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Author Topic: Speed discrepancies on Capitol CDs  (Read 2570 times)

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Chris

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Speed discrepancies on Capitol CDs
« on: December 11, 2007, 05:54:58 PM »


I can't possibly be the first one to notice this. Most of the songs on the eight Capitol CDs that have been released thus far are slightly slower than their UK counterparts. I thought I noticed George's voice dragging in "Don't Bother Me," so I compared times (chopping off all the silence at the ends to be accurate, of course). I did this with several others as well; most are 2-3 seconds longer on the Capitol discs! Another major offender is "Please, Mister Postman."

Is this something I should've already known? (There's probably a whole website about it or something...but I can't find it.) The question is, are these in fact slower than they should be, or were the 1987 discs transferred too fast?
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alexis

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Re: Speed discrepancies on Capitol CDs
« Reply #1 on: December 11, 2007, 06:14:58 PM »

Quote from: 911
I can't possibly be the first one to notice this. Most of the songs on the eight Capitol CDs that have been released thus far are slightly slower than their UK counterparts. I thought I noticed George's voice dragging in "Don't Bother Me," so I compared times (chopping off all the silence at the ends to be accurate, of course). I did this with several others as well; most are 2-3 seconds longer on the Capitol discs! Another major offender is "Please, Mister Postman."

Is this something I should've already known? (There's probably a whole website about it or something...but I can't find it.) The question is, are these in fact slower than they should be, or were the 1987 discs transferred too fast?

I learned to play the songs on the piano off the Capitol records. Turns out they were just  a bit fast, and so I learned them in different/weird keys! For example, Lady Madonna in Bb, instead of A.

So I have the same opinion you do, the Capitol ones are somewhat faster than the English ones.
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Re: Speed discrepancies on Capitol CDs
« Reply #2 on: December 11, 2007, 06:34:20 PM »

The Capitol CDs are slower, though, not faster. Are the old vinyl albums themselves faster? (I wonder if such incongruities are common, and I've only noticed because I'm so familiar with the Beatles' stuff. Makes me want to check the Zeppelin and Zappa stuff next...)
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Re: Speed discrepancies on Capitol CDs
« Reply #3 on: December 11, 2007, 10:18:36 PM »

I have tested this theory - to my ears flicking between the UK mono CD and the US mono CD of Please Mister Postman there was no difference in pitch (speed). However to truly test whether there was a pitch discrepancy I played the two versions simultaneously and found there IS a very slight difference between the two in that the UK mono GAINED aprox half a second on the US version, which means the UK version is very slightly faster. This happened every time I tried it. I didn't test Don't Bother Me though.
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Re: Speed discrepancies on Capitol CDs
« Reply #4 on: December 11, 2007, 10:24:27 PM »

Just tested Don't Bother Me, again using the US and UK mono mixes, and found there is even less of a difference - the two versions were in perfect phase for almost the entire song. I cannot explain why there is a difference between your US and UK versions.
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Re: Speed discrepancies on Capitol CDs
« Reply #5 on: December 11, 2007, 11:07:11 PM »

I guess that "very slight" difference matters to me. I've always been a sound nerd that way. It's easy to fix anyway...with the same remastering program I used to improve the sound of my favorite BBC songs, actually.  ;D I was just surprised that these differences in speed (especially the huge ones, like "I'm Looking Through You") hadn't been pointed out online before, considering that many Beatles listeners even more pedantic than I have written long articles about differing masters.

(Not an audiophile, though....that term now seems to define someone who hates every remaster issued after about 1990.)
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alexis

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Re: Speed discrepancies on Capitol CDs
« Reply #6 on: December 12, 2007, 02:46:05 AM »

Quote from: 911
The Capitol CDs are slower, though, not faster. Are the old vinyl albums themselves faster? (I wonder if such incongruities are common, and I've only noticed because I'm so familiar with the Beatles' stuff. Makes me want to check the Zeppelin and Zappa stuff next...)


For what it's worth, my experience with the Capitol releases is with the old vinyl stuff.
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Re: Speed discrepancies on Capitol CDs
« Reply #7 on: December 13, 2007, 06:33:10 PM »

Wow. "If I Fell" is a major violator. I had to increase the US speed by 38 "cents" to make it phase perfectly with the UK version all the way through!

It's not so much mere b****ing as it is sheer curiosity about whether the Capitol vinyl (well, wax at the time, I guess) was guilty of these slow-downs, or if there was a problem at the transfer stage for the newer CDs.
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Re: Speed discrepancies on Capitol CDs
« Reply #8 on: December 14, 2007, 05:57:50 PM »

Yeah, just tried that one - that's definitely the biggest speed discrepancy so far.
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Re: Speed discrepancies on Capitol CDs
« Reply #9 on: December 14, 2007, 06:18:33 PM »

Quote from: 360
Yeah, just tried that one - that's definitely the biggest speed discrepancy so far.

What are guys comparing: CD to CD? ... Vinyl to Vinyl? ... Vinyl to CD?
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Re: Speed discrepancies on Capitol CDs
« Reply #10 on: December 14, 2007, 06:47:48 PM »

I'm just loading up the Parlophone and Capitol CD versions and starting them simultaneously. As I haven't had vinyl in years, I'm afraid I have no reference point regarding how true to the original pressings these speeds are; even without the tests, the US songs sound too slow to me ("You Can't Do That" is practically a different song), but this might be due to having grown accustomed to the '87 CDs over the past twenty years. In other words, I'm not sure if the American stuff's too slow, or the British stuff's too fast; and I'm only assuming they're identical to the respective records from the '60s.

I haven't found any differences between the respective Help! and Rubber Soul albums, so this mistake (intentional practice?) was righted by 1965, apart from "Yes It Is."

I'm surprised I haven't had the p*ss taken for caring in the first place. :)
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Re: Speed discrepancies on Capitol CDs
« Reply #11 on: December 15, 2007, 09:39:11 AM »

Quote from: 911
I'm surprised I haven't had the p*ss taken for caring in the first place. :)

We'll let you do all the work and read your conclusions first. Then we'll be relentless! ;D
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Re: Speed discrepancies on Capitol CDs
« Reply #12 on: December 17, 2007, 06:46:41 PM »

Sounds like a plan, then.  ;)
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