Steve Albini cutting and splicing tape

[@BeniRoseMusic]

It's hard to express my appreciation that someone with so much skill, so much experience, and so much talent would still take the time to explain to people what he's doing as he does it. What a guy.

[@Broyale26]

@@detroitfunk313 Zatarain's pro boil

[@henryg8855]

I agree, ehis is the true mark of an artist and a genius passing his knowledge down to the next generations. Thanks Steve!

[@AlBatazz]

Yes Beni but there are alot of us out there that have spliced hours of Bars in the pre-Pro Tools days to edit trackings that sounded great but the musos made mistakes, or the song structures were changed after tracking.

[@queenhenryviii]

@@AlBatazz Okay?

[@iopalej]

Mm, in jikiiiki kl😊lll😊😊kñj 😊 .😊j..😊i.😊8😊jm..😊,😊8u?miiiiily

[@ScottGrammer]

The tape handling of these old Studers always amazes me. The fast wind is lightning fast and yet the tape is always kept under perfect tension no matter what the operator does. Seriously good design and construction.

[@WarrenSt.James_Guitarist]

badass!..only rivaled by the Otaris!

[@ScottGrammer]

@@WarrenSt.James_Guitarist Which is why I have an Otari MX-55N - I can't afford a Studer! :-)

[@eky]

^the concept of gears

[@DeuceGenius]

massively expensive machines.

[@JohnLloydDavis]

@@DeuceGenius And yet at the advent of digital recording they were almost giving them away !

[@SubTroppo]

We see none of the actual cutting or splicing, but we do see a skilled operator's back and catch his banter!

[@jturquoise]

Yup 😅

[@christopherkalogeris7906]

So cool to watch the master work. My band recorded there about a year ago and the whole atmosphere of the studio was pure magic. There's a real warmth to that whole building and anybody who plays music needs to go there to record. The fluffy coffee and espresso is to die for as well!

[@SlayALLDay1979]

Lucky!

[@SlayALLDay1979]

What kinda pricing you get?

[@christopherkalogeris7906]

@@SlayALLDay1979 I'm pretty sure it was around $800 for us. It included a full day of recording and 2 nights of sleeping at the studio. We didn't record with Steve but all the audio engineers he has there are very capable and know what they're doing. It was amazing!

[@christopherkalogeris7906]

@signoguns I'm not sure about a discount but if you opt to record with one of the other audio engineers that work there, it is substantially cheaper.

[@galileoshift8330]

what the studio's name? thanks

[@tcos332]

I love that Steve seems to be very no nonsense, or like a somewhat forbidding presence, but yet not pretentious at all when he gets to talking. He seems like the one hero I’d actually LIKE to meet

[@parlourstepsmusic]

Man, the sound of the flanges shuttling brings back 2am editing sessions; the smell of the tape, the razors, the grease pencils, finding beats with my ears. Keeping a (by today's tech) simple verse v1/ chorus v2 edit straight was a task. You can see Steve having to pause and think it through. What a time!

[@adub303]

Yes! But add the smell of catbox to the smell of tape and you've got the Philly basement studio we recorded in (still wouldn't trade it for anything)! Absolute brilliance and an unparalleled work ethic! Le celluloid est mort, vive le celluloid!

[@adub303]

@Victor Jones..I agree about the MP3 sounding bad, to an extent. I have to admit to not having the proper equipment to be able to fully hear differences between 320kbit+ MP3 and uncompressed- but 128kbit MP3 is pretty mediocre if you expect to have crash cymbals and the like- too much warbly sinusoidal content, like digital nausea :-/ I know there are definitely people still striving toward that single-take ethos and it's that nexus of solid technical skill and musicianship from the talent and newer technology and methods that excites me. I love that there are plug-ins available for those of us who cannot afford an SSL console or Otari reel-to-reel, but if you have the equipment available and know-how to make it sound good, that's what I want to hear!

[@lowlink534]

​@@adub303To me, anything above 192kbps is acceptable, there's something about the MP3 encoding there that is starts having this diminishing gain (I hardly can hear much of a difference from 320 to 192). 128 though is extremely compressed (in terms of data), and it completely messes up the high end. I don't have any expensive high end gear, but on my Sennheiser headphone and my sound system, 192k does the job great

[@nin114]

Didn't fully appreciate how much I liked knowing Steve Albini was out there doing his thing until I heard that he died. Have spent the last week watching every damn video he has ever done....such a bummer.

[@LoveStrokeRadio]

Same. He was a beautiful human

[@mackenziefan5019]

Steve Albini can see with his ears and hear with his eyes. Just marvellous to watch someone work like this using his hands, eyes, ears and tape. Doing what he is really great at doing.

[@samiryi4728]

I learned a lot from that video. RIP legend

[@DJTrippVideo]

RIP to a legend.

[@Broyale26]

Seeing Mr. Albini work is like watching the great Peter North in his time.

[@dukeviking]

That is an absolute ART! I love this technology but can appreciate the ease of doing this in a DAW.

[@N0B0DY_SP3C14L]

A master at work. Unreal. Sad you're gone, Steve. Thank you for making such magic happen!

[@JacobFrey]

Waayyyyyy cooler than any digital edit. That anticipation and suspense when you play it back . . . and then the high fives you get afterwards . . . it's so fun!

[@saysthemanbehindthemask]

you said it!

[@sbrave]

@@SRNF Yes, and you better know your s*** as Steve does. Hmmm, 12 minutes to make that edit or 12 seconds in Pro Tools.

[@jas_bataille]

@@mayshack Yes... and no. It does degrade over time, but actually, archivists all agree than the average lifespan of tape is vastly better than that of a digital file. Who knows if a file format today will ever be recuperable in 40 years?! This is why optical tape is still used for archiving.

[@EdSullivan101]

@@jas_bataille Correct Jas. By many metrics, especially the sound of music, tape will always out perform digital. And many studios still use it.

[@virgilwilliams2378]

Oh lord please.

[@bulletproofzest]

I’m amazed that he’s able to do this while people are chatting in the background. I frequently have to tell clients (nicely) to shut up while I do something critical like this.

[@bob4analog]

Wow, I absolutely love tape editing! Done it a lot myself and its a joy to see Steve demonstrate it here. Fundamental audio production.

[@babalon7778]

When I was 11 I did this for my dad with some of music for Holiday On Ice back in the 70s. It was fun and it made me feel important.

[@SDRUFFA]

Oh you still are!!!

[@babalon7778]

SDRUFFA What a kind thing to say, thank you!

[@marcelb7259]

I am so in awe in front of this ! I have done in my old days editing and cutting on 1/4inch (6.35mm) 2-track tape, but on a 24-track 2 inch tape, it is another dimension. Steve is so impressive, kudos to him !

[@dale116dot7]

Same here, on 24 track I usually tolerate a bounce and do my edits on a 1/4 inch machine (using a couple of Lynx-2 and a KCU to get it back on the 24 track) but I haven’t spliced two takes together. I have a Stephens 821b which is pretty gentle on tape but doesn’t wind like this one.

[@scottstrang1583]

I love the sound of tape being threaded.

[@pbee73]

These guys are the old pioneers of editing, this work looks extremely tedious and should be done with extreme attentiveness. I see very little room for error. I wish I was a part of this era but at the same time I am thankful for the benefits of 1's and 0's! Digital editing is more precise and seamless, and is executed more efficiently! but the digital world (although comes close) can never sound as warm as an actual analog tape!

[@AnodyneHipsterInfluencer]

That low mid punch of magnetic tape has yet to be accurately recreated.

[@MyGuy42069]

Just use tape then

[@jas_bataille]

@@MyGuy42069 Sure, you just need to very very rich. Analog warmth is bullshit, and my old man, who was known to cut in *masters* back in the days, agree. It's not the hardware but the fact that they recorded mostly live and that every single decision was so carefully weighted. You can limit yourself on purpose.

[@EdSullivan101]

@@jas_bataille Yes, a 3-year-old can record and edit on a computer. And that's just what everything sounds like now.

[@lannyfce4786]

@@EdSullivan101 what a retarded statement

[@mark_fox_music]

Thats why he's one of the greatest! Thanks for posting this, it is amazing to watch.

[@PeterBatah]

Always a pleasure watching a true Master at work. Brilliant piece.

[@jemmace2586]

Cool, reminds me of my sound engineering day's, degousing head's and chopping tape on a editting block, scarf joints and the rest of it. Good stuff!

[@mikerophone235]

Watched this about 10 times. Dude, incredible

[@ryanolinski7163]

Makes me smile watching a master work.

[@damienlewis7882]

No one has ever high fived me for making an edit in pro tools :(

[@conorm2524]

I've been high fived for finding the undo button though.

[@ScottGrammer]

@Damien Lewis You just weren't doing it long enough ago. In 1991 or 92 (I forget which) I was chief engineer at Southern Sky Recording Studio in Fort Oglethorpe, Ga. We were a small 16-track analog studio with a first-gen 4-track ProTools system. Another, much bigger studio a few miles away, was making a record for a certain group whose name rhymes with The Gray Phats. They had spent an all-nighter mixing a track and were happy with the mix, and then everybody went home for some sleep. When they came back they listened to the mix and heard a momentary buzz from a guitar amp during one of the choruses. So, they decided to re-mix it, but could not re-create the mix. They brought the DAT of the all-nighter mix to me, and I copied and pasted a 100 mS or so segment from another chorus on top of the buzz. THAT got me a high five, but sadly, no engineering credit.

[@queenhenryviii]

@@enneff Thanks for explaining the joke for everyone. Whoosh!

[@100chuckjones]

Thank you for the great video. Albini is one of my favorite engineers/producers. I once heard him say.. "Microphones". With good microphones, one can do anything". In response to: What is the most important part of the recording process ?

[@CAKmusic]

If microphones are the most important equipment, then by extension, microphone placement is the most important process. Many problems in sound production can be addressed with good mics and good understanding of a wide variety of micing techniques.

[@100chuckjones]

Another great response and you are 100% correct.

[@The_Absurdistt]

Paging Dr. Albini, you are needed in surgery. Paging Dr. Albini....

[@darylcampbell8758]

Damn! Thank GOD for Pro Tools!!!

[@alegauna366]

You are an stupid idiot aaahole

[@MovingSounds]

Love the old school editing! Sound great!!

[@LordKreiden]

The Audio Magician at work, so beautiful..🙏

[@spark4039]

This is masterful. It's a dream of mine to meet and work with Steve someday!

[@alexron2023]

What a nightmare keeping up with all these tapes !! I appreciate so much adobe auditions in a few click you got your results and if you made a mistake just edit the last change

[@danieljackson3868]

and thus a a noise rock band Gash Reels was born somewhere...

[@conorm2524]

In the UK a gash is a vagina.

[@Livefromtheboogie]

what a great influence if your a studio junkie RIP

[@MikeGervasi]

Watching Steve cut and splice 2" tape brings back a lot of memories.

[@dhampex3631]

I miss those days, before opening a brand new 456 grand master and sniffing the tape before threading and setting up for +6, and doing editing. Now its opening up a fresh batch of ATR tape and setting up +10 and record to tape then bouncing to PT. need to sharpen my editing skills before i loose it LOL, great vid representing our heyday!

[@dansowerby2116]

In the ninities I collected damaged casette tapes I found on the side of the road in Adelaide, Au and spliced bits of them together. The music was mainly crap dance music and pretty annoying, the most interesting thing was if it had been crinckled but still made it into the tape I was frankensteining. Looking forward to some Gash Concrète

[@alanburns538]

I used to LOVE finding cassettes by the roadside that had been discarded or fallen out of cars, still have recurring dreams about it today. Once or twice got a good sounding artist (AC/DC was one!) and then it would take various bits of pre-internet sleuthing to find out which album it was if no writing on tape . Btw your splicing of tape finds is extra cool, sucks that today's kids won't get the chance to do stuff like that.

[@overkill7990]

Albini should make an educational video course on reel to reel recording. I bet a lot of people would like it & it would inspire new interest in the format.

[@mitchelldries6628]

much credit to the band for giving him the rapt attention he deserves in this process. having engineered many a project with loudmouth folks that can't hold their liquor, i imagine this would have been maddening...

[@lewisticknor]

Thank you for sharing this!

[@markmeyers160]

He threads that Studer like he's tying his shoes. RIP S.A.

[@bullittvolante8215]

It's like watching a genius at work.

[@johnmartinec2423]

I wished there was more of the take and reaction at the end. Maybe you have some more you could add? Or info on the track?

[@judsonsnell]

when he gets to the "wait, what's the best way to do this..." I was thinking the same thing. It's been eons since I've had to actually cut a project to tape, much less cut tape when cutting to tape, but yeah - I'll stick to the DAW to do my editing these days. There is no undo in analog.

[@nicholas9667]

That sounds like Rod Jackson from slash snakepit. Jammed with him when I used to live in Hollywood he is so chill.

[@KozmykJ]

That's some slick cutting.

[@shapecatfilms7592]

To work in this manner cutting tape by hand requires serious care, organisation, patience, love and nerves of fucking steel!

[@laylavladi]

HE IS SO COOLL!!! 😭

[@Stu.6]

Totally and utterly bonkers!!

[@megazoned3973]

2:16 I was thinking to myself "empty reel..empty reel.. empty reel..." haha. I love tape.

[@spocintosh]

Hahaha, yes, me too ! But that was because he's telling stories the whole time. Wouldn't have happened when he was concentrated, for sure...

[@michaelbenoit9240]

I love old gear, but at the same times it's like, yeah I'm not a pro engineer, I'm a writer. Love this stuff.

[@Tomversal]

This looks really difficult but so much more human

[@312diag]

the sound made when he moved the tape reel by spinning it by the reel flange, that's what the "Flanger" effect is based on.

[@_SliK_]

And yet this would take 10 seconds on a DAW. Just goes to show how good musicians had to be back in the day.

[@_SliK_]

@@detroitfunk313 It shows how good musicians had to be in that getting the track in one take was really a must. And that punch-ins / comping of different takes would take a shit tonne of time.

[@conorm2524]

@@_SliK_ Yes. It's why a lot of session musicians (particularly session singers) began to dwindle when DAWs became prevalent.

[@marishnosh]

I would just tell the band I forgot to press record and get them to do another full take rather than go through all of this! What a genius he is tho

[@ZakarooNetwork]

You the man Steve.

[@notanotherjamesmurphy5574]

I wish modern technology could capture the best things about analog tape and incorporate it within DAWs and computers

[@theprogrammerrolandmc3039]

It's simple record on daw and then record it to tape but there are plugins that sound even better that emulate tape

[@strayeddm2882]

I come back to this vid a lot, we lost someone really special. He's the reason I have a tape player lol

[@doremifaso956]

I read somewhere Tom schotz of Boston would do all that painstaking stuff.

[@thiswillprobhrt]

4:59 nails 5m30 on the tape first time

[@davecheney8501]

Back in the day... this was the norm....I remember it well ❤

[@heliumtrophy]

The video alone was worth it for the Rolling Stones gash reel bit. This is a tutorial and a half.

[@HumbleTrader001]

How about transferring to a DAW first, and THEN edit with a razor blade, so if you make a mistake with a razor blade edit, then you still have the backup copy on a DAW? :)

[@audiolego]

Thanks Steve

[@loud_laughter]

The lost art-not yet lost!!

[@liquidsnake6879]

Did you end up releasing the stuff from this session? or was it like a mock session just for the KZbin video?

[@ronaldanderson9263]

I'm 57 years old. That's still just nuts today dude.

[@Two-Eyed_Boy]

I can totally understand really, really knowing this craft. What I don't get is having the patience to explain it in the heat of the process.

[@TheFRiNgEguitars]

You're committed, but Steve saved the two disposed sections just in case.. 99% confident cuz stuff can go wrong!

[@adam207321]

Can we get a link to the song?

[@lawrenceabbott5292]

RIP Steve

[@ksteiger]

Yeah I used to do this but it was 35 years ago, lol. But man he's very fast with 2" multi. I was usually a little more "cautious", lol.

[@AlmaRockeraOficial]

Why is he wearing Michael Myers outfit?

[@AnodyneHipsterInfluencer]

Everyone at the studio wears them. He sees himself more akin to a plumber or mechanic and the monkey suits are a nod to that.

[@benkleschinsky]

To keep dust out of the tape. Loose clothing.

[@massapower]

These studio dudes are like Surgeons!😁👍🏻 ANALOG BaBy!!!!😁👍🏻👍🏻

[@robertyoung1777]

Fantastic

[@hoaovan2752]

Do you still have this set?

[@QDennardII]

Man I miss tape

[@Robert-un3cf]

I want that tape deck

[@chrisknight3734]

What's nice about tape editing is that it's considered a last resort. Prior to digital era, bands were expected to go into a studio knowing how to play their own songs, not being able to rely on magic tricks

[@gholwiih]

That's not really true actually. Bands were expected to know the material yes, but the idea that it's the "digital" era that introduced editing as a studio tool to get the best performance you could get onto tape is completely ahistorical fiction making. Tape editing has existed since recording was a thing.

[@gabrielegagliardi3956]

Brian Wilson, the residents, zappa, just to name a few, Played the studio

[@chrisknight3734]

I would say it was 100% true for most bands pre digital, since they did not own their own studio and tape editing takes far longer than digital editing. Yes tape editing has existed since tape itself existed, no one would dispute that

[@amonster8mymother]

Grease pencil?

[@TheOceanLoader]

I know it's a minor point (not the musical chord A-minor btw) but I miss seeing how to tape the two separate reels together at 4:00. Minor detail but would have been nice to film around Steve

[@powerinformation]

seamless!

[@enkiea8322]

Yeah, I bet the Stones had MAD gash during recording sessions.

[@smittenthekitteninmittens2679]

and a lot of wasted tape too ;D

[@Hellrun]

How good is your gash ratio?! :D

[@asmrweathermusic6156]

I can't believe they ever went through this process.

[@reid1967]

I found this terrifying, I wouldn't even want to do this in my DAW without an undo button.

[@slobodanjozejoksimovic973]

Zašto ga prikazujete da li se duvate ili je na prodaju.

[@marlucandixital9582]

I Now understand the suddenly cuutings in "My Motion Pitcure Dreamboy" by Descartes a Kant.

[@jordan3119]

Just out of curiosity, how much money does one of those reels cost nowadays and how much would one of them have cost back in the sixties and seventies?

[@spocintosh]

An ATR 2" is currently (9/2021) at €400/$475 and RTM 900/911 you can get for around €350/$415. In the Nineties when I used it an Ampex 456 was DM 250 which equals todays €188/$225, taking inflation into account. (For better comparison all prices are incl VAT.)

[@jedgould5531]

Why producers record digitally. So an edit won’t take 12 minutes.

[@craigsanderson4330]

Cool as F**k, that’s real engineering.

[@nugznmugz]

They made Chicago Party Aunt into a cartoon haha

[@ghostcat8244]

So interesting how they record music tho tapes... as well cut and slice..vs editing on computer where it only takes 20mins.. but this takes hours to do.

[@DeuceGenius]

man.. that takes forever. what the hell lol

[@dh-_1011]

What is the name of this band recording?

[@shema6554]

Did u find it??

[@BarbieChaite]

tout ça pour ça...

[@mediabear]

11:46

[@hjhkjhre454554]

It's very easy to get lost doing this, and almost always quicker to get the band to just play it again :)

[@nickbruni8307]

Say he drew a mark with that pencil on the tape he didn't want, or he didn't want to confuse himself later on... can he erase that mark he made on the tape?

[@conorm2524]

Just do a scribble or make a note.

[@taotoo2]

I can't quite remember, but I imagine you would clean it off with isopropyl alcohol - the same stuff that was used to clean the heads/rollers.

[@thehabs21]

unreal