Bad edits

Started by Catison, April 17, 2007, 08:51:32 AM

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Catison

Ever be listening to a great recording and then hear something funny?  A sudden, unnatural change occurs in the music out nowhere.  These are bad edits, where, thanks to a sloppy orchestra or a sloppy editor, the patchwork that is a the modern recording has become entirely too noticeable.

What are some of the worst edits you have come across?
-Brett

bhodges

I can think of two offhand.  The edits aren't really "abominable" in the scheme of things, I suppose, but they do make you realize that recordings most often are not done in a single take. 

Rachmaninov: Piano Concerto No. 3 (Riccardo Muti/Andrei Gavrilov/Philadelphia Orchestra) - When the final movement begins, there is a slight but noticeable edit that indicates a different take was used. 

Berg/Schoenberg/Webern: Orchestral Pieces (James Levine/Berlin Philharmonic) - A review of this, as I recall, called my attention to some of the edits here and there, especially in the Webern Six Pieces for Orchestra.  The CD also has some noticeable "spotlighting" of instruments, which is not terrible, but it does make the project sound "like a recording" and not like hearing a live performance.  In this case, I confess that "what is there" is so good that I don't mind the patching all that much.  Some might, though.

--Bruce

Archaic Torso of Apollo

Quote from: bhodges on April 17, 2007, 09:06:43 AM
I can think of two offhand. 

Me too:

1. In Jochum's recording of one of the Haydn symphonies (I think #99), a faint rustling (like a page turning) is audible in one of the exposition sections. It occurs again during the repeat, indicating they didn't play the repeat but just spliced it in.

2. The Philips reissue of Lutoslawski's 3rd Symphony, conducted by the composer, includes a sudden "hiccup" at an almost climactic point about 19 minutes in. Curiously, I don't recall this fault on the original LP issue of the performance.
formerly VELIMIR (before that, Spitvalve)

"Who knows not strict counterpoint, lives and dies an ignoramus" - CPE Bach