Comping specialities of Studio One

Making layers visible

The individual takes in Studio One are saved in layers, which you can show or hide using a switch in the track header:

Creating layers

To ensure takes land on separate layers, you need to perform the following settings in Studio One:

• from the "View" menu, open the _"Record Panel"
• select from this the recording mode "Take to Layers"

Now simply record several times in succession on one and the same track and each new recording will be saved to a new layer.

If, however, you have not recorded your vocal takes in Studio One but exported them as individual files from another DAW (or have been sent them to remix), first create a new track and then drag onto it the first of the tracks to be imported. Next, from the "Track" menu choose “Layers” > "Add Layer", create as many layers as you need and drag the individual vocal takes onto them.

Activating Melodyne

For the swiftest and at the same time the most flexible comping workflow, you should get into the habit each time you’ve recorded a take of equipping it with Melodyne immediately. In other words: record, stop, equip take with Melodyne (Cmd+M), record next take, stop, Cmd+M, record the next take etc.

It would be unwise to comp a few takes without Melodyne and activate Melodyne only later, because this in Studio One would mean that Melodyne would only be available for the events included in the comping track but not to the out-takes, and this would make it impossible for you to change the comping boundaries subsequently. You could, admittedly, remedy the situation by discarding the comping roadmap you’d begun work on, then putting all of the first take into the comp, equipping it with Melodyne, then putting all of the second take into the comp, equipping that too with Melodyne … and so on for every take, but that would obviously be a hassle. So, as we’ve said, get into the habit of pressing Cmd+M as soon as you’ve finished recording each take. This only requires one additional mouse click and will save you a good few headaches and time wasted rectifying the omission later on.

Swipe or click

With the mouse pointer tool, click and swipe over a take to define the passage during which this take should play:

Once you have defined the boundaries of the passage in this manner, if you then click on another take, the two takes swap places, so to speak, but the boundaries themselves remain unaltered.

Moving boundaries

To move comping boundaries subsequently, drag the border of either of two consecutive takes, and that of the other will move along with it:

Even when the layers are hidden, you can still move the boundaries. To do this, move the mouse pointer over the lower part of the comping boundary until it (the mouse pointer) looks like this:

When doing this, it is advisable to deactivate the Time Grid or hold down the Shift key in Studio One (to deactivate the grid temporarily) as you drag the boundary; this is because the right place for a take change generally lies between syllables or breaths rather than exactly on the grid. The zoom level in Studio One is relatively unimportant for the purpose, because when it comes to finding the precise break between syllables, you get the best view of the material in Melodyne. So zoom in Melodyne to the ideal level (which is most easily done by dragging upwards or downwards in Melodyne’s Time Ruler); then move the boundaries in Studio One and make sure that the vertical line in Melodyne falls in a suitable position:

Melodyne modes: Track Edit vs Clip Edit

Most of the time, when you are comping in Melodyne, you will have Track Edit Mode selected. There you will see a representation of your main track – i.e. the exact succession of notes that you also hear, with vertical lines at the comping boundaries set in Studio One:

Alternatively, you can switch to Clip Edit Mode:

There you can look, so to speak, “under the bonnet” and examine a single take in its entire length. The highlighted area corresponds to the passage (defined in Studio One) during which this take is included in the playback; the areas with a gray background show you what else is included in the take and what you would hear if you were to move the comping boundaries in Studio One.

Clip Edit Mode allows you, among other things, to take hold of the end of a note currently truncated by the comping:

Now you can shorten the note until it is confined entirely to the highlighted area – which means it fits exactly within the comping segment defined in the DAW.

To learn more about the respective advantages of Track- and Clip-Edit Mode, click here.