It would be an interesting experiment to see if one can pick a continuous 
take vs one with (good) edits in unknown places. (Sometimes I have heard 
takes where I could have sworn there was an edit, but actually there was 
not, simply because I was in the "find an edit" mode.) Another interesting 
one would be to ask someone with good ears to pick the better one, not 
based on continuity, just on preference in general (without the listener 
knowing we are testing for feel of continuity). My guess that there would 
not be a direct correlation, i.e., sometimes the mistakes would be more 
bothersome than the supposed feel of continuity. But who knows? I love the 
power of blind testing.

Marcos

--On Monday, March 13, 2006 12:53 PM -0600 Karl Miller 
<[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> On Mon, 13 Mar 2006, Robert Hodge wrote:
>
>> VERY TRUE !! Hence the expression " We Can Fix It In Post ".
>>
>> Just because the tool is available to " Fix it" , why should performance
>> suffer?
>>
>> One complete and uninteruppted perfect take beats many retakes hands
>> down !
>>
>> My 2 Bits.
>
> I have often wondered if there is not something lost in the editing
> process. I have worked on releases (won't mention names) where a ten
> minute movement could have as many as 15 edit or more edits. Some
> musicians I have worked with have an almost unearthly ability to pick out
> a measure here and a measure there and then put together an extremely
> complex puzzle. In such instances, while I am amazed at the continuity
> they can maintain, I wonder if such a practice actually destroys some form
> of continuity in the communication, a continuity that is not obvious on
> first listening.
>
> I am also reminded of doing side joins on 78s where conductors had to stop
> mid movement...some times one take will work better with another, but
> yet, and maybe it is just me and knowing how things were done, but a
> broadcast performance, recorded on 16 inch lacquers, seems to be more
> convincing...not just the spontaneity of it, but somehow it seems to be a
> question of continuity...even when one considers how masterful those
> musicians were at keeping tempi right from one side to the next. For
> myself, one those rare occasions I had the opportunity to
> conduct...stopping (say in rehearsal) is a bit like being interrupted when
> you are about to say something in an argument. The part after the
> interruption never comes out exactly the say as it would if you had been
> allowed to continue your thought without the interruption.
>
> Since many of you have done plenty of editing...I wonder what your
> thoughts might be.
>
> Karl
>



Marcos