[Ty Ford]

On Saturday, April 23, 2016 at 12:05:15 PM UTC-4, John Battersby wrote:
I just picked up a cheap AGPtEK mp3 player that, so far, I have been
quite impressed with considering the cheap price. Anyway, one of the
settings is variable speed playback. I set it below normal and when it
encountered an MP3 file, the song played slower in speed, but pitch
remained constant (this function didn't seem to work on anything other
than MP3 files (not FLAC, for example)). Anyway, I'm wondering what
purpose this has? In the studio, matching singer pitch maybe to a
track, but jogging or listening in the car, not sure why.

Thanks,
John

If you're trying to learn a particular lick from a record, sometimes slowing it down helps.

I think the thought that record companies sped things up may not be accurate. I do know that in the days of radio when turntables were used, that custom capstans were machined to make the turntables play faster because it was thought that a song played a little faster would sound more exciting on radio station A than the regular speed on radio station B.

It also meant that there was more time to slip in another commercial or two per hour.

Live or on-camera narrators sometimes use an ear bug when prompter isn't available. They record the script then play it back and talk along with it. Speed control allows the performer to change the speed of the delivery. I think I still have a varispeed cassette player I used for that.

Regards,

Ty Ford