On Thursday 6th June, the 5th and 6th class pupils from our First Holy Communion Choir were involved in the recording of a charity song for Christmas called “Whoa-Ho-Ho It’s Christmas” at the local Tri-Baric Recording Studio.
We were firstly treated to a tour of the studio by recording engineer Adrian Porter. Adrian showed us the different rooms, the sound booth and all the equipment. He told us about ‘reverb’ and about the purpose of the soundproofing materials including the foam panels on the walls.
Then it was time to begin our recording session. The 12 pupils were divided up into two groups of 6. The first group (Lucy, Rebecca, Jamie, John, Michael B. and Michael T.) went out into the recording room, where Adrian set up the microphones for them and they each received a set of headphones to wear. They performed with the backing track a few times, making some tweaks along the way, as directed by Adrian.
Then it was the turn of the second group (Lily, Grace, Darragh, Leah, James and Seán). Six more melodic voices filled the sound booth.
On completion of group 2’s session, Adrian brought us all into the mixing room where he played the vocals back for us and began the mixing process, mixing the two groups recordings together, explaining all the while what he was doing and how it all works.
Adrian told us about some very famous artists who have recorded there with him and even played one of the rapper Busta Rhymes tracks (very loudly!) for us. He explained about work they had done on various parts of the song to improve it, the verse, the bridge and in particular the chorus, where the female vocalist had laid down twenty vocals to achieve the right sound.
It was a fantastic experience and a wonderful opportunity. Fingers crossed for a Christmas number 1!
