"Wow" type glitch at the beginning of Acapulco 1922

[Mike Blakesley]

So I was listening to some TJB via Amazon while working late last and the song "Acapulco 1922" came up, and there is a definite audio glitch at the very beginning piano note -- it sounds like somebody had his thumb on the tape reel for a second, or maybe the tape speed hadn't stabilized before the song began.

I don't remember this happening on the original CD release. The only CD I have of The Lonely Bull is the Shout Factory one, since it's not an album I play much .... so I'm wondering if this thing got added with the HAP reissue. Or is it there on the Shout disk too?

I assume the files on Amazon are the HAP ones because upon checking, "Darlin'" from Summertime is the longer version.

Anyone want to do a little detective work on this? Not that it's a big deal but now my curiosity is up. I feel like if this glitch had been on previous versions I would have heard it -- or someone here would have mentioned it.

(I'm fully aware that Harry may pop in with a link to a thread in which this was already discussed at length, so I'm prepared for that!)

 

[Harry]

No threads. This is new to me - so I checked every version of the song I have and I don't think I hear any appreciable wow. Just the suggestion makes me think I'm hearing something - but really - nada.

I've got:
Lonely Bull (A&M)
Lonely Bull (Shout)
Lonely Bull (HAP)
Lonely Bull (LP mono)
Lonely Bull (45 mono)
Classics 1
Solid Brass
Solid Brass (mono)
A Portrait In Music (Rondor)
Sounds Of Tijuana
Sounds Tijuana (mono)
Startrax (Australia)
Very Best Of (Germany)
Best Selection (Japan)

I don't use Amazon music, so I can't check that.

 

[Nemily]

Harry, I am beyond impressed with your collection

I just listened to Acapulco 22 on Apple, Amazon and Spotify using different bluetooth speakers, once for each streaming service with Bose and once each with Harmon Kardon. The first note is a tad sour agreed, however they all sound the same to me.

 

[Bobberman]

I never really noticed anything off about it myself all my versions sound pretty much the same I know others have much keener hearing than me so who knows? My headphones are usually very accurate

 

[Harry]

Harry, I am beyond impressed with your collection

Many years of collecting. The above is just what's digitized. I have more LPs too.

 

[Rudy]

So I was listening to some TJB via Amazon while working late last and the song "Acapulco 1922" came up, and there is a definite audio glitch at the very beginning piano note -- it sounds like somebody had his thumb on the tape reel for a second, or maybe the tape speed hadn't stabilized before the song began.

That first note always did sound a little "warbley" to me. One thing that could cause that is tape stretch, when a reel deck attempts to take up the slack in the tape. If there is too much slack, the tape machine will "jerk" the tape tight to the guides (purple marks below) as it tries to tension the tape properly. It is even more so when the tape is played on a deck set up with a preview head for cutting to lacquer, as there is another tape head and set of guides the tape has to run through, like on this Ampex below (green arrow, off to the left side of the supply reel). The problem is that the tape can stretch a little, and the post are an immovable object, so the tape can get stretched if there is too much slack and the machine "snaps" the tape into place. It was a little tricky on the Ampex below, and tensioning the tape is something you never want to do mid-reel where any of the music is recorded.



I have a feeling that the flawed Julius Wechter Toshiba reissue LP Linear Sketches (and possibly the original?) had the same issue at the beginning of a few tracks--that is classic tape stretch right there, something only an inept engineer would allow to happen.

I could think of a couple other reasons for a glitch like that, but unlike home decks, the professional-level decks like these have much stronger mechanicals so unless you really interfered with one of the reels intentionally, a glitch like that would be hard to cause. (I was afraid of bumping that facing beneath the "pancake" on the right, as there wasn't much room in the studio at TML when I visited last Wednesday.)

All tape is susceptible to it, but I would think that ¼" is more susceptible than ½" due to having less tape, making it easier to stretch. These decks have interchangeable head stacks that let the operator use either tape width. This particular Ampex unit goes through a mastering console to a cutting lathe, which is what the preview head is used for. (It sends a signal 0.9 seconds ahead of time to the lathe so that it can adjust the groove spacing.) This Ampex was borrowed from the adjoining studio since their main deck had its electronics out for servicing, so it was in a temporary location here.

Somewhat related--if there is a tiny bit of slack when the tape is started right before the start of a song, the pitch could also waver slightly. That depends on the individual deck, though--each brand has different mechanicals, and each machine itself has a personality all its own. Most decks in good repair will maintain tension so that there is no worry about starting or stopping mid-tape. But that little bit of slack will not stretch the tape, but would still "bump" as the slack were taken up. That would tend to be during a particular mastering of a song to a lathe or a digital recorder, if the playback tape deck were started up right at the beginning of the song. In an album-side length of tape, though, a track in the middle isn't as likely to be damaged.

Since "Acapulco" was a originally a B-side, there's no telling what the source of the tape was. It could have been spliced into the album reel, or a copy of that master could have been spliced into it. Without having the physical tape on hand (or the original engineer), there's no way of knowing.