Waves / Abbey Road Reel ADT: In-Depth Tutorial 

I'm pretty appalled at the amount of people on here who don't seem to know what ADT is. I can live without the phasing and flangers but to have the Lennon/McCartney doubling available to me is invaluable! ADT is a miracle effect that essentially disappeared with the move to digital technology. Obviously, if I wanted a perfect ADT effect I would have to buy the machines and do it that way but, this is nearly identical.

I can't believe how many negative comments there are below. This plugin is pure brilliance. They've done an amazing job creating a plugin that create a whole bunch of effects that I love so much from Beatle recordings, and each of them sound so analog and organic. I have not found any other ADT plugin that even comes close to sounding this good. WOW. I absolutely have to add this to my arsenal soon. Thanks for all the details and demonstrating the versatility of the plugin.

Super well done demo. When I saw the demo was 30 minutes, I realized how little I know about how to operate this plugin. It's way more complex than I thought. Now I know. Thanks!!!!!!

Fantastic in-depth demonstration, I love especially the second half, where real wow-effects are shown and explained! And by the way: Waves offers an excellent support, thanks for that!

Guys you will learn a lot more by separately seeing how to create effects and then hearing the audio examples. You won't retain as much trying to absorb both at the same time. I was really focused on wanting to know how this sounded the first time I put this on and told someone this was not a good tutorial. After watching a few other demos and purchasing the plugin,I wanted to know what effects certain settings would generate. I accidentally started watching this again and it is fabulous. There is so much more in depth information, clearly explained, at an easy pace than you will find in 90% of youtube videos. This tutorial is $ !!!

I bought this plug in during the sale and here's my take: 1. DON'T use this on a single vocal if you're looking for a "two vocal" effect. All it does it give it a flange or chorus effect. You're better off singing two vocals. 2. DO USE it on backing vocals, and backing instruments (except drums) if you want to fatten or widen their sound across the stereo field. 3. Use it sparingly.

For me the Reel ADT is the best plugin of the last 10 years. It brings back 2 tape recorders which can be influenced by the fingers. Brilliant.

I really appreciate the in-depth overview of this new plugin. Plus Michael is doing a great job explaining the plug-in in detail.

another great plug! You guys keep knocking them out of the park. This is a definite pick up for me.

I love this thing. Honestly, haven't really used it on vocals much. Mostly use it on synths or weird percussion for an effect. It's so fun and usable. Great creative tool.

Thanks for the demo. I do like this effect very much and have been using it since the 90's. I can get very close to just by adding a tape delay plugin or doubling the tracks manually but this is a more elegant and less time consuming solution. Please bring it down to $50 and we'll be more likely to bite. Mos of us musicians aren't making as much money as we once did.

Good in depth tutorial this. Best thing with using plug ins is to mess with them. Read the manuals by all means but the learning is messing with them and experimenting with it. It has some nice effects this plugin especially for doubling up on harmony vocals and background vocals. Sounds interesting in the earphones and thank you for uploading this stuff as its worth it.

Great intro regarding the varispeed diagram. That's gold. Thanks man.

i recently bought this plugin...thanks for the showcase of what can be done.

Very nice in depth review

Great review. I've learned a bunch by watching this. The only thing this review misses is a direct demonstration of how to wet/dry mix the ADT. Having just bought the plugin, I came here wanting to know how to dial back the effect to sit in the mix with better balance. Easy enough to work it out in passing by watching this though.

It's ridiculous how impatient people are! He did an excellent job going in depth with this plugin. And besides, I'd rather have a plugin explained in "too much" detail rather than not enough!

saw this was on sale in an email I got, wanted to see a demo of it, and its great. Have to get it.

Great stuff!

This is amazing

I love this plug-in...

23:26 is exactly what I was looking for and why I bought it :)

Cool. Thanks for the demo.

So cool! thanks

In conclusion... FANTASTIC EXPLANATION!

Nice plug-in (I use the ADT in EW-FabFour and the Waves/AR J37), but for the vocal-example you use here the ADT is not in that way like George Martin did it for the Beatles, especially John Lennon. (JL hated ADT before it became his trademark). It was the purpose to sing (and record) a track twice- "doubletracking" so to say...the little harmonious errors relativized again when John sang something wrong here and there and it sounded "tuned" and it also gave the voice a lot more volume. To avoid (or even create) a chorus/flanging effect, the J37 was pitched up or down a lil` bit for the 2.nd vocal track. (The funny thing is, that the Americans used an handmade ADT-effect with their tape machines- and fingertips- long before George Martin did...the Americans called it "Flanger"... at that time "flanging" was a so called method to "slow down a tape on the flange with your fingers"). The Waves/AR Reel ADT combines this method here in a plug-in...BUT there`s always a very important problem with ADT: It doesn`t work well if you just copy and use it on the same vocal track. It sounds much much more natural if you sing a track twice and use ADT then. Maybe u ask why to use ADT when you should sing a track twice `cause the purpose and invention is not to sing twice ? Because it sounds much much more natural at all...it`s just my experience & opinion ! But what`s not MY opinion (it`s George Martin`s): ADT does not working well if you have a really good (clean& in tune) singer, because ADT needs "special vocal discrepancies" to work well. He (George Martin) once tried with Frank Sinatra and he sounded really bad about ADT because he sang as well and identically on the second track as he did on the first take...and ADT didn`t worked well. I go there compliant. Like I said...this plug-in is very nice- even for vocals... if you use this tool and vocals "correctly" (or just "incorrect") ;-)

amazing plugin, hope it will be updated

I searched for a Mike White Demo but just found this. Surprisingly! I realy dig this guy.

It's a double tracker ,it just gives some huge wideness of the vocals or whatever you put it,I'm getting one I need this in my DAW

No matter what, I think you've really got to do an A/B yourself with your own material using the demo like Waves keep saying although a lot of these plugins seem to angle towards User Experience and workflow, the same reason people with lots of money still buy a lot of hardware not because it does magical out of this world things, so keep your expectations tame and make awesome music.

Since this plug-in is supposed to replicate the ADT technique developed for the Beatles, I would suggest that the audio (vocal track) used for this demo/tutorial be based around comparing an original Beatle vocal track in which the ADT technique was used; but then, take that same dry vocal track and run it through this new Waves plug-in so we actually hear how close the Waves plug-in compares to the 1960’s ADT technique

Gotta be honest, I thought this plug was shit until the very end when he did the overdriven guitar...woah...! Definitely going to pick this one up when it goes on sale!

Very nice tutorial of the features. How CPU intense is this plugin?

i think if you do such effect with another chain of simple plugins and then compare the result with the result of ADT , two tracks will be practically identical.

Waves kick ass

Wow, wish I could have attended the sale advertised in the poster at :45 in....

Shut up, haters! This is "in-depth" tutorial, how can you expect just few min long video???

Bro, if you listen to the track 'Gates of Babylon' by Ritchie Blackmores Rainbow you'll hear an amazing version of the phase effect you tried with the drums ;D

Almost every John Lennon vocal from 1966 ob was treated with a liberal dose of this effect, and they're still among the very best vocals in rock history.

When using adt as a vocal double should i process my vocal first then add adt at the end of should i put adt on first and then process the vocal with adt on it

his would be killer for , Backing Vocals, Guitars, Keyboards, Horns, Acoustic Guitars.. One of the best Choruses I've heard in a plugin..Ohh. The Flanging) ala (Vocoder) is killer..

waves stuff is second to none

Michael white always the best

Does it do a good through zero flanging emulation? I don't have :30 minutes to listen to every word. I spent 12 minutes on it and didn't hear anything about that.

23:22!!!

Glorified, Flange \ chorus unit with a high price tag.

Waves, your explanations and tutorials are superb but please consider a 10-20 second intro of the plugin at work without a lengthy dialogue of every single function at the top of the video. Let's hear the texture of all your wonderful creations first.....then talk about it. On average you guys explain the plugins for 10 minutes before we hear music / functionality. Appreciate the technology, I'm trying to support your 50% off sale! Thx!

it´s Medina!

Metafilter.. worth it.

I just can't find a single reason to buy this plugin...

Yes, EVERYONE hates long talking demos with few audio examples. In Depth does not mean "no audio". Even START with one or two audio examples and people won't hate it so much.

the gui is fancy..unlike ableton.

I didn't really feel like this ever sounded like someone "doubling" a track. It sounded more like "here's a cool chorus/delay/flanging/distortion effect" and not "here's what it sounds like when you double track an instrument trying to be as tight as possible, so it sounds like one massive instrument." Based on this video, I'll pass on this product and continue double tracking instruments and vocals.

Also, anyone expecting this to be some kind of miracle plug that simulates actual double-tracking is sorely mistaken. There's no faking a legit double-track. Actually doubling is amazing and has advantages that no amount of plugins can touch, like having transients and timing line up while pitch modulation still occurs with no delay artifacts, not to mention actual random human variations in pitch, timbre and timing that the ear can relate to immediately, particularly timbre! The Beatles double-tracked shitloads, AND they used ADT. ADT is a totally different thing.

Why did I have to skip through 10 minutes of talking to reach the audio demos?

10 mins of waffle before any audio example? Who hired this guy?

She sounds just like Katy Perry.

Tin ears who think this just sounds like regular delay effects, if you can't tell the difference perhaps get back to being a DJ. Waves- time to lower the price or put this on your weekend specials for $129 and you'll sell plenty.

why not just do a real double track?

Im just here looking at ppl who dont know who mike white is hehehe

ZZZ ZZZ ZZZ

disslike for tell.

not worth it…

less plugins = bether sound

This video should be just 5 min...but you ....32 min oh my God ...

There's a lot of fluff here. The idea of ADT is cool, but it's outmoded now and has been for decades...and the basic functionality of this can be done by other means, namely doubler and flanger plugins. This plug does have its merits, like the GUI and the easy manual controls, the random-mode LFO and various other options in one convenient package. It is quite full-featured and flexible. But to make it sound like a totally unique effect separate from doublers and the like is misleading. What makes it unique is in the execution, not the effect itself. This demo is narrated by a pretty adept snake-oil salesman...he's got little to say, but makes it sound like a hell of a lot. I think this is what most people find so annoying here. I might not mind all the talking, maybe even the 10 excruciating minutes of it before we hear any examples (ugh!), if there was more interesting, less repetitive things to say about it. I mean, I understood the concept within the first couple minutes and so did the rest of us. It's a recreation of an old, then-unique technique for a tried-and-true couple of effects that are ubiquitous now. We don't need the Billy Mays sales pitch. I understand it was an attempt to be in-depth and thorough, but it was clear there wasn't enough real information to warrant all the talking. Although Waves would surely see it as a disservice to the plugin, an efficient 15-minute demo and explanation would have been much more satisfying and appropriate, highlighting only the things that set this plugin apart from other chorus/flanger effects, instead of blustering on and on about the same shit in different verbiage for a half hour. Still, the plugin is pretty cool taken as a whole.

10 minutes of babbling before we hear any audio examples???

Dude, talks too much.. Talk, while giving a real time example when track is playing.

Talk, talk, talk. Dude loves to talk, obviously. Even if this is an "in-depth tutorial", it could be more about the things that are really of interest: Sound. If I wanna hear a commercial of this lenght, I wanna be convinced by the sound and not the blah blah of some seller talking in the demo. Besides that, the best stuff soundwise comes at the end - very clever the narrator lost his audience at that point f.s. ... Great plug, annoying demonstration.

Blah blah blah, man play the audio!

How many times can a guy say "umm" "ahh" in one video....love the content, but just can't take anymore.

i bought this and am so disappointed..i've watched this three times, fiddled endlessly with the plug in, and it sounds horrible. Totally fake. I and it's very complicated, at least to me. i wouldn't waste the money -- in the end, you just can't duplicate real double tracking. I even went back and listened closely to the old beatles stuff -- and it still sounds to me like they are singing multiple tracks -- especially lennon's voice.

LESS.TALKING.PLEASE.

AUTOMATIC Double Tracking … but yeah, it’s all artificial I guess.

Que manera de hablar este tipo... menos bla bla y mas practica...