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How to record a simple CD – Easily and Cheaply
By Kevin | November 4, 2008
I received this question on this blog recently, which I felt was worth exploring a little more. Perhaps others have other ideas and feedback that can help this person, and I’m sure the many others who have similar questions about how to achieve this.
I need to record a Christmas CD in my school. Kids will sing and i’ll play the piano.
Can you have a look at my questions please. Maybe you can help me.
1. What is the easiest and cheapest (if possible)way of recording it with a good quality?
2. I am not sure if i will be using keyboard/drums to keep a nice beat. Can it be added after recording? How?
Recording is simple in some ways, and complex in other ways. You can make a project as simple or as difficult as you like, and depending on the quality of the recording you are looking for it can cost you thousands of dollars, or very little.
Of course, you know this, and so this article will focus on how to do it for next to nothing – doing it yourself.
I set about answering this question by asking myself… What is the outcome for this project?
A Christmas CD for the school just needs to:
- have the Children’s voices heard clearly
- have a nice cover picture and good presentation
The Equipment part 1 – A Computer
What I suggest is the easiest and cheapest equipment to use these days is a computer. You simply need a reasonably up-to-date computer, with simple software that is easy to use.
Ideally, the Macintosh computers are ideal – they have a native software called “Garage Band” that will do a simple recording, and their sound cards are really quite good for the purpose.
If you’ve got a Windows PC or Laptop – then that is fine too, you’ll simply need some free software called Audacity – its an open source, completely free sound editor that will do a great job. The quality is going to depend on the sound card installed in your computer, but most consumer level sound cards these days will do a reasonable job, if you get the next stage right – the microphone.
The Equipment Part 2 – A Microphone and Mixer
What you need to do next is borrow, or Hire a microphone and mixer. Usually around most schools they have one or two microphones, and probably a mixer. The native microphone on your laptop will not do a good enough job, nor the little voice microphones they include with sound cards that you plug straight into the computer.
What you need is a simple mixer like this:
I just had a look and you can buy one with a couple of channels for under $50 on ebay.
This allows you to plug in one or two microphones and then take the line out in a clean way into your computer.
Then you need a decent microphone or two. This is the critical stage, and its worth going to a hire shop, explaining what you want to do, and hiring both the mixer and the microphones from them. That should cost you under $100, and will give you the quality you need.
How to go about doing it:
For the application you suggest, recording children with piano – this is what I would do – others may have other ideas.
I would use two large diaphragm condenser microphones for the choir, spaced evenly apart just in front of the children. I know that others may suggest other locations for stereo image etc… but really the important thing is that all the children are heard cleanly. Therefore I’d just make sure that every child has a reasonable chance of being picked up evenly by the microphones
I found a picture of one of these microphones here (some might look a bit different to this) I’m not going to go into which particular brands to use or anything.. thats another whole topic of discussion!
I suggest you hire these – they are usually several hundred dollars to buy.
Then I’d suggest one good quality dynamic microphone for the piano, placed behind it. Once again, you can probably get more detailed response from others on exactly the type of microphone to use.
What I would do then is set it up, play around with the positioning of the piano microphone until I was completely happy with the sound coming through, before getting the children in the room.
If you normally play piano with them – if that is the normal way they practice and perform, then you’re going to get the best possible performance from them by recording it that way.
All you need to do is make sure that the sound coming through in the software on the computer is a good signal. This is represented by the graphical representation on the screen, and it should not “peak” – otherwise you’ll get nasty sounds. You can always cut it down, but if you need to make it louder when the signal is too soft you’ll get lots of noise as well. Have a play with Audacity or whatever audio program you’ve got and you’ll pretty quickly work it out!
With kids, trying something new for the sake of the recording is going to be a big headache and a hard job! The best idea is simply to put them in front of the microphones, then forget they are there. This way you’ll get the most natural and ideal sounding recording.
Once the children are in the room then get them in there, set it running (if you can get someone who knows what they are doing with computers to sit in there with the computer, starting and stopping it running, and saving the files)
An Alternative use of the stereo channels for this application:
Here is an idea for you. Rather than recording in stereo – why not try this?
Your mixer will have a “pan” knob. What this does is send the signal coming in from the microphone to either the right or the left channel, or both if its in the centre.
If you turn the channel thats on the piano all the way to the right, and the two microphones that are on the choir all the way to the left you’ll get the choir recorded on one track, and the piano on the other.
Then, after the children have gone home you can play with the balance between the piano and the choir. You don’t have to worry about the piano being too loud during the recording, you just have to make sure that you have a good clean signal that isn’t “peaking”.
You then mix it down to a mono track, and then separate it back to stereo before burning the tracks to CD. This way you’ll get a nice clean representation of the childrens voices and your piano playing. It wont have true “stereo” but you’ve got to ask yourself..does that really matter?
This is a cheap and nasty way of doing what they do in sophisitcated recording studios where they have many many tracks available. With a standard computer you have two input channels (right and left) – that is it, and this method allows you the most important thing.. being able to hear your children sing.
The second question… adding Keyboard and Drums
If it was me doing this… then I don’t think I would bother – I would use the method suggested above, and then give out a CD that the children could be really proud of because it is what their choir sounds like.
However, if you want to do it – this is what I would do:
I would record the piano first – using MIDI, and record it to a click track. You need sequencer software to do this, such as Cubase, Cakewalk or Garage Band. There is probably free ones available, but the one i’m familiar with is Cakewalk Home Studio. Its fairly easy to use, and you hook up a digital piano using MIDI (musical instrument digital interface) cables.
Once you’ve got the piano recorded to click track, you can go ahead and add midi drums, keyboards, sound effects or whatever you like, whenever you want to.. as the click track will hold it all together in time.
Programs like Cakewalk home studio have facility to record Audio as well, on top of Midi – so you record the choir direct into the software, but I wouldn’t suggest playing at the same time.
If you’re going to do this I would:
1) Record the piano via midi to a click track.
2) Record the choir while conducting, not playing. You’ll need to have the piano being played back through a speaker of course so the kids can hear it, but you want to minimize the amount of piano coming through, as you dont really want it to be picked up by the microphones. As it is exactly what is on the final mix it shouldn’t matter that much. Your computer needs to be more powerful to do this, but better computers should cope with it.
3) Add the drums, keyboard, sound effects on the top in Cakewalk Home Studio and prepare it for mix down using this software
Once again, I would ask myself… does drums and stuff really matter? I think I’d try and focus more on the physical qualities… getting the CD produced nicely with good quality printing on the CDs and booklets.. These CDs are physical items that if done well the children will cherish for ever… lets face it, they aren’t going to get played much, but they will be kept… particularly if they have the children’s photos on. So my priority for budget would be:
- Hiring good microphones and a mixer for around $100
- Getting good quality CD printing and artwork done.
only THEN would I think about adding other tracks and fancy stuff.
This is a huge topic, and I’ve only scratched the surface. Others will surely have other ideas on how to best do this project, however what I’ve suggested is possible for anyone to record a CD for their school for under $100.
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Topics: Audio Application, Educational Music Software, Music Software, Recording, Shareware Software | 3 Comments »
November 5th, 2008 at 11:12 am
Great thing that you were able to elucidate this matter. Many music lovers are searching for the easiest way in recording their creations and compositions.
Thanks for these very useful information!
November 5th, 2008 at 11:50 am
Hi Kevin
looks like you have worked hard on my quetion. Thanks a lot, It’s greatly appreciated!!!
I will have to read your article many more times to get everything right.
Many thanks again.
Regards,
Anna
December 4th, 2008 at 4:36 am
Hi Anna,
I teach K-7 music at a French immersion in Vancouver Canada. I’ve made three French Christmas CDs over the years and am just about to make another this week. If you have access to a Mac computer I’d use it – check into even borrowing or renting. Many parents will have a Mac laptop and that involves the most intuitive way with the least learning curve. i would skip the drums. My students have played the CDs a lot at home and the neat thing is younger siblings have learned all the songs – I’ve always had each grade record one song. If you want to make the project even cheaper you can burn the CDs on a mac really easily after exporting your garage band files to iTunes. It is fast and easy and sounds great. You can also buy CD stompers and printing paper, cases and paper for the CD cases at an office supply store or better yet at a bulk recording store. Renting microphones will give you the best quality though you can make do with the type of mikes most schools have – you just have to figure out how to place your students – kind of in a triangle shape. With the choir type mikes you can rent you place the kids around the mike and everyone picks up well. Make sure you record when it is as quiet as possible at school (think of traffic, parents chatting in the halls, little one outside, bells, etc.). Let me know if I can help. (leah.louis@gmail.com)