Heartland

Ave. i had a very disturbing realisation today as i noticed that the speed varies by 10% or so, very noticably, in many of my 1983 bootlegs, i think many of them are vinyl-transfers. For example London 19.2. is way too fast, as is Brussels 30.8., and then of course Possession (Amsterdam 28.8.) seems way too slow. They didn't all the time play the songs at different speeds did they (depending on the dosage of the night? ).
Hmm...Oh, the one i've used as reference recording is London 29.6.83, since i have a video of it and the way it sounds also "makes sense" more than the faster versions.

So what i'd like to know is...am i right, that the bootlegs really are wrong speed, and it's not that they just played different speed? And if so, then .. is there anything one can do about? Has anyone made adjustments to their versions...i'd be hard-pressed to know how to go on about it. Is it possible to obtain these gigs in their right speed at all? If they are transferred from vinyls, then why is there a speed problem?

Any clarification and even help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks for your time, people.

dei

It is possible. If someone is using a bog standard record player to transfer the vinyl to the computer then there may be a slight difference in speed. Better record player have got the light things at the edge so you can make adjustments to make sure the record is playing exactly at 33 or 45rpm.

Also, if a bootleg has been copied to tape, the tape recordingf speed may be faster/ slower then it should be causing more speed differences.

Another way to check would be to make sure your guitar is tuned correctly and see if you can play the songs ok in tune with the record. Most of the songs are in the key of A. If this is out then I suspect that the recording is either faster or slower than it should be.

there is another way:
rip the cds or what ever to wav files then load them into wavelab.
you you fix the speed as like you like...

Ok...thank you both. Now i know what i'll have to do while the rainy autumn nights

dei

When tapes are copied, no 2 cassette decks are EXACTLY the same speed, so a copy of a tape will be slower or faster than the original. Even the same tape played twice on the same tape deck won't be the same played twice. (As an experiment, play a cassette on your tape deck. Use a stopwatch to time it. Now rewind and time it again. It won't be the exact same length. Maybe different by just a few seconds.)

I recently speed corrected Camden Palace 12.8.83 as the one most people have runs for around 34 minutes and it sounds way to slow. New version is 30 minutes and sounds much better.