Hello everyone.
I would like to suggest a quicker and easier workflow for recording several takes in layered mode and then comping them; i.e., picking and choosing the best bits.
Instead of always playing the top-most take that isn’t muted, Ardour should play the highlighted take - regardless of whether it’s at the top or not. That alone would save several clicks or button presses for every take you audition.
For comping multiple takes, it should be possible to click and drag the mouse over the section you want and click also click and drag the position of the cut for fine-tuning.
This idea stems from a forum thread on here and my previous experiences with other DAWs:
For a visual example of what this alternative workflow could look like, have a look at this video of someone comping takes in a different DAW:
You should check out the new razor edit stuff in Reaper. I suspect this is similar to what you are suggesting and may add some more ideas for when you add this to tracker.ardour.org.
This take-comping functionality is an essencial one to the professional workflow. Any music producer that works with different musicians knows what this is about. I particularly love being able to record a few takes, picking a favorite one, and then substituting eventual tiny mistakes with the other takes.
Performances usually are enhanced when the musician can play longer instead of Frankensteining a “perfect” collage. With the take-comping functionally you can free the talent to focus on interpretation. Unless there is a specially technically challenging passage, the mistakes across the takes will not repeat in the same place, making this functionality a time-saving musically favoring tool.
Good argument, except that ProTools established a dominant role in the industry and didn’t have such a facility for 20+ years.
Other DAWs have been adding ever-better comping solutions over the last 5 years; before that, users simply figure out ways to get the job done with whatever tools were available.
What an honor to have you replying my comment. FOSS is the way
Allow me to rephrase and correct my language: of course no tool will ever be “essencial” for the professional music production. With creativity and strong will, one can overcome any difficulties. What I meant to say was that this particular functionality (take-comping) is a game changer for us, because of how it helps creativity and inspiration flow for a better musical result, specially when you are recording real musicians.
Logic Pro 9 is the DAW I currently run on all computers in our studio’s network. I would LOVE to use Ardour instead, and get rid Apple Inc. claws. But without take-comping, in the current workflow of our production, it would not be possible.
Ardour is a miraculous achievement, so I congratulate your work and all the other collaborators’ labor to bring it to where it is now, but as a studio that’s considering migrating to it, I can’t ignore clients deadlines.
If I had the coding skills this is what I’d dive in. Please let me know how can I help to make this possible.
