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Écrit par : keybie dim. 30 oct. 2005, 12:46

Is there any software on the Mac that allows me to "edit" (http://nav.440network.com/out.php?mmsc=forums&url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tape_editing audio much the same way that Mantronix, The latin rascals and others did it back in the days using 1/2" tape and razor blades?

I know that these things are done mostly on computers these days, and so far I've only heard of Windows software
Is there any Mac software that allows me to edit this way, such as "cutting up" and "splicing" audio snippets, repeats, inserting silence, "tape slowdown" and other things?

In case you have no idea what I'm talking about, here are some short example MP3s:

http://nav.440network.com/out.php?mmsc=forums&url=http://home.c2i.net/w-460389/edit_1.mp3
http://nav.440network.com/out.php?mmsc=forums&url=http://home.c2i.net/w-460389/edit_2.mp3
http://nav.440network.com/out.php?mmsc=forums&url=http://home.c2i.net/w-460389/edit_3.mp3

Écrit par : banevt dim. 30 oct. 2005, 23:02

Most audio software can edit audio in all the ways you have described. It's not like doing it with tape though (I've done it). To me it's easier except that you have to learn how to do it in your audio software. There is usually audio scrubbing in case you miss spinning reels back and forth over the tape heads and most editing can be done with cut and paste or duplicate. A lot have tab to transient functions so you can easily find places to make your edits instead of scrubbing. I love tape and think it's great and there are a few effects that only tape can do well but editing seems a lot easier to get right in the digital domain. You can insert silence by putting blank space between your edits. Tape slow down would probably involve pitch shifting and/or time compression/expansion plugins. I don't know of any software that has a user interface that emulates doing it with tape and razor blades though.

Écrit par : keybie lun. 31 oct. 2005, 11:05

By "scrubbing", are you referring to the action when you (manually) move the tape back and forth to find exactly where to mark where it should be cut (e.g. the very start of a snare drum, bass drum etc.)?


I'm not sure what you mean. Are you referring to the computer software analysing exactly where each snare/bass drum/hihat is located so it will automatically "divide" the music into suitable chunks perfectly sync'ed to the beat?
I've been playing around with simple audio software that lets you do the basic things (record, crop, normalize etc.) and although a lot of the "tape edit" techniques can be replicated there it's very hard when you don't have a time reference. I believe the Windows software that most editors (meaning "a person who edits" in this context) use divides the music into suitable chunks just as I mentioned above, making it very easy to edit without messing things up timewise.

I've done a little tape editing, but the usual cutting/splicing, so the Mantronix/Nunez etc. stuff isn't something I have practical experiences from, but I assume that back in the days they would physically measure tape lengths to find out how long e.g. a 1/16 note would be, then insert a blank bit of tape in a suitable place to get just that -a 1/16 note of silence. I could probably use the same method in a digital editor (i.e. audio software), but it would be very cumbersome and prone to errors easily.
I'm trying to figure out if there's software out there that will allow me to edit in an easier way. In any case I assume you need to edit when all tracks have been mixed down to 2 track stereo, just like the tape editors would do it.


What kind of effects can only be done with tape?


I'm considering getting Logic express (after having played around with Garageband when I eventually get the Powerbook that is, although I assume that Garageband can't do much of anything if you want to go beyond "playing around" a little bit, though I could be wrong) -can Logic express do "tape slowdown" effects? Or rather: are there plugins (free?) available for Logic express that will let me do this?

Écrit par : DANO10 lun. 31 oct. 2005, 15:53

Hey Keybie,

I'm an old recording engineer and have done lot's of work with a razor blade. Ther are several audio editors that will do all the stuff in your examples. I use PEAK myself but Audacity and DSP Quatro are are also good. You can check them and others out in the software section on this site under "Audio Editors".

DANO10