How did music producers physically cut and glue together audio tapes before digital recorders were invented?

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To my knowledge, before the use of computers in audio recording, to cut out errors etc. producers had to physically cut the tape from the analogue recorder and glue it back together. Especially the last part I can’t really comprehend. How do you glue together two loose ends of a tape without any overlapping exactly at the right place and without hearing any errors, stutters or something on the final recording?

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Anonymous 0 Comments

The recording machine has a physical channel at the point where the record/playback is. Put the tape system in manual, and hunt for what needs to be cut, and veeerrrry carefully listen for the very instant your target pops up and then disappears. Cut it out, splice the two ends with scotch tape, and take a listen. Of course, you are dealing with a duplicate tape or a draft. Another neat trick is when you have to insert some time. Great chorus, the song would sound better with a beat or two transition. Your friendly engineer does the conkulations to figure out how much tape needs to be inserted to give them a 2 beat break. The use of acetate tape like older cellotape brands has led to the degradation of these recordings. It was primitive, really time consuming, but I guess it saved recording $$$

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