Waveform Wednesday: The Comp Tool in Logic

A very 
useful 
tool 
in 
Logic, 
the 
comp
 tool 
allows 
you 
to 
pick 
the 
best
 parts 
from
 different 
takes
 of 
the
 same
 instrument,
 pasting 
them 
together 
to
 get 
the
 ‘perfect’
 take!



Step 
1:
 Start
 recording
 a 
few 
takes 
on 
the 
same 
track. 
Logic 
is 
very 
intuitive 
where 
you 
can 
record 
over 
the 
previous 
take 
without 
losing 
or 
destroying 
the 
takes 
before. 
A 
good
 way
 to 
do 
this 
is 
to 
turn 
on 
loop 
recording 
where 
you 
can 
record 
a 
few 
takes 
 at 
once.
 


Step 
2: 
Once 
you 
have 
the 
tracks 
recorded, 
double 
click 
on 
the 
region 
to 
show 
all 
 takes.
 You
 may 
click 
once 
on 
the 
individual 
tracks 
to 
listen 
to 
them 
to 
pick
 the 
best 
 parts 
from 
the 
different 
takes. 
Placing 
the 
cursor 
over 
the 
tracks
 will 
bring 
up 
the 
 ‘comp 
tool’ 
that 
looks 
like 
a 
vertical 
bar. 
Click 
and 
drag
 over
 parts 
from 
the 
different
 takes 
that 
you 
want 
to 
use 
for 
your 
final 
track. 
The 
blue 
regions 
are 
the 
ones
 assimilating
 the 
top 
track 
and 
the 
white 
regions 
are 
the 
unused 
regions.

Step 3: Once you are satisfied with the final track from the different takes, you can either choose to create a new audio file of the track or just remove the unwanted region. By clicking the arrow on the top right hand corner of the top track (final track), a drop down menu will appear where you will see ‘flatten’ or ‘flatten and merge’. ‘Flatten’ is to just to get rid of the unwanted regions but ‘flatten and merge’ will create a new audio file (it works like ‘glue’ )

There you have your perfect take!

-by LC Tech Blog contributor Stephanie Tham