After many requests by students for the school to provide recording facilities for music performances, their dreams have finally become a reality thanks to the collaboration of the Music and IT departments. Audio/visual facilities in the IT block have recently been creatively adapted to accommodate the needs of the Year 11 & 12 TEE and Music in Society classes, allowing those students to create a permanent digital record of their musical endeavors in a professional-standard recording studio.

The inaugural group (Tamina Cole, Dan Houghton and Andrea Garcia, with the aid of Andy McPherson and John Keyworth) displayed the initiative to rehearse and perform a song in their own time, with a surprisingly positive outcome, despite this being a foray into the unknown for them. The results speak for themselves (click here to listen to their first song) and it is hoped that this will serve as an incentive for other groups to create a lasting reminder of their time at Clarkson CHS.

This talented group of students learned basic concepts of sound engineering, such as the placement of microphones, setting recording levels and dynamic processing on a mixing desk, as well as digital multi-track recording of analogue sources such as drums, guitars and vocals. They displayed professionalism beyond their years in their organisation and consideration for each other, along with showing good recording studio etiquette despite prolonged confinement in the cramped, hot and stuffy room. They certainly set a high benchmark for other students to aspire to in the future.

Staff members Andy McPherson and John Keyworth hope to continue this collaboration in the future, both as an educational project and as an incentive for students to keep their "good standing", as these activities are an enjoyable and rewarding privilege. We hope this group will be the first of many budding artists to make a recording of their performances, however the boundaries are almost limitless with the equipment available, opening the doors to many different applications including professional-standard filming, editing, musical backing for drama/media and even students' own music videos. All we need to make the facilities truly top notch are some decent microphones and a bit more space.

Stay tuned for the next installment......

Photo: Drummer Dan Houghton sitting in the producer's chair next to the student-built, ultra-high-end PC used for recording.