Plugins from Waves Audio have been chosen to provide charity outreach songwriting program Kid Pan Alley the perfect solution for recording and mixing on a tight schedule. Kid Pan Alley’s mission is to inspire and empower children to work together to become creators of their own music and to rekindle creativity as a core value in education through the group songwriting process. Kid Pan Alley’s recorded work has earned accolades from the industry, including a GRAMMY nomination.
Ryan Benyo, director, licensing & creative at Kid Pan Alley, states, “We absolutely love the Waves IR1 Convolution Reverb. It sounds pristine, sits naturally in the mix, and offers endless possibilities for creation and re-creation of our favorite hardware pieces. Also, like all the Waves plugins we’ve used, it’s very stable. When we’re working with live recordings that have everything from overhead mics for the kids singing, to direct acoustic guitar and vocals off the board, the Waves IR1 helps give everything depth and continuity, making it feel like you’re actually there experiencing the concert. We are also doing a lot of work in the studio, arranging and recording the best of our 2,500-song catalog. We’ve been using the IR1 on all of our recent Kid Pan Alley studio mixes.”
Paul Reisler, founder & artistic director at Kid Pan Alley, adds, “The Waves Restoration bundle, particularly the X-Noise plugin, is an absolute lifesaver. Working with children in a school setting is rewarding and inspiring, but their auditoriums and lunchrooms (often one and the same) are far from acoustically treated and as a result have a high noise floor. Waves X-Noise really helps clean up the tracks so we can hear the talent and not the room. We use the Waves Vocal Rider plugin on the kids’ mics, because children tend to have the widest dynamic range that can easily be overpowering or completely buried, especially in a band setting. Waves Vocal Rider also works wonders on our lead vocalists, as we are able to have them sit perfectly with the kids in the mix. Waves Vocal Rider is the quintessential piece that keeps all the vocals right on top of the mix so every word can be heard at the right level. We don’t just use it on vocals either. It can be very transparent and effective on guitar and other instruments when needed. We find that having it set to ‘fast’ with a pretty narrow range does the trick for the kids!”