Option to disable comping

[Chancery]

I want to think I simply don't get Live's approach to comping and take lanes, but as it is today, I find its implementation a gigantic mess.
I'd appreciate a checkbox in Preferences to disable it entirely.

[jonljacobi]

Just don’t open the lanes. Live has always preserved the recordings for undo and the like.

[RobrechtV]

Live has always preserved the recordings for undo and the like.

True, but it was always easy to clean everything up and regain some disk space by listing all recordings not in use by the current project in Live's file manager, and then deleting them. Now, if I'm not mistaken, all those unused takes in hidden take lanes are still considered "in use", and thus cannot easily be deleted in one go, even if they're not actually in the final track. Correct me if I'm wrong!

Even better than disabling comping (I think) would be a simple way to "commit" a certain track to the takes actually in use, and drop all its other takes from the project. That way, they will be considered unused by the file manager, and they can subsequently be deleted as desired.

[Chancery]

From my experience with Cubase and Logic, take lanes and the whole comping thing only kicks in once you loop your recording and start a second round. At that point the DAW understands you're recording different takes and the whole thing kicks in. So if you're not doing that, you don't even know it exists.
The problem with Live is it's always active, from the moment you press record, involving everyone in the mess, whether you're intending to record takes or not. Which I never do.
I'm sure it's very useful for many as it is, but not for me. Hence my request to be able to opt out of it.

[RobrechtV]

I think hiding take lanes will accomplish what you're looking for and will, in effect, amount to disabling comping.

If you want Live to stop preserving all recordings altogether, I don't see that happening. As mentioned above, Live has always done that in the background, and it's been a lifesaver on some occasions where I regretted having chucked a recording for some reason. You never know when you might need it.

Until recently, Live kept no info on where exactly in the track those discarded clips were recorded: all you had was a long list of WAV files in the file manager, so it took a lot of searching to get the right one in the right place again. Now, with take lanes, that info is finally preserved. That's a huge step forward in my book and, provided that there are no drawbacks, something you wouldn't want to give up.

One potential drawback is that they make a project look messy, but the solution to that is simple: just keep your take lanes hidden. That way, you won't even know they exist: problem solved!

The other drawback is that you end up with a lot of unused recordings taking up disk space. That used to be the case before take lanes as well, but at least there was a way to batch delete all those unused WAVs when a project was done, whereas now, they're all regarded as "used in the project". Hence my request for a way to "commit" a track, only keeping clips actually used and discarding the ones just sitting in take lanes, so that they will show up as "unused" in the file manager again, ready to be deleted in one go.

[Chancery]

Thanks for the suggestions and the explanation. I came to Live only in version 10 and I hadn't noticed it was like that before comping was introduced.
I don't see myself getting used to it at this point. I work 90% of the time in Session View, which is what I find Live excels at. The Take Lane mess is just causing me to rely more and more on Logic for mixing, once I've committed my set to the Arrangement.
Oh well...

[ekg-music]

I think hiding take lanes will accomplish what you're looking for and will, in effect, amount to disabling comping.

no, unfortunately it does not. If you turn on arrangement records it save literally every take. I just discovered that, because my Projects got bigger and bigger and I had no idea, because I deleted all clips in the session view, until I opened the take lanes. There were hundreds and hundreds of files. It took ages to delete them all.

So, this is not only an issue for me, right.
Yes, an option to disable that behaviour would be HIGHLY appreciated!!

[RobrechtV]

I just discovered that, because my Projects got bigger and bigger and I had no idea, because I deleted all clips in the session view

This was already the case before comping was introduced. Recorded audio files were always kept, even if you deleted the clips in the project. And as a failsafe for recovering accidentally deleted recordings, I wouldn't want to part with that. However, before the introduction of comping, you could use the "show unused files" option in the file manager to conveniently list and delete them all in one go.

Now, with comping and take lanes, "unused files" has almost become an obsolete concept, because all previous takes are still "used" in the take lanes. That makes file cleanup a lot harder, as you've experienced.

Hence my request for an option to "commit" to the takes actually in use and remove all others from their take lanes, so that the "show unused files" function becomes useful again for cleanup once a project is finished. That would solve your problem as well.

[SanderMarc]

I think that this is an excellent idea!

I was searching why i couldn't use delete unused files, while i was sure, i wasn't using them.
Thanks to this post i realise it is because of comping.
Thank you.

[Valkon]

"If you want Live to stop preserving all recordings altogether, I don't see that happening. As mentioned above, Live has always done that in the background..."

No, it's possible: Ableton Live Lite version 11.0 worked great (and now it's broken too)!

[oblique strategies]

I would very much like the option to disable comping.