Great Gig in the Sky pitch change

[Wolfpack]

This is one of the weirdest or most unsettling threads on this forum. I'm still not sure what people want from it.

It seems to me as if some listeners forget that Pink Floyd was an experimental band. Why would Pink Floyd all of a sudden lose that? I think the pitch bend fits with the unsettling nature of the woman going crazy while her psychiatrist is playing piano.

We don't know absolutely what the band wanted from DSOTM but I bet they were not doing it squarely to produce an audiophile quality album.

As if audiophile quality albums can't have a pitch bend. Who says the pitch bend is a mistake, instead of just an early pitch wheel effect?

FYI. I've seen a discussion about the major pitch bends in the unfinished 'Do You Like Worms' of The Beach Boys's 'Smile' 1966/1967 project. Some engineer has said it was a mastering mistake.
And, to get back on Pink Floyd, I believe engineer Phil Smee has said that the backward sounds on the brief mysterious Barrett 'Madcap's Embrace' instrumental is a mixing mistake of maybe having an unrelated, old track open instead of muted. He says that even though the backward part might sound synchronized on low fidelity bootlegs, it doesn't in clear audio quality. (This might mean that, if this recording gets released, it won't have the backward part.)
However, I get the impression that some people are "correcting" so-called mistakes, that sometimes were just part of the sonic experiment. Or is (let's say) the hazy effect on Barrett's vocals on the mono version of 'Flaming' also a technical mistake?

[danielcaux]

Last night's 'The Record Producers' part of the marathon Floyd night on BBC Radio 6 revealed that the pitch change is on the multi-track tape, not the master tape, which gives some credence (but not proof) that it was intentional.

Actually, if it's indeed in the multitrack tape it would be more of a proof of it being just a happy accident, instead of an intentional experiment, since the multitrack is the first generation tape, so no extra manipulation of the tape to create the effect would have taken place.

Probably the machine just slowed down when they pressed stop, so the last few recorded seconds got a higher pitch.

[Wolfpack]

Probably the machine just slowed down when they pressed stop, so the last few recorded seconds got a higher pitch.

The higher pitch isn't until the end. The pitcher gets higher, then lowers and then it stops. I think that can't be just a mistake of someone hitting the tape recorder or of a tape recorder slowing down (which only raises the pitch and mostly much faster and higher).

[Meandthem]

I have been aware of this high pitch since the dawn of Man (or at least since the album hit my record-player in 1973) and I think it was timed to end on the exact second on the one half of the record. You know, they knew what they did, when they edited the music - one side of the LP is appr. 20 min. so the continuity and fade-out/fade-ins must have been matriculately well-timed. The setlist was also different from the live versions, we've heard - and what I think, is, that they've been forcing the last note to match the ending of the first side.
This is also proved by the fact that the mastertape lacks this high pitch, which is heard on the quad-mix, all our records were pressed from...

I have never wondered about this note until now 'cause Pink Floyd has always been experimenting with sounds and distortion, loops and speed, so nothing or everything could be expected.
But thanks, my friends, you've made my day!

[Meandthem]

Just made a search on the big, BIG web and see what I found!

...Just before the last note of the song fades out, it speeds up so that it would fit on the album. Space was tight on vinyl records.
For the CD release of Dark Side Of The Moon, the beginning of "Money" starts just before this song fades out to match with the connective nature of all the other tracks.

Credits to one Adrian Martin.
(...not that I know him, but now we're two!)

[Wolfpack]

...Just before the last note of the song fades out, it speeds up so that it would fit on the album. Space was tight on vinyl records.

And what is the source of Songfacts? Even though I think the pitch bend is intentional, I doubt space has been saved by that pitch bend. What will the difference be, a second at most? Space on vinyl is not that tight. And there are longer vinyl records than DSOFTM.

[crowman]

Last night's 'The Record Producers' part of the marathon Floyd night on BBC Radio 6 revealed that the pitch change is on the multi-track tape, not the master tape, which gives some credence (but not proof) that it was intentional.

Actually, if it's indeed in the multitrack tape it would be more of a proof of it being just a happy accident, instead of an intentional experiment, since the multitrack is the first generation tape, so no extra manipulation of the tape to create the effect would have taken place.

They make a good point in the documentary that the Great Gig multitrack is actually a second generation tape, ie they filled up 16 tracks of one tape and then mixed them down to fewer tracks on a second 16 track tape to give them more tracks. They reckon it was absolutely deliberate, and suggest that it was during this transfer that the effect was done, either by touching the reel of the "receiving" tape at that moment, or using the vari-speed control of either of the tape machines. This explanation makes most sense to me.

Interestingly, Alan Parsons' early mix fades it out just before it gets to that final chord. He obviously didn't want to leave it in.

[danielcaux]

But that was just Steve Levine filling the gaps with his imagination.

I have heard that these kind of pitch changes are quite frequent at the beginning or end of recordings from that era. Maybe a hesitant half pressed stop, release and then full stop. Or perhaps it was done intentionally with vari-speed change. Who knows. It sounds nice anyway, and I'm glad they left it there.

Maybe the pitch change represents the soul rising to the heavens.... oh wait it raises, but then falls to hell again

[oz1701]

i've always liked it and then there is the one that ELP do on one of their songs " knife edge" i think - and king crimson where the tape kind of just runs out and falls off the spool in mid note

[Hudini]

Doesn't "Knife Edge" end with a sudden speed breakdown?

[ddebil]

Doesn't "Lemmy" end with a sudden speed breakdown?

I would imagine so.

[Peter Beasley]

This is one of the weirdest or most unsettling threads on this forum. I'm still not sure what people want from it. With our collective knowledge of Floyd interviews and the like nothing has ever been said from the band about a small pitch shift.

We don't know absolutely what the band wanted from DSOTM but I bet they were not doing it squarely to produce an audiophile quality album. Therefore I see them leaving a minor pitch bend in, especially if it involved having to patch in a piano note or whatever. Could they mix Rick's piano to sound exactly the same twice if they noticed some while later that a minor pitch bend happened on the reverberated ring out from the last note of his wrought piano part for Great Gig? Is it worth it?

Who noticed it from the start and who has actually gone out to listen to it since?

And is it not cool that it is part of the sonic fingerprint of this brilliant album?

Unsettling thread? This is not the only nuance on a Floyd album that hasn't been explained. If they hadn't intended the pitch change and wanted to get rid of it, it would've been easy to overdub the last piano chord or fade it earlier.

I noticed the pitch change on my first listen in March 1973 (and I have 'gone out' to listen to it since).

[Isntthiswherewe]

But that was just Steve Levine filling the gaps with his imagination.

I have heard that these kind of pitch changes are quite frequent at the beginning or end of recordings from that era. Maybe a hesitant half pressed stop, release and then full stop. Or perhaps it was done intentionally with vari-speed change. Who knows. It sounds nice anyway, and I'm glad they left it there.

Maybe the pitch change represents the soul rising to the heavens.... oh wait it raises, but then falls to hell again

Professional multi-track recorders dont work like that. When you press stop it will activate a solenoid that applies a break pad, stops the motors and various other functions. There can be no hesitant half pressed stop. Its either on or off.
Super human beings have noticed pitch changes during songs on, for example The Lamb lies down on Broadway by Genesis. I know that this recording was made using a mobile electricity generator and variations in its 50 cycles may have caused the problem in that instance.
Because of where this occurs on the recording I feel sure this would have been a deliberate effect.

[Hudini]

Super human beings

You do mean beings that can hear frequencies not heard by humans, right?

[Isntthiswherewe]

Super human beings

You do mean beings that can hear frequencies not heard by humans, right?

No, I mean humans who are able to detect a shift in pitch during a guitar solo on The Lamb lies down on Broadway cd and talk about it at great length on the Genesis Forum. Much as we are here! I however, am unable to hear when these occur as are 99% of the people who have listened to the recording I suspect. These type of people who can hear this sort of thing on various bands recordings I often think must have super human powers.