Tape flanger

ethios4 · Post by **ethios4** » Thu Jan 11, 2007 9:22 pm

Ok, here's a fun production trick to try out...

Record the part as usual. Run the output into a tape deck and record it onto tape. Now run the tape's output back into Live and record it. Layer the recording from the tape against the original. You will hear a random flanging effect from the minor discrepancies in the tape speed against the constant speed from the original recording.

This works especially well with hi-hats.

Enjoy!

Tone Deft · Post by **Tone Deft** » Thu Jan 11, 2007 9:29 pm

could a similar effect be done by autowarping the same clip with two different warping methods and playing them at the same time? I'm at work and can't try it, just a thought...

20+ years ago I was flanging out the drum intro to 'In Between Days' like that, it was cool how the decks would drift around and how you could touch the flange of the cassette to put it in/out of phase (I've heard that's where the term comes from.)

ethios4 · Post by **ethios4** » Thu Jan 11, 2007 9:38 pm

nice. I didn't know you could that with regular ole cassettes.

A similar effect can be achieved layering differently-warped versions of the same track, but it is not exactly the same effect. You could also time-stretch the taped track so that it is perfectly back in time with the original, but would have very subtle warping artifacts. I think the thing I like about the tape method is the subtle timing differences it introduces.

dj superflat · Post by **dj superflat** » Thu Jan 11, 2007 10:29 pm

you can do something similar by copying loop to another track, subtly tweaking pitch and time of sample offset with envelopes. but doesn't provide the anlogue goodness of an actual cassette deck.

ckluxen · Post by **ckluxen** » Fri May 18, 2007 8:34 pm

that's what Steve Reich called Phasing...

Angstrom · Post by **Angstrom** » Fri May 18, 2007 9:01 pm

I think in Steve Reich's case the effect went beyond the flange delay lengths and into serious drift territory. I think what Steve Reich called phase is these days better known as "trainwrecking" !

despite the DJ term, I still like it, and its fun to run two instances of Live (one at 120, one at 121 bpm )to get a 'phase' going on