Well, that certainly is a fun account Dennis wrote about seeing, hearing, and meeting Les Paul, the legendary guitar impresario, virtuoso, and recording engineer. Thanks again, Den.
Les Paul had first played around with sound-on-sound using disc recording, but as soon as magnetic tape recording came along he took full advantage of it. At its simplest, by disabling the erase head on a monaural tape recorder, a second recording can be placed over another. Added to that was the trick of the recording the first pass at 7.5 inches per second, then running the overdub pass at 15 ips. This sped up the first pass, giving it a weird, yet compelling, sound, if it’s done right. Listen to this 17-second Les Paul clip.
[audio:/2008/MAY/LesPaul_normal_speed.mp3]Hear that guitar that’s pitched impossibly high? Now listen to the same clip played at half speed.
[audio:/2008/MAY/LesPaul_half_speed.mp3]The guitar sounds right, but everything else is slow. Ross Bagdasarian used the same technique for his chipmunks, and the South Park guys make liberal use of audio speed manipulation.