Acoustica
Cherry Audio

Comp Clips: Recording and Comping Takes

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COMP CLIPS: RECORDING AND COMPING TAKES

"Comping" — short for compositing — is the studio technique of recording a part several times and then combining the best moments of each pass into one perfect performance. Mixcraft 11 makes this a first-class workflow: record multiple takes into a comp clip, then use the Comp Editor to choose the best section from each take. Mixcraft handles the crossfades automatically.

Comp clips display in the timeline with multi-colored sections showing which take is active in each region, so you can see the makeup of your comp at a glance.

CREATING A COMP

There are three ways to create a comp clip:

  • During recording: Set an audio track's recording mode to Takes. Each recording pass — including each pass of a loop recording — adds a new take to the comp automatically. When you loop- or punch-record over existing material, the finished comp is bounded to the loop or punch region; material outside the region is preserved as separate clips.

  • From selected clips: Select two or more overlapping audio clips, then choose Create Comp From Selection from the Sound menu. The first clip becomes the comp parent and the others become takes.

  • Drag to add: Drag any audio clip from the timeline into an open Comp Editor to add it as a new take.

Each take is assigned its own color for easy identification.

FINALIZE AND UNCOMP

When your comp is perfect, you can leave it as-is (it plays back like any audio clip), or flatten it:

  • Finalize renders the composite into a single ordinary audio clip. The operation is fully undoable.

  • Uncomp to Lanes goes the other direction, decomposing the comp back into separate clips on individual track lanes. Loop-recorded takes are fanned out onto separate, non-overlapping lanes.

COMP CLIPS AND CROSSFADES

Comp clips support an audible boundary crossfade with neighboring clips, just like normal audio clips: create one by overlapping a neighbor, and remove it by separating the clips.

COMP CLIPS IN HOME STUDIO AND RECORDING STUDIO

Take comping is a Mixcraft Pro Studio feature. If you open a project containing comp clips in Home Studio or Recording Studio, Mixcraft automatically mixes each comp clip down to a standalone audio clip on load and shows a warning. The original comp data is preserved on disk, so the project remains fully editable when reopened in Pro Studio.