Virtual choirs are a creative, inspirational way to capture the magic of singing from the comfort of your home. Unlike a physical choir where everyone sings in unison, virtual choirs are a unique digital collaboration where everyone’s audio and video are recorded separately, and later mixed and edited together into one video. While these musical masterpieces are rewarding to create, they do involve some pretty extensive organization, along with some many hours of audio mixing and video editing. With the proper plan in place, you can be part of a really special music collaboration with your friends and colleagues!
StepsMethod 1Method 1 of 4:Planning
1Choose a song arrangement for your virtual choir. Browse online for a song that isn’t too complicated, so the vocalists don’t have a hard time navigating and singing the piece. If you have some background in music composition, feel free to arrange the music yourself.XChoose a song with a consistent tempo—this will be a lot easier to organize.You can find a lot of free choral arrangements online. This site is a great place to start: http://www.cpdl.org/wiki.If you buy an arrangement, contact the publisher and see if you need a synchronization license to publish your virtual choir cover online.X
2Assign the lyrics in the song to different vocalists. Think about how you’d like the song to flow. Do you want to break up the music with solos and duets, or do you want everyone singing at once? Choose a musical direction for your song, and decide which vocalists will be singing which part.XIt may help to divide the song by vocal type (bass, tenor, alto, soprano).
3Specify a spot where vocalists can drop or send their files. Set up a public folder on a cloud-based client, like Dropbox or Google Drive. Send this link out to all the vocal participants, so they can drop their finished audio and video files there when the time comes.XDon’t collect the files via email—this could compress the audio and lower the quality overall.
4Record a guide track and email it to the other vocalists. A guide track is a timed, uniform recording of each vocal part, so all the vocalists can easily follow along. Record guides for all vocal parts in the song, so your vocalists can follow along to their respective part. To help give a sense of the song’s tempo, count off for 2 measures before you start singing.XAsk a friend for help recording vocal parts that are out of your range.For extra reference, send over a copy of the song’s digital score, a separate accompaniment track, and a sample performance track. This way, your singers will have a really good sense of what the song will sound like when everyone’s parts are put together.X
5Send a “best practices” document to the vocalists. A best practices document offers advice and suggestions to improve the vocalists’ audio and video quality. Request that your vocalists use a high-quality microphone and camera for their submissions, and to record in a quiet spot without any background noise. Remind all participants to listen to the guide track through headphones or earbuds, so the audio doesn’t leak into their own recordings. Then, let everyone know when their vocal recordings are due, so the virtual choir cover stays on-schedule.XYou might also specify a certain dress code for the video, and what type of background they should record in front of.Method 2Method 2 of 4:Rehearsing and Recording
1Encourage the other singers to practice with the guide track. Virtual choirs take a lot of pressure off the vocalists—since they’re recording on their own time at home, they can practice and redo their recordings as many times as they’d like. Remind the participants to practice with the backing track as many times as they need until they can sing their parts clearly and confidently.X
2Ask the vocalists to video themselves while singing. Instruct the singers to hit “record” on their camera, and then “play” on the guide track (with headphones or earbuds plugged in). Then, they can sing along with the guide track. Request that they sing the entire song in 1 take instead of submitting multiple videos.XIt’s okay if the singers don’t get it right on the first take. Since it’s a virtual choir, participants can re-record as often as they need to!
3Wait for the singers to export and send their finished videos to you. Give the participants until the deadline to submit their audio and video to the drop link. As the deadline approaches, send out reminders that submissions for the virtual choir are due soon.XMethod 3Method 3 of 4:Organizing and Mixing Audio
1Download and label the videos as they’re submitted. Save the files to your computer during the submission period, so you don’t have as much work to do later on. Right-click and rename the files to include the vocalist’s name, as well as what part they’re singing (e.g., bass, tenor, alto, etc.).XYou might label a file something like “Tiffany Smith – Alto” or “John Watkins – Bass.”
2Extract and separate the audio from each video file. Upload each video to an audio extraction program, like VLC—this will separate and export the audio track into a separate audio file format, like WAV. As you upload and extract the audio from each video, continue labeling the new files with the singer and their respective vocal part.XJoyoshare Media Cutter, Pazera Free Audio Extractor, and Online Audio Extractor are also great programs to consider.
3Clean up and time each individual audio track. Upload the audio to a Digital Audio Workstation (DAW), like Audacity, Avid Pro Tools, or Ableton Live. Arrange all the vocal parts correctly on the DAW’s timeline, so all the vocals sound in-sync. To really take your audio to the next level, download specialized plug-ins for your DAW, like breath control or voice de-noising, which can remove some of the imperfections from each audio track.XIf you have the time, use a separate tuning program, like Melodyne Studio or iZotope, to correct any wavering or inconsistent pitches. Most audio tuning software is pretty pricey—see if you can sign up for a free trial instead.
4Mix the audio into a uniform track. Once all the audio is cleaned and timed, take some time to “mix” the audio, or make it all blend together cohesively. Add a little reverb and delay to the audio tracks, and adjust the EQ and compression settings to improve the mix.XMixing audio is a very technical skill, and can take years to master. If you have the budget, commission an audio technician to mix all of the files together.If you’d really like to take your audio to the next level, master the final audio track. The mastering process helps optimize the finished product so future listeners can get the best listening experience possible.XMethod 4Method 4 of 4:Editing and Exporting the Video
1Convert the videos so they’re all the same file type. Import all of the videos to your editing program of choice. Then, convert and export the videos to a uniform file type, like MP4/H264.XDaVinci Resolve, HitFilm Express, and Lightworks are free video editors you can try out. If you don’t mind paying a little extra money, Final Cut Pro and Adobe Premiere Pro are also great options.X
2Trim the beginning and end of each video so they all line up properly. Chances are, your vocalists’ videos aren’t all the exact same length. That’s okay! Using your video editing software, trim the beginning and end of each clip so they’re all the same.X
3Line up all the videos with the audio backing track. Upload the audio to your video editing program. Arrange the videos in the editing interface, along with the backing audio file. Tweak and adjust the videos with the audio, so the vocalists sync up perfectly with the music. This may be a bit time-consuming, but it’ll help your video look and sound polished!X
4Add transitions and effects to make the video extra dynamic. Line up the videos in a grid-like pattern to create a uniform choir effect, so viewers can see everyone singing at once. For a more complex video, feature and transition between smaller groups of videos. Play around with different effects in your video editing software until you’re happy with the finished result!XFor instance, you might pan the videos horizontally across or screen, or fade certain groups of videos in and out.Don’t be discouraged if this process takes a long time—video editing is a very specialized skill, and requires a lot of practice and training to really master. If you’d like to speed things up, consider commissioning a professional to finish your video.
5Render the finished video. Check the rendering queue on your computer to get a rough time estimate. Once your video is rendered and exported, it’ll be ready to go!X
6Publish your finished video online. Create a thumbnail for your video, so potential viewers get a quick taste of what’s to come. Then, write out a video description that talks about the song you covered, and who all was involved in the project.X You’re now ready to upload and share virtual choir with the rest of the world!X
