Photo courtesy of dream sister
October 30th, 2009 – In mainstream music, vocals usually take precedent. When recording in the studio, most vocalists find it hard to attain the perfection that’s required for recorded music. Unless the producer wants to go for a “live off the floor” recording, a vocalist must record many takes of the song.
Rather than using the best take, the era of DAW’s has made it quick and easy to cut pieces from several takes to make one “best-of” take. This is considered “comping” the track, the derivation of which I assume is abbreviated from “composing”. The pieces that are cut together can be as big as verses and choruses, all the way down to pieces of words.
If you want to get an idea of how the pros do it, Ken Lewis, the prolific and well-decorated producer and engineer, has a Youtube video series up right now. He’s in the studio producing an up and coming band MIGGS. One of his recent videos shows his method for comping vocals. Do you have any tips for vocal comping that Ken doesn’t cover?
One Comment, Comment or Ping
Saul C.
this is nothing compared to comping rap vocals, but I only comp between 3-6 takes whether it’s a verse or a chorus, never around 12 lol
guess that’s how they do it in pro studios then
Nov 7th, 2009
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