Yesterday we spent several hours editing down the material from Monday’s recording session. I’ve been involved in editing before, and as an observer I’m always amazed at the skill it takes to do this kind of work. In many cases the editing goes beyond skill and could really be considered an art. There are often many possible ways to put together various takes, using trial and error to see what delivers the best result. I didn’t have much to contribute to the process, other than being an extra set of ears and eyes on the score. The engineer on this project has great ears, and we generally agree on most things. One of the most difficult things for me was to listen objectively to places where two (or more) takes were spliced together. Ideally these should be undetectable, but knowing beforehand where the splice is going to occur can play tricks on your ears. At the end of yesterday’s session we had rough, but complete, edits of the pieces we recorded on Monday. From here these edits will be cleaned up and later mastered. Over the next few days I’ll be listening back through everything just to make sure that we have all of the right takes in the right places. So far I am very pleased with the results!

For those who may be wondering, we did get to see a bit of Savannah. It’s a wonderful city, and is considered a very desirable tourist destination. On Monday evening we ate dinner at a seafood restaurant on the Savannah Riverfront. This picturesque part of the city is paved in cobblestones, with several buildings dating from the late 18th century. I wish we had more time to see some of the other sites, but perhaps in the future we’ll return to Savannah and see more of it.