Need help with recording project for fundraiser

[preschool_mom]

Hello, Let me start by saying that I am a total novice in this digital recording world and I really need some help... My daughter's preschool annual auction fundraiser is in a few weeks I have this great idea to make a DVD of a photo slideshow of the kids with background music of them singing some of their favorite songs. Sounds great, right? Okay, if you're not a parent, just indulge me, it will be a really special way to remember our little ones while they are small......
This is where we get to the part that I am cluless. I can handle building the slideshow, but I have no idea how to record the music into a digital file. Now, this clearly does not have to be the most sophisticated recording, but I would like it to be fairly clear and nice sounding. So, my idea is that I need to go buy a microphone, plug it into my laptop and sit down with the kids in a circle and let them sing while I record. Am I on the right track?? If I am, what kind of microphone will handle this, keeping in mind that it needs to be as inexpensive as possible. Any advice???
Thanks so much for helping, I know that you all are used to having much more sophisticated discussions!!!
Kind regards,
Elizabeth

 

[csgraphics]

Hey,

I don't know what kinda laptop you have but if its an ibook or mac you should have a program called IMovie, I used it for the exact same purpose as your looking for. You can shoot a video of them singing or record them singing using a cheap mic or the built in mic on your laptop. Then just edit it in IMovie, I've done several nice videos using the program and you can then burn them to dvd and pass them out.

Tiff

 

[Warhead]

Position the kids however they are comfortable, if the sitting in a circle thing isn't how they normally do it I wouldn't change a thing. They're pre-school, probably best to not disrupt what they are used to. So them being comfortable would be #1.

Maybe a USB mic into a simple PC recording program would be fitting?

I guess a question for you would be, are you familiar with any recording programs already? If this is all new to you, I'd seriously abandon ship on learning how to use all that stuff and maybe just use a portable recorder or even the stock mic on a video camera to record it. Sometimes easy just makes sense!

The parents won't be critical of the sound as long as it can be heard decent, so don't worry yourself TOO much.

Tell me what you think of these ideas.

War

 

[hungovermorning]

Ask someone with an older son whose into recording of some kind, slip him $20 and don't worry about it. Seriously, if you ask around, someone will know someone (that's always how it works) and it will save you a great deal of hassle and they'll even encode it into mp3 for your slideshow. They'll probably even have a laptop that they can bring to your house.

cheers,
scott

 

[Richard Monroe]

Hungover's on the right track. Where are you located, in general terms? There might very well be somwbody on this board who would do it with good equipment. You're looking at a bunch of money and a steep learning curve. A lot of the people on this board would do a (much) better job for $50.-Richie

 

[preschool_mom]

Thanks for the advice. I bought an inexpensive microphone today and I have it working with my laptop. For the moment, I am thinking of just using the windows Sound Recorder - it will let me record up to 60 seconds - which should do it for most little kids songs. I can then combine several of the sound files for the musical background to the slide show. That will keep it simple....but, if I decide to use a pc recording program, do you have any recommendations on which program to use - keeping in mind the goal is simplicity!!!
Thanks again!!

 

[gordone]

Audacity (Google it for the URL) is completely free and will record as long as you have free hard drive space. It can also do some basic editing. It's very simple as well.

I personally use N-Track which is shareware and more geared towards multitrack recording, but I still dabble in Audacity when I need to do work on my laptop.

Good luck, sounds like a fun project!