Neale Eckstein asked us about an idea for streamlining the vocal comping feature we have in Pro Tools….

I feel like the playlist comping flow is somewhat clunky and have posted a feature request on the Ideascale.  It seems that it would be easy to modify what happens when using the playlist comping feature to save a lot of mouse clicks or shortcut keystrokes to make it easier to audition, select and create a comp track.  I’d like to be able to make a selection on a playlist and have that section automatically solo.  Then it would be a simple matter to use the semicolon shortcut to move down a lot of playlists quickly to hear them without have to solo each one.

The second part of this streamlined workflow would be to have the playlist un-solo whenever a selection is promoted to the main playlist so you can listen to how it fits in the comp track if you choose to. This workflow could be a preference for those that like the way it currently works as “quick comping” or some other descriptive name.

I’d be interested in how you all are doing your comp tracks with the current playlist workflow in case you’ve got a faster way than I am currently doing it using keyboard focus keystrokes.

How do you work?  Do you think Neale’s idea of an ‘auto solo’ option when vocal comping is a good idea? Do you have any tips for streamlining the existing vocal comping workflow?  Please share them with the community.