Friday, May 28, 2010

We've been listening to Robert Johnson too fast

The recordings made by the Robert Johnson aka 'King of the Delta Blues' between 1936 and 1937 were some of the most influential of all time. Now almost 50 years later it's been discovered that we've been listening to his music at the wrong speed. It's unknown if the recording were accidentally sped up when transferring them to 78's or if it was intentionally done to make the recordings more exciting. However it happened it is now a consensus that we've been listening to Robert Johnson 20% too fast.

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From delsydsoftware @ IHC

I've always thought that his recordings sounded a little high pitched. The 20% difference is amazing, though. I converted a clip of "I believe I'll Dust My Broom", since the original clip exceeded its bandwidth limits. Here is the original, 20% faster version

And, here is the same clip 20% slower

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