[jackaroo]

I'm transcribing a bunch of songs from Skull and roses as well as E72. What's up with the tuning?

Did the band want their voices chipmunk'd?

Just liked the sound?

More energy?

Couldn't tell because they were so damn high?

I love these takes, and they've become so ingrained in my mind as definitive versions... But why, tell me why did they do this?

[HeadSpace]

They can fit more on a record, I think.

[flyingheelhook]

Its not the tuning but the play back speed - speeding it up decreases the amount of time the song takes up as noted above, and (sharpens?) affects the tuning because of the speed its played back. Something like that, I am sure someone who actually knows what they are talking about will chime in shortly...

[jackaroo]

Right...tempo and pitch were interlocked on the recording gear at that time. Now we have programs to alter tempo without changing pitch...though some artifacts are introduced.

I'm well aware of all that...what I'm trying to get at was why? If the consensus here is "to deal with the limitations of a 33rpm vinyl record", I can easily get behind that theory. I just didn't know if there was a definitive answer.

Lastly, has anyone from GDP ever considered releasing them at concert (A 440) pitch?

[tatittle]

Yeah this is something that continually annoys me with GD shows, whether official or bootlegs. I think its a combination of causes ranging from mechanical problems of a tape recorder and generations of copies with bootlegs to the band choosing to speed the playback up for releases like Europe 72. I haven't noticed if the speed is constant throughout official releases...that would be interesting to note.

I have noticed in the past listening to recordings of myself how not infrequently I enjoy the sound of speeding up the pitch somewhat on playback, so much so that I can see the band choosing to do that in some circumstances. Skull and Roses is the album I haven't heard much of over the years...it gets criticized a lot more than other releases for sound quality I think.

[TI4-1009]

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