Pete Celi’s Premier Guitar Article – A History of Doubletracking

Our own Pete Celi is at it again—tracing today’s popular guitar effects such as flanging, echo, and chorus to the early days of tape recording studios.

In his recent Premier Guitar article, “State of the Stomp: A History of Time (-Based Effects),” Pete elaborates on how, starting in the 1950s, savvy engineers created new audio effects by experimenting with double-tracking:

“(Flanging, chorus, and echo) originated as double-tracking effects, used to create the impression of two parts when in fact only one part was performed. They all work by creating a replica of a signal, and then mixing the original and the replica together with slight timing differences between the two.”

Throughout the article, Pete sketches out a progression of these time-based, double-tracking effects, exhibiting enormous respect for both the engineers and the vintage equipment that helped create these new sounds.  While he admits that sound technology has come a long way over recent decades, Pete understands that, while it is his job to push guitar effects forward, it is crucial that he also admires the special nuances and unique characteristics of these early, tape-based, double-tracking effects:

“Nowadays we have enormous computing power available on a single chip. Still, when creating modern double-tracking effects, we often invest much effort in replicating the sound and soul of the . . .  time-based effects painstakingly developed by the recording engineers of the ’50s and ’60s.”

For the full story on how these double-tracking effects developed, read Pete’s full article here.