Recently, I posted mp3s of Side A and Side B of Paul McCartney’s “Ram,” played on 45 RPM instead of 33. Last night, a visitor downloaded Side A and decided to make it sound just as low as it does on 33!
Check out Alan Benard’s cool pitch-corrected version of Paul McCartney’s “Ram” on 45 RPM. He used Audacity to reduce the pitch by 27%. It sounds pretty cool!
My friend Hunter pointed out that this new version has some odd “stereo imaging” problems, and I agree – it’s a bit warbly. But the little track has been through so much! It was sourced from a dollar-bin record, digitized by going through the 1/8″ headphone jack of my cheap portable turntable into the 1/8″ jack of my old Macintosh laptop, processed a little in Garageband, sent to iTunes, converted to .mp3, downloaded by Mr. Benard, (possibly) converted into .wav or .aiff, pitch-corrected in Audacity, and (possibly) converted back to .mp3. It’s kind of ridiculous!
My roommate, Adam, thinks that this version is way better. Even though it’s got some audio eccentricities, he’s willing to look past those because the lack of chipmunkness in Mr. Benard’s remix helps him to take the track “more seriously.” I think, after a couple of listens and careful consideration, that I agree with him.
But anyway… good job, Internet! This is so cool! Maybe one day Paul will issue an official version that employs studio wizardry to keep fidelity whilst changing both speed and pitch. We can dream.
Filed under: Esoteria, mp3, fast ram, paul mccartney, ram, ram on 45, the beatles, vinyl
[...] Paul McCartney’s RAM rocks at 45rpm—Our own Geoff Geis creates a musical/Internet [...]
You’re welcome! It was a fine idea in the first place to play the album at 45. It kinda squeezes all the marijuana out of it.
Side 2:
http://unhealthyobsession.com/mp3/Pitch_Corrected_Ram_on_45-Side_B.mp3
Thanks again, Geoff, for the awesome inspiration. The key is to hear and see things differently….