A flawless, one-take vocal performance has become increasingly rare these days.
But that's not a problem, this is why every modern DAW allows all of us producers and engineers to meticulously edit together any number of takes into one perfect performance.
Vocal comping is the art of both selecting and then combining multiple takes of any vocal or instrument into a single, ultimate take.
In this tutorial, Grammy winner Fab Dupont walks you through the entire comping process and shows you how to:
- Balance technical perfection with artistic expression, maintaining the "feel" of a track while also maximizing the precision of the performance
- Sort through of dozens of takes without losing track the best ones
- Know when to pick a winner and move on with life instead of endlessly deliberating between nearly identical options
- Nudge and drag out edit points to create seamless and imperceivable comps
- Quickly assemble comps using the tools at hand, in this case Avid's Pro Tools playlist view and promote button/shortcuts
Whether you're a Pro Tools, Logic, Cubase or Studio One user, learning how to effectively comp vocals together is an essential skill every engineer and producer needs to master.
Download the exercise files to practice comping the same vocal tracks Fab used in the tutorial. Inside the .zip file you'll find the Pro Tools session file as well as the consolidated wav files to practice comping with any DAW
