[HANASHIR:15662] Re: Amateur recording

[Chuckm1961 <Chuckm1961...>]

What you need... a good microphone plugged into a decent tape deck.  Then 
someone who knows computer and has a program like Sonar/Cakewalk, so you can 
run 
the music from the tape into your computer, and create a digital version which 
can be burned to CD.

Problems: 

1) The microphone needs to be excellent, and the children need to be 
positioned correctly, or the sound will not be good.

2) I made a CD for parents and children this year, and I had some of the 
children come in for a special recording session.  When I played the music for 
a 
few parents, the general reaction was (these are their own children singing, 
mind you, or children of their good friends!): "They don't sound very good.  I 
heard that you recorded most of the songs with adults singing.  Why don't you 
just use those adult versions?"  Unlesss, they are well-rehearsed and can stay 
in tune as a group, children's singing can get very ... not great fun to 
listen to, at least in the opinion of my parents, and also a Studio owner that 
I 
spoke with.

3)  There are copyright issues involved here.  We did not sell the CD for 
profit.  We gave the CD free to every Religious School family.

If there's anything more I can do to help, please let me know.  Our CD has 
been a big hit so far, with many positive comments from parents.  I ended up 
using the children for three songs, only as background singers.  The rest of 
the 
songs were sung by adults.  I cleared copyright with all the songwriters, and 
they were all very helpful!

Chuck Mitchell
Songleader
Congregation Anshai Emeth'
Peoria, IL