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Automatic double tracking
Automatic double-tracking or artificial double-tracking (ADT) is an analogue recording technique designed to enhance the sound of voices or instruments during the mixing process. It uses tape delay to create a delayed copy of an audio signal which is then played back at slightly varying speed controlled by an oscillator and combined with the original. The effect is intended to simulate the sound of the natural doubling of voices or instruments achieved by double tracking. The technique was developed in 1966 by engineers at Abbey Road Studios in London at the request of the Beatles.
As early as the 1950s, it was discovered that double-tracking the lead vocal in a song gave it a richer, more appealing sound, especially for singers with weak or light voices. Use of this technique became possible with the advent of magnetic tape for use in sound recording.[citation needed] Originally, a pair of single-track tape recorders were used to produce the effect; later, multitrack tape machines were used. Early pioneers of this technique were Les Paul and Buddy Holly.
Before the development of ADT, it was necessary to record and mix multiple takes of the vocal track. Because it is nearly impossible for a performer to sing or play the same part in exactly the same way twice, a recording and blending of two different performances of the same part will create a fuller, "chorused" effect with double tracking. But if one simply plays back two copies of the same performance in perfect sync, the two sound images become one and no double-tracking effect is produced.
ADT was invented specially for the Beatles during the spring of 1966 by Ken Townsend, a recording engineer employed at EMI's Abbey Road Studios, mainly at the request of John Lennon, who despised the tedium of double tracking during sessions and regularly expressed a desire for a technical alternative.
Townsend came up with a system using tape delay, after similar principles already in place for echoes applied via tape during a song mixdown[citation needed]. Townsend's system added a second tape recorder to the regular setup. When mixing a song, its vocal track was routed from the recording head of the multitrack tape, located before the playback head, and fed to the record head of the second tape recorder. An oscillator was used to vary the speed of the second machine, providing variation in delay and pitch depending on the change in the second machine speed. This signal was then routed from the playback head of the second machine to a separate channel on the mixer. This allowed the vocal delayed by a few milliseconds to be combined with the normal vocal, creating the double-tracked effect.
The Beatles were ecstatic over Townsend's technique and used it throughout their 1966 album Revolver and on many of their subsequent recordings. It has been incorrectly claimed that the first use of ADT was on the first half of Lennon's vocal track on "Tomorrow Never Knows", but in actuality, this vocal track features manual double tracking. Most of the double-tracked vocals heard on the rest of the album were created using ADT, while the group also used the technique on a number of the instrumental parts to colour the sounds – there is factually more use of ADT on the mono version of the album than on the more widely known stereo version, with the lead guitar on "Taxman" and the backwards guitar on "I'm Only Sleeping" treated with the effect.
When used on a stereo mix, ADT could be used to create the impression of two different vocal parts on either side of the stereo picture. This technique was used on the stereo mixes of "I'm Only Sleeping", "Love You To", "And Your Bird Can Sing", and "Doctor Robert" (on "Here, There and Everywhere", the similar effect heard is actually two different vocals manually double-tracked and panned; on "Eleanor Rigby", the effect is obtained by a combination of manual double-tracking and ADT). This technique could also be applied to instrumental parts as well: on "Love You To", the same use of ADT was applied to the acoustic guitar track, giving the impression of multiple guitars panned left and right.
Lennon dubbed the technique "flanging" after producer George Martin jokingly told him it was produced using a "double-bifurcated sploshing flange". Only years later did Martin learn that another technique, also called flanging, was already in use.[citation needed] The term referred to an engineer alternately pressing and releasing his finger against the flange (rim) of the supply reel on one of two synchronized tape machines as the same audio signal was combined and transferred to a third machine, slightly slowing the machine then allowing it to come back up to speed and in sync with the other, applying a "swooshing" comb filtering effect to the combined audio signal. Alternatively, the engineer could press the flange of one supply reel, then the other, to achieve a fuller effect.
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Automatic double tracking
Automatic double-tracking or artificial double-tracking (ADT) is an analogue recording technique designed to enhance the sound of voices or instruments during the mixing process. It uses tape delay to create a delayed copy of an audio signal which is then played back at slightly varying speed controlled by an oscillator and combined with the original. The effect is intended to simulate the sound of the natural doubling of voices or instruments achieved by double tracking. The technique was developed in 1966 by engineers at Abbey Road Studios in London at the request of the Beatles.
As early as the 1950s, it was discovered that double-tracking the lead vocal in a song gave it a richer, more appealing sound, especially for singers with weak or light voices. Use of this technique became possible with the advent of magnetic tape for use in sound recording.[citation needed] Originally, a pair of single-track tape recorders were used to produce the effect; later, multitrack tape machines were used. Early pioneers of this technique were Les Paul and Buddy Holly.
Before the development of ADT, it was necessary to record and mix multiple takes of the vocal track. Because it is nearly impossible for a performer to sing or play the same part in exactly the same way twice, a recording and blending of two different performances of the same part will create a fuller, "chorused" effect with double tracking. But if one simply plays back two copies of the same performance in perfect sync, the two sound images become one and no double-tracking effect is produced.
ADT was invented specially for the Beatles during the spring of 1966 by Ken Townsend, a recording engineer employed at EMI's Abbey Road Studios, mainly at the request of John Lennon, who despised the tedium of double tracking during sessions and regularly expressed a desire for a technical alternative.
Townsend came up with a system using tape delay, after similar principles already in place for echoes applied via tape during a song mixdown[citation needed]. Townsend's system added a second tape recorder to the regular setup. When mixing a song, its vocal track was routed from the recording head of the multitrack tape, located before the playback head, and fed to the record head of the second tape recorder. An oscillator was used to vary the speed of the second machine, providing variation in delay and pitch depending on the change in the second machine speed. This signal was then routed from the playback head of the second machine to a separate channel on the mixer. This allowed the vocal delayed by a few milliseconds to be combined with the normal vocal, creating the double-tracked effect.
The Beatles were ecstatic over Townsend's technique and used it throughout their 1966 album Revolver and on many of their subsequent recordings. It has been incorrectly claimed that the first use of ADT was on the first half of Lennon's vocal track on "Tomorrow Never Knows", but in actuality, this vocal track features manual double tracking. Most of the double-tracked vocals heard on the rest of the album were created using ADT, while the group also used the technique on a number of the instrumental parts to colour the sounds – there is factually more use of ADT on the mono version of the album than on the more widely known stereo version, with the lead guitar on "Taxman" and the backwards guitar on "I'm Only Sleeping" treated with the effect.
When used on a stereo mix, ADT could be used to create the impression of two different vocal parts on either side of the stereo picture. This technique was used on the stereo mixes of "I'm Only Sleeping", "Love You To", "And Your Bird Can Sing", and "Doctor Robert" (on "Here, There and Everywhere", the similar effect heard is actually two different vocals manually double-tracked and panned; on "Eleanor Rigby", the effect is obtained by a combination of manual double-tracking and ADT). This technique could also be applied to instrumental parts as well: on "Love You To", the same use of ADT was applied to the acoustic guitar track, giving the impression of multiple guitars panned left and right.
Lennon dubbed the technique "flanging" after producer George Martin jokingly told him it was produced using a "double-bifurcated sploshing flange". Only years later did Martin learn that another technique, also called flanging, was already in use.[citation needed] The term referred to an engineer alternately pressing and releasing his finger against the flange (rim) of the supply reel on one of two synchronized tape machines as the same audio signal was combined and transferred to a third machine, slightly slowing the machine then allowing it to come back up to speed and in sync with the other, applying a "swooshing" comb filtering effect to the combined audio signal. Alternatively, the engineer could press the flange of one supply reel, then the other, to achieve a fuller effect.