Plug-ins from Waves Audio are being used for recording and mixing by the Kid Pan Alley charity outreach songwriting programme.

Kid Pan Alley’s mission is to enable children to work together to create music, and promote creativity in education through group songwriting.

To date, from around 2,500 songs written by more than 35,000 children across the US, Amy Grant, Sissy Spacek, Delbert McClinton, Cracker, Kix Brooks and the Nashville Chamber Orchestra are among the artists who have so far chosen to record them. Kid Pan Alley’s recorded work has also earned accolades from around the industry, including a Grammy nomination.

Waves plug-ins enable Kid Pan Alley to record and mix quickly and efficiently: ‘The Waves IR1 Convolution Reverb sounds pristine, sits naturally in the mix and offers endless possibilities for creation and re-creation of our favourite hardware pieces, says Ryan Benyo, Director, Licensing & Creative at Kid Pan Alley. ‘Like all the Waves plug-ins 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 depth and continuity. We are also doing a lot of work in the studio, arranging and recording the best of our song catalogue. We’ve been using the IR1 on all of our recent Kid Pan Alley studio mixes.’

‘The Waves Restoration bundle, particularly the X-Noise plug-in, is an absolute lifesaver,’ adds Paul Reisler, Founder & Artistic Director at Kid Pan Alley. ‘Working with children in a school setting is rewarding and inspiring, but their auditoria and lunchrooms (often one and the same) are far from acoustically treated and have a high noise floor. Waves X-Noise helps clean up the tracks so we can hear the talent and not the room.

‘We use the Vocal Rider plug-in 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. Vocal Rider also works wonders on our lead vocalists, as we are able to have them sit perfectly with the kids in the mix. 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.’