THE ART OF COMPING

As we’ve just covered the best way to record vocals, now it’s time to learn how to build the perfect vocal from multiple takes

And once you have recorded many vocal takes – or other audio – here’s how to comp the best together

We all know there’s a lot of trickery involved in studio vocal production, but it doesn’t all boil down to Auto-Tune and Melodyne. Among the myriad possibilities afforded us by DAWs is the ability to capture endless recordings, enabling us to record our vocalist singing as many versions of our song as we like and then cherry-pick all the best bits to make the perfect, dream ‘take’. This is what’s known as compiling or comping.

Of course, the technique is applicable to any recorded performance, but in this tutorial we’re focusing on comping a lead vocal using Logic Pro X. Everything we’ll show you can also be done in any other DAW, of course.

Comping criteria

Obviously, the first thing you need is a set of vocal recordings – see the previous tutorial, starting on p42, for advice on getting these down. When you’ve got your takes together, you’re ready to sift through them, which is a good time to suggest that the singer goes to the pub. They may want to hang around while you comp, but that will be a pretty demoralising experience for all but the very best vocalists. Listening to dry, unedited loops of vocal can be a real confidence-killer for a singer; it’s better if they come back later and hear the comp, with all your lovely effects, sitting nicely in the mix.

In order of importance, then, you’re looking for the following qualities in the recorded performance. First and utterly foremost is vibe – if this isn’t right, there isn’t much you can do to correct it. Next is context; a vocal may be a real spine-tingler, but is it at the right place in the song? If not, maybe you can move it.

The third factor is attitude. Whether you’re looking for ‘stoned’ or ‘angsty’, attitude can’t be EQ’d, compressed, distorted or otherwise infused into a lifeless recording. And finally, there’s tone – avoid using takes that are thin, overly close or dull.

The least important things, surprisingly, are tuning and timing, both of which can easily be fixed with tools like Melodyne.

Creating a good listening mix

You’re going to be able to make a better informed decision about your vocal comp if you carry it out in context. You want your takes to sound as much like the finished article as possible, so you’re going to need some compression, EQ and probably delay or reverb. The best way to do this is to leave the vocal tracks themselves free of inserts, but route them to a stereo buss with the required effects inserted into it, then set up an aux send from that buss off to your delay and/or reverb. This ensures that all the slices of vocal you’re about to audition are enjoying the same processing and can be judged equally and easily.

First, pick the best overall take and call it your ‘base take’. From there, audition phrases, then words and even individual syllables until you’re happy you have the very best of what was recorded. Once you have that, you can bust out the Flex Pitch, Melodyne or Auto-Tune.

“First and utterly foremost is vibe – if this isn’t right, there isn’t much you can do to correct it”