Studio recording technical question

[stormx]

Hi !!!

Let suppose great pianist is about to record in studio some LONG (let assume 20 minutes non stop) and DIFFICULT piece (for a big label).

Let us suppose he does a WONDERFULL performance for 19:30 (better than usual), playing the difficult parts extremelly well, but he makes a bad mistake somewhere in the last few easy bars  (because his relax, for instance)...

Question:
does he have to play the 20 minutes of the piece again (risking to not have a so beautiful performance as the previous one), or can he play again just the ending part, and the studio music engineers are able to "glue" both parts  ?

Thanks !!

[Muzakian]

I'm pretty sure cut and paste jobs are common in studio recordings these days. Apparently Pollini recorded the Chopin Etudes bar by bar in some places!

This is just the path music has taken with the rise of technology. No modern rock band can recreate their studio sound live, due to all the sampling and other sound effects involved. Whether this is a good thing or not is a different question; I think you'll find a range of opinions on that matter.

[fnork]

I think it was Pollini who recorded the "winter wind" etude, and the guy who edited it made quite a mistake - he edited out a few measures in the middle of the piece...   

[IanT]

With digital recording and editing it is easy (if time-consuming) to record a piece bar by bar.  I've heard of rock guitarists recording solos note by note.

Of course, it's tough to get any sense of musical integrity this way.  I suspect that a typical approach may be to record a few takes, piece together the best parts, and then (possibly) re-record any particularly troubling spots.  I sing in a choir and this seems to be the method for the recordings that we've done.

Ian