Question

An absolutely essential feature for me (available in Logic and Reaper, that I'm aware of) is a single-click option for merging and cleaning up comps/take-lanes. In Logic this feature is called "Flatten and Merge" and in Reaper it's called "Glue Items." There are multiple ways to skin the cat, but the general idea is that--at the conclusion of the comping process--there is a single command that does something like the following:

1. Creates a new composite audio region/file from your final comp edit.

2. Moves all the associated audio files for your various takes to some form of a "Trash" folder (or deletes them instantly)

3. Removes all take lanes and replaces the entire comp region with your new composite audio file. (I don't mean it compresses the view of your take lanes; I mean it *eliminates* all the take lanes you created while comping.)

I know I can achieve this result manually in Studio One, but it's an involved process (compared to a single click) and severely hampers my productivity. I get the sense that the philosophy behind Studio One's implementation is that you should save all of your takes "just in case," and for that reason making it easy to delete them all isn't a priority. However, I tend to produce a huge number of takes just to get a performance right. (I'm a multi-instrumentalist, and for instruments that I'm less adept at it can take quite a few takes to get the performance right.) So, for me, if I have to run through a bassline 15 times to nail the feel, I know I will *never* need the first 14 takes (in which I flubbed the feel). So I just want a really fast way to dump those worthless takes so they don't clutter the project and amass on my drive. (Also, for off-site backups I don't want to send all those worthless takes into the cloud.)

I actually tried to jump ship on Logic recently, and purchased Studio One 3 for that purpose. I had to go back due to the impact on my productivity from this single feature. I was hoping it would "magically" appear in version 4, but that doesn't appear to be the case. Thanks.

Answer 1

Thank you for the feature request. 

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Answer 2

I may be missing the boat on this one but what about bouncing the track? Highlight the track and press (Option, command, B).  

I wish for a way to save multiple versions of comps like in Logic.

Answer 3

Thanks for your answer! Unfortunately, bouncing simply creates a new audio file for the comp; it doesn't remove the takes, collapse the take layers, or delete the audio files from the pool. To fully clean up a finalized comp, you have to manually delete all the takes individually (right-click + Delete for every take), then manually delete all the layers individually (right-click + Remove Layer for every layer), then go into the pool and manually delete the audio files there. It's a little ... nuts. We're talking 3-ish clicks per take in the comp. So, for a 10-take comp, something like 30 clicks vs. one-to-two clicks in other DAWs. (Clearly, you're supposed to just collapse the layers and forget about all the extra takes.)

There doesn't seem to be much interest in my suggestion (which is fair--I like that the feature requests are democratized here), but I've confirmed this feature exists in the all the other DAWs I've tried (Logic, Reaper, Cubase, and Waveform), so I know I'm not completely crazy! :)