• George Martin, John, and "Flanging"

    From Norbert K@21:1/5 to All on Sun Dec 4 06:21:49 2022
    "Now, 'flange' happens to be one of those silly words that I always used. When John Lennon heard double-tracking that we'd done -- automatic double-tracking or artificial double-tracking that we'd managed to devise at Abbey Road studios --, he asked me
    what it *was*. And I said, 'Well, it's a bit complicated, John, you wouldn't understand. But it's all done by means of a double-vibrocated sploshing flange.' And this was sort of gobbledygook, and he looked at me for a moment and then he laughed. And,
    after that, when we used to do this, he used to call it 'flanging.' And it's still a term used today in recording."

    -- George Martin, in the John Lennon: All You Need Is Love doc.

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    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From geoff@21:1/5 to Norbert K on Mon Dec 5 09:23:50 2022
    On 5/12/2022 3:21 am, Norbert K wrote:
    "Now, 'flange' happens to be one of those silly words that I always used. When John Lennon heard double-tracking that we'd done -- automatic double-tracking or artificial double-tracking that we'd managed to devise at Abbey Road studios --, he asked
    me what it *was*. And I said, 'Well, it's a bit complicated, John, you wouldn't understand. But it's all done by means of a double-vibrocated sploshing flange.' And this was sort of gobbledygook, and he looked at me for a moment and then he laughed.
    And, after that, when we used to do this, he used to call it 'flanging.' And it's still a term used today in recording."

    -- George Martin, in the John Lennon: All You Need Is Love doc.


    The actual process being a live (or recorded) signal being mixed with a
    second recording of the same thing on a second tape deck, when\re the
    flange of the reel is variously slowed electrically or by the thumb.
    This causes changing phase relationships between the subsequently
    combined signal to give the spacey effect.

    Since then the effect was emulated with analogue delay-line electronics,
    and more recently digitally.

    geoff

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  • From Norbert K@21:1/5 to geoff on Sun Dec 4 14:08:22 2022
    On Sunday, December 4, 2022 at 12:23:56 PM UTC-8, geoff wrote:
    On 5/12/2022 3:21 am, Norbert K wrote:
    "Now, 'flange' happens to be one of those silly words that I always used. When John Lennon heard double-tracking that we'd done -- automatic double-tracking or artificial double-tracking that we'd managed to devise at Abbey Road studios --, he asked
    me what it *was*. And I said, 'Well, it's a bit complicated, John, you wouldn't understand. But it's all done by means of a double-vibrocated sploshing flange.' And this was sort of gobbledygook, and he looked at me for a moment and then he laughed. And,
    after that, when we used to do this, he used to call it 'flanging.' And it's still a term used today in recording."

    -- George Martin, in the John Lennon: All You Need Is Love doc.

    The actual process being a live (or recorded) signal being mixed with a second recording of the same thing on a second tape deck, when\re the
    flange of the reel is variously slowed electrically or by the thumb.
    This causes changing phase relationships between the subsequently
    combined signal to give the spacey effect.

    Since then the effect was emulated with analogue delay-line electronics,
    and more recently digitally.

    geoff

    Have you employed the original flanging process, Geoff?

    The effects units that emulate the process are great fun.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From geoff@21:1/5 to Norbert K on Mon Dec 5 15:38:13 2022
    On 5/12/2022 11:08 am, Norbert K wrote:
    On Sunday, December 4, 2022 at 12:23:56 PM UTC-8, geoff wrote:
    On 5/12/2022 3:21 am, Norbert K wrote:
    "Now, 'flange' happens to be one of those silly words that I always used. When John Lennon heard double-tracking that we'd done -- automatic double-tracking or artificial double-tracking that we'd managed to devise at Abbey Road studios --, he asked
    me what it *was*. And I said, 'Well, it's a bit complicated, John, you wouldn't understand. But it's all done by means of a double-vibrocated sploshing flange.' And this was sort of gobbledygook, and he looked at me for a moment and then he laughed. And,
    after that, when we used to do this, he used to call it 'flanging.' And it's still a term used today in recording."

    -- George Martin, in the John Lennon: All You Need Is Love doc.

    The actual process being a live (or recorded) signal being mixed with a
    second recording of the same thing on a second tape deck, when\re the
    flange of the reel is variously slowed electrically or by the thumb.
    This causes changing phase relationships between the subsequently
    combined signal to give the spacey effect.

    Since then the effect was emulated with analogue delay-line electronics,
    and more recently digitally.

    geoff

    Have you employed the original flanging process, Geoff?

    The effects units that emulate the process are great fun.

    No - I don't have two suitable tape decks, and the boxes and plug-ins do
    it just fine ;- )

    geoff

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Norbert K@21:1/5 to geoff on Mon Dec 5 05:50:32 2022
    On Sunday, December 4, 2022 at 6:38:22 PM UTC-8, geoff wrote:
    On 5/12/2022 11:08 am, Norbert K wrote:
    On Sunday, December 4, 2022 at 12:23:56 PM UTC-8, geoff wrote:
    On 5/12/2022 3:21 am, Norbert K wrote:
    "Now, 'flange' happens to be one of those silly words that I always used. When John Lennon heard double-tracking that we'd done -- automatic double-tracking or artificial double-tracking that we'd managed to devise at Abbey Road studios --, he
    asked me what it *was*. And I said, 'Well, it's a bit complicated, John, you wouldn't understand. But it's all done by means of a double-vibrocated sploshing flange.' And this was sort of gobbledygook, and he looked at me for a moment and then he laughed.
    And, after that, when we used to do this, he used to call it 'flanging.' And it's still a term used today in recording."

    -- George Martin, in the John Lennon: All You Need Is Love doc.

    The actual process being a live (or recorded) signal being mixed with a >> second recording of the same thing on a second tape deck, when\re the
    flange of the reel is variously slowed electrically or by the thumb.
    This causes changing phase relationships between the subsequently
    combined signal to give the spacey effect.

    Since then the effect was emulated with analogue delay-line electronics, >> and more recently digitally.

    geoff

    Have you employed the original flanging process, Geoff?

    The effects units that emulate the process are great fun.
    No - I don't have two suitable tape decks, and the boxes and plug-ins do
    it just fine ;- )

    geoff

    Yeah. Now the question is: "On which Beatles songs was the flanging technique used?" I'm going to say "Tomorrow Never Knows" is one of them.

    The flange effect lends itself to psychedelia, IMO (even if partly due to tradition), just as the envelope filter does to funk.

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