As technology increasingly influences recording procedure, if not style, there remains a simple mechanical process which almost equals the overdub in recording significance and indeed, in the case of single record production, can be of paramount importance. That process is editing.

There are those among us (come on, own up) who, when faced with the neat little word 'edit' get waylaid with early adolescent images (don't we all) of tape editing as a means of repairing tape. This could well be because editing-tape and equipment manufacturers have always assumed in their consumer marketing that average tape machine owners reach for the editing tackle as they would for Elastoplast — in the case of an accident.

Creative editing, which is all we're going to talk about from now on, is another kettle of fish altogether. The breaks you repair are ones you enterprisingly made quite deliberately in the first place. And that look of anxious disrespect with which you regarded the splicing block is commuted to one of joy, pleasure, excitement, manifest bonhomie... (let's not get too carried away).

But before we get into that too heavily, let's underline the basic principles of editing. While the essential process remains one of joining two lengths of tape, various manufacturers and individuals have historically suggested different ways of actually doing it, on ¼in tape.

Scissors

This is the oldest method, barring chemical bonding techniques which are well worth barring. The two lengths of tape are held aloft and snipped at an arbitrarily acute angle with a pair of non-magnetic scissors. The ends are then aligned perfectly on a flat surface and the prospective joint covered with wide splicing tape. Surplus tape is then trimmed from edges with the scissors (above). Great for saying you've got a real pair of non-magnetic tape-editor's scissors, but otherwise forget it. Cumbersome, difficult and time-consuming just about describes this one - best keep the scissors for the prestige and look for an alternative method.

Flat groove slicing block

One of the earlier attempts at a splicing 'job', and still (to the best of my knowledge) in production, this block provided a flat groove with score lines for angled and butt joint cutting, with further score lines to facilitate edge trimming. Single-edged razor blades did the cutting, while grubby fingers held each tape length in place. Main problems — the grubby fingers bit.

Clamp splicing block

A block designed by Bib for the inveterate hobbyist. Most details as above, but cork-faced clamps replace the fingers. See above.

Automatic editing block

A horribly cheap, inaccurate and fallible creation of Japanese origin. A flat groove with cork-faced clamps and a central do-it-all-for-you hinged cutting head. A large plastic slide switch brings either 'cut' or 'edge trim' integral-blades into effect, bearing on to a soft plastic anvil. Problems? Yes... plastic anvil gets cut to shreds, blades go blunt, edge cutters cut into outer tracks, 'cut' angle varies. All this and more! Not recommended, in short. (See below.)

Concave groove editing block

This is the model for the discerning tape recorder owner... a neat and simple device, now standard throughout the world, comprising an aluminium alloy block with a concave groove cut across its length. The concavity of the groove serves to grip the tape (see opposite). The usual grooves are provided for use with single-edged blades. Some problems, mostly dependent on the quality of the block. If, for instance, the groove width is incorrect, the tape will slip during the editing process (particularly when splicing tape is applied). This is even worse on extended play tapes, which are more supple (but aren't worth working with seriously anyway). Also if the overhang on the groove is too great, tape edges will be damaged as completed joints are removed from the block. You may have gathered that old-fashioned wide splicing tape is not used on this block — instead splicing tape slightly undersize on width has to be used - hence there are no edge trimming score lines (and good riddance). But the width of splicing tapes does vary; some brands are oversize. While this makes for a splendidly thorough splice, it can make alignment of the splicing tape rather difficult. An edit unsuccessful in this respect has to be corrected by the confounded edge trimming routine which is a pain. For ¼in editing, the width of the splicing tape should be ⁷/₃₂ in (theoretically ¹/₆₄ in per side) to play with.

The best blocks of this type are made by Stephens and by Joel Tall Inc (under the trade name Editall), both in the United States. Both companies market a complete series of blocks from ¼in upwards. EMI also market a similar block in the UK, for ¼in only, based on the Editall concept (they used to import them but now make their own, which aren't quite as good, but are cheaper).

So much for the mechanics of the operation - at least for the time being. We still haven't really enlarged on the role of creative editing.

Creative Editing

Summed up briefly, creative editing describes one of the few negative processes in the sound producing chain. Because the aim is simply to remove superfluous sound. This could be anything from an odd drum beat to a whole verse, chorus or both. The whole process reiterates the old maxim that knowing what to leave out is as important as what you put in.

Let's take a particularly good, but quite common, example: the 'single taken from the album' syndrome. Sometimes the album and single versions are identical. But very often the single has a shorter running time with solo and equalisation differences, but otherwise sounds similar. In these cases, creative editing skills have been put to (occasionally) good use. The track is originated on the album multitrack tape, and later selected for single release. At this point the producer and engineer, under orders from the record company usually, scrutinise the recording for ways of both reducing running time and 'tightening up' the sound. A classic example of this is MacArthur Park by Donna Summer - there are hundreds of others. Clumsy intros, album-length solo intervals and superfluous verses — in fact anything that might drag on the pace of the prospective single - are all earmarked on a duplicate multitrack for removal. Our engineer hero then summons up his considerable experience as a teaboy and washer-up to locate exact edit points between musical phrases. Consistency of rhythm is vital, while a sudden change of musical 'atmosphere' is hopelessly unacceptable. Overdubs of fresh solos, additional percussion, or whatever can then be made, and the tape re-mixed to suit the singles market — disco material may for instance be freshly mixed and in particular equalised to give a bass and top lifted immediacy. Sometimes it is a stereo master that undergoes the editing treatment.

Great. But where does that put musicians in the street with their ever-hopeful demo tapes? Off the street and into the studio with splicing gear! The truth is that many, if not most, demo tapes would benefit a little more than somewhat from a touch of editing.

Sacred

Unfortunately, the latent editing skills of semi-pro musicians and engineers tend to be inhibited by an unfortunate instinct. Having shelled out hard-earned cash for a continuous length of tape, the last thing they seem willing to do is chop this sacred material about. Here, the already mentioned teaboy experience can be useful. Work in any studio environment for a period of time and you begin to realise that unwanted tape is about as sacred as the sugar you stir into the tea and coffee. Sticking with studio hierarchy for a moment, a tape operator - the next notch up - deals with routine editing (and some tricky editing, though usually on copies) all the time. But an important fact in such work is that the op is always working on other peoples tapes. A semi-pro engineer or musician, on the other hand, works on tape paid for by a group — or even worse, him/herself - which makes the prospect of cutting it (the tape) that much more painful.

The only way to get round this reserve is to think of tape as a continuing investment; the further purchase of which implies yet another reel of experience. After all, by the time studio engineers lay their hands on some really important and creative editing work, they will have completed the basic operation many hundreds of times — so expect to need plenty of practice to get it right. Don't pander to instincts of economy that find you recording on a five minute 'odd bit of tape' containing scores and scores of edits, as many seasoned amateurs seem to do!

Ergonomic editing

A fancy name for some commonsense aspects of the process — commonsense once you accept that tape editing must be as instinctive as possible to release brain cells for creative decision-making. Firstly it's important to have all your editing materials near the tape path of your tape machine. If you use many machines, you need identical editing facilities on each one. The diagram below shows a typical editing facility — how you mount or position the constituents depends on how permanent the installation is, whether you are right or left handed, whether you are practically minded, and so on. But essentially you need an editing block close and parallel to the tape path, somewhere to put the blade and tape marker, and an easy way of obtaining lengths of splicing tape. This last requirement can be the most difficult to achieve; if you chop lengths off a roll as you need them, the new beginning of the roll frequently sticks down on the roll circumference, meaning that you have to fiddle about with your nail to lift it up when you want another bit. It's possible to overcome this by making a dispenser, Sellotape-style, but a simpler answer is to pre-cut a series of lengths and lightly attach them to a polished metal edge near (or even on) the splicing block. This procedure is used very successfully by Ron Geesin, the sound creator and manipulator who's surely one of the most experienced editors in the business. 'When I first started off, I remember him telling me once, 'I used to produce the most awful edits — tapes overlapping at the joint or not touching and leaving a gap of sticky splicing tape. I used to have to put French chalk on the edits to make them run through the machine properly without sticking!' Ron has 'plumbed in' editing facilities adjacent to each of his Revox machines, which are now of the 3-77 'easy-editing' variety.

Making the edit

And so we come to the actual doing of the deed — the splicing together of two tapes, together guided down life's tape path; a marriage not without its sticky patches initially, but withstanding some reel tensions and culminating in a lasting bond. (Oh God, there he goes again... — Ed).

The first step is obviously finding the bit you want to cut out. The skill is in doing this with a smoothness which makes the edit unnoticeable to the average listener, and preferably also to yourself. When working on rhythmic musical material, synchronise edit points on a strong beat sound. But where possible, cut a beat before or after the strong sync beat. This is so that, if a degree of dropout does occur at the joint, it will fall on a softer part of the rhythm and be less noticeable. Dropout can be caused by a magnetic blade, a bad splice, thick splicing tape, or poor tape path design — or of course a combination of any or all of these factors. Magnetic blades are easily de-magnetised with a head demagnetiser or bulk eraser; a bad splice — well, we're coming to that; thick splicing tape is simply to be avoided; and poor tape path design (frequently where those nasty things, pressure pads, are in use, or the tape is swerved round a tortuous route) means the machine will not like spliced tape!

However, to continue our little story of making an edit, you've now found the edit points and so have to mark the tape. In general, tape has to be marked with Chinagraph or a similar wax-based pencil. These can be awkward to get in to some machines' head area — particularly, in my humble experience, in the case of the evergreen Revox A 77 — as they are quite fat and do not maintain a fine point for long. Matt-back tapes, on the other hand will accept a mark from an ordinary pencil, but a wax pencil is still the favourite. The correct matt-back splicing tape (Agfa make some, for example) is advisable with these tapes, however, or the joint will almost certainly bubble and fail eventually, if not immediately.

When marking the edit points, marks must be made on the back of the tape positioned exactly on the playback head in each case. Be sure to line-up the tape to the start of the beat you're editing on, for a clean edit. Naturally the earlier (exit) point will be marked first and the later (entry) point will be marked last. But it helps to zero the tape counter on the earlier edit point, and remove the tape for cutting on the later edit point. This way the tape counter, almost always operating on the right hand spool on semi-pro machines, can be used to find the earlier edit point — particularly useful when long passages (long lengths of tape) are being removed. On a good splicing block it's possible to cut each edit point separately, and still achieve a good union between the two tape lengths. On worn blocks (or no block at all) you have to resort to snipping just inside the unwanted section, and cutting both edit points at the same time, by arranging for one to overlap the other. This is fine until you decide you want the 'unwanted' bit back after all! So use a good block — it's worth the expense.

Breathing noises

There's a tendency among those at the very beginning of their editing career (putting it tactfully), to overcut — that is, to hack too much out — and this results in a most unfortunate jumping of beat in a rhythmic piece. Putting that all important quaver back is many times more difficult than removing it, so it's always a good idea to undercut at first, until you've got used to your reaction time and developed a measure of skill. But nowhere is the over-cutting reflex more obvious than on edited speech — it's so easy to overlook the breathing noises that are an essential part of communication! Speech editing is an excellent exercise that can teach you a lot. Try editing the news from the radio, taking care to maintain consistency — it's not easy, but it's fun! (You'll soon see why tapes are normally inadmissible as Court evidence!)

Standards

Editing standards tend to be set directly by the manufacturing industries involved — such quantities as splicing tape width (⁷/₃₂in) and prime splicing angle (45° for up to ½in and 60° above that) being examples. But the good old BSI (British Standards Institute) has come up with some standards relating to butt (90°) joints used for the attachment of leadertape. They specify that one second of silent tape should preface all leadered tapes and go on to stipulate particular leadertape colours to be used to identify the nature of the tape programme. These are similar to those used by the BBC, namely green for mono starts and yellow for stereo. Red leadertape is specified in all cases for programme end. One of the many good customs of professional sound recording worth observing is the practice of storing tapes with the red leader ('tails') facing out. This implies that the programme material has been played through rather than rewound to its start, ensuring an even tape stack, most likely to minimise edge damage and the curling of tape splices which can occur in loosely wound reels of tape. Most important of all, the evils of print-through, where the magnetically-stored signal 'prints through' to adjacent layers of tape, are minimised. This is because print-through occurs particularly noticeably on loud sounds preceded by quiet bits, for example the start of a track. Storing the tape 'tails out' ensures that this print-through occurs after the bang (ie under the real signal, where it is smothered by the track or sound which has then begun) instead of coming in the quiet passage as a 'pre-echo' which can be more than a little annoying. Tails-out storage is a simple little tip that will save you aggro in years to come, because it is storage for long periods that lets print-through happen, where reels remain for a long time with the loud passages in close proximity to adjacent layers of quietude. The problem is exacerbated by high recorded levels and, of course, by local magnetic fields which, whilst not usually strong enough to cause erasure, do assist in the 'printing' process. Yet another reason why you shouldn't keep tapes on top of loudspeakers!