Reversing a phrase... w/ analog

[Kasey]

as we all know, with digital recording it is very easy to reverse a phrase of a track. But how, if it is possible, is this done with reel to reel recorders? My guess was to cut out the section to be reversed and tape it back in backwards... but i have no idea if that would work or not.

[Beck]

Sure, you could do it with razor editing, which is very precise once you get the hang of it. You can also flip the tape over and record the backwards segment to another machine, and then “fly it in” back onto the original tape while punching in.

-Tim

[BRDTS]

Yep, flip the tape's my vote..we used to flip the reel, record the backwards part to another machine. Then flip the first tape to it's first position, hand-rock the 2nd machine to where it needed to be, start both machines (one in record) and then fly the part back to the first machine. It was a real drag..hard to sync anything other than random fly-in parts, interrupted the creative flow because you (me anyway) had to blow a bunch of time just to see if it would add anything interesting to the song. It's so much easier now.

We used to do it with reverb sends and tails also. That backward reverb thing on a "front-ward" signal was sometimes interesting.

[jpmorris]

Originally Posted by BRDTS

We used to do it with reverb sends and tails also. That backward reverb thing on a "front-ward" signal was sometimes interesting.

Of course, for reverse-reverb on a multitrack you only need to turn the tape upside-down and bounce the track (through the reverb unit) onto another track (or pair). I've done this several times now.

On one occasion I simply recorded the part itself backwards, first setting a few cue clicks on one of the other tracks to ensure it slotted into place correctly.
(What was really funny was when I forgot that the tracks reversed, and when I hit play I heard a satanic incantation being whispered in my left ear).

Apparently the Saturn recorders were able to operate in reverse direction (although the erase head was disabled when they did this..)