Friday Tip: Old School-Style Tape Variable Speed

Back in the days of variable-speed analog tape, we often cheated and sped up the master just a bit. This had three beneficial effects: it made the tempo a bit more lively, raised the pitch for a slightly brighter sound, and tightened timing. Even a 2% change could make a significant difference. (If you ever tried to play along with an old pop tune and found your instrument had to be tuned somewhat sharp, this is probably why.)

Digital technology gave us a major advance by making it possible to change tempo without changing pitch, or change pitch without changing tempo. Curiously, though, there aren't as many options if you want to change both simultaneously. Fortunately, Studio One can do this easily.

The key is the Inspector's Speedup and Tune parameters. A speedup of 2% is about right for making a noticeable, but not obvious change; however many older masters were sped up a lot more than that, so don't feel too constrained. For Tune, 20 cents works well as a general-purpose setting but again, there are no rules about this other than to use your ears.

If you enter these changes and then go back to 0 for the two settings, the song will sound less lively. However it's important to acclimate yourself to any changes, either speeding up or bypassed, before making any final decisions about what sounds best.

Note that I much prefer to do any master speed/tune change processing on the finished, two-track mix instead of while working on a song. That way I don't need to remember to set the Speedup and Tune on each track, or render loops so I can use the needed parameters.

And since we're in old school territory, consider adding a bit of Console Shaper as well from the Mix FX drop-down. I seldom push drive above 9 o'clock for program material, and some crosstalk makes the sound a bit more speaker-like when wearing headphones (with headphones, you don't get acoustical crosstalk like you do with speakers, where the left ear hears some of the right speaker, and vice-versa). As to noise well I'm not a fan of noise, but with some tracks, it does add a little glue. Or maybe it just triggers the psychological response of working with older gear.

The audio example plays an excerpt from the remix of To Say No Would Be a Crime (from my album Simplicity ). The first 19 seconds are the original version, the rest of the example speeds it up by 1.02 with a pitch increase of 40 cents. The complete song is available on YouTube/thecraiganderton.

In any case, when you want your music to be a little more lively, brighter, and tighter, try raising the Speedup and Tune parameters just a bit. It really does make a difference.

LINK:	http://blog.presonus.com/index.php/2018/06/08/friday-tip-old-school-st...
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