And...Check!

I've checked another thing off the "Things to do in my lifetime" list. Of course, I had no idea this one was on it...

• Run a marathon....check!
• Do a triathlon........check!
• Record a jingle for a commercial....check?

On Tuesday evening, a few other members of my chorus and I traipsed up to "Baltimore" (really Essex) to record a few lines for a jingle that is being written for an Annapolis tourism commercial. I had never been to Essex and was astounded that there are areas in Maryland that look just like deserted towns in the Deep South. Who knew?

We arrived at the address provided, and the only thing we could see on the street was a diner and a deserted hair salon (named Studio 529...at first I thought it was the recording studio). Someone finally found a "4" on one of the doors leading into the warehouse. We timidly crept in, making comments about the interesting "field trips" we end up on for this adventure we call "singing". A few flights of stairs down, we found the studio. Once we were inside, it was pretty much like any other recording studio (I've only been near one other...).

In the studio, we stood around the mics, learned the 3 lines we were responsible for, and started recording. It actually sounded ok...but on a recording you can definitely hear tiny mistakes...usually with diction or pronunciation. I would say we probably had about 10 takes of each line. A few of us had the "cans" (headphones) on to listen to the playback of the recording (I'm picking up the sound engineer lingo...can you tell?). I felt a little bit like we were on an old radio show. Once a few tracks had been laid down and the engineers had enough to work with, we headed back to our cars. It was quick, painless, and a pretty interesting adventure.

So, if you see a commercial in the next few weeks for Anne Arundel County/Annapolis and hear a jingle that starts with "Come Sail Away...", listen for the chorus parts. That's us!