Digital Compilations a Snap
In the decades I have been buying records, I've found only
a handful on which I like all the tracks, and even those I don't always want to listen to
all the way through. Also, in the early days I bought thousands of singles, and while I
was prepared to play a stack of them individually from time to time, there were also
occasions when I wanted to sit back and hear a prepackaged selection. The result is that I
have been recording compilations of my records for years, sometimes including commentary,
sometimes not.
The methods I have used have changed over the years. The
earliest tapes were done in real time, using a pair of turntables, fed through a mixer to
my open-reel recorder. For this to work with any degree of smoothness, I had to devise a
way of previewing each record in order to determine its precise start by means of
"back-cueing." That's an old radio technique that involves putting the stylus
into the lead-in grooves of a record and playing it just until the music starts, then
turning the record backwards by hand to a point just before the first note, and leaving
the stylus there until the moment comes when the record is wanted.
The system works well enough in terms of timing, but it's
notoriously hard on the records, and I have lots of wrecked vinyl to show for it. Still, I
made numerous tapes by this method, and some of them hold up fairly well today. The main
problem with them is that, lacking professional equipment, I modified fairly cheap home
gear to do what I wanted, and the sound quality usually suffered. Also, these
all-in-one-go tapes tended to be more or less unplanned; some sequences worked, while
others didn't. And there was little one could do to change things after the fact, other
than start over.
The more ambitious of my later compilations involved true
editing. Originally, this meant recording a series of tracks on a tape and then physically
cutting out the material between them by razor blade and sticking the tape back together
using special splicing tape.
It took some skill and experience to make the transitions
smooth and to get levels to match, but it did allow you to plan ahead and take your time
in assembly. And if something didn't work, it could be redone. But however
professional-sounding the results of this sort of editing, it was a very time-consuming
process.
And for long-term storage, a copy was a must. That involved
some loss in quality, but the physical edits in the original recording would eventually
come apart or stick the various tape layers together. Either way it would be unplayable.
That wasn't a problem with tapes I edited electronically,
first on open reel then on cassette. Some recorders allow "punch-in" or assembly
editing, in which you can switch silently from playback to record mode with the tape
rolling. This requires a three-head machine that lets you monitor off the tape what has
just been recorded.
In this technique, you record each track individually, one
after the other. When one is complete, you rewind a bit and listen to its ending; the
point you want the new cut to begin, you hit the record button and start the source
material at the same moment. That's very easy with a CD, as it can start on a dime, but
it's a lot trickier with vinyl as you have to take run-up time into account. Still, it can
be done. As with real-time recording, you can't go back and change things after such a
compilation is complete, but if you blow a transition you can usually do it over
immediately.
My shelves are burdened with recordings made by these
various means, but they're mostly pretty old. Life goes on, and in recent years I've
rarely been able to put aside the kind of time necessary for such obsessive tape-making.
Most of my methods were attempts to do with amateur equipment what the pros do much more
easily with gear designed for the purpose, and my way usually took lots more time. Anyway,
the pros have long switched to computer production techniques and left me behind.
But while I'm not about to start assembling the definitive
"Best of 1957" collection on my trusty Mac, I have rediscovered
compilation-making thanks to my wife's career as a fitness instructor. She needs music,
and has been eying my record shelves hungrily for some time.
I might have resisted further except that I discovered that
the MiniDisc is the perfect device for making such recordings. First, in spite of some
early glitches, it can make recordings sonically indistinguishable from their sources.
Second, it is erasable and reusable, which makes it possible to trash or fix existing
programs.
But what make it a standout are its editing facilities.
Perhaps the most obvious is its ability to rearrange tracks in any order after the fact.
In my most recent recording, I used music not only from CDs but also from cassettes and
vinyl sources, both LP and 45. Because of the way my equipment is set up, it was easiest
to dub all the material from one type of source at once, then switch to the next and so
on. But the end product would have all these mixed together. No sweat: it's just a matter
of renumbering the tracks, which can be done with the push of a button.
If you eventually decide that a track isn't suitable, or
you have too much material, any track can be erased, even from the middle, and everything
closes up. Or if there's too long a pause between the time you hit the record button and
the music starts, you can make the gap into a new track and then delete it. In the end,
you get a seamless, smooth-flowing program with a minimum of fuss.
I'm smitten. If I'd had these facilities years ago, I would
never have abandoned compilations. Now where are all those old disco records?
...Ian G. Masters
ian@mastersonaudio.com
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