Automatic Double Tracking - Flanging

Flanging

Lennon dubbed the technique "flanging" after producer George Martin jokingly told him it was produced using a "double-bifurcated sploshing flange". Only years later did Martin learn that another technique, also called flanging, was already in use (it is rumoured that recording engineer Joe Meek was the inventor of flanging in the 1950s; however, it is more often attributed to Townsend. Whether that attribution is valid or not is contested because of the close contact between George Martin, who misnomered ADT as flanging, and Townsend.) The term referred to an engineer's alternately pressing and releasing his finger against the flange (rim) of the supply reel on one of two synchronized tape machines as the same audio signal was combined and transferred to a third machine, slightly slowing the machine then allowing it to come back up to speed and in sync with the other, applying a "swooshing" comb filtering effect to the combined audio signal. Alternatively, the engineer could press the flange of one supply reel then the other to achieve a fuller effect.

An additional explanation for the pedigree of flanging has it named after Fred Flange, a pseudonym given to Matt Monro by Peter Sellers, who used a Monro recording to open his 1959 Sinatra parody album Songs for Swingin' Sellers. The album was produced by Martin, and presumably the connection with flanging comes from Monro's mimicking (double-tracking) Sinatra. Engineers at Abbey Road realised that the technique they had developed needed a proper technical name and eventually christened it ADT, short for "Artificial Double Tracking", although elsewhere the term "Automatic Double Tracking" became more common.