Beatles songs that were sped up or slowed down from their original speed?

The context os that you know with hindsight that it was a technique they used later in their carreer. But in 65 they simply were still very much a band that was on the studiofloor and not immersed in production techniques. They left that to the producer and engineer. Paul saying slower certainly is not aimed at Norman Smith (the engineer).

 

As i said, believe what you want. They had absolutely no reason to varispeed. All those songs you are reffering to were done in concert pitch and performed live in concert pitch.

Not arguing this anymore.

 

Whether the final recording is in concert pitch has nothing to do with the difficulty of the part being overdubbed.

George is having difficulty with his part in Help! Paul says they will put it on later and it will be slower----seems to indicate varispeed to me.

 

It was duplicated live - eventually. Hollywood Bowl 1964 isn't quite there but Paris 1965 mostly nails it.

 

The first varispeed 4 track Abbey road had was delivered in 65. That was the studer j37. Before that they used Telefunken machines that did not have varispeed. The Studer j37 machines did not even have it when they were delivered. That modification was done after long periods of testing and modification by the tech staff (the same reason the introduction of 8 track was delayed for many months after the delivery of the 8 track machines in 68). So no, they most probably still using the telefunken 4 tracks for most (if not all of) 65.

 

great conversation, Kim and Gems, and great thread idea Vahan!

 

They're all sped up when I play them at 78 rpm.

 

But they could modify the Studer to 30 ips, no?

 

Just tried time stretching "Everybody's Got Something To Hide..." to last 3:07. It made it sound like a Rare Earth or Grand Funk song.

 

Kehew and Ryan say say they ran the tape for a Hard Day's Night at 7.5 ips rather than 15ips for the solo.

 

Similar story for the keyboard in In My Life in '65

 

In any case, whatever the speed up/slow down, it was one of the Beatles studio gimmicks that made them unique and not easy to copy.

 

There's a worthwhile project for Giles Martin and colleagues in preparing a compilation of all tracks affected by wilful and intentional tape speed changes, presenting these tracks "as nature intended", as "a new phase Beatles album".................

 

I dont think that was done on purpose, I think that had to do with the syncronisation of the film and the music track.

 

Twist and Shout

 

Yep. I remember reading the solo in Hard Day's Night was sped up, both the piano and guitar. I will try to find where I read that.

 

I know that "Caroline No" was sped up to make him sound younger.
Oh wait, wrong thread ... never mind.

 

There's no definitive evidence that stereo mix had the speed changed. The authors of "Recording the Beatles" (who I assume referenced studio documentation) state quite clearly on page 293 that "She's Leaving Home" was Vari-speeded for MONO mixdown at 53 cycles - it WAS sped up. There's argument here as to what the original recording speed was, but I personally believe it was at the standard 50 cycles, otherwise it would have been noted in the logs. It sounds quite normal to me in the stereo mix.

Derek

 

I believe the Stereo version is the 'normal' speed, and the mix was just sped up for Mono. It's the same normal speed as well in Rockband multitracks, and neither of those had any speed or pitch adjustments in any of the songs. Furthermore, there was some weird multitrack WAVs around internet before the Rockband release, of four of Pepper songs (ADITL, SLH, SPLHCB/WALHFMF), so in those, SLH is also in 'slower, stereo' speed (in E), and also has the extra vocal harmony on the "quietly turning the backdoor key, stepping outside she is free" line, which they later mixed out.

 

The stereo is slow and the mono is fast

 

A Hard Day's Night solo was recorded at half speed. It's a combination of 12string guitar, piano AND bass! The bass is even extended under the "so why on earth should I moan" line. Paul was keen even back in 64.
George did play it live, however he played the very last end of the phrase slightly different as it's very hard to play the phrasing as on the record at normal speed.

Help! lead guitar is at the recorded speed (as are And Your Bird Can Sing lead guitars), no tape slowing down. Slowing down the tape to half speed would mean to play the part an octave lower which is completely out of a guitar range.

Ondra

 

Paul's voice (John's as well) sure doesn't sound normal on the stereo mix. Speed the stereo mix up a little less than the official mono mix and there's 24 year old Paul.

 

I always thought this sounded like a short run on electric guitar with palm muting the strings.
Now that you mention this, I slowed it down dropping the pitch lower an octave, and it does sound like a bass!

 

That's not what I said.

What I said was that both mono and stereo mixes of "She's Leaving Home" have elements that are "incorrect" speed so neither are "correct".

 

Ian MacDonald mentions a number of songs that were varispeeded; I can't remember whether any were pre 66.