How to Comp a Lead Vocal

"Comping" is the practice of assembling a composite from a variety of recorded "takes." This is generally applied more often to vocal takes. When producing, say, a lead vocal, the producer will coach the vocalist into taking different approaches to expressing an emotion. The result of the newly comped vocal is to arrive at a performance that is cohesive and congruent.

I will show a method to achieving a proper composite vocal track.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

Things You’ll Need:

• DAW
• Several vocal takes
• Recording studio

1. For this example I will be using ProTools HD 7.4 software.
   
   Once you have collected all the vocal takes you can now go through them to determine the best of the lot.
   
   If all the vocals are assigned to specific playlists within ProTools, creating a comp will be much easier.
2. Create a new audio track and name it "Vocal Comp" and place it under the track where the vocal takes reside.
   This will allow you to copy these vocals and paste them directly on the new track more efficiently.
3. Activate the Loop Playback option and highlight the first vocal phrase.
   
   As you listen you can scroll through the various playlists without stopping playback.
4. Once you have arrived at the best performance for the phrase, copy and paste it onto the new track. If you activate the Command Focus option located at the top left corner of the Edit Window you can use the (P) and (;) keys to move up or down the tracks respectively.

Tips & Warnings

• It is important to note that the composite should result in a seamless performance that does not sound disjointed. Sometimes the individual phrases may not sound the best when soloed, in which case they are being auditioned completely out of context. Just remember to focus more on the continuity of the performance and not all the minutia.