Good musicians and good recording equipment make daw editing unnecesary?

[tapper mike]

If everyone did everything perfect there wouldn't be a need for editing. True.

However ...

False
Editing enhances the sound quality when used properly. Sure sometimes extreme editing can detract from it as well (See the video I posted above regarding Chicago)

[lfm]

Dave Grohl's film "SoundCity" about the legendary studio Tom Petty said
- we probably did 50 recordings of "Refugee" until we got it right

Very interesting film I would recommend. Lots of interesting interviews like with Rupert Neve and artists all over. Then DG purchase the Neve board and a lot of sessions doing that too. Looking into how ProTools came along and what happend. Especially for GenZ people to see how things were done back then.

That was the reality of studio sessions in those days.

An "Idol" winner in sweden if 15 years ago we heard the recording as it went along of her song.
- they recorded snippets a few frases here and there until producer was satisfied
- after that would be a "huuuuuge" job editing and comping, but it took minimum time for artist

In itself it's fantastic how you can go about this today and "bedroom musicians" like myself can have everything needed served on a plate for every affordable money and the fun that goes with that.

But also noted difference of ITB produced music like Ellie Golding and session recording like Rosanne Cash and the album "The river and the thread" how much more alive the session music is, night and day. People playing a session together really brings more dimensions to music.

When I started with a 4 track Fostex portastudio in the 80's and then expanded as long as I could afford with some rack units and external mixer and one track reserved as sync track for sequencer and dreamed about getting a 16 track reel-to-reel but had to put that aside starting my own software business and explore that. But now as retired can start off seriously and do music full time.

As the subject title says good musicianship and good recording gear you have much less editing to do later. Using analog synths from get go instead of fixing up digital synths as recorded saves a lot of time, to mention one thing. Recently upgrading preamps I could re-record midi based tracks and enjoy a remarkable upgrade in the sound itself on the track. Even having line inputs through really good gear is such a thrill to explore how much difference it makes.

Listening to about 100 episodes of Dave Pensado's tv with interesting interviews with various mixing engineers and producers and musicians too, says the same thing - from the horses mouth you could say.

They told about how much time an engineer in studio could spend on just getting a mike position right for whatever instrument it was about.
- running back and forth control room and studio and just move mike fraction of an inch
- taking care of that there is much less editing later to "fix" the recording
- and the obvious it starts with arrangement and the choice of instruments to minimize overlap
- OMG how much problems the love of one instrument can destroy it being overused, "kill your darlings" as they say

[tapper mike]

They told about how much time an engineer in studio could spend on just getting a mike position right for whatever instrument it was about.
- running back and forth control room and studio and just move mike fraction of an inch
- taking care of that there is much less editing later to "fix" the recording
- and the obvious it starts with arrangement and the choice of instruments to minimize overlap
- OMG how much problems the love of one instrument can destroy it being overused, "kill your darlings" as they say

That about sums up my work after I graduated from recording engineering school. Aside from cleaning/degaussing tape heads. As a second I would setup rooms moving amps, mic's and baffles. I loathed amp in the room sessions. Just throw the cab in an isolation booth and mic it for god sake.

[jancivil]

Everything I've been involved in in a recording studio intended for release was this is what it is. Typified by the ethos of get it the first time, too many shots at it means there's a problem. No outside funding or fronting us money, independent.

However I got into Electronic Music Lab at SFCM, an outgrowth of the Tape Music Center and learned razor blade edits, which enters the picture constructing the flow of an album. When I was on someone else's record this was out of my control, though.

My own efforts in a DAW are more influenced by Zappa with the Synclavier than anything; once he had enough RAM and higher quality samples the difference between what he had with Ensemble Modern realtime and the sequences couldn't be distinquished really, at Civilization Phaze 3. The more usual comparisons per my output tend to compare it directly with that.
But I've always been overrated.

[Awats]

If everyone did everything perfect there wouldn't be a need for editing. True.

However ...

False
Editing enhances the sound quality when used properly. Sure sometimes extreme editing can detract from it as well (See the video I posted above regarding Chicago)

True

[Awats]

If everyone did everything perfect there wouldn't be a need for editing. True.

However ...

False
Editing enhances the sound quality when used properly. Sure sometimes extreme editing can detract from it as well (See the video I posted above regarding Chicago)

True. Then it wasn’t perfect.

[jonljacobi]

Yeah, if we were all Hahn, Heifitz, Horowitz, or your typical big city symphony, we wouldn't need editing at all. Except to occasionally remove a sneeze, or cough...

But I sure as heck aren't them so I'll just be glad of the editing. LOL