like slowing down a tape. It resamples the audio to a new timing. Both the time and pitch are affected. The better a piece of software you use to do it, the better it will sound.

 

The guitar players I've spoken to say that in order to play what Johnson is playing, you have to change the key. They knew long ago that the speed on the CDs wasn't correct.


Edited by bigshot - 6/2/10 at 12:09am
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