Put on a piece of Taylor Swift, Mariah Carey and Michael Jackson, and listen carefully to their voices.

You may think that these artists have recorded multiple takes of the song and that the producer is limited simply to choose the strongest.
There is a high probability that the vocals of any song that can happen at hand have been edited through a process known as "comping": that is the task of reviewing the vowels take in search of the best moments that are sentences whole, single words or even syllables, to sew them together in a track that sounds perfectly.
Everyone the exploitation "even the greatest singers of all time," says producer Ken Lewis, who throughout his career has edited the voices of Mary J. Blige, Usher, David Byrne, Lenny Kravitz, Ludacris, Soul Asylum, Diana Ross and Queen Latifah.
"According to what I read and what I was told, at the time of Michael Jackson-and he was really an extraordinary singer-we worked even starting from 48 different take."
Yet the first thing I thought when I heard about it: comping not likely to make the most artificial vocal tracks, disjointed and lacking in personality?
Although the technique is widely used in popular music, where usually the intention is to play clean as possible, most manufacturers will tell you that the comping is the best method to ensure a great recording.
"I know it might take a little 'charm to the music, but the comping in fact it is essential to make the best possible manner the most important element of the mix," wrote music producer Frank Gryner of Recording Magazine.
The process takes place as follows: a singer recorded a song several times, in whole or focusing only on some particular points.
It starts from 4 to 10 take-a number greater conviction could remove the artist, undermine confidence and end up complicating the editing process.
"She sat on a stool and sang the song for six hours without stopping," he said in an interview for Tape Op magazine, the sound engineer Ben Allen.)
Usually when recording studio sound engineer takes notes on a sheet that lists the text and note the phrases that came very well, just good, evil, notes the increasing, declining, and so on.
The columns on the right indicate the eight sections take that promise better, the final decisions are noted in the text.
When the session is over, each carefully selected part is played back with the voice track loop to double what the volume will be in the final mix.
This of course to make sure the item is in tune even if the pitch is not necessarily the most important factor that influences the choices that will make up the final result.
The timing, tone, attitude, emotion, personality, the way in which each phrase or word fit into the overall context of the arrangement and adapt the rest of the vocal track can temporarily override the perfect pitch.
Let's talk about those little touches that add personality to the track: often it is these to remain more impressed in the memory of listeners.
After that the manufacturer identifies the best parts of different takes and "stitching" together with programs like Pro Tools.
The comping is one of the most common practices and current editing software have made it increasingly easy and intuitive, especially since the days of analog in which we worked with tapes, technicians had to mark the exact point on the reel with a pencil , make the cut with a razor blade and paste the two ends with adhesive tape.
Most programs today allow you to upload multiple files simultaneously in order to compare them directly and simply drag the portion you want to include in the master track.
"If you think about how many shots of battery there are a traditional song, you know what are the ideal time in which to place a cut to make it recognizable."
Listen carefully to the hit Adele "Someone Like You" and you will find that in the first verses are moments in which the singer inhales the air-were eliminated.
Also you can only feel in some moments, even the background noise captured by the microphone throughout the song here is another clue to the presence of a cut.
"That's why these products are so expensive," said Mark Bright in an interview with Bobby Owsinski, the author of The Music Producer's Handbook.
Blight has produced Carrie Underwood, Reba McEntyre, Rascal Flatts and typically spends 8 to 12 hours to compose a vocal track starting from over 20 takes.
Max Martin and "Dr. Luke" Gottwald, the producers behind mega pop stars like Miley Cyrus, Katy Perry and Britney Spears, are known for making heavy use of comping.
As they often accuse of playing pop songs aseptic, artificial or overproduced, every manufacturer I spoke with told me that if any fault is certainly not the comping.
The comping has earned a bad name because it is associated with other editing tools such as pitch correction and auto-tune, but "I can only assess it positively," says Senior.
Push yourself to the limit and take some risks often leads to produce those little gems that can make special entire track, says Lewis.
"Yet it is a fact: if you go to register with the idea to sing a whole song from start to finish, it is very difficult to be able to get us out of something really special."

From Vice