Hello ELF Friends,
ELF Learning released its first children’s CD 1 year ago. It was a project which took a lot of time and effort, but we are so happy with the results!
What many people do not know is that we used our students as singers on many of the tracks! I wanted to take a minute to talk about their contribution.
From the start, we talked about recording our own students for the CD. We wanted our kids to know that they were the reason that we wrote the CD. We also wanted them to hear themselves each time they listened to the songs. The problem was…HOW?!
As anyone who has recorded children knows, it’s no easy task. It’s especially difficult when you are recording 14 different voices at one time!
We decided to record their contributions in an environment where they were comfortable…the classroom. While this made it easier for them, it was a challenge for us. We needed to keep the microphones far enough away from any one singer, while also getting a strong enough signal.
We decided to use 3 microphones placed high above the students. One was placed in the center and two others were placed to the right and left, but angled in slightly.
The next challenge was to arrange the students according to height. We decided to place the taller students in the back so that everyone could see the direction from the sound engineer.
The most difficult challenge, since we didn’t have 14 headsets (!), was how to arrange the speakers to eliminate as much microphone bleed as possible. Bleed is when sound from headphones or speakers finds its way back into the microphones. We did this by placing the speakers under the microphones and keeping the volume very low. We then depended on a, “director” to help the kids come in at the right time.
Overall, it was a very difficult challenge, but we did it! After a lot of editing and arrangement, ELF was able to include the students who inspired our efforts!
Please feel free to mail us if you have any question about how to record YOUR students! We’re happy to help!
Best,
Eric and The ELF Team
ELF Learning 