diff --git a/CHANGES.md b/CHANGES.md
index 386758278..2bf621883 100644
--- a/CHANGES.md
+++ b/CHANGES.md
@@ -12,6 +12,8 @@
   - `_prep_data_for_correlation`: 3x speedup for filling NaN-traces in templates
   - New function ``quick_trace_select` for a very efficient selection of trace
     by seed ID without wildcards (4x speedup).
+* utils.correlate
+  - 25 % speedup for `_get_array_dicts` with quicker access to properties.
 * utils.catalog_to_dd
   - ._prepare_stream
     - Now more consistently slices templates to length = extract_len * samp_rate
diff --git a/eqcorrscan/utils/correlate.py b/eqcorrscan/utils/correlate.py
index 08553b82d..0d4860e0f 100644
--- a/eqcorrscan/utils/correlate.py
+++ b/eqcorrscan/utils/correlate.py
@@ -30,6 +30,8 @@
 import math
 from packaging import version
 
+from obspy import UTCDateTime
+
 from eqcorrscan.utils.libnames import _load_cdll
 from eqcorrscan.utils import FMF_INSTALLED
 from eqcorrscan.utils.pre_processing import _stream_quick_select
@@ -1119,13 +1121,15 @@ def _get_array_dicts(templates, stream, stack, copy_streams=True):
     stream.sort(['network', 'station', 'location', 'channel'])
     for template in templates:
         template.sort(['network', 'station', 'location', 'channel'])
-        t_starts.append(min([tr.stats.starttime for tr in template]))
+        t_starts.append(
+            UTCDateTime(ns=min([tr.stats.starttime.__dict__['_UTCDateTime__ns']
+                                for tr in template])))
     stream_start = min([tr.stats.starttime for tr in stream])
     # get seed ids, make sure these are collected on sorted streams
     seed_ids = [tr.id + '_' + str(i) for i, tr in enumerate(templates[0])]
     # pull common channels out of streams and templates and put in dicts
     for i, seed_id in enumerate(seed_ids):
-        temps_with_seed = [template[i].data for template in templates]
+        temps_with_seed = [template.traces[i].data for template in templates]
         t_ar = np.array(temps_with_seed).astype(np.float32)
         template_dict.update({seed_id: t_ar})
         stream_channel = _stream_quick_select(stream, seed_id.split('_')[0])[0]
@@ -1139,15 +1143,18 @@ def _get_array_dicts(templates, stream, stack, copy_streams=True):
         # pad_list can become 0. 0-1 = -1; which is problematic.
         stream_offset = int(
             math.floor(stream_channel.stats.sampling_rate *
-                  (stream_channel.stats.starttime - stream_start)))
+                       (stream_channel.stats.starttime - stream_start)))
         if stack:
             pad_list = [
-                int(round(template[i].stats.sampling_rate *
-                          (template[i].stats.starttime -
-                           t_starts[j]))) - stream_offset
-                for j, template in zip(range(len(templates)), templates)]
+                int(round(
+                    template.traces[i].stats.__dict__['sampling_rate'] *
+                    (template.traces[i].stats.starttime.__dict__[
+                        '_UTCDateTime__ns'] -
+                     t_starts[j].__dict__['_UTCDateTime__ns']) / 1e9)) -
+                stream_offset
+                for j, template in enumerate(templates)]
         else:
-            pad_list = [0 for _ in range(len(templates))]
+            pad_list = [0 for _ in templates]
         pad_dict.update({seed_id: pad_list})
 
     return stream_dict, template_dict, pad_dict, seed_ids
diff --git a/eqcorrscan/utils/pre_processing.py b/eqcorrscan/utils/pre_processing.py
index 0e877f201..7c37bc3c2 100644
--- a/eqcorrscan/utils/pre_processing.py
+++ b/eqcorrscan/utils/pre_processing.py
@@ -999,18 +999,20 @@ def _prep_data_for_correlation(stream, templates, template_names=None,
                 template.traces[idx] for idx in stream_trace_id_dict[seed_id]])
             if len(template_channel) <= channel_index:
                 # out_template[channel_number].data = nan_channel  # quicker:
-                out_template[channel_number].__dict__['data'] = copy.deepcopy(
-                    nan_channel)
-                out_template[channel_number].stats.__dict__['npts'] = \
-                    template_length
-                out_template[channel_number].stats.__dict__['starttime'] = \
-                    template_starttime
-                out_template[channel_number].stats.__dict__['endtime'] = \
-                    UTCDateTime(ns=int(
+                out_template.traces[channel_number].__dict__[
+                    'data'] = np.copy(nan_channel)
+                out_template.traces[channel_number].stats.__dict__[
+                    'npts'] = template_length
+                out_template.traces[channel_number].stats.__dict__[
+                    'starttime'] = template_starttime
+                out_template.traces[channel_number].stats.__dict__[
+                    'endtime'] = UTCDateTime(ns=int(
                         round(template_starttime.ns
-                              + (template_length * samp_rate) * 1e9)))
+                              + (template_length / samp_rate) * 1e9)))
             else:
-                out_template[channel_number] = template_channel[channel_index]
+                out_template.traces[channel_number] = template_channel.traces[
+                    channel_index]
+
         # If a template-trace matches a NaN-trace in the stream , then set
         # template-trace to NaN so that this trace does not appear in channel-
         # list of detections.