Doubletracking
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Doubletracking is an audio recording technique, in which a performer sings or plays along with their own prerecorded part, for dramatic effect or to produce a stronger sound than with a single voice or instrument.
Artificial or automatic doubletracking, also known as ADT, was developed at Abbey Road Studios by engineers recording the Beatles in the 1960s. It used a combination of synchronised tape recorders and electronic delay to mimic the effect created by doubletracking an instrument or voice. ADT produced a unique sound, which can be imitated to a point by analog or digital delay devices (in a technique called doubling echo), but not precisely duplicated.
John Lennon referred to his home-studio technique of overdubbing sounds with a pair of tape recorders to make song demos as "doubletracking", but this usage isn't technically correct; rather than laying the same part over, Lennon would normally add different parts to the originals. His post-Beatles albums frequently employed doubling echo on his vocals, in place of the ADT system the Beatles had; some critics complained that the effect made the impression that Lennon recorded all his vocals in a bathroom.
