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

[David Lennick]

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).
>
> 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

It's also how Mel Blanc did Daffy..he just did Thylvethter and they ran it 20% 
faster.

dl