The ADT Story with Abbey Road Studios’ Ken Townsend

[@jaggass]

I love how Ken's face lit up after the the interviewer said he invented ADT. He's very proud of that and it changed the sound of music forever. He's a living legend.

[@KeithSpinneyMusic]

Ken Townsend, thank you for your service sir.

[@sidsimo]

He' deserves a huge amount of credit from recording artists everywhere. mainly since everyone has been copying the Beatles music and techniques for decades. I stumbled upon this video while researching voice double tracking. In doing so, I found a video of Brian May describing Freddie Mercury's doubling on Bohemian Rhapsody. Brian was quick to pay homage to the Beatles.. Wonderful video.....

[@LFOVCF]

He inspires me! I love the curiosity of saying "what happens if you do this...."

[@jaggass]

I've said that alot of times when working on things. They blow up.

[@hang-sangitch]

Brilliant interview. Really nice guy too..

[@avalanwa]

God bless him. He literally changed the world of music with this invention. 👏👏👏

[@SoStrauberry]

The honorable Ken Towsend...Thank you sir for your amazing insight.. Thank you Waves.

[@diordrama]

Wow, this made me smile and almost cry. Love this, thanks.

[@markparris228]

Legendary!! So many brilliant innovations came out of those studios.

[@walterearl5138]

Wow the legend himself what a great interview thank you guys for sharing

[@josephanderson3111]

As you listen to Ken Townsend talk about ADT you can hear how dedicated he was to music as an engineer.John Lennon asked him to find a better way to double track and he did just that. When he talks about creating ADT in his mind while driving home at four in the morning after a long days work you have to respect his dedication to his craft. For me it is the look in his eyes as he talks about what he loves to do. His eyes show the pride he has for what he spent his career doing. At the end of the interview when the interviewer thanks him for making ADT Ken's shows us how proud he is as well as how humble of a man he is. Ken Townsend retired as the Chairman of the Studio Group after 42 years of service. They don't come like this anymore. They say a picture is worth a thousand words. Stop this video at 7:06-7:07 the look in his eyes and the smile on his face says it all. ✌

[@schipbreukeling3]

true

[@BobSchusterMusiccom]

Would have loved to see a video of Ken Townsend demoing the Waves ADT plugin and what he thought of it compared to his original idea.

[@cherrimusic7128]

Brilliant, and well worth inventing!

[@jevonXman]

This Made Me Smile. Nice! This Is How Its Done.

[@underworldent4817]

amazing bloke , fantastic.

[@diegooliveirabenjamin]

Superb!

[@OverdriveMusic]

Man is a legend!

[@johnburns4017]

ADT is also used in instruments as well as voices, and used on instruments in Revolver as well. To thicken the voice they had to play the first track back via headphones, so a singer could be in synch with it, onto a second track. Then the two were mixed onto one track, as Ken explained. According to Geoff Emerick (on KZbin), who was one of the sound engineers on Revolver, ADT came about because John Lennon did not like the sound of his own voice, as as Ken explained, Lennon asked for a technical solution. The solution was simple and quite obvious, but equipment hungry at the time as two expensive tape machines were used.

[@claudec2588]

Thanks for sharing.

[@ReneAlexisPenalozaMunoz]

Wow, what an incredible story.

[@patjackmanesq]

Excellent! Thanks for that!

[@frankservant5754]

His enthusiasim!!

[@MikeSpexTV]

Love learning the history. What a mastermind. Thx Waves Thnx Abbey roads Thnx Ken!!! Now I gotta cop the bundle. Anyday now

[@thekitowl]

Recently spent 15 Minutes gazing at Ken’s amazing box of tricks. Presumably it was made at Hayes along with the other amazing bits of EMI kit.

[@jaggass]

It's such a shame ADT never really took off because it was such a game changer for singers. If i was a producer that's a thing i'd do to vocals.

[@noelmajers6369]

Ken is an absolute diamond geezer (if you are British, you'll know that's not an insult !)....

[@J.ELDRIDGE..visuals]

A living legend and iconic master of true advanced audio engineering!

[@jaimealvaradol.5235]

ADT's is one of Revolver's secret sauce. Brilliant invention

[@jaggass]

I'd love to hear ADT recreated on 2 tape machines

[@drutgat2]

Thanks for this. In Brian Southall's 'Abbey Road: The Story of the World's Most Famous Recording Studios', Southall writes that John Lennon insisted on calling Ken Townsend's invention "Ken's 'Flanger'", and says that is how the term 'Flanging' came into being.

[@garymilliken4429]

The story, which may-or-may-not be entirely accurate (but a really nice story anyway) is that when Lennon heard ADT demonstrated, and realized that it would save *him* a lot of time and effort, he asked how it was done. Townsend and particularly George Martin knew from experience that Lennon was notoriously un-technical so no explanation was going to mean anything to him. It was allegedly Martin (according to his own recounting) that replied, "Now listen, it's very simple. We take the original image and we split it through a double vibrocated sploshing flange with double negative feedback." From that point on, Lennon referred to it as "flanging" or "the flanger", as in "Put Ken's flanger on that track."

[@thekitowl]

@@garymilliken4429 👍 wasn’t Matt Monro called Fred Flange by George Martin.

[@minstrelofMir]

And thank you for giving the beatles more options mate,,ynwa

[@Scotttyist]

THE LEGEND

[@simonbullimore1807]

God bless him... an amazing invention.

[@patrickmoore3538]

Or "Ken's Flanger", as John Lennon would call it back in the day.

[@lifewhyz]

Judging by their eyes... Ken Townsend seems so genuine and congenial in this interview. This other guy feels untrustworthy; like he's only there to pitch a product. The good news is that Waves Reel ADT _does_ sound amazing. And it's worth every penny.

[@vicesquadpunk]

Phenomenal ❤️😊

[@DavidAndrewsPEC]

NGL - I got emotional because of this video.

[@job9650]

Same :(

[@jamestilby2223]

ANOTHER GENIUS BEHIND THE BEATLES

[@kingech_B15]

We need a whole series on these topics mane. From mono to stereo to atmos. Whats next?

[@AiMR]

I've been playing around with Waves Reel ADT, and although I despise the way the company operates, I have to say it is a really good plugin.

[@lifewhyz]

What does Ken Townsend think of Waves Reel ADT?

[@therealrussellsmyth]

Was wondering same

[@Video-tipsTv]

AMAZING!! The man and the legend! I wonder if digital will ever sound as good and "fat" as a 2 inch recorder?

[@Video-tipsTv]

***** I don't know if you have ever listened to a real good studio recording..? I have! for over 25 years. and I wouldn't call STUDER A800 or A80 distorted.... and no MP3 no 44.1K wav could ever get close to this sound....

[@sidsimo]

Do tell!

[@mikhaelaston9099]

Microwave to BBQ no comparison

[@chipgaasche4933]

@@mikhaelaston9099 nice try, mikhael.

[@LeviBulger]

Nope. Nothing will ever sound as good as great analog equipment.

[@davidkennerly]

I'm not sure how effective this was as an advert for Waves, though. Didn't Mirek Stiles just say that the effect has never been quite replicated and didn't Townsend just say that digital couldn't match the original, according to Paul McCartney?

[@ytnsanw]

Ha ha - Yes, I see what you mean, although I think the inference was that it's never been duplicated 'until now' - with the Waves plugin....

[@lifewhyz]

That may have been the intention. But they really never did said one way or another. I wonder what Ken thinks of this.

[@Daytripper51]

I'd like to see a demo of actually setting up ADT....somewhere.

[@thekitowl]

There is a piece that George Martin did where he’s talking & explaining what he’s doing with Ken’s ADT box . You can clearly hear the difference between ADT , phasing & flanging.

[@bnjmae]

Interesting story. Even your basic home recording studio can record endless multi track recordings. I for one only ever double track my vocals without using a ADT kind of app. I like the feel of being slightly out here and there...

[@lifewhyz]

It's not just about having the convenience of double-tracking. A lot of it's use is for the analog tape sound with the tone and nuances it imparted in your tracks. Demo out. See what you think. It's only like 35 bucks right now on sale at the Waves site.

[@qualiiii]

RESPECT

[@MrJubikej]

offtopic...with what camera have you filmed this, please? looks amazing. sound is also exellent.

[@frankservant5754]

Somebody got to answer, but is it the camera or it was edited in post, plus the lighting too

[@JohnBarrylizard]

This is excellent and I enjoyed this very much. Please correct me if I'm mistaken but I never actually heard Ken Townsend give his opinion on Wave's Reet ADT though. Still, I'm very interested and going to get the demo and see how I like it compared to my other solutions.

[@lifewhyz]

It's not really a product review. Although, I wonder what he thinks of it, too.

[@waynedeadder664]

Fucking genius!!!!!

[@marcjustinpascasio9955]

Damn, I didn't even know that this technique had a name or a legend created it , I thought it was just a technique I found out by being lazy to double track the second stack of my vocals so I just moved a little bit so it sounds different tracks.

[@elchichosantana6410]

I just notice all personnel in Abbey Road sounds like George Martin. From Giles Martin to Geoff Emerick

[@balloonsballoon]

Anyway to achieve this effect if your tape machine has just one regular output (not separate outputs for sync and repro heads)? Was it only a track issue that prevented them from printing the adt to a track (opting instead to do it during mixdown) or am I missing something?

[@reddevil9554]

Analogue still sounds better than digital to my ears. You can do a lot more with digital along the way but the sound always ends up much wetter with lots of added noise. I went back to listening to vinyl and you can hear so much more detail on the original recordings, it really is amazing, it's like being there. Obviously a decent system helps, you won't get the benefit with a cheap set up. It really is astonishing that even with the remasters they still can't do it digitally. Maybe in the future they'll eventually work it out, but not yet. It just shows how good the sound engineers and producers were back then, that the analogue versions are still better over 50 years later.

[@underworldent4817]

i agree. i am also a red.

[@ferabra8939]

Ken Townsend is responsible for giving The Beatles their most characteristic effect.

[@TheCatLouise86]

Ths Beatles were surrounded by adventurous people willing to take their lead alot of times!

[@thekitowl]

They were, however had the Beatles not bought in huge amounts of money to EMI their progression would have been very different.

[@scottweber8348]

Seems so obvious once he explains it, but then again the wheel seems obvious when you see it too. Still a matter of sometime doing it in the first place.

[@johnburns4017]

He never explained what _remix_ is.

[@hoodedman07]

I swear I’m having a Mandela effect moment. I swear it was always called Automatic Double Tracking, not Artificial

[@johngordon5495]

Has sort of an orange flavor i think?

[@kjvbible1611]

Did not Neil Sedaka and Jan and Dean do the same?

[@thekitowl]

Not sure, but in the USA they used to use Two Mic’s in close proximity giving a chorus type effect which sounded brilliant.

[@djdiegomolina]

no examples ???? RIDICULLLLLL

[@jocomend]

they actually NEVER asked his opinion on the plug in, I wonder why...🤔

[@SFLfights]

If they had asked the question you would have said that it's normal for him to praise the plugin, he was paid by Waves ;)

[@JanPBtest]

For some reason I never liked the idea of renaming to "Abbey Road Studios".

[@JanPBtest]

@Jim McCracken It's just an opinion.

[@thekitowl]

There was a time when the Studio was struggling, so the name change was critical to its survival. In fact Ken was solely responsible for bringing film scores to Abbey Road & saved studio 1 from becoming a car park ( not kidding ) .

[@Novice2Nature]

I thought I'd invented this. Turns out the pro's have been doing it for years

[@Novice2Nature]

@Jim McCracken I feel like I need to prove this statement incorrect but it won't be easy 🤞😆

[@horowizard]

You don't actually get to hear the plug-in. I'm skeptical that it sounds anything like the original.

[@thekitowl]

Doubt it.

[@willischmidt9479]

translate it on russian please

[@Pimp-Master]

Ken, you have the honor of me resorting to English subtitles to help explain what you're talking about. Could you like...slow down for us English speakers who have a hard time with Brit accents?

[@thekitowl]

What didn’t you understand.