How Pink Floyd's Reversed Cymbal and Delayed Feedback Made 'Set the Controls' So Eerie

The most famous detail in “Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun” is that reversed cymbal crash, but it wasn’t just one reversed hit—it’s a continuous loop. Engineer Peter Mew recorded a single cymbal crash, flipped the tape backward, and kept it running under the whole song. The result is a slow, sucking “whoosh” that sounds like a black hole inhaling. The band also used Abbey Road’s old Binson Echorec tape delay on David Gilmour’s guitar feedback, letting the notes hang and decay into a cold, spaced-out shimmer.

The recording setup at Abbey Road was surprisingly minimal. The band used the studio’s EMI TG12345 console? No—that came later for The Dark Side of the Moon. For A Saucerful of Secrets, they worked on a four-track Studer J37 tape machine.