First editing session - Posted on 2013-10-22 by Nathan Baker

Today we spent a few hours editing. I'm not a fan of chopping tracks to bits and getting every single bass note to match the kick drum down to the hundredth of a second. But that's what we did, and that is how Abel does it "so it doesn't sound like crap". Im fine with learning his way and why, and absorbing the value of it and getting good at it, but It took two hours to get halfway through the bass track of one 5 minute song. And at that point you've taken all the natural ebbs and flows of a human performance and robotic end it. He does it it to clean up the "muddiness", but does a 50th of a second out of time really muddy it up? Abel has some very definitive views on what and why, and I question him about it to see if there are oter views and he gets snappy so I don't push it. He does what he does for his reasons and that's fine. I'll listen to and process his opinions on music but its obvious we disagree a bit about some things. I'm here to learn the process, the techniques, the tricks, etc, but I have to be wary of his opinions becoming mine. It's funny because he is a drummer and I am predominantly a bass player, so we should get along, but he claims to hate bass players because he "always has to edit their shit". He said straight out that the drummer is always right (meaning the timing), and I said "after we edit the drums they are right". He didn't laugh. We fixed probably 20 small drum issues nefore we stayed on the bass. I understand the multitude of reasons why it's easier to move bass notes and leave the drums alone. So I get it, but he was moving almost every note and it really gives the song a different feel a lot of the time, and he is ok with that and says its the right way to do it. I fully understand the value of having the ability to splice, move, and fix stuff that is wrong because It is easier than trying to get a better take, but I'm a big fan of hearing what the musicians actually played. If they suck is it really the engineers job to fix that? These guys didnt suck. This rhythm section was pretty tight. Not professionally perfect, but above average tight as a duo. A "jazz feel" could get edited down to a rock feel. Totally differnt than what the band intended. The few times I've been involved in recording in a real studio, we edited only a few things. Ive also played a lot of experimental, busy music where the rhythm section is syncopated rather than synchronized so it would be almost impossible to do what we did today. I'm really curious to know what most engineers do? I'm sure it's a case to case basis with genre and production level making a big difference, but I'm going to try to ascertain if there is a general consensus. How far off is "wrong"? 1/10th of a second out of time is fairly noticeable if you are really listening to just those two instruments, but not when it's in the mix. Like i said, I will learn his way because I'm there, and I may come to adopt his ways and change my views, but I sure feel like he's making a lot of extra work for himself. And soon enough it'll be my job to do all this!! And I'll do a damn fine job of moving every bass note!