Tuesday, August 28, 2012

Not quite A flat


Attention Police fans/total dorks/people that like finding answers to obscure trivia online (I know I'm not the only one that fulfills all three):

Why was "Every Breath You Take" recorded at around A=425Hz? That's closer to A flat than A. I don't believe there's another track on Synchronicity like that, and for such a "produced" album with so much new technology this seems very odd.

-Were they tuning to the piano?
-Were they finding a sweet spot for Sting's voice?
-Did they just slow the whole thing down a little? That can't be.

That's really all I've got. One friend suggested they did it for "smoothitude." A good answer, for sure, but not the one I'm looking for.

This isn't the sort of question that will keep me up at night. But it will prevent me from doing laundry, all for the sake of "research." So please, do me and anyone that comes in contact with me a favor and help me out with this.

And for the heck of it...you should watch the video. It hasn't aged well.

So broodity. So Sting-ity.

I love it when the music and video are clearly out of synch, like Andy Summers at 1:07. Oopsie! And Flea's left hand from 3:57 to the end of this one.

Give It Away

It seems like SOMEONE along the way could have synched that up. Man, that band has been putting out wussy junk for a solid 20 years!

But I digress. Any real input on this Police issue would be welcome. Or more out of synch videos. That would be ok, too.


3 comments:

  1. "So broodity. So Sting-ity." < Could be in contention for best link text ever.

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  2. I would guess that this is a purposeful tape slow down. They did a very similar thing with Tears For Fears' "Everybody Wants to Rule the World" except they slightly sped up the tape in that case. I guess that was a producer trick back in time of tape.

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