I have the opposite problem. Seems every project is a tad too fast when done.

fireberd
Best option is to do the recording faster than you think it should be.  Then the final product will be "faster" and no need to speed it up.
 

I don't know if that would work.  I'd probably just want to speed it up more.
 
JB

fireberd
Years (many years) ago it was common to slightly speed up recordings as "it made them sound better". 

Very common, and not just for country by any means.  It didn't just make a song faster, it changed the vocal formant to sound younger and tightened the timing. 2% was a common amount of speedup, although some did a lot more (Gary Glitter's "Rock and Roll Part 1").

The sense of "drag" in a piece is more than just the speed of the tempo. The groove of a piece of music is largely a psychoacoustic phenomenon rather than a clock issue. You can listen to two different performers doing the same piece at the same basic tempo, and get the impression that one performance is leaning forward, and the other is laying back. That is the reason that quantization either via MIDI or following a click track does not usually impart a living sense to the piece. Subtle variations of the attack timing and emphasis and variations between those parameters by different instruments in the ensemble can have a dramatic effect on the feel of the speed of the piece. An extreme example is syncopation, which usually seems to add a sense of complexity and energy that is not explained at all by the tempo, and is usually interpreted as the piece being performed faster.
see:
https://www.attackmagazine.com/technique/tutorials/the-psychoacoustics-of-drums/
 
That said, if you are just not playing fast enough, then you probably need to play faster. Accelerating a piece that was played to a slow groove will likely not be as satisfactory, unless you are playing some kind of time shift game in your mind that is exactly correct in groove but at 2.5 speed. Most musicians playing at half speed will have a substantially different emphasis and timing than they would at full speed. Speeding up just retains the half speed groove.
 
 

I really think it's a psychological thing.  I remember when I was a kid (teenager) it seemed as if when I listened to the family stereo enough the pace of the music would gradually speed up, or seem to.  I used to think it was the old idler wheel motor that was in low end stereo record players back in the 60s-70s, but now it seems my perception of speed (not tempo, just speed) can vary from day to day.  And this is listening to digital stuff that doesn't use servo motors to directly play.  Theoretically, you shouldn't perceive a song sounding faster one day and slower the next when you're listening in the digital realm, but it happens to me on a regular basis.  So when I finish a song I pick the WAV file up in Audacity and use the Change Speed effect as a virtual  pitch control.  In fact, that's how I found Audacity.  Back in my 4 track tape days I did the same thing when I transferred the 4 track master to the stereo 2 track, I always turned up the pitch control.  So, when I started using digital audio workstations, one day I googled "Virtual pitch control" and found Audacity.  I use Audacity for other things (does a great on easy fade in/out and crossfades), but that was my first use for it.  I don't multitrack on it because I don't trust it.  It has a tendency to corrupt easy and I would go nuclear if I put hours into a project only to lose the whole damned thing because the stupid DAW got corrupted, but it's great for a few post production things.  Anyway, I'm glad to see examples in this thread of other people suffering the same "affliction".
 
JB

I don't suffer from this particular affliction, thank goodness, but I often start a project (I always start MIDI-based) and later on in the building of the song often increase the BDM, never decrease for some reason.  I assume it's an urge to add a little excitement to things. Also, I often pull kick drum beats forward a tick or two as I hate draggy drums and often ones bang on the beat seem draggy.  I routinely gradually speed up the tempo going into choruses which always feels right.  For an example of crazy speeding up as excitement builds, play the first few bars of 'Honky Tonk Women' and then the last few.

Skyline_UK
For an example of crazy speeding up as excitement builds, play the first few bars of 'Honky Tonk Women' and then the last few.

 
I wonder if they told Charlie Watts to play that way.  He's an excellent drummer.
JB

I can relate to this.
 
I always start songs at a slower tempo than they eventually wind up, but by the time I've recorded the final tracks, I've settled on a tempo.
 
I chalk this up to the fact that when I'm writing the song, I'm still working out the changes and therefore more hesitant and less confident both in the song and my playing of it. I may have finished it as a writer before I've learned it as a player or arranger. I also kind of write and arrange as I go.
 
My shifts have gone as high as 10BPM or more.
 
I account for it by just cranking up the tempo by 5 BPM over whatever I choose at the start, and it never feels rushed to have done that by the second day of working on the tune, so, good news.
 
The suggestions others have had to do it at the beginning rather than the end of your process may be good ones!

My advice would go like this - start your next song at least 10% or more faster than you'd normally go. If, during making the song, you'll get the urge to slow it down by about 10% or near, then you're all fine. It's just that your final decision on the song tempo needs time to ripe. If, on the other hand, you'll feel like your song needs a crank up by 2,5%, then you have to find a good psychiatrist. Hope that helps.

Have you tried putting a boombox at the end of a long hallway, playing your tune on it, and starting from the other end of the hallway, running toward it at your top speed?
 
It may not tell you much but the cardio would be fantastic.  :)