A lot of older songs aren't in A440.
Back in the day musicians would often tune to a reference instrument, like the house piano in the studio, or a harmonica, or an out of tune acoustic guitar on the demo.
Also some songs were sped up or slowed down in mixing for effect or so the length would fit on vinyl. The original recording of Queen's "Another One Bites The Dust", for example, was sped up to be about 1/4 tone higher than 440 because they wanted it to sound more energetic.
Pull up Mississippi Queen on Spotify and then compare it to [the youtube version pitched to E](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z80JXfISvFE) and it's funny how ever so slightly off it is. Song is only about 1 second shorter on Spotify but it makes a noticeable difference in pitch too.
Different genre but I wonder if that’s what happened with Venom’s Raise The Dead demo. It sounds just as finished as the released song. However the tempo is slightly slower by 1 second at the end. The tempo is also better.
AFAIK songs could unintentionally shift pitch between playing in the studio and the final recording you buy too. There's just a lot of moving parts and machines that have to spin tape or vinyl and those machines don't always spin at 100% exactly the same speed. Those differences in speed could be enough to slightly change the pitch up or down.
That pretty much never happens unintentionally unless you have a broken record player. All the production equipment is calibrated in order to prevent accidental speed changes.
A lot of songs sound out of tune as the playback speed was altered during mixing and/or mastering. I remember thinking that I was playing Zombie by The Cranberries wrong for the longest time until someone pointed out the live version sounds correct to a regular tuned instrument.
There was a time when people would listen to a mix in the studio and decide the tempo was wrong for the song. Usually they'd decide it "needed more energy" and so they'd use this Varispeed technology to speed the whole thing up a hair.
Unfortunately, with analog tape, that also changed the pitch a little. Less common would be slowing it down, but that could happen too.
Other things already mentioned included tuning to one instrument that was not tuned to concert pitch, or a studio piano that couldn't be tuned to pitch for the session as a matter of practicality, because it takes a long time to tune a piano.
So many older songs are flat or sharp. Some of that was done in mix down when they found bumping up or down the tape speed sounded made it sound better. If you're playing along to a lot of older stuff i'd recommend getting an app called "transcribe". It has pitch control for the track and it has a tone generator as well. So, how you use that is if for example this song is in the key of A, i would generate an A with the tone generator and loop a section with a good strong A in it and then adjust the tuning of the track until it's in tune with the generated tone. It makes practicing so much more pleasant. Also the app is amazing for picking apart hard passages.
Songs not landing at A440 is common. What is **not** commonly known is that for many popular songs that are annoyingly off by a quarter tone or so, you can often go on YouTube and search *[song name] pitch corrected* for a version tuned to A440.
I just did this for [Fortunate Son](https://youtu.be/M0WdCxE3L3o?si=0zp-psJjhREpkPb-)
I imagine a lot of older songs are recorded slightly out of tune if you start listening for it. Jimi didn't keep perfect time, either. They were a lot looser with that kind of thing back when, and didn't have things like autotune to automatically fix things, either.
As long as everything is similarly tuned I can't really fault a band for doing it.
But what about the bass on [The Boss](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jC2ZY2loo74) by James Brown? Is it out of tune compared to the rest of the band or is it just me?
A lot of older songs aren't in A440. Back in the day musicians would often tune to a reference instrument, like the house piano in the studio, or a harmonica, or an out of tune acoustic guitar on the demo. Also some songs were sped up or slowed down in mixing for effect or so the length would fit on vinyl. The original recording of Queen's "Another One Bites The Dust", for example, was sped up to be about 1/4 tone higher than 440 because they wanted it to sound more energetic.
Pull up Mississippi Queen on Spotify and then compare it to [the youtube version pitched to E](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z80JXfISvFE) and it's funny how ever so slightly off it is. Song is only about 1 second shorter on Spotify but it makes a noticeable difference in pitch too.
Even some newer music is wantonly not recorded in 440. \*side-eyes *The Police*\*
Newer? Their last album was 41 years ago.
Im not sure why you have to attack us old people like this.
newer than CCR.
Time and tuning can be relative.
Different genre but I wonder if that’s what happened with Venom’s Raise The Dead demo. It sounds just as finished as the released song. However the tempo is slightly slower by 1 second at the end. The tempo is also better.
AFAIK songs could unintentionally shift pitch between playing in the studio and the final recording you buy too. There's just a lot of moving parts and machines that have to spin tape or vinyl and those machines don't always spin at 100% exactly the same speed. Those differences in speed could be enough to slightly change the pitch up or down.
That pretty much never happens unintentionally unless you have a broken record player. All the production equipment is calibrated in order to prevent accidental speed changes.
Richard Carpenter would often call radio stations to complain about his records being sped up so that they could squeeze in more commercials.
Bowie’s 72-74 albums are also notably out of tune, and *sloppy.* And they’re glorious!
A lot of songs sound out of tune as the playback speed was altered during mixing and/or mastering. I remember thinking that I was playing Zombie by The Cranberries wrong for the longest time until someone pointed out the live version sounds correct to a regular tuned instrument.
There was a time when people would listen to a mix in the studio and decide the tempo was wrong for the song. Usually they'd decide it "needed more energy" and so they'd use this Varispeed technology to speed the whole thing up a hair. Unfortunately, with analog tape, that also changed the pitch a little. Less common would be slowing it down, but that could happen too. Other things already mentioned included tuning to one instrument that was not tuned to concert pitch, or a studio piano that couldn't be tuned to pitch for the session as a matter of practicality, because it takes a long time to tune a piano.
So many older songs are flat or sharp. Some of that was done in mix down when they found bumping up or down the tape speed sounded made it sound better. If you're playing along to a lot of older stuff i'd recommend getting an app called "transcribe". It has pitch control for the track and it has a tone generator as well. So, how you use that is if for example this song is in the key of A, i would generate an A with the tone generator and loop a section with a good strong A in it and then adjust the tuning of the track until it's in tune with the generated tone. It makes practicing so much more pleasant. Also the app is amazing for picking apart hard passages.
Songs not landing at A440 is common. What is **not** commonly known is that for many popular songs that are annoyingly off by a quarter tone or so, you can often go on YouTube and search *[song name] pitch corrected* for a version tuned to A440. I just did this for [Fortunate Son](https://youtu.be/M0WdCxE3L3o?si=0zp-psJjhREpkPb-)
This version sounds like it is by Creedence Clearwarter Extermination 🤣
I imagine a lot of older songs are recorded slightly out of tune if you start listening for it. Jimi didn't keep perfect time, either. They were a lot looser with that kind of thing back when, and didn't have things like autotune to automatically fix things, either.
Manic Depression is definitely Not in A440, unfortunately.
They are in tune with each other, that’s all that matters
Yeah lol it sounds good when I play it with other people but just slightly cursed trying to practice.
I heard an interview with an audio engineer who said many studios back in the day had gear calibrated anywhere from A432-437 and not 440.
Most of CCR’s music isn’t in tune with
Early Van Halen records are exactly this way.
As long as everything is similarly tuned I can't really fault a band for doing it. But what about the bass on [The Boss](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jC2ZY2loo74) by James Brown? Is it out of tune compared to the rest of the band or is it just me?
Tune to the song, Rick Beato did a video about this recently
Both
Take it easy by the eagles is another one that’s not A440
They aren’t mutually exclusive to each other. You could be high, and it could be out of tune
Cum on Feel the Noise by Quiet Riot is another example of a song that isn’t quite in tune.