Plangent Processes

Note to submitters: this label entry is for Erroll Garner's Concert by the Sea.

Howarth began researching tape mechanism distortions in the early '80s while working at Atlantic Studios, Jamie was puzzled that no studios had used the "tape bias" control tones to servo-lock playback machines, even though bias oscillators were far more stable than the transport, even on older devices. (Let alone modern MCI and Studer machines with quartz oscillators).

In 1982, Jamie Howarth was employed by George Massenburg. In October 2004, Jamie Howarth presented Plangent Processes at the 177th AES Convention in San Francisco and published a paper co-written with Wolfe, "Correction of Wow and Flutter Effects in Analog Tape Transfers."

Plangent Processes is a hybrid solution, combining custom-built hardware and software audio processing. The typical setup includes Plangent/Flux Magnetics ultra-wideband low-distortion stereo tape head (up to 24-track on custom order), retrofitted to the client's specific vintage tape transport. The Plangent's hand-wired 4-channel playback preamp has four precision de-emphasized outputs adjustable to NAB/AES/SMPTE/IEC curves and the VHF output for bias capture and archiving (flat to 1MHz). After recording the audio and VHF signals from the tape and the transport, the DSP software provides hi-precision speed control, reverse pitch shifting and forensic analysis tools to reduce or even eliminate any speed drift, wow, and flutter distortions from the record/playback.

Since its introduction, Plangent Processes has participated in restoring master tapes for the South Pacific, West Side Story, Young Frankenstein and Close Encounters of the Third Kind.