SOUND ON SOUND

[The Culprit]

Hi all, i'm looking for suggestions for tutorials in editing and comping in preparation for doing a mix.

I think I seen that there are some dudes on here that have some tutorials for sale? I'm already a patron of Mike Senior's Cambridge site and find the content exceptional, but would like to focus right in on editing and the processes that various people use.

Any help will be gratefully received!

[CS70]

Hmm.. what specifically are you thinking of? Don't think you mean taking razor to tape :) but digital, right? The process in itself is very simple so there's not much to say, and a lot of it is down to personal preference.

The specific way you do it is very DAW dependent - different DAW will have different workflows for comping. Perhaps the only general thing is to remember to crossfade the clips. :)

I personally like to listen to a complete phrase/sentence in the various takes (as opposite to individual words) to get a general idea of what bits I like best, and then proceed to clip the parts, then listen to the result to evaluate the flow. Rinse and repeat.

If there's parts out of tune or really bad unusable I mark or delete them.

Occasionally you may want to nudge a word or a sentence a little to make it flow better (for example you like the inflection the singer's used on a specific word, but his timing was slightly different when he was singing it) but it shouldn't be so common.

If I record: 3 takes for a good singer, at least 6 for a mediocre one - a bad one goes directly to Melodyne, or out of the door. :lol:

[The Culprit]

CS70...Ha if I had to manually cut and glue tape together I would very quickly be an ex-home recordist! :D

No I use Reaper and would say my knowledge is below average. I do know how to do some stuff like basic editing and mixing, and got some good ideas regarding tracking from the likes of yourself and some other guys on here last year, when I posted about doing a live recording with my Zoom R16 (which I wasn't able to follow through).

So I get the gist of how it's done, or at least at a basic level. What i'm looking for now is a video tutorial of someone actually doing an edit/comp so I can see HOW an experienced engineer goes about it. There is surely a multitude of aspects of it that I am unaware of at this stage, and would like to get good at it so I can make full use of Mike's fantastic content.

I got snowed-in from work today so decided to DI a few tracks into a song i'm working on, but the takes are not great (i.e. shockingly bad) so thought I should use the opportunity to brush up on my editing skills!

[James Perrett]

For Reaper it might be worth looking at

http://www.kennymania.com/reaper-videos/

It would also be worth looking at Zukan's Samplecraze site as I think he has some tutorials too...

https://samplecraze.com/all-tutorials/

[The Culprit]

For Reaper it might be worth looking at

http://www.kennymania.com/reaper-videos/" target="phpbbpopup

It would also be worth looking at Zukan's Samplecraze site as I think he has some tutorials too...

https://samplecraze.com/all-tutorials/" target="phpbbpopup

Ah it was Zukan I was thinking of! Had clicked a link to his site a while back but could not remember which member it was. Thanks James, I think i'll make a purchase off of each of the links on payday :thumbup:

[blinddrew]

When I'm comping on Reaper I'll record my takes on one track, then use the 'explode all takes to new tracks' feature (which does that - creates a new track with each take one), mute the initial track and then I can easily solo the new tracks and highlight good bits, delete bad bits and then quickly 'see' the composite track. I'll generally try and start with the best take and use that as the base to cut any bad bits from or replace with any better bits. Once I've got all my best bits cut over the tracks I'll empty the original track and pull the separate chunks in place and work through the cross fades.
I'm sure there are more efficient ways of working but this is a nicely visual way for me to keep track of what's going where and what's being discarded.

[The Culprit]

When I'm comping on Reaper I'll record my takes on one track, then use the 'explode all takes to new tracks' feature (which does that - creates a new track with each take one), mute the initial track and then I can easily solo the new tracks and highlight good bits, delete bad bits and then quickly 'see' the composite track. I'll generally try and start with the best take and use that as the base to cut any bad bits from or replace with any better bits. Once I've got all my best bits cut over the tracks I'll empty the original track and pull the separate chunks in place and work through the cross fades.
I'm sure there are more efficient ways of working but this is a nicely visual way for me to keep track of what's going where and what's being discarded.

Excellent Drew that makes perfect sense. So say 3 takes of a guitar line split into separate tracks which gives a lot more options in piecing together one good one in the end. Yeah i'm going to re-visit the song and lay down more takes, that is the way to go and I guess will make things a lot less tedious than trying to nudge timing issues around on one solitary take.

Thanks for the input!

[manwilde]

It's all down to personal preference of course, and Drew's way has its advantages, but I find it easier to do it all on a single track displaying the takes in lanes so I can seamlessly jump from one to the others, as long as you don't have 20 takes to deal with. 3 or 4 should be enough to choose from, in my opinion. Just fill the whole screen with them vertical-zooming.

[The Culprit]

It's all down to personal preference of course, and Drew's way has its advantages, but I find it easier to do it all on a single track displaying the takes in lanes so I can seamlessly jump from one to the others, as long as you don't have 20 takes to deal with. 3 or 4 should be enough to choose from, in my opinion. Just fill the whole screen with them vertical-zooming.

I've never used lanes before but noticed during a brief scan that Kenny Gioia speaks about them. I'm guessing these are just slightly different ways of doing the same thing?

[manwilde]

Yes. As with all DAWs, there's different ways to do the same thing. Just try for yourself, you might find yourself sticking to one method or the other depending on circumstances (or the way your brain is wired).

[The Culprit]

Ok cool, I'll see where it takes me. Suppose it's like everything else...just jump in and start working, you figure it out as you go. Thank you.

[Forum Admin]

Here's a specific Kennymania YT video on Reaper Takes & Comping:

https://youtu.be/ilX2FOyu_Ts

[The Culprit]

Forum Admin weighing in with specific links to newbie questions...one of the many reasons this is by far the best website on the entire Internet.

Superb thank you :thumbup:

[Forum Admin]

Forum Admin weighing in with specific links to newbie questions...one of the many reasons this is by far the best website on the entire Internet.

Superb thank you :thumbup:

Aw shucks... :blush: :oops: :blush: :oops: :blush: :oops: :thumbup:

[manwilde]

I can´t tell how many times I´ve felt the same about this place... Truly a treasure, both in information wealth and civil discourse.

Oh, and big thumps up to Kenny Gioa´s channel!. It´s been an invaluable resource for me over the past years...