Talk:Automatic double tracking

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

B This article has been rated as B-Class on the assessment scale.		This Beatles-related article is within the scope of The Beatles WikiProject, a collaborative effort to improve and expand Wikipedia coverage of The Beatles, Apple Records, George Martin, Brian Epstein/NEMS, and related topics. You are more than welcome to join the project and/or contribute to discussion.	Mid This article has been rated as Mid importance on the importance scale.
		Suggested article edit guidelines: New additions to articles should be attributed to reliable and verifiable sources, using inline citations per the Project's style guide. The system is very easy to use so please do try to help by following this guideline. Most articles should be written in British English. Some terms may be different from - or non-existent in - American English, and some spellings may differ. For more information, see American and British English differences. Document exceptions on the talk page of the article and here. It is Project policy that (with possible exceptions depending on context) all article references to the band's name should be in title case ("The Beatles" and not "the Beatles") If this article is Unassessed, please assess it. See the Article Assessment Department for instructions. If you disagree with a rating, you can change it or discuss it at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject The Beatles/Assessment.
Article Grading: The following comments were left by the quality and importance raters: (edit · refresh) This article needs work. Its hard for me to say how close to the fringe this article is, considering that the Beatles were instrumental in the development and implementation of the subject. Certainly, I think that a link from within a more pivotal Beatles article is a requirement, if one doesn't exist already, and I'm actually tempted to suggest a merge. Probably best to leave it on its own though: there is plenty of material in it as a free-standing article. The article needs some colour though - in the form of sections and a photo if at all possible. -- Mal (10 March 2006) I'm confused, why is this an A-class then? Sounds like maybe a B ?? ++Lar: t/c 00:50, 2 April 2006 (UTC) Re-assessed the article today. Lar is correct - B-Class it is. --Mal 15:08, 4 July 2006 (UTC)
The Beatles To-do: You can HELP!: Open tasks for WikiProject The Beatles. Edit or discuss these tasks. As the project is currently just starting, our more experienced editors are working on the project infrastructure, classifying articles, and listing/assessing red links. Your assistance is welcome. If you would prefer to just edit - and why wouldn't you? - we have a choice selection of red links to turn blue and articles to clean! Now let's get busy. To Expand: Apple Records See also: Adopt an article To Clean up: Apple Records discography (wikify). The Beatles' 1965 USA Tour. To Merge: To Create: Lennon/McCartney songs: I'll Keep You Satisfied (produced by George Martin), From A Window. George Martin produced Billy J. Kramer song: Magic Carpet (song). Songs covered by The Beatles: Hippy Hippy Shake. The Big Three. Bag o'Nails, where Paul met Linda. Macca single: My Brave Face. Articles on each Beatle tour (Category:The Beatles tours). Full list & instructions. Lists to complete: Wanted Pics/Graphics: Mal Evans, Flying (song), Astrid Kirchherr, Jimmy Nicol, Cynthia Powell, Alistair Taylor, Ivan Vaughan, Tittenhurst Park. We need a better open-licenced photo for the project, to replace the Abbey Road crossing. If you provide a photo, please remove the ReqPhoto tag from the article's talk page and remove the article from this list. Project Discussions: The Beatles history, Individual songs vs longer album articles, Beatle wives, Merge/split proposals Project: Add {{WPBeatles}} to the talk pages of all Beatles-related articles. Send a newsletter to members, canvas for new members, and coordinate tasks. Enter articles classed as stubs into this list (under To Expand) and also list articles needing cleaning and other work here. If you complete one of these tasks, please remove it from the list and add your achievement to the project log.

[edit] Not so complicated

The article makes the process sound inordinately complicated. All you really need is a stereo analogue tape deck that has separate record and playback heads. The playback heads will be offset to the right of the record heads, so that they can play back the sound a split-second after it has been recorded. Feed the output from the left channel into the right channel and the sound will be delayed a second time. Mix the left and right outputs together and presto - ADT. Alternatively the left and right channels can be assigned separate positions in the stereo field. I've tried to show this in the following diagram. Maybe I'll produce a proper and possibly more understandable graphic at some stage.

INPUT ----> LEFT RECORD HEAD --(DELAY)--> LEFT PLAYBACK HEAD-->MIXER------> OUTPUT
       |                                                 |      ^
       |                                                 V      |
       |<-----------------------<-------------------------      |
       |                                                        |
       V                                                        | 
       --> RIGHT RECORD HEAD -(DELAY)--> RIGHT PLAYBACK HEAD--->|

Lee M 03:25, 10 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Explanation is incorrect

There seems to be a mistake in the article. George Martin's explanation of the ADT system in his autobiography is very different from what is explained in this article. According to George Martin, the ADT was applied during mixing, not during recording. As the 4-track tape was run through the 4-track machine, the vocal track was read by the record-head, which wired appropriately for that purpose, and taken to another tape machine which delayed the signal using a loop. The signal then went to the mixer were it was combined with the 4 tracks coming out of the playback head of the 4 track machine.

Because the record-head is before the playback-head, the vocal track lifted from the record-head was ahead of the other 4 tracks read by the playback head. That is where the delay adjustment from the tape loop was necessary to make the lifted vocal match the other 4 tracks, leaving a small difference to produce the ADT effect.

George Martin further explains that he once received a phone call from John Lennon who was trying to reproduce the ADT system during recording of one of his solo albums, and that it wasn't working well. It turns out he was trying to do it while he was recording, and George Martin explained to him that it had to be done during mixing, after the vocals had been recorded.

I hope this can help you correct the article. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 200.14.108.1 (talk • contribs) 15:03, 25 May 2006 (UTC)

Do you have a specific cite for this information? If you do, you can fix the article yourself. I suggest that you add it as an alternate explanation, and review WP:CITE on how to give citations ("George Martin's autobiography" isn't quite the detail needed, it needs to be a title, author, publisher, year (and hopefully page number))... thanks! ++Lar: t/c 04:33, 26 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Re: Merge with Doubling echo?

Do NOT merge these articles; it will be a disservice. Doubling echo is a relatively common studio technique; ADT was more or less exclusive to the Beatles recordings. Doubling echo is still in use; ADT is obsolete with the end of reel-to-reel tape recording. Zephyrad 01:10, 28 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Re: "universal practice"

ADT was essentially exclusive to Abbey Road Studios, and something of a trade secret for years. Other studios used forms of doubling echo, or true doubletracking. Zephyrad 03:38, 28 September 2006 (UTC)