[78-L] 75rpm v. 78rpm.

[Chris Zwarg]

>On the other hand, there's a story about singer Dickie Valentine being unable 
>to hit the high notes on his big hit "The Finger of Suspicion", so they did 
>some tomfoolery, recording the orchestra track (when this was not standard 
>practice) and playing it back slower for him to add his vocal, then speeding 
>the whole thing up for transfer to disc.
>
>dl

This method can be found on a number of German "Schlager" and other European productions - it leaves one with the unpleasant choice whether to get the backing track right with a strident mickey-mousey solo voice, or slow down until the voice sounds "real" at the expense of dragging the tempo down. Worst are those tracks where background vocals were recorded with the band rather than with the soloist - slightly slow (or fast) instrumental tracks aren't really obvious to most listeners, but off-speed vocals are, especially if they're on the slow side; so you either keep the "helium-addict" soloist, or end up with an either inappropriately sinister- (or drunken-) sounding chorus at the slower speed. --- One more reason to take "direct-to-disc" recorded 78s more seriously than the multitrack mishmash of more recent years....

Chris Zwarg