ADT Doubler

ADT Doubler: the Libre Audio interpretation of Artificial Double Tracking

Artificial Double Tracking was worked out at Abbey Road in 1966 by EMI engineer Ken Townsend, so that singers wouldn’t have to double every vocal by hand. A second tape machine was fed from the sync head of the first, its motor under varispeed control, so the copy drifted a few milliseconds against the original. The Beatles used it extensively on Revolver, and it has been a standard studio technique ever since.

This is Libre Audio’s version of that idea, arranged for players rather than tape ops. Two machines run in parallel, each with its own delay and its own slow, unrelated wow, panned wide: a second take of your part alongside the original, slightly late and slightly out of tune with it.

• Delay: how far back the double sits
• Rate and Depth: how fast and how far the tape wanders
• HP/LP Filter: one knob, lowpass one way and highpass the other, on the doubles only. Rolling the lows out keeps the fundamental tight while the top end widens, which is what makes it usable on bass as well as guitar.
• Dry–Wet: from a light thickening to the double on its own

Tape saturation is present on the output. Mono and stereo variants are included.

This is a complimentary Anagram block by LibreAudio.org and part of the Libre Audio suite of plugins.

The Beatles, Abbey Road and other names mentioned are trademarks of their respective owners and are used for historical reference only. Libre Audio is not affiliated with or endorsed by them.