Description

This aims to recreate the Artificial Double Tracking (ADT) first pioneered by Ken Townsend at Abbey Road studios. The original effect uses two parallel tape machines out of sync (possibly using a varispeed control) to impart speed and pitch differences. When the signals are combined, the create a chorusing and widening effect.

I used a smoothed (LPF) random signal as the delay modulation source. The Frequency of this can be adjusted, as well as the Bias, which in this case is the difference between the minimum delay value and no delay (0ms).

The Depth is the difference between the maximum delay and minimum delay, which translates to the strength of the pitch shifting. A simple HASS widener can also be created with zero Depth, and Bias all the way up.

The Width control sets the stereo width by panning the left and right signals closer to the center. From 0-100%, the dry signal will be the left channel and the delayed channel (modulated) will be on the right. From -100% to 0%, the dry signal will be on the right side, and the delayed signal will be left.

ADT-1 is the "single" version of this plugin. See my uploads for ADT-2, which features an independent delay channel for the left and the right, then mixed with the dry signals.

This was inspired by the Waves Reel ADT effect, which also included some tape saturation. This isn't so easy to replicate in M4L as it requires a magnetic hysteresis loop to model accurately. If you want a more tape-y sounding effect, I suggest pairing this with the free ChowTape plugin.