Takes & Comping
A take is one recorded performance of a part. When you record the same section several times, AnalogDAW keeps the takes together so you can choose the best one — or build a composite ("comp") from the best moments of several.
This is how you turn five good-but-imperfect vocal passes into one flawless performance.
How takes get created
A clip can hold a primary recording plus any number of alternate takes. Takes are added automatically when you record over an existing clip:
- Punch / re-record over a clip. Record a new pass that overlaps an existing clip on the same track, and the new pass is stacked as another take on that clip rather than replacing it.
- A pass that spans several clips joins only one of them — the clip nearest where the pass started. Everything else it crossed stays exactly where it is, overlapping the new recording. Nothing on the track is deleted or absorbed, so a long pass over a busy track never costs you the arrangement.
- Loop recording. Turn on the loop around the section and keep recording. Each pass through the loop is captured as a new take, all collected on one clip. This is the fastest way to capture a stack of takes hands-free. Each take is its own Undo step: after you stop, Undo removes the takes one at a time, newest first.
- A pass that captured nothing — an input that went away mid-take, or a punch so short that latency compensation trims all of it away — is discarded, and nothing already on those tracks is touched. When you stop, AnalogDAW names the tracks it happened on in one message, however many were armed; it never interrupts a loop that is still rolling.
Each take remembers its own audio file, trim, and gain. Fades belong to the clip, not to the take inside it: drag a fade onto a take folder and it shapes the folder however you switch takes underneath it.
Choosing the active take
Every take clip plays one active take at a time. To switch which take you hear:
- Expand the take lanes. Open a clip's takes to reveal a row per take beneath the clip, where you can see and audition each one.
- From the clip's menu, the Takes submenu lists Original plus every take — pick one to make it active (a checkmark shows the current choice).
Switching the active take is instant and non-destructive — the other takes stay right there.
Opening and closing the take lanes
- The lanes open on their own the moment a second pass turns a clip into a take folder, so the takes you just recorded are in front of you.
- Collapse them with any of the folder's disclosure toggles (or the track header's Takes button) when you want the track compact again. That choice sticks: later take groups on that track won't reopen the lanes — only you do.
- A take folder can be far wider than the screen, so the toggle repeats along the clip's title bar at even intervals. Whichever part of the take you have scrolled to, one is within reach — no scrolling back to the clip's start. The spacing follows the width of the timeline area, so the control stays reachable on a phone and doesn't tile the header on a large display.
- The lanes open whichever view you were in when the pass finished, so a take recorded from the Mixer is already open when you switch back to Edit.
Comping — building the perfect performance
Comping means assembling one great performance out of pieces of several takes. With the take lanes expanded:
- Audition the takes and decide which one is best for each phrase or word.
- Drag across a take to select the portion you want; that region is promoted into the composite. Do this across the takes, section by section. Start the drag on audio that isn't highlighted yet — a drag that starts on a highlighted region edits that region instead (steps 4 and 5).
- Click a take to swap a section you have already decided. A click moves only the piece of the comp it lands in — the span between the nearest edges of the regions your drags created — so fixing one word never throws away the rest of the pass. In a folder you haven't comped yet there are no edges, so the first click takes the whole folder.
- Drag the edge of a selected region to move the seam between two takes. Point at the start or end of a highlighted region (on the Mac the pointer becomes an edge-resize pointer) and drag. Shortening the region lengthens the take it meets, and lengthening it shortens that take, so moving a seam never opens a silent gap. Where nothing meets the edge — the start or end of the folder, or a gap — the region simply gets shorter. The edge stops before the region disappears, and it never stretches a take past what was recorded. Shift-drag the edge to shorten a region without lengthening the take it meets, leaving a deliberate silent gap. Shift is read when the drag starts, so you can let go of it mid-drag.
- Drag the middle of a selected region to slide it along its take (on the Mac the pointer becomes an open hand there, closing as you drag). The region keeps its length and plays a different stretch of the same take. The take it moves away from grows to follow it, and the take it moves into shrinks — or disappears, if the region passes over it completely. Moving away from the start or end of the folder, or from a gap, leaves silence behind it. A region can't slide past what its take recorded, and the take following it can't grow past what that take recorded.
- AnalogDAW crossfades between regions automatically, so the seams are smooth.
To shorten or lengthen the whole folder, drag its start or end edge the way you would any clip. Every take is trimmed together and your comp stays exactly where it is — regions are only cut back where the new edge crosses them. Dragging the edge back out reopens the takes and the region at that edge, as far as the recordings reach. With Ripple Edit on, later clips on the track close up or make room, as for any trim.
To hand the entire folder to one take regardless of your comp, use the Takes submenu on the clip's menu, or Set as Active on the take's own menu. Every comp gesture is one Undo step.
Each comp region has fine controls so the result is seamless:
- Region slip — nudge the underlying audio earlier or later inside the region to line up timing, without moving the region itself.
- Region gain — adjust the level of just that region so all the pieces match.
- Crossfade — the smooth blend at each seam between regions. AnalogDAW picks the shape for you based on what is either side: a seam between two different takes gets an equal-power crossfade, which is what holds the level steady when the two performances are unrelated, while a seam that lands back on the same take gets a linear one, which is what holds the level steady when both sides are the same audio. Using the wrong one is a 3 dB dip or bump right at the edit, so it is not a preference — it is decided per seam.
Reset options are on the region's menu: Reset Region Slip, Reset Region Gain, or Reset Region Gain and Slip.
Managing takes
From a take clip's context menu:
- Set active take — choose which take plays (the Takes submenu).
- Delete Active Take — remove the currently selected take.
- Merge Takes (Flatten) — render your comp choices down into a single new audio clip. This "prints" the composite so the clip becomes one simple file — great once you're happy and want to tidy up. (The flattened audio is written into the project so it travels with the session.) The printed file uses the same crossfades you were hearing, so flattening never changes the sound of the comp you approved.
Tip: Comp first, flatten last. Keep your takes around while you're still deciding; flatten only when the performance is locked, since flattening commits to your current choices.
Takes across grouped tracks
If tracks are joined in a track group (see Mixing), choosing a take on one track can switch the matching take on the other members at the same spot — handy for multi-mic sources (like a drum kit) where all the mics should follow the same take.
Next: Editing Clips →