I was talking to a certain collector/dj the other day and he told me he changes the pitch control on a few tunes,some to +5 ,is this good practice??? you could turn a mid tempo plodder into a floor filler and i know of a tune by a country/western style RnB tune by a white lady that sounds like Ray Pollard at his best at 33 rpm...sorry if this topics been done before but is pitching done by most or is it the work of the devil??? should the tunes be played at the speed they were made or does it not matter to you???? i aint ever pitched up a tune,i have enough problems just pressing start/stop after a few vimpto's without thinking of pitch control..Have you been foooooked up by others messing with the pitch and not re-setting it...Are there any big tunes that have made the grade by pitching,should we all take our whole box and have a mess around,we could be missing out on the next big tune....Not sure if i am for or against really???? in other forms of music its the skill of the dj to play with pitch control but we know that we have some bingo callers on our scene who don't know how to turn the mic down when the tune is playing ..Lets see what you lot think...

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Davie,

I fail to see how its a contentious statement. Tailor made to me means making something to fit a specific target. Given the choice, I'd prefer to hear a record the way it was meant to sound when it was released, whats nonsensical about that? I clearly said it was a personal viewpoint. If you don't like the term 'tailor made' for some reason (not sure what) then use another one to describe what changing a sound to fit the dancefloor is.

Winnie:-)

Thats the thing Win your not actually 'changing' the sound theorecticly, your only speeding it up or slowing it by a couple of RPMs, i bet you've danced to thousands of records in your time that have been pitched,

Saying some one is creating a tailor made is a bit nosense to me, i bet most of every ones favorit DJ's have pitched summin up at some point, to me the argument of pitching is a load of bolox like if your doing it you are robbing the artist of his glory

Thats the thing Win your not actually 'changing' the sound theorecticly, your only speeding it up or slowing it by a couple of RPMs, i bet you've danced to thousands of records in your time that have been pitched,

Saying some one is creating a tailor made is a bit nosense to me, i bet most of every ones favorit DJ's have pitched summin up at some point, to me the argument of pitching is a load of bolox like if your doing it you are robbing the artist of his glory

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Probably have danced to records pitched up, I don't check the decks before I start dancing I've accepted that some don't like the term tailor made, but nonsense? Does pitching up or down actually change the sound/tempo of the record? A simple yes or no would be great

Its not about robbing the artist of glory, its about making something fit tempo wise, by altering it. Was the Harold Melvin ...... house for sale created through pitching?

Tiz deffinitely the evil workings of the devil.....I'll get my 'pitch'fork

Miss Popcorn?....as a lover of good ole Popcorn music you should know that pitchin DOWN fast tunes to a mid-tempo groove isn't all that bad??

a track like 'comin home baby' by Mel Torme sounds much better when pitched down to -4

Torme's voice almost sounds black...and that's an improvement to say the least

or listen to another Popcorn oldie; 'Glendora' a 45 by Perry Como (yikes) when played at 33 +8

the track sounds much better altough Como sounds like he's doing impersonations of Bela Lugosi on crystalmeth

nonsense , total nonsense , records have ben getting pitched ever since the decks were able to do it ...and i wonder how many tunes you dance to and have no idea they are pitched .

you sure this isn't a convient excuse to have a pop at new and underplayed ethic?

Standard Practice At Wigan & Stafford , Suspicion The Most Obvious One , The One I Remember Most Was Jessie Davis Hang On In There , There Were Speeded Up Acetates Knocking Around.

Jimmy Seals And Dusty Wilson Were Two Others.

Another good example is Don't Break That Rule by Marvell Love. Sounded great in the late 70s/early 80s at the normal speed but so much better for todays scene at about -6. Think Sean Hampsey mentioned this on site before but can't find it but i'm sure he'll confirm it.

Bloody brilliant record Cunnie - and I still want one!

Incidentally, pitching down dates back to as late as 1971 - listen to the London reissue of "Run Baby Run" by the Newbeats, compared to the Hickory original. London have pitched it down to a slower tempo. Was this a reissue aimed at the Northern clientele at the time?

Just found the clip that Kenny posted up so you can have a listen.

dont break that rule - marvell love -new world recordings

11022 refosoul

Also worth looking out for Yesterdays Love by J D Jones on the same label. Very similar & if you like 1 you should like e'm both.

Edited December 10, 200618 yr by CUNNIE

Miss Popcorn?....as a lover of good ole Popcorn music you should know that pitchin DOWN fast tunes to a mid-tempo groove isn't all that bad??

a track like 'comin home baby' by Mel Torme sounds much better when pitched down to -4

Torme's voice almost sounds black...and that's an improvement to say the least

or listen to another Popcorn oldie; 'Glendora' a 45 by Perry Como (yikes) when played at 33 +8

the track sounds much better altough Como sounds like he's doing impersonations of Bela Lugosi on crystalmeth

Hi

The reason that I've made no comment on this thread is simply because....I pitch up and down as a matter of course....I know others dont...some, as winnie says, wish to hear the music as it was recorded, I even have a friend who says he loves stuff pitched up or down..unfortunately he also likes a drink..and the two dont mix.

The belgian popcorn sound is totally dependent on the tempo of of the music...therefore, they either pitch it or bin it....simple as that.

Each to their own, I say....

One thing I can deffinitely say though, I have certainly never pitched up or down to pad my ego in any way, its fine as it is

Connie Questell - world of trouble..... is a great tune at the speed it was intended, but I happen to love it at -4 sounding like a lush male vocal, and I've had no complaints when I've played it this way.

Linda

I agree with you that Belgian Popcorn is depending more on the mid-tempo that characterises the style rather than the original speed of the music being played... so yes, you either like this practice of pitchin down or not. It's all in the ear of the beholder I guess.

For purists to hear any record that has been pitched up or down will be a horrible experience...aslong as the vocals don't sound like Minnie Mouse or unnatural when speeded up this is OK with me.

I don't know the record by Connie Questell you mention but yes, some voices will sound better when pitched down... some instrumentals as well...

like 'teen scene' by Noble Watts

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Why not buy something that is dance floor friendly in the first place? Isn't it a way of tricking your audience into liking something that isn't actually what it seems? Should the DJ tell the audience he/she has pitched up a tune?

Winnie:-)

A record could be great but sppeded up a tad become a far more comfortable dance tempo. It's only about dancing. I would rather heare a great record pitched down -4 but be just about be able to keep up with it then not play it cos everyone would get their feet in a tangle.

UYou can't say it's 'not how the artist would have wanted'. Artists regularly played tracks live at differing speeds. A song's quality rarely has much to do with it's tempo to the nearest 10 bpm. I'd say + or - 5 either way and I'd defy you to even know it had been changed. Playing records at the wrong speed so that a fast girly number sounds like a midtempo bloke number is wrong though, the instruments will just sound bad There are times you have to concede: it's a great song but needed a better version for our dancefloors.

Incidentaly, now you can get software that time stretches whole pieces of music. So you could have it sung & played at exactly the same pitch but slower or faster. - Maybe a whole new world of playable tracks?

Ballads turned midtempo...I was thinking of doing it to Jamie Coe's 'Cleopatra', a song that I love but it just too fast to dance to. I dont think he'd mind, it's just like someone doing a slower/faster cover version.

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I don't get this, how can a song that doesn't work be made to work. If it wasn't made for the dance floor then surely you're defeating the object of the record? Just an observation by the way, not knocking you or anyone else who does it

When Epitome Of Sound - "You Don't Love Me" was first played at Wigan, Russ had speeded it up by several revs and covered it up as 'Moses Smith' (which is how it was initially bootlegged). Unfortunately for Russ' credibility, Blue Max (Millward) had already been playing it at the Catacombs for months under the real title, and at the correct speed! LOL

Some jocks on the Jazz funk scene adopted similar practices in the late seventies I recall. (Eddie Henderson was somewhat bemused to discover that his album track "Cyclops" was being played by some at 45rpm!) "Rise" by Herb Alpert was also speeded up by some. I suppose you could say that this practice anticipated "sampling" in many ways!