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Chipmunk Christmas, slowed down to original speed

Rob Beschizza at 7:16 am Tue, Dec 25, 2012

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AKA "Satan confers with His minions". The MP3 link blogged here some time ago is sadly dead.

"Put it on repeat and you'll drift gradually into madness - it's like an acid flashback to fetal languor, the surreal sounds that filtered through the uterine wall." — Sean Michaels

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  • vrplumber

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gd8jPj5l-S8

    Patton Oswalt gold :)

  • Boundegar

    This is so great!  I think I did this with an LP back in…  well…  the 20th century.  But as a kid, I never noticed how exaggerated their enunciation is.  Probably they did a first take with natural voices, and found it was unintelligible.  There’s some craftsmanship to this.

    • relawson

       My cousins and I used to take one of those mini tape recorders with speed selection and make our own chipmunk skits. We got pretty good at the timing and switching back and forth for regular voice parts. Great times were had by all! :)

  • 10xor01

    Speeding up can also be funny.  If you play the LP of Bruce Springsteen’s I’m On Fire at 45 rpm, it’s Dolly Parton’s voice you hear.

  • cellocgw

    Can anyone verify they actually produced the songs this way?  I had blithely assumed they just used a Fourier Transform to shift the voice frequency. (And, yes, there were FT techniques available even in the analog days)

    • http://www.facebook.com/scareduck Rob McMillin

      I don’t think they would have. The Wikipedia page says it was just sped up, which certainly make sense.

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alvin_and_the_Chipmunks

      • Boundegar

        Analog fourier transform curcuitry is AKA ring modulator, and it makes really bizarre sounds.  Instead of doubling frequencies, it shifts them by a fixed amount, so the harmonics are all wrong.  Everything comes out sounding like a bell.

        • http://twitter.com/_TheGeoff Geoff Robbins

          …or a Dalek (ring modulators were used in the old days, don’t know if they still do, but it wouldn’t surprise me) – Dalek chipmunks, there’s a spooky idea…

    • Jonathan Roberts

      I’m presuming it wasn’t just the songs – or was there another way to make the dialog sound like that without using this method? (taking into account Rob’s comments about FT)

  • http://www.flickr.com/photos/stefan_e_jones/ Stefan Jones

    My friend Paulie had that very album (I remember the calendar page) and a turntable with a 16 rpm setting (for “talking books” records). It was very eerie, hearing the singers’ natural voices.

  • voiceinthedistance

    Even more festive than Cyriak. You rawk, Rob.

    ‘Tis the time of year to give thanks, so thank you Boing Boing!

  • Rob Gehrke

    Did you know that “Santa” is an anagram for “Satan”? Coincidence? 
    Wake up, sheeple.

    • http://billmcgonigle.com bill_mcgonigle

      The Judeo-Christians got nuthin on Saturnalia, the winter holiday of human sacrifice, ‘festive’ rape, and property destruction.  Caroling used to be naked and gingerbread men are echoes of alleged cannibalism.  Anagrams can go back to their tame corners now.

      • dragonfrog

         That would be an extremely short round of caroling, in this neck of the woods.

    • Boundegar

      Needs more caps lock.

  • wrybread

    Ha, whoever wrote that description in the box, well done.

    • kevin casey

       He writes this music blog
      http://saidthegramophone.com/

  • musesum

    The satan free sped up version: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=StC8MhcgALc 

  • http://twitter.com/dovekwartel Willem Oosterhof

    Here’s the mp3.
    http://kiwi6.com/file/2cj5ed4cat

    And the orignal link where it used to be.
    http://web.archive.org/web/20080220120504/http://www.saidthegramophone.com/archives/with_you.php

  • Andreu LaFleur

    Um, I heard you needed a link. Found  it.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z8FxOu2gg10

  • Photomonkey

    This always reminds me of the Daedelus song that sampled this:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=–iO4ZpTE-c