The end result

The final result is very pleasing. It has a homespun authentic and genuine feel about it. The video images of our players during the recording definitely warm the heart. Time will prove this to be a good song, one that people will want to sing and play.

How it was done

Chris and Kelly turned up around 11:30 on the Saturday. Chris and Kelly are  very relaxed and engaging characters and quickly gained the confidence of the group.

The session

Yanni Delaportas arrived to do the recording. The microphones were quickly placed into position and he set up a workstation for the mixing desk and recorder. We warmed up with a bluesy version of “You are my Sunshine”. Chris then requested another song he could join in, so we picked “Hey Good Looking”. By the end of the song Yanni was happy with the recording levels and settings, so we started recording the “TWO” song.

After three or four runs through ‘TWO’ we finally got the intro right (my fault as I was coming in late with the bass and everyone was waiting for me).

Considering our short time rehearsing the song, the session went smoothly, and the group looked and sounded very professional. By 1:30 Chris said “that’s it!” and we had a much needed coffee break.

Karen and I were very impressed with the way our players kept in time as Chris and Kelly were singing into a condenser microphone directly connected to the recording desk – so their voices were un-amplified.

The sound quality is excellent. It’s not easy to record a large group of essentially amateur musicians and make them sound good, and a large group of amateur ukulele players would send most recording engineers looking for the escape hatch.

Somehow Yanni captured the spirit of the moment, and displayed exactly what our group is all about. People of all ages and all levels of ability enjoying life.

For some time we have been thinking about putting our group together with some professional musicians. We are always keen to provide our group with new experiences, and this experience has certainly been a marvellous opportunity for us. We thank you both Chris and Kelly for making this happen.

You can tell how we went by looking at Chris and Kelly’s reaction at the end of the song.