Bryan Adams - Heat Of The Night

Can anyone indicate differences/edits between the DJ version at 4:21 and the LP version of this song?

litigate!!

I found the official video on YouTube, & found the edit points.

Although the video has eleven seconds of lakeside / seagull sounds, then a snare or tambourine & a count of "one!", I don't remember any of these airing on our local station. If any of it did, that would explain the discrepancy in timing between my radio edit & the listed DJ edit length. We'll start at the downbeat.

First, take out 0:04 to 0:09; it's easiest to edit on that snare although the original edit may be on the following downbeat.

Second, go to 3:58 & take out from there to 4:42. You'll be editing on the word "Don't" of the phrase "Don't look back..."

You're left with an edit that runs out to 4:17.

That's it! The mix sounds absolutely identical to my ears.

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This next part may or may not be of any interest to anybody.

I found the video on YouTube (& who knows the source, although it listed "BryanAdams.com" in the bottom corner) ran SLOWER than my CD version from Into The Fire by about 1.215%.

It's more complicated than that. When I made the lengths the same by speeding up the video version, I found the CD version runs away from the video for about the 1st two minutes. By about 2 & 1/2 - 3 min in, the songs are more or less the same tempo, & after 3 minutes the video pulls ahead of the song.

So, is this a case where the CD was mastered from the tape played on a wrong-sized machine / reel? I don't know. Below, however, are my tempo findings using my trusty TapTempo from AnalogX & my space bar. :)


(Video tempo taken from original video speed; CD tempo is of edited length.)


                  CD TEMPO     VIDEO TEMPO

0:00 - 1:00:     86.957   & nbsp;    85.794

1:00 - 2:00:     87.013   & nbsp;    85.798

2:00 - 3:00:     87.039   & nbsp;    85.776

3:00 - 4:00:     87.140   & nbsp;    86.133

3:30 - 4:17:     86.938   & nbsp;    86.649

3:45 - 4:17:     86.362   & nbsp;    86.499


So, what does all of this mean? It appears the CD averages right around 87 BPM, while the video goes from 85 & 3/4 BPM to 86 & 1/2 BPM.

I think the BIGGER question is: which one is accurate?

Not having the 45, I couldn't say, but the CD sounds really good to me while the video sounds a couple of generations down. Professional audio tape, to professional video tape, to a mastering tape, to a broadcast facility, to a VCR, to a computer, to YouTube... it doesn't sound quite as reliable to me.

If you have any input on the tempo issues, please post! I'd love to hear what you know.

First, I'd advise ditching the space-bar-tap method, and download a neato free program called "BPM Analyzer" at http://www.mixmeister.com/download_freestuff.html

If there's a drum machine or a click track, then it returns very nice result. If it's a normal human drummer keeping his own time, then results can vary plus or minus a BPM or two. Overall, the program gives a good average BPM for the whole track. Trust it to 0.1 BPM for the drum machine tracks, and to 1 BPM for everything else. Anything more precise than that is not realistic.

If there's a drift in tempo from start to finish, the program won't pick it up, but will average it all together.

I'm 99% sure that Bryan Adams album was recorded with a click track, and my notes say 86.9 BPM for the album version of "Heat Of The Night". Don't know if there's any drift in tempo from start to finish.

By the way, drift in BPM is not uncommon for recordings that were originally laid down on tape (mostly through about '85). I routinely see +/- 0.3 drifts from start to finish in those years (I'm talking about click track/drum machines here). For other tracks, I see abrupt shifts in tempo by about 1 BPM, as if the tape machines used an extra bounce, or what not. (Check "The Lady In Red", Curiosity Killed The Cat's "Misfit", and Jude Cole's "Baby It's Tonight" to see what I mean.)

FYI - Don't know how much you REALLY care about this stuff, but it appears that the bass drum is played by a machine, and the snare and other parts are played by a live drummer.

I wouldn't say this was common for the time, but I know of a few others from around then that did the same thing - "Every Breath You Take", "Manic Monday" and "The Power Of Love" spring to mind.

And on the CD, the tempo is rock solid at 86.9 throughout. No significant drift or edits.