Well . . . yeah.

If one is combing through old open-reel or cassette tapes of song fests, hoots, and such in an effort to extract pristine recordings of songs sung by a particular singer or group of singers to put on a CD, one might be faced by a great deal of frustration. However, if what one is trying to do is preserve recordings of songs, people, and the events at which they occurred, then the opening door with new people arriving, the barking dog, a bit of conversation, especially that which occurred between songs, wise-cracks and by-play, is all part of that event.

In some cases, one wishes to preserve such a recording "unsanitized."

Don Firth