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 parameter controls the stereo image by panning the delayed signals inwards towards the center. Note that this does not effect the panning of the dry signal. Mix allows for a blend between completely dry to completely wet signals.

ADT-2 is the "double" version of this plugin that uses separate delays for left and right, then mixed with the dry signal. See my uploads for ADT-1 if you'd like the classic effect with only one delay channel. Alternatively, with the Mix knob at 100%, you get an approximation of two unstable tape machines, which may be closer to the original effect.

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.