Yesterday, Jane and I had fun creating a virtual choir. With two of us and eight parts in total, I think that means we cubed our efforts (8 = 2 x 2 x 2). We both sang each of the parts and I doubled both the upper and lower voice an octave down. You can hear it in the video above, which I’m using for today’s Nine o’Clock Worship slot for my church.

We recorded each part twice through and I assembled the final piece using Logic Pro X, bringing in voices singly or in pairs and adding a triple repeat of the last line to close it. The result is a bit choppy but it was fun to do.

If you can resist the temptation to read on, pause and have a listen now.

What you probably won’t notice if you listen to it is the pitch correction work. We didn’t spend that long rehearsing so didn’t hit all the notes. Part of my editing work was taking some of the lines (like the melody lines that lead in, doubled with both our voices but not masked by the other parts) and shifting some of the notes. To try and keep the natural sound, I avoided making everything spot on. I wanted us to sound like we hit the right notes but if, for example, I was 30 cents sharp, I’d drop that to an almost imperceptible (at least to my ear) 5 cents sharp than bang on the money each and every time, which nobody who has heard me sing would believe. I also didn’t ‘fix’ every line – only the ones that were most exposed or obviously wandered off.

Did I manage to vault the aural uncanny valley (where technological trickery makes things too perfect to be believable). Have another listen and make your own judgement.