[78-L] Changing speeds [was: Newly-pressed Bix Beiderbecke 78]

[Michael Biel]

  On 9/18/2010 1:54 PM, Ken "Silver Showcase" wrote:
> David Lennick wrote:
>
>> Meanwhile, I can think of a few records where the speed is deliberately changed
>> at one point, for comic effect. Danny Kaye's "The Babbit And The Bromide" and
>> Paul Nero's "Hot Canary" play normally up to a point, and then the remainder of
>> the track is a 33 played at 78. This will probably lead to an entirely
>> different thread (Mel Blanc's "Woody Woodpecker", Gene Carroll's Animal
>> Records, The Chipmunks etc).

Leah and I did a presentation at ARSC Seattle about this subject, called 
Strange To Your Ears which was the title of Jim Fasset's first album.  
One of the theories we pointed out was that with very few exceptions the 
records that use speed modification of voices and instruments do it in 
conjunction and contrast with normal voices and instruments.  We didn't 
discuss cartoon voices because we were dealing mainly with records, but 
we did discuss that some of the Munchkin voices in The Wizard of Oz were 
the deep bass voices of Billy Bletcher and Pinto Colvig!  I'm not 
kidding. Check out the recording sessions in the audio section of the DVDs.

Mike Biel  mbiel at mbiel.com

> Does anyone know how Warner Bros. recorded sound for their cartoons of
> the early 30s?  Was it Vitaphone or had they gone to sound on film by
> that time?  I've got a 16mm print of "Freddie the Freshman," (1932).  At
> one point in the title song the accompaniment stops while some tiny
> animals, with voices that are obviously sped up, sing an unaccompanied
> line in the song.  Their tempo is slightly faster than the rest of the
> number making the moment more awkward than cute.  I'm guessing that this
> line was inserted in to the track instead of dubbed over it and that's
> why the accompaniment suddenly stops.  But if they were still using
> Vitaphone them I'm stuck because you can't "cut" into a disc.  Also, I'm
> guessing that the reason the tempo changes is that they didn't listen to
> the original track at a slower speed when they recorded that one line.
>
>
> And in another reply David Lennick also wrote:
>> Bob and Ray once did an entire sketch that was played back at high speed. Not
>> doubling the tape speed, which is easy but difficult to listen to..this was
>> more like recording it at 33 and playing it back at 45, and then presenting it
>> as "the kids" doing today's soap opera. This was around 1956.
>>
> Isn't this how the kid's voices in "South Park" are done, sped up a
> little but not too much?  Certainly its done digitally and not from 33
> /13 to 45.  But the concept is the same.
>
> -- Ken