WAVES GETS THE WOBBLES
By Graeme Hague
11 March 2014
Another day, another Abbey Road, Beatles-era plug-in release. This time it’s Waves and the Waves/Abbey Road Reel ADT, which emulates Abbey Road Studios’ pioneering process of Artificial Double Tracking. ADT was the signature effect created at Abbey Road in the 1960s for the Fab Four (who couldn’t be bothered multi-tracking vocals anymore) and is apparently difficult to model because the exact process used at Abbey Road has been a closely guarded secret—until now. Abbey Road engineer Ken Townsend created Artificial Double Tracking (ADT) and John Lennon reputedly dubbed ADT “Ken’s Flanger,” which some say (Jeremy Clarkson?) led to flanging becoming established as a technical term in studios around the world. The secret? By connecting the primary tape machine to a second, speed-controlled machine, two versions of the same signal could be played back simultaneously. Gently wobbling the frequency of an oscillator and varying the speed of the second machine, the replayed signal could be moved around just enough to make it sound like a separate take. Pure genius in 1966 and worth a Waves plug-in today – with a few 21st century improvements chucked in. The Waves Abbey Road Reel ADT is native only and available at an introductory price of US$99 at www.waves.com/plugins/reel-adt.
Australian Distributor: Sound & Music www.sound-music.com
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