Digital audio editing

Contrasting editing methods particularly in broadcasting are reviewed and the requirements of digital audio editing are explored. A hierarchy of editing strategies with varying degrees of sophistication is proposed. The simplest is to cut the tape and use error concealment and electronic crossfading to smooth the splice. In a more advanced option, the concept of separate cut-point and edit-point is introduced, using an auxiliary data track to control a jump over the splice. The top level is a disc-based strategy which gives the user a flexible, nondestructive editing technique with advanced rehearsal facilities not possible with conventional methods. An experimental disc-based editor is developed. The design philosophy and implementation of this editor and a simulation of its performance are described. The man-machine interface, data formatting, systems level design and the software engineering of the project are reported.