Recording vocals can be a tricky process. It’s hard to get spot on vocal takes consistently, especially through the entire duration of a song. There is nothing worse than asking a singer to sing the same parts over and over again, hoping to unearth a gem of a performance. There are some techniques that can help out here, and one of the main ideas that has come around with the use of non-linear DAW recordings is”vocal compings”.

“Comping” in this situation refers to making a “compilation” out of the best parts of multiple performances. This allows you as the engineer to get the best quality recording, and puts less strain on the performer’s vocal cords. As Bobby Owsinski outlines in his “The Music Producer’s Handbook“, most vocal comping is based on a standard technique. Here are some of the key points:

• Get a copy of the lyrics and divide them into clear phrases.
• Listen carefully during playback and make notes with evaluation marks after each phrase.
• After listening to all of the passes, try to piece together a vocal.
• If a phrase still isn’t working, try comping by the word or syllable instead.

You can read more about these techniques and see how to apply this skill set to modern DAWs at the Universal Audio blog here.