KVR Audio

Watchful · Post by **Watchful** » Wed Oct 25, 2023 11:16 pm

Tracktion Waveform makes comping pretty simple to use, but not necessarily better or worse than other DAWs. But it's clean, quick, and reliable at it.

jens · Post by **jens** » Wed Oct 25, 2023 11:25 pm

Tracktion would be just about the worst possible choice for that really!

tommyzai · Post by **tommyzai** » Wed Oct 25, 2023 11:29 pm

jens wrote: Wed Oct 25, 2023 11:25 pm Tracktion would be just about the worst possible choice for that really!

May I ask why? What would be your choice for the smoothest comping of audio recordings?

sonidomolino · Post by **sonidomolino** » Thu Oct 26, 2023 12:31 am

for my purposes, Cakewalk by Bandlab has been by far the most flexible and efficient for comping for quite some years. Studio One is ok, but still a bit limited. better than PT, L, etc. since the last time i had to do it in something else and Reaper by far up until maybe release 7 now. have yet to try it, but will give it a go at some point.

for those who care, the primary use case is free form vocal comps where things don't line up with neat little bar bound loops. take lanes are easily displayed, swiped, cross faded, *slip edited relative to each other* and flattened into a single take lane with the greatest of ease. the only problem i might have is that it has been so easy that i tend to outstrip it's ability to keep up with the edits (on tracks with more than a few takes).

and just recently was handed a project in Studio One, had to plow through a bunch of lead guitar takes to (ahem) "craft" a solo that didn't sound completely whack (smh), but ended up transferring it to Cakewalk to get it done within budget...

jmho, ymmv

VOODOO U · Post by **VOODOO U** » Thu Oct 26, 2023 12:42 am

Bah! Comping is for sissies. If you ain't done did it right get back on yonder and do it again! From the beginning! It's the only way to keep em chops up.

apoclypse · Post by **apoclypse** » Thu Oct 26, 2023 12:42 am

Maybe because it was the first DAW I used that had comping, but I've always been partial to the way it's done in Logic. I like the workflow in Studio On was well but in typical Presonus it has some weirdness.

jens · Post by **jens** » Thu Oct 26, 2023 7:24 am

tommyzai wrote: Wed Oct 25, 2023 11:29 pm
jens wrote: Wed Oct 25, 2023 11:25 pm Tracktion would be just about the worst possible choice for that really!
May I ask why?

Because once you stopped recording, you can't record additional takes to the same item. Instead a new item is created.

What would be your choice for the smoothest comping of audio recordings?

I dunno - it's a bit hard to say. They all have their own individual deficiencies and lovely tools/features...

Reason is quite good, but it doesn't have slip-editing (i.e. each take acts like it was an independent file that ends and stops at where the original recording started and ended) and the same goes for Sonar.

Reaper has its completely new system, but I haven't tried it enough. But in typical Reaper fashion it seems a bit overly complicated/convoluted to me at first sight. The other day I tried it and was like "WTF? How do I....?" a few times. Of course I can then find out how to (by watching videos and what not), but I'd have to use it a bit more in order to see how smooth/useable/simple it is once I'm used to it. (In other DAWs it's typically pretty self-explanatory so I'm usually up and running in a minute or two).

Studio One is quite messy if you record additional takes later on, so you might have to scroll any number of empty lanes to reach the next take, which is absolutely painful for comping.

Cubase/Nuendo is all in all okay, but it drops all takes on top of each other (as seperate items), so that can get messy too if you're not careful.

What I personally find - by far - the most convenient solution is if all the takes reside in their own container which opens on double-click in its own window.

Reason does that (with its own zoom- and snap-settings - so lovely), but Bitwig as well and Bitwig has slip-editing too and so far I didn't really encounter any other major shortcomings either, so probably that would have to be my answer - but then again Bitwig does not support ARA, so in the end my vote has to go to Reaper, I'm afraid...

...no actually not, since Cubendo has track-versions (fantastic for - amongst other stuff - completely independent comping of alternative versions) and other lovely stuff. So that's my final answer (perhaps

): Cubendo.

sonidomolino · Post by **sonidomolino** » Sat Oct 28, 2023 7:02 am

Reason is quite good, but it doesn't have slip-editing (i.e. each take acts like it was an independent file that ends and stops at where the original recording started and ended) and the same goes for Sonar. ??

...
? pretty sure Sonar had slip editing for each take for quite some time, given that it is the predecessor to Cakewalk by Bandlab. It's one of one of the main reasons i use it.

jens · Post by **jens** » Sat Oct 28, 2023 10:26 am

No, unfortunately it sitll doesn't have that - I mean you can shift the take's borders outwards, but the recorded previous and subsequent takes are missing. Everything before and after the loop's In/Out locators is empty clip content then, i.e. the ability to freely resize the clip is useless in regards to this.

pdxindy · Post by **pdxindy** » Sat Oct 28, 2023 2:48 pm

Bitwig is not the best for audio comping, but what I do like about it is that the comping is clip based, not track based. That means I can do audio comping directly in the Clip Launcher. Also, it is convenient cause I can record a clip with a bunch of takes, save that clip, and it saves with all the takes. This also allows me to do stuff like make a loop with a number of variations as takes and save just the one clip and always have the variations with it. So it is a useful tool beyond the classic comping concept.

trmupstage · Post by **trmupstage** » Tue Oct 31, 2023 4:21 pm

I like the comp tool in Cubase/Nuendo. The only thing I do not like is that if I am working on real drums and I've got group edit enabled, I have to have all lanes showing on all the tracks in the group, or else the comp doesn't work. They are aware of the issue but haven't fixed it.

thebutler · Post by **thebutler** » Tue Oct 31, 2023 5:05 pm

trmupstage wrote: Tue Oct 31, 2023 4:21 pm I like the comp tool in Cubase/Nuendo. The only thing I do not like is that if I am working on real drums and I've got group edit enabled, I have to have all lanes showing on all the tracks in the group, or else the comp doesn't work. They are aware of the issue but haven't fixed it.

I like it too... Yet, it is these tedious little things you always hope they get round to sorting out in the next release, that would make things really nice.

Of course, if you've a super-duper system with a powerful graphics card and fabulously large monitor, it may not be so much of a bind... With current finances, having to stay put with FHD only, 24" display for now...

Maybe C13..? Which should be out tomorrow...

Bombadil · Post by **Bombadil** » Tue Oct 31, 2023 6:06 pm

Logic has had it for ages. Works a treat. I only need it for vocals, though.

donkey tugger · Post by **donkey tugger** » Tue Oct 31, 2023 6:39 pm

I just do one take, and delete any bits I can't pitch correct/bodge together.

tommyzai · Post by **tommyzai** » Tue Oct 31, 2023 7:50 pm

donkey tugger wrote: Tue Oct 31, 2023 6:39 pm I just do one take, and delete any bits I can't pitch correct/bodge together.

How do you replace the bits you deleted? Punch in?

Best DAW for comping?