I've been reading the thread about "16" speed on turntables, and
finding it fascinating.  But I've been waiting for somebody to mention
the one aspect of that turntable speed that was of use to me
personally, and nobody has yet.

It seems that people are saying that the actual speed is 16.666 rpm
(which really rounds to 17, so I don't know why it was always labeled
16), which is of course exactly half of 33.333.  So when one plays a
record recorded at 33 1/3 at the "16" speed, the music drops in pitch
by exactly an octave.  Hence, one could play the piano along with the
record at half speed.

When I was a kid, this was one of the things I'd do to try to
transcribe a piece on a record.  Nowadays one downloads some shareware
that does this digitally, except you can drop the speed without
changing the pitch, which was always my dream as a kid!  I'd rack my
brains trying to figure out a way to do exactly that task;  I never did
think of this technique, not surprisingly.

Best regards,
Bob Pinsker
San Diego, CA