Tape effect sounds "tape reel sounds"

[walters]

examples i heard this tape effects are on
1.) Jimi Hendrix Electric lady land "album"
song is - And The Gods Made Love

Sounds like they recorded the tape reels speeding up
down how did they do this studio technique?

2.) Pink Floyd- ummagumma "album"
song is - the narrow way 1-3

sounds like they recorded the tape reels speeding up
and down how did they do this studio technique?

 

[The Ghost of FM]

Many professional analog studio recorders have a feature called Vari-Speed, which allows the engineer to vary the speed of the tape anywhere from a full stop to 200% faster then normal operating speed.

Many semi-pro machines offer only a + or - 15% speed control.

Cheers!

 

[Muckelroy]

Another really cool tape effect that was fairly common in the 70's was the flanger -

I was really surprised when I first heard about this -- You hear flanger effects all the time, and they're a dime a dozen on most any keyboard, guitar pedal, or effects module. But they originally came about by this:

Send the signal to two tape machines at the same time. (Given that it's a decent studio in the 70's, you've got your 24 track studer sittin there, and then there's a quarter-inch knock-around machine in the corner used for bouncing tracks, things like that.) You'd set the second tape machine (the knock-around one) to record, and to monitor from the repro-head. You'd do the same with your main tape machine. Take both repro-head outputs, and mix them down to one seperate track on the main tape machine, which is set to record, obviously.

As the track's recording, you'd gently, manually slow down, and let go of the reel flange on the second tape machine, which causes a constant acceleration -- decceleration movement, which by itself, sounds like a severe WOW problem with your machine- but mix it with the normal track, and you've got yourself an old-school flanger.

Pretty common with YES (Starship Trooper), Stevie Wonder's old stuff, etc.

That's probably not EXACTLY what you were referring to, but I jsut wanted to open that topic up. Many things can be done with analog that simply cannot be reproduced by a digital device -- tape flangers included.

 

[analogelectric]

Some engineers for Jimi experimented by "touching" the reels to influence the speed. Kinda like a DJ "scratching" but not as vigorous, obviously..... but it was a "hand play" as Jimi was performing his overdub. It's a total old-school way of doing it and will take some practice. You're "slowing" the tape manually as the track is being laid down by "lightly" touching (flanging) the reel IN REAL TIME! It takes time and perfect control cuz most newer tape machines are accustom to pressure therefor they'll either lock stop and/or not allow you to manipulate the rec/playback in such a manner unless you set up the tape machine's tension to compensate for such extreme measures.

Most tape machines (like mine) have a tension it likes to keep at all times. If you're to play around with "manual flange" then you'll have to bypass certain settings like 'reel tension / compensation'. It's kinda a pain in the a$$ unless you know what you're doing..... I've found it best just to use a flange pedal within the song, personally.

-- Adam Lazlo

 

[robin watson]

Boneus question: why is it called 'Flanging' ?

...........

 

[The Ghost of FM]

......Boneus question: why is it called 'Flanging' ? .....

Because you are manipulating the "flange" on the reel of tape to create the phase and delay effects.

Cheers!