What is a take in music recording?
A take is one recording pass of a part. Loop by Zaweba keeps every pass over the same place as a take, so you can pick the best one later.
In music recording, a take is a single pass of a part: you press record, play or sing it once, and that attempt is one take. Record it again and that is take two. In Loop by Zaweba every recording pass over the same place on a track is kept as a take, so nothing you record is thrown away, and you choose the one you want to hear from the clip's right-click menu or from the Instrument tab.
The idea comes from studios, where a singer might do several takes of a verse and the producer picks the best. It works just as well at home.
Why takes make recording easier
The hardest thing about recording yourself is the pressure of getting it right in one go. Takes remove that. If you know the last attempt is safe, you relax, and relaxed playing usually sounds better.
They also let you compare. Your third go at a guitar line might have the best feel while your fifth has the cleanest ending. With takes you can hear them side by side rather than relying on memory.
How takes work in Loop
Loop records audio from a microphone or line input onto an audio track, and notes from a USB MIDI keyboard, the on-screen keyboard or your computer keys onto instrument tracks. Both kinds work the same way here. Arm with R, let the count-in play (it can be 0 to 2 bars, with the metronome), and play. When you go back to the same bars and record again, Loop adds a new take to that place rather than replacing what was there.
Afterwards, right-click the clip. The menu has takes alongside duplicate, rename, mute, key lock and delete, and it lets you switch between the takes you have recorded. In Studio mode the Instrument tab offers the same choice.
A sensible way to record takes
Set up a loop region around the section you are working on. Press L to toggle it on, and playback will keep coming round to the start. Record a few passes in a row while the part is fresh, then stop and listen back.
Turn on the metronome with M while you record if the song has no drums yet. Loop never exports the metronome, so you can leave it on without it ending up in your mix.
Don't judge too soon. Record three or four takes before you start choosing, then listen to each from the start of the section with the rest of the song playing. A take that sounds rough on its own often sits well in the mix, and the reverse is true too.
Takes, comping and editing
Some studio programs let you cut takes into pieces and stitch the best bits together, which is called comping. In Loop you choose between whole takes, so the simplest approach is to record short sections. If the chorus went well on take two and the verse on take four, record them as separate clips and pick a take for each.
For MIDI takes you have more room to fix things after choosing. The notes are ordinary notes in the piano roll, so a single wrong note can be moved or deleted without recording the whole part again, and quantise will tighten the timing.
For audio takes, if a take is good but sounds slightly behind the beat across the board, that is usually latency rather than your playing. Adjust the latency compensation setting and the buffer in Tools > Preferences, then record again.
When to stop recording takes
There is always a temptation to do just one more. A useful rule is to stop when the takes start getting worse rather than better, which happens sooner than you might expect. Pick the best one, save the song with Ctrl+S, and move on to the next part. You can always come back, because the other takes are still there.
