Roughly how many comps in a five minute song?

I know this is like asking what length is a piece of string but I’ve been wondering if I am just awful or do all singers require a million takes/comps. I can’t seem to sing more than a couple of lines perfectly maximum. I’m sure there are talented people out there who can sing a whole song through in one take with no comps needed, so, I’m curious to hear your wild guesses of how many takes you would expect a singer to sing for a five minute song. That is, how many comps would be needed.

I’m not a singer by the way, I’ve just recently started making my own vocals.

The voice is a unique instrument.

But like any instrument, it requires practice, patience and good technique (consistency and good pitch).

So the better your singing technique and overall confidence, the less takes you need.

Certain famous producers are obsessive about the perfect take and redo every single syllable if necessary.

Thanks Triplets - I was starting to get an inferiority complex over this, it’s definitely a hard thing to master and was thinking about how embarrassing it must be for mediocre singers who go to a studio and have to do a million takes in front of someone - definitely an ego popper I would imagine for some people, thank god I’m on my own in my bedroom!

The 35th take is never the good one. Never. It may be perfectly in tune and perfectly on time. But it won't be "the one" that will keep a listener's interest forever. Listen to singers with character. There's lots of little imperfections all around, just small enough to not annoy you. If you go for the perfect take, especially as a non-perfect singer, you pretty likely will end up with something as airbrushed and lifeless as the cover of any fashion magazine.

 

In normal times I would encourage you to go on stage, 200 times, then come back and sing the song again, now knowing that the audience didn't appreciate the safe, in-tune version as much as the daring, heartfelt, risky one which captured their attention.

it depends a lot on what you're going for, but, i think, in most cases.. whatever works, works. most pop songs are (& for a long time, have been) construction projects, made up of... whatever works. i've pasted in the letter 's' (lifted from one spot of a singer's performance, to another, where she left it out), or extended a syllable, or fixed the middle of one word... etc etc. etc.

 

get to the end result you want, whatever path that takes (& as long as you're not planning on performing the song live )..