SUMMERY:

Creating Comp track's in Pro Tools is a really cool feature. It allows for a fast and convenient workflow for comparing vocal takes as well as many other scenarios.

To create a Comp Track the first thing we need to do is enable a new setting. Click on the Setup - Preferences to bring up the General Options Window.

Click on the Operations Tab.

Under the Record section, look for the checkbox labeled "Automatically Create New Playlist While Loop Recording". Tick it and click OK.




It should look like this


Next, make a selection on a region where you want to record. Make sure you leave some space, a bar or so on either side so that the artist isn't thrown in the deep end each time the loop begins again.

Now that you have selected your area, press Alt and L to enable Loop Recording.

Next you will need to change the track view so click on the small arrow in the top left-hand corner of the track's header and click on Playlists.




Now is a good time to make sure your Pre Roll and Post Roll is on. To do this, either click on the Pre Roll in your Transport Window so that it's highlighted Green and enter the amount of pre/post roll time you want.




Or, just hit Command and K (MAC).

Just in case you don't know, Pre Roll involves playing a certain amount of audio before the point of recording. When using a Comp Track however, the Pre roll will only play before the first loop.

Okay, so let's record some takes! Hit record and then press play or just hit Record and hit Command and the space bar and your ready to go. When you do this you'll be recording takes over and over again until you hit stop, so when you feel you have some good takes, press stop and check them out.

When you press stop your Playlist View will now look something like this depending on how many takes you made.




When you press play, you will be hearing the very last of your takes. The large one in the Main Waveform. To listen to all your other takes, just hit the solo button on each playlist.

As your listening to your takes, you can rate them so you can easily see when editing later, which take or sections of a take are the best ones to keep. To do this go to Region - Rating and choose a number.




When your done rating your takes and ready to comp, you can either delete the takes that haven't made the cut, or you can hide the regions. I tend to just delete them.

Once your decided on which take is going to be the first, select the area and go to Edit - Copy Selection To - New Playlist.




A new playlist will now be created and will take over as the main playlist. You will see it jump to the top. From here on, it's just a matter of making selections and going to Edit - Copy Selection To - Main Playlist. One by one you can watch them get sent up to the main (Larger) waveform on your track. At the end of it you'll have something that looks like this:




Don't forget to crossfade your sections together before you consolidate anything. There is nothing worse than having a perfect take spoiled by clips or pops because of bad editing.




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