Beepster

Vab
I'm not sure if this is the same thing or different, but I gave up with trying take lanes and comping when I was having previous recordings being overwritten by new ones.

I don't think that's meant to happen, or if its related to comping, but it seemed like a significant big so I went back to doing multiple takes whilst a track is playing, then just copy pasting a correct take to wherever it was needed.

This sounds like you are using Overwrite mode instead of Comping or Sound On Sound modes. Overwrite is the only mode that will replace existing takes with the new recording.
 
Right click on the Record button in the Transport module and select either Comping or Sound On Sound and you previous takes will be retained.
 
Comping mode will mute the previous take(s) as you record new takes and Sound On Sound will leave the previous take(s) audible.
 
Overwrite will do as the name implies and overwrite any existing material.
 
These different modes will also affect editing behavior.
 
Hope that helps and if this is not the issue then my apologies. If you provide more detail then maybe we can find the problem. Cheers.

What are the real use cases of not using comping mode I wonder for takelanes?

comping has been soooo much fun, totally intuitive, super slick and powerful... never got take lanes... my favorite songwriting tool...  which is great, as so much else is still confusing... but comping is awesome!
 
The funny thing is, once you try it, it is instantaneous... no bit learning/recall thingy... 

Agreed, I think it is an amazing addition.

User impressions of take lanes seems largely based on how they use them. This point gets lost sometimes in discussions about takes/comping.

For comping, take lanes are great. Comping tools are quite intuitive (after a little learning curve) and provide an excellent workflow. Importantly, documentation, including the video someone linked to, is good. There are a few issues still, but overall users seems to find the workflow excellent.

For editing, especially multitrack, the opinion on take lanes is quite different. Many have struggled with this and have asked for layers (which were quite good for editing) to return. After struggling myself with this I have come around to finding a good workflow. I now believe that the #1 issue with editing using takes is lack of good documentation. The workflow is not very intuitive, and there are many pitfalls if you go astray. But with the right workflow they be very effective despite still having some quirks and bugs to work out.

The "using takes as layers" thread provides a lot of good info, and I know Craig plans to publish an article on this matter which should help. But a comprehensive video by CW on multi-track editing in take lanes would go a long way toward getting past this lanes vs layers discussion.

Editing? Using take lanes? I'm having a hard time envisioning that without interjecting the word comping.
 
If you are talking full tracks done on the same track I can't see how one would not want to place each one on its own track. Then cut and paste as needed. But that sounds a lot like comping.  

The key to multi track editing is making sure that "Clip groups" are created while recording. That option is set in Prefs--->Record--->Multi-track Grouping.
 
It is possible to do afterwards by selecting clips and adding them to a group using the right click context menu but it is fiddly if you have already recorded a load of takes. Much easier to have them created at record time.
 
I edit and comp multiple takes of multi-tracked instruments all the time. Mainly acoustic guitar with 4 tracks at the moment with anything up to ten or eleven takes, but I have done drums with 8+ tracks and still do occasionally.
 
Once the clips are grouped you only need worry about one track. All the other takes will follow the edits done in any one of the tracks.
 
HTH

Sanderxpander
It's been a while since I used Logic 9's comping features (and I haven't used X at all), but does anyone know the differences between that and X3? When I got X3 and started comping I thought "huh, that's just like Logic".

I was wondering if perhaps they had swiped some ideas from elsewhere but I haven't used many other DAWs so have nothing to compare it to.
 
Even if they did steal it from elsewhere though it's an ingenious theft. ;-p
 

neirbod
User impressions of take lanes seems largely based on how they use them. This point gets lost sometimes in discussions about takes/comping.

For comping, take lanes are great. Comping tools are quite intuitive (after a little learning curve) and provide an excellent workflow. Importantly, documentation, including the video someone linked to, is good. There are a few issues still, but overall users seems to find the workflow excellent.

For editing, especially multitrack, the opinion on take lanes is quite different. Many have struggled with this and have asked for layers (which were quite good for editing) to return. After struggling myself with this I have come around to finding a good workflow. I now believe that the #1 issue with editing using takes is lack of good documentation. The workflow is not very intuitive, and there are many pitfalls if you go astray. But with the right workflow they be very effective despite still having some quirks and bugs to work out.

The "using takes as layers" thread provides a lot of good info, and I know Craig plans to publish an article on this matter which should help. But a comprehensive video by CW on multi-track editing in take lanes would go a long way toward getting past this lanes vs layers discussion.

The whole Multi Track editing was something that was indeed quite mind bending when trying to figure out an elegant way to do it but with the new edit group options it's actually really simple. At the very end of the vid I linked above they cover this but again it happens very quickly. You have to take advantage of either the Group All Clips function in Preferences before beginning a multi track recording. Then say your multi mic'd drums will have each take on each track grouped together (Take 1 Snare, Take 1 Kick, Take 1 Hats, etc all get grouped. Take 2 Snare, Take 2 Kick, Take 2 Hats, etc all get grouped. Then when you edit one take the changes are reflected in the corresponding take.)
 
For takes recorded without having that function enabled you would use the Group Only Clips in Folders option. This seems a little trickier but I THINK the easiest way to do it is to create clones of all the tracks in the input set (Kick, Snare, Hats) making one clone for each take. Then label the sets take 1 take 2 take 3, etc. Put those sets into their own folders and delete all the takes other than the relative take. Then you'd make your edits using the comping tool. Instead of it all going to a parent track you'd have segments promoted in each folder and surrounding it silence. Once it is edited you'd bounce the segments together for each kit piece. Not sure if the bounce can be done in one action while retaining channel separation or if you'd need to repeat the bounce for each track. So that is all a little convoluted but having never done this with layers myself I'm visualizing how it could be any easier using the old method.
 
So really just make sure you use the Group All Clips in the recording options before tracking and your life will be much easier. Cheers.

Actually I guess manually grouping the clips so they behave as if they were recorded with the Group All Clips option would be a less weird but I got my mind stuck on that folders grouping option. If you only had one set of takes though multi track editing would super simple. Just throw the tracks into a folder and edit them. To me that would be useful for applying fades, cutting stuff out, arranging stuff as I write (I've started recording riffs then moving them around to arrange my songs) and if automation is affected by grouping that could be super useful as well.
 

Thanks for the replies to my slight digression on this thread ;-)

I'm not suffering the way I do things now - but an empty take lane sounds like a great idea, and then dragging "good" parts to it...

as suggested, I just need to RTFM (and watch the video a few more times) ;-)

chuckebaby
I have to say I feel the same, comping is really good in x3, it was my biggest issue in x2, I couldn't understand the theory behind the steps. it was a wee bit baffling to me.
but in x3 it just speaks volumes what the boys can do when they really want to floor a feature and get it right.
I love it, its been money for me.

I used it for 3 quick projects tonight and it really is sensational.  It took no time at all to merge several takes together.  My only problem had been that I could never remember how to slice up the phrases, and how to enter speed-comping mode.  I still stumble my way around that, and sometimes SONAR drops into a mode where the automatic muting doesn't work right.  Sometimes while speed comping, I can only hear audio from one of the takes.  If I fiddle around with the solo buttons, it seems to straighten itself out.
 
I haven't tacked cross-fading while speed-comping yet because all of the stuff I'm doing has natural breaks in the  phrases.