The 89 degree slot on the EMI edit block gave near simultaneous edits in each channel, but risked thumps from magnetised blades or if the incoming material came from a different machine. We take that for granted today, but it was tricky in the days of razor blades and sticky tape. They all used brass scissors and made fish tail cuts routinely on stereo recordings (rather than simple oblique cuts) specifically to ensure both channels transitioned simultaneously. It was pretty much standard practice for the editors and studio working in the BBC Transcription unit who rarely used standard edit blocks. MOF wrote: ↑ Fri 4:27 pm.did it really happen or was this just a theoretical proposition? but with the advantage that both channels of a stereo pair crossfade together, so no risk of flash-edits! All of the DAWs I use regularly use the same 20ms crossfade at edit points as a standard default. That works much better in practice than hard butt edits or even zero-crossing edits.Ī 60 degree razor cut on a 15ips tape transitions from outgoing to incoming sounds in around 20ms, but the diagonal cut across a twin-track tape means that one channel transitions 20ms before the other, of course. I think most DAWs - and certainly all the ones I use regularly - create very short crossfades at edit points. However, in really tight edits (or if the editor accidentally clipped the start of incoming audio) there would be a noticeable 'flash-edit' where the incoming sound clearly starts in one channel before sweeping across to the other.įor really tight edits the only solution is to break out the brass scissors and try and manually cut a neat 'fish-tail' or chevron. Most of the time the 60 degree slot in the standard EMI/Editall block would work perfectly well enough for stereo editing. To me, disjointed rhythm makes edits leap out at the listener. However, I'll sometimes have to go hunting for a nearby 'silence' in the recording and copy some/all of that to insert at the edit point to keep rhythm. although the 45 degree cut was a physical means of small crossfades. A book could be written.īecause I learnt my trade physically cutting tape, I tend not to use crossfades. one has to be aware of speech tempo and rhythm, as well as background noise and noises-off.Īlways look for as quiet a location as possible to make your recording - even seemingly quiet gardens can introduce their own nightmares both during recording and at the edit stage.

By using short crossfades (useful for the speech edits too) you won't hear any of the edits. It's 'atmosphere' or 'room tone', that is the sound of the room with no one talking which can be used where you want to pause instead of going straight into the next bit of speech. I hate edits going to complete silence, better to crossfade in a bit of room atmos’.

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