Question for the older Tape editors/producers

[adclark]

How in the world did you guys make such clean-exact edits by cutting the tape. How did you mark the exact pint to cut..and also..how did you determine that cut. I would be scared to death to attempt an edit on a 2 track master tape fearing I would hit the wrong points. When I used tape, I would edit onto a new tape using the pause control or overdub...etc. It really was an art form. Please explain!!

 

[MadAudio]

It does take some practice, but it's not as hard as you'd think. In the edit mode, it's a pretty simple matter of rocking the tape back and forth until you find the right spot. Sometimes it'll be on the beat, sometimes in between. Marking's usually done with a grease pencil. It's important to make sure your razor blade's not magnetized or you can get a big CLUNK at the edit point.

 

[chessrock]

This is the way I had to do it, which was kind of antiquated even for it's time ... but I'd turn the reel with my hands, manually, and listen for where you're going to make the cut. You then take a grease pensil and mark where the position is between the record / playback head.

Then, you put the tape on a block (splicing block) and slice it with a razor blade. You piece the stuff back together using a special kind of tape, and you'd do it on the back of the tape where there's no recording to mess with.

Yea, it was a pain in the ass, but there was a much greater level of satisfaction when you were actually able to make an edit work. You were kind of looked at as a magician. Nowadays, it's just sort of ho-hum. Although I still think that, even today, there is a certain degree of value to being able to do a quality editing job, and to do it quickly / on the fly. Time is money, and if you can slice and dice / cut and paste in a timely and quality manner -- even on a computer -- those who are "on the clock" will appreciate it.

 

[Ronan]

And to put it into some perspective, if you are recording at 30ips that means one second of music is 2 1/2 feet of tape. Its not too tough to find a drum hit by scrubbing.