Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

kenindfw · Post by **kenindfw** » Tue Dec 20, 2005 10:17 am

Interesting little article for those not familiar with the Beatles use of ADT (Automatic Double Tracking).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automatic_double_tracking

Ken

winston · Post by **winston** » Tue Dec 20, 2005 10:29 am

Interesting piece Ken. I had no idea that ADT equipment was developed for the Beatles.

I used to do all of my DT the old fashioned way. Straight voice overs. Robin Spurgin(our recording engineer in the 60's)dubbed me "Mr. Automatic" because I invariably did it in one take.

Welcome to the forum BTW.

Scastles · Post by **Scastles** » Tue Dec 20, 2005 11:18 am

Whew, for a minute there thought someone had posted a thread on Home Security Systems.

Interesting read.

And welcome, Ken.

kenindfw · Post by **kenindfw** » Tue Dec 20, 2005 12:18 pm

I knew someone was going to mention Alarm systems. LOL

rumbush · Post by **rumbush** » Wed Dec 21, 2005 7:58 am

I believe it was "Artificial Double Tracking."

it was certainly NOT automatic in a functional sense

wolfgang · Post by **wolfgang** » Wed Dec 21, 2005 8:23 am

George Martin calls it "Artificial Double Tracking" and credits it to Ken Townsend.
(George Martin/ William Pearson "Summer of love")

rumbush · Post by **rumbush** » Wed Dec 21, 2005 3:09 pm

Right Wolfgang. I believe it was either Ken Townsend or Geoff Emerick who "developed" it. It came about as a result of John Lennon's reluctance to record another (second) vocal track after he'd done a perfectly good one. I read somewhere that the boys used to sit in the control room and "play" the ADT mechanism to achieve the desired artistic effect. I don't know how the thing worked exactly, but it had something to do with oscillators and tape heads and stuff. I'm sure there's gobs of info on the internet about it.

qmoder · Post by **qmoder** » Thu Dec 22, 2005 10:11 pm

Does any one here use a simular effect on their Pa? I susposely have it in my Yamaha 24MG/14FX board. But it does'nt sound like it does to myself or anyone else either who is doubled using it to my ears or theirs

tomg · Post by **tomg** » Fri Dec 23, 2005 2:14 am

I've never done it live, but I used to do it all the time when I'd record demos on 4 track cassette to either double a vocal or double guitar part (so they could be panned left and right).

All I can remember now is that during playback/mixing, I'd take the output of the channel I'm going to double, run it thru a short delay. I brought this back in to the 4 track (FX return? I forget) and panned each to create some space in the middle of the mix.

It worked surprisingly well. Didn't help my ****** songwriting, however.