An effect invented by Abbey Road engineers has become a studio staple. Waves have painstakingly recreated its original implementation.

Reel ADT does a great job of mimicking this when tweaked appropriately. As I mentioned already, a great benefit to this plug-in is the ability to integrate some randomness to the process. I think leaving a few tidbits to the recording gods is always a good thing. Reel ADT is the most colored of the bunch and it thins out the low end slightly. It is possible to create relatively convincing double takes with it, but it can sometimes approach phaser territory. Don´t get me wrong - I love this plugin and it truly gives you that classic vintage doubling effect. Line 6 Helix Native Guitar Amp and Effects Plug-in 1.9.1 (Aug/2020) 64-bit (VST, VST3, AAX) Windows 7, 8, 10 Instructions: Just Install Direct Download (26MB) August 1, 2020 14 SoundToys 5.0.1 Ultimate FX Solution (Win). Get the 7 best free VST's to add analog warmth to your tracks. Try these subtle drive, tape saturation, tube saturation, and compressors for added warmth. ADT - Artificial Double Tracking. The ADT technique was developed at Abbey Road Studios by engineers recording the Beatles in the 1960s. To free John Lennon from having to sing everything twice for real double tracking they came up with an artificial replacement: they sent the original signal to another tape machine and re-recorded it. Waves/Abbey Road Reel ADT is the first plugin to successfully emulate Abbey Road Studios’ pioneering process of Artificial Double Tracking. The effect that would become an integral part of Abbey Road’s signature sound was initially created at the famed studios in the 1960s to meet the needs of some very special clients: The Beatles. Abbey Road - Reel ADT by Waves / Abbey Road is a Virtual Effect Audio Plugin for macOS and Windows. It functions as a VST Plugin, an Audio Units Plugin, a VST 3 Plugin, an RTAS Plugin and an AAX Plugin.

The first time I heard automatic double-tracking and tape phasing on a record, I was in college studying electronics, and was intrigued to find out how this effect was being created. I soon discovered that it involved running two signals off tape and then varying the delay time so as to give the impression of two performances being layered; if the delay time was allowed to pass through zero, a psychedelic effect that we then knew as tape phasing occurred. It transpired that an ingenious two-tape-machine setup had been dreamed up by Abbey Road engineer Ken Townsend to help automate some of the time-consuming vocal double-tracking they were doing on a Beatles recording project. The effect is very pronounced on the Beatles' more psychedelic tracks such as 'Tomorrow Never Knows' and 'Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds', while the Small Faces' 'Itchycoo Park' features a classic example of intense tape phasing on the drum fills. Jimi Hendrix was also fond of the effect.

Beyond Our Ken

Ken Townsend's setup involved connecting a primary tape machine to a second machine equipped with varispeed in such a way that two versions of the same audio source could be played back more or less simultaneously. When mixing a song that required ADT or Artificial Double Tracking, the track to be treated would be sourced from the recording head of the multitrack tape machine, which meant it played back before the signal reached the replay head. This was fed to a second tape machine set in record mode, so now the signal feeding the mixer from the replay head of the multitrack and also from the second machine's replay head, which was also routed back into the mixer, were pretty much coincident. By continually making slight adjustments to the speed of the second machine, its output could be moved around in time and pitch relative to the first machine, creating the illusion of a separate take. The effect sounded different in mono or stereo, as in mono, various phase-related comb-filtering effects could be heard as the speed was varied. These comb-filtering effects became the basis of phasing and flanging.

Abbey Road's engineers coined the terms 'phasing' and 'flanging' to mean different things. In essence, flanging is the 'through zero' effect heard when both signals are of the same polarity, and phasing is the same thing but with one of the signal's polarity inverted. The resulting comb filtering stresses different frequencies in both cases, with the second option giving a much deeper null as the delay time passes through zero.

The two-voice option gives you two independent delayed signals, for a more complex sound.John Lennon reputedly called the ADT rig 'Ken's Flanger'‚ thus establishing the term 'flanging' to describe the whooshing effect heard when the delay time passes through zero. So tightly was the recording process regulated by the studio bosses back then that Ken says he was called to the General Manager's office and told not to use ADT again until it had been approved by the technical department — but of course he ignored the order. Interestingly, the use of dual tape machines to create phasing and flanging effects had, unknown to Ken, been tried in other studios — clearly an example of morphic resonance!

Heads You Win

Waves' Reel ADT is, like all their plug-ins, available for all the common Mac and PC formats, and was developed in association with Abbey Road Studios to ensure authenticity. It emulates the original process in some detail, recreating the wow and flutter and sonic coloration of the two valve tape machines used in the original setup, along with varispeed and a few other controls necessary to create and adjust ADT, phasing and flanging effects. These features include the ability to overdrive either tape machine in the same way as the originals, but there are control options that allow you to do tricks that weren't possible with the original too. Reel ADT can be used in mono, mono-to-stereo or stereo-in, stereo-out formats. Additionally there's a two-voice option that can be used in stereo or mono, adding a second speed-modulated signal that can be modulated independently of the first.

The plug-in provides a useful graphic representation of the ADT delay by showing the Source and ADT tape heads at the top of the screen: a ghost varispeed ADT version of the head moves as the delay time is adjusted or modulated. When the two-voice version of the plug-in is selected, you get two ADT sections and an extra ADT head shown in the display. The varispeed range and the placement of the ADT head setting determines whether the modulated signal plays before or after the source. For vocal doubling, the ADT is usually delayed by around 10 to 20 milliseconds, whereas phasing and flanging have the delay modulated such that the ADT signal continually moves from being behind the source signal to being in front and vice versa. In this plug-in, the offset between the two heads can vary up to ±20ms with the varispeed sweep range having the same range. The varispeed is key to controlling the effect, and may be set manually via the large central knob (and automated) or driven from a choice of waveforms — sine, triangular, reverse sine, reverse triangular, or random. Random sounds the most realistic to my ears, though rhythmic phasing effects can be set up by using the other waveforms.

The varispeed control — which is really a plus/minus timing offset control rather than true varispeed, and much easier to manage because of it — can also be assigned to MIDI in those DAWs that permit the sending of MIDI to processing plug-ins. Manual operation and LFO modulation may be used at the same time. A Latch mode is available to force the varispeed control to stay on the value it was when released, while Touch mode forces the varispeed control back to zero when released. The LFO may also be sync'ed to the host DAW's tempo.

Source drive controls, mute buttons and polarity-invert buttons are available for both inputs, and the source and ADT components may also be panned individually and adjusted in level, though most of the classic effects require the original and processed signals to be of similar levels.

Reelin' In The Years

As a vocal or instrument doubler, Reel ADT is capable of excellent results which are further enhanced by selecting the dual-voice version. Set up so that the delay time wanders gently about in the 10 to 15 ms area using the random waveform, and a range of three or four milliseconds with different delay times (or positive and negative delay times) on the two channels sounds extremely authentic. There's also the option of copying the audio track in your DAW (or using an aux to feed Reel ADT), applying Reel ADT on the copy and then using the stereo, double-voice mode with the source signal muted. This allows the stereo double-track and the dry original to be processed in different ways. Turning up the tape drive adds a nice tape-like fatness to the sound until you go too far, at which point things get more distorted.

When it comes to phasing and flanging, the sound is more Beatles-era psychedelia than Itchycoo excess and I can't help but wonder whether some of the other studios experimenting with similar techniques tried to feed some of the ADT'd signal back into the input as typical flanger pedals do. That may well give greater emphasis to the comb filtering in a Hendrix 'Gypsy Eyes' kind of way. If your DAW has routing options that allow such experimentation, that would certainly be worth trying.

What Ken's original setup couldn't do is offer tempo-locked modulation, and by arranging the two-voice version so that the delay modulation is in opposite polarities for the two channels, it is possible to process drum grooves and loops with a rhythmic phasing effect that might appeal to both dance and ambient music composers. In fact there's a lot more to explore in this area than is immediately obvious.

Waves have to be commended for deciding to recreate the original tape ADT/phase/flange effects in such a faithful way, and in Reel ADT, they've not only captured the spirit of the original but also added enhancements that allow the effect to be applied to more contemporary musical styles. If you always wanted to get that John Lennon trippy vocal sound, Reel ADT is about the best way to get it, but it works just as well on modern vocals.

Pros

• Authentic recreation of the original Abbey Road ADT and phasing effects.
• Enhancements such as the two-voice version and tempo sync bring it into the modern world.

Cons

• Won't produce the extreme phasing or flanging effects that some processors can.

Summary

Waves have developed a convincing recreation of a classic '60s effect, which is still relevant to today's studios.

Audio Plug-Ins

WARNING: The Plug-Ins on this site have been developed in 2007 and are provided 'as-is'. There will be no updates to deal with the fact that support for rendering a 'default' GUI in host applications is on the way out or at least seriously broken in modern audio applications.
Please also note that the VST Plug-Ins are know to NOT work in ProTools using the VST wrapper!
The OS X versions are not notarized by Apple and will not work from macOS 10.14.5 onwards.

You can't have a hardware box for everything.. so sometimes it just comes handy to have a Plug-In that simulates what the big names are doing with dedicated hardware. To avoid spending big money the Plug-Ins below can be downloaded and used for free. To keep development costs down they don't use fancy user interfaces. What counts is the sound!

If you have further questions or trouble using the Plug-Ins, check the FAQ!

ADT - Artificial Double Tracking

The ADT technique was developed at Abbey Road Studios by engineers recording the Beatles in the 1960s. To free John Lennon from having to sing everything twice for real double tracking they came up with an artificial replacement: they sent the original signal to another tape machine and re-recorded it. Due to the physical distance between record and playback heads the new signal was delayed. The length of the delay depends on the tape speed (the slower the tape is running the longer it takes for the signal to travel from the record to the playback head). However, due to the machine's (small amounts of) Wow and Flutter the delay time was not fixed but varied slightly, giving an additional chorus-like effect.
The ADT Plug-In takes a mono input signal and creates a stereo output. The original input signal will be output on one channel, the new ADT signal on the other. Blending the two is also possible. The Plug-In allows to control the delay time (10 - 50ms), Wow and Flutter (both with intensity in % and frequency). All values are based on the technical data of the tape machines that was originally used to create this effect. Take a look at a screenshot.

• ADT v1.0.5 (128.5 KB ZIP) - VST 2.4 Plug-In for Windows (32bit)
• ADT v1.0.5 (132.5 KB ZIP) - VST 2.4 Plug-In for Windows (64bit)
• ADT v1.0.5 (103.2 KB ZIP) - VST 2.4 Plug-In for Mac OS X 10.4 (UB)
• ADT v1.0.8 (256.0 KB ZIP) - AudioUnit (AU) Plug-In for Mac OS X (UB, 32/64-bit)

Reel Adt Vst Free Downloads

Some user feedback can be found on the KVR Forum.

Poor Plate - stereo plate reverb

Reel Adt

Plate reverbs have been among the first devices for artificial reverberation. The first digital reverb units by EMT and Lexicon tried to model plate reverbs instead of real spaces. The Poor Plate is a Plug-In for all those people who can neither afford a real plate nor one of the classic digital units.

• Poor Plate v1.0 (130.0 KB ZIP) - VST 2.4 Plug-In for Windows (32bit)
• Poor Plate v1.0 (134.1 KB ZIP) - VST 2.4 Plug-In for Windows (64bit)
• Poor Plate v1.0 (110.0 KB ZIP) - VST 2.4 Plug-In for Mac OS X 10.4 (UB)
• Poor Plate v1.0.2 (296.2 KB ZIP) - AudioUnit (AU) Plug-In for Mac OS X (UB, 32/64-bit) , fixes a bug in version 1.0.1 with the new bass adjustment

RIAA - phono equalization

/vst-plugins-free-2019.html. This Plug-In provides normal and inverse RIAA equalization. It thus can be used for record playback or vinyl cutting purposes.
Works at the standard sample rates from 44.1kHz up to 96kHz.

Reel Adt Plugin

• RIAA v1.1 (144.4 KB ZIP) - VST 2.4 Plug-In for Windows (32bit)
• RIAA v1.1 (138.5 KB ZIP) - VST 2.4 Plug-In for Windows (64bit)
• RIAA v1.0 (101.7 KB ZIP) - VST 2.4 Plug-In for Mac OS X 10.4 (UB)
• RIAA v1.0.1 (251.3 KB ZIP) - AudioUnit (AU) Plug-In for Mac OS X (UB, 32/64-bit)