Recording several takes and choosing the best in Loop
Every recording pass over the same place in Loop by Zaweba is kept as a take. Pick the best from the clip's right-click menu or the Instrument tab.
Nobody nails a part first time every time. You play a keyboard line three times and the second is best apart from the ending, or you sing a line again and wish you had kept the first. Loop by Zaweba keeps every attempt. Each recording pass over the same place becomes a take, and you choose which one plays.
That takes the pressure off. You can record again and again without worrying about losing an earlier version.
How takes are made
Takes come from recording. Record audio from a microphone or line input onto an audio track, or record notes from a USB MIDI keyboard, the on-screen keyboard or your computer keys onto an instrument track. Arm with R, use the count-in of up to two bars and the metronome, and play or sing. Record over the same place again and the new pass is kept as another take rather than replacing the last one.
Loop regions make this easy. Press L to turn on a loop region round the section you are working on, and you can go again straight away each time it comes round.
Choosing a take
There are two places to choose. Right-click the clip and pick from its takes, or use the Instrument tab in Studio mode. Listen to each one in context with the rest of the song, not on its own; the take that sounds best solo isn't always the one that sits best in the mix.
Working with takes well
Warm up first. The first couple of takes are often stiff, and by the fourth you have relaxed into it. Since nothing is thrown away, there's no cost in carrying on.
Listen with fresh ears. Pick a favourite, carry on with something else for a while, then come back and compare again. Small timing slips that seemed fine in the moment are easier to hear later.
Rename the clip once you have chosen, using the same right-click menu, so a busy grid stays readable.
Takes and editing
For MIDI takes, the chosen take is ordinary notes. Open it in the piano roll to fix one wrong note or tighten the timing with quantise rather than playing the whole part again. That's often quicker than another take.
Audio takes are recordings, so they can't be edited note by note. A good take matters more there, and the latency compensation setting is worth getting right so that recordings line up with the beat.
Saving your takes
Recordings are stored in the song file. A .zloop song is a ZIP holding song.json and an audio folder of recordings and samples as float WAV files, so your takes travel with the song when you move it to another folder or computer. Save with Ctrl+S after a good session, and the work is safe.
Slips to watch for
Recording on the wrong track is the usual one; check which track is armed before you start. Another is choosing a take with headphones off and the metronome bleeding into a microphone recording. The metronome is never exported, but a microphone can still pick it up from speakers, so wear headphones when you record audio. Loop by Zaweba keeps everything else simple: record, choose, carry on.
