08/03/2026
Long before plugins and digital effects, studio engineers experimented with tape machines to create new sounds.
In the mid 1960s at Abbey Road Studios, engineer Ken Townsend was working on recordings for The Beatles. Engineers sometimes ran two identical tape machines playing the same recording to experiment with slight timing differences.
They discovered that lightly touching the fl**ge (the outer rim) of a tape reel slowed the tape down slightly. This created a tiny delay between two identical signals.
When those signals combined again, their phase interaction produced the sweeping, jet-like sound we now know as flanging.
Because the engineer’s finger was touching the tape fl**ge, the effect became known as flanging.
Some of the first well known tracks to use this technique include:
• Tomorrow Never Knows – The Beatles (1966)
• Itchycoo Park – Small Faces (1967)
• Bold as Love – The Jimi Hendrix Experience (1967)
• Sky Pilot – Eric Burdon & The Animals (1968)
Originally the effect had to be performed manually by touching the spinning tape reel during playback.
What started as a studio experiment eventually became one of the most recognizable effects in music production, now available in pedals, rack units and plugins.
📸 strymon.net
s **ger