Reverse tape effects
Reverse tape effects are special effects created by recording sound onto magnetic tape and then physically reversing the tape so that when the tape is played back, the sounds recorded on it are heard in reverse. Backmasking is a type of reverse tape effect.
History
In 1877,
Reverse effects were regarded largely as a curiosity and were little used until the 1950s. The 1950s saw two new developments in audio technology: the development of
The reverse tape technique became especially popular during the psychedelic music era of the mid-to-late 1960s when musicians and producers exploited a vast range of special audio effects.
Examples
One of the best-known examples of music featuring reverse tape effects is the Doctor Who theme (1963), composed by Ron Grainer and realised electronically by Delia Derbyshire of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop.
Several Beatles songs of the period — including Revolver (1966) tracks "I'm Only Sleeping" and "Tomorrow Never Knows" — also feature recordings of electric guitars, sitars and "birds" which have been reversed.[6] Another famous example of the use of reverse tape effects is their 1967 single "Strawberry Fields Forever." During the verses, Lennon's voice is accompanied by a series of rapid "swooshing" sounds; these are actually the sounds of Ringo Starr's drum and cymbal accompaniment. These patterns were carefully pre-recorded, the tape reversed and the reversed percussion effects meticulously edited into the master tape to synchronise with the music.
Around the same time,
Occasionally, record labels would use a reverse tape song on the B-side of a single, to ensure that only the A side got radio play. One example is "Noolab Wolley" by the US group The Yellow Balloon; A-side “Yellow Balloon” was a big cheery harmony-drenched slice of sunshine pop that went to #25 in Billboard in the spring of 1967. The flip side of the single reversed the tape to create a surprisingly listenable off-kilter bit of shoopy drums and near-psychedelic "lyrics" that worked pretty well. In the year prior, there was "Aaah-ah, Yawa Em Ekat Ot Gnimoc Er’yeht" by Napoleon XIV (Jerry Samuels). In the original song "They’re Coming To Take Me Away, Ha-Haaa!", Samuels created one of the most bizarre one-hit oddities of the 1960s, going to #1 in Cashbox, #3 in Billboard, #4 in the UK, and #2 in Canada in the summer of 1966. The reverse version fared reasonably well on the flip side, since the martial drumming of the A side remained more or less intact, and the lyrics were only slightly less warped.[citation needed]
An example of the use of reverse tape effects is the song "Roundabout" (1972) by the British
See also
References
- Australian Centre for the Moving Image. Archived from the originalon 2004-03-02. Retrieved 2007-03-01.
- ^ Kittler, Friedrick. "The Gramaphone". Archived from the original on 2004-03-03. Retrieved 2007-03-01.
- ISBN 978-0-87930-792-9.
- ^ White, Ray. "Musique Concrète". whitefiles.org. Archived from the original on November 18, 2007. Retrieved 2007-11-05.
- ^ Peters, Michael. "The Birth of Loop: A Short History of Looping Music". loopers-delight.com. Archived from the original on March 28, 2007. Retrieved 2007-03-10.
- ^ 20 Things You Didn't Know About The Beatles' 'Revolver', NME, 2016-08-03