@chosafine to edit you had to set the machine in pause, move the spools until you found the start of the audio, mark it with a chinagraph pencil and physically cut the section of tape with a single side razor blade, it is then stuck together using special adhesive tape (that didn't leak out the glue and gum the heads up). You could often tell a media studies student doing audio production around assignment time by the sticking plasters on their fingers 😆

These machines still fetch €5000 today!