THE MAKING OF
SONG FOR THE CHILDREN
Song for the Children CD Single
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Andreas and Kostas Kontos (sound engineer) while recording "Song for the Children"
How and when the song was composed
Back on November 1989, Niki Smagadi, Andreas' mother, who was (and still is) very involved with The Greek Children's Village told Andreas: "Hey, why don't you compose something for the Children's Village?" Andreas always loved children, so he found the idea very intriguing and at that same day came up with Song for the Children. Some years later, on January 1993, Andreas added the bridge section.
Immediately after composing Song for the Children, Andreas had the idea of making it the official song of The Greek Children's Village. So he gave a cassette of a very primitive recording of the piece (Andreas had just a small home keyboard back then) to Mrs. Zoi Daniilidou, the president of The Greek Children's Village. She really liked it and agreed to make it the official song. Furthermore, she offered to write the lyrics. But at that time the Children's Village was still under construction and the project was postponed for a more appropriate moment.
The recording and release of the instrumental version
The instrumental version of Song for the Children was recorded on April 1994 at the Lab of Electroacoustics and Music Technology of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki with Kostas Kontos as the sound engineer.
Andreas recorded and mixed the song with his synthesizers in the Melodic Winds Studio, his home studio in Thessaloniki, Greece. At the day of the final recording, Andreas brought his synths and his computer in the studio, as back then he was using an Atari 1040STe and CD-Rs were not available for this computer. Panagiotis Pavlidis performed the piano part, using the wonderful Steinway Model B Grand Piano of the studio on top of the synths which were played back by the computer. The piece was recorded straight to DAT using a Studer D780 DAT Recorder with no editing at all, and transferred to CD-R using the Studer D740 Compact Disc Recorder. BBE 822 Sonic Maximizer was also used to improve the overall mix.
On 20 May 1998, Andreas released Melodic Winds, his debut instrumental CD. Song for the Children was one of the 14 instrumental pieces of the CD, and the exact recording made back on April 1994 was used.
The writing of the lyrics
At the time of Melodic Winds release, The Greek Children's Village was fully functional. So it was time for the lyrics to be written and the song to be recorded. This is when Andreas came up with the idea of releasing a CD Single with three different versions of the piece for the benefit of The Greek Children's Village. Mrs. Daniilidou loved the idea and wrote during the summer of 1998 most of the lyrics. Still more lyrics were needed in order for the song to be ready. Unfortunately, she is an incredibly busy woman, as she has a Children's Village to take care of, so time passed without the lyrics being written. Finally, on 18 February 1999, she met with Andreas at Melodic Winds Studio and she wrote the rest of the lyrics, with Andreas contributing a verse. It was a meeting full of inspiration!
Maria Meligopoulou, Kostas Kontos and Andreas in the studio.
The preparation for the studio recording sessions of the song version
After the lyrics were done and the CD Single project was approved and confirmed, the next step was to prepare the song version. First of all, a choir was necessary for the song. Andreas and Zoi Daniilidou agreed that the best was the choir of the Tumba Conservatory of Thessaloniki under the direction of Maria Meligopoulou, a renowned choir director of Thessaloniki. Fortunately, Maria agreed immediately.
Andreas decided to use the arrangement of the instrumental version as the basis for the song version but with a few changes. First of all, the chorus in the instrumental version is repeated three times and the second repeat had to be cut because of the lyrics. The harp sound used at the bridge section was removed as well.
Then the part played by the synth acoustic guitar had to be replaced with a brand-new part played by a real guitarist. And this is where Konstantinos Topalis comes to the picture. He had been a friend of Andreas for many years, and Andreas had always loved his guitar playing. He agreed to participate in the recording and came to Melodic Winds Studio three times in order to work with Andreas for a few hours on the part he was going to play. These meetings were full of inspiration!
Some small changes in the melody (played by the piano) had to be made in order to fit the lyrics. That meant that the piano part would have to be recorded again. Christina Angelopoulou, piano teacher of Andreas since October 1993, agreed to play the piano part and was given a partition by Andreas.
Finally, Andreas mixed and recorded the synth parts at Melodic Winds Studio and made a CD-R with this recording, because in the studio Konstantinos and Christina were going to perform on top of it.
The selected choir members that sung "Song for the Children" in the studio.
First recording session for Song for the Children
On 2 April 1999, Andreas, Konstantinos Topalis, and Christina Angelopoulou went to The Lab Of Electroacoustics and Music Technology of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. Once again, Kostas Kontos was the sound engineer, and the same Steinway Model B grand piano was used, just like on Song for the Children (Instrumental version) and The Beauty of Nature.
The recording session was supposed to start at 10.30 am but Kostas was very busy with TV editing, so we started recording at 12.10 p.m. This waiting time was long, but it gave the chance to Christina to practice a lot on the Steinway piano, and to Konstantinos to practice with a terrific Yamaha acoustic guitar that was owned from the studio. This was a cool and unexpected surprise as it was really better than the guitar he brought for the recording.
Andreas had brought a CD with a recording of the synth parts of the song which was transferred to two tracks of the 32-track Otari digital audio recorder of the studio. Then Christina played on top of this recording, listening to it through headphones. It took her just one take to record until the beginning of the bridge, and about six takes to record from the end of the bridge till the end of the piece (the bridge section does not have a piano part). The reason was that even one mistake meant recording from the beginning. The piano was recorded with two Neumann microphones.
Now it was time for the guitar part. Konstantinos listened through headphones to the synths and the piano and it took him only one take to record until the end of the bridge, and another take to record the rest. Thankfully, as the time Andreas had booked the studio was running out. Kostas did a mix of the recorded parts and created for me one "dry" mix and one "wet" mix on a CD-R. The "dry" mix was without effects and processing while the "wet" mix was made with the use of the studio's expensive processors and effects.
Second recording session for Song for the Children
On 4 May 1999, Andreas went again to The Lab Of Electroacoustics and Music Technology of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in order to record the choir for Song for the Children. At 11.30 am he arrived at the studio together with Yiannis Yiannopoulos, the photographer who took the photos used in Melodic Winds, as well as many of the photos found at Andreas Online. The Choir of the Tumba Conservatory of Thessaloniki and its director, Maria Meligopoulou were already there with Kostas Kontos since they came earlier in order to setup and practice. Yiannis Yiannopoulos and Maria Meligopoulou had helped The Greek Children's Village many times in the past, and they already knew each other.
Before the start of the recording Yiannis took the photos used in the CD Single and the Song for the Children section. Like with Melodic Winds, he directed the whole thing and did a great job. After taking these photos he left, as he abandoned his work in order to do this project, even though he was notified the evening before.
Andreas had a CD with the completely "dry" instrumental recording of the song that was made on 2 April, and Kostas recorded this to the Digital Multitrack Machine of the studio. The choir sung on top of this recording, naturally.
Although the choir has 45 members actually, only 7 girls chosen by Maria sung, together with Maria herself. This was suggested by Kostas because for pure technical reasons such a small choir would be able to deliver a great-sounding recording. However, they had to sound as a large choir, so the old but trusted method of natural (without processors) doubling was used. That means that the choir actually sung the song three times-one recording on top of the other-and as a result the choir sounded big and full. The recording went smoothly as the choir was well prepared and the girls had wonderful voices. Attention to detail was important, so when some words or phrases drifted out of tune they were rerecorded with the rest of the recording left intact. This is the "punch-in, punch-out" method: Kostas rewinded the digital tape a bit before the trouble spot and told the choir to sing from the point the tape was. When the trouble spot begun he pushed the "record button", and when it finished he pushed it again. The old recording present between the two button pushes was replaced by the new one. This method is classic, but it demands amazing precision in order to not erase something not wanted. Kostas did a wonderful job.
Afterwards, the choir and Maria left and Andreas stayed with Kostas and got a CD with: The choir alone with and without reverb as well as the whole song "dry" and two mixes of the song with effects made by Kostas.
The children's choir of the Tumba Conservatory of Thessaloniki with their conductor Maria Meligopoulou in front of the ceremony hall of The Greek Children's Village.
Recording session for Song for the Children (piano version)
On 21 May 1999 the recording of Song for the Children (piano version) was made. This version was written by Savas Salpistis and performed by Christina Angelopoulou.
During April and May Andreas met with Christina a few times in order to listen to the solo piano version as it was developed, change whatever should be changed and approve what was great. There was one crucial meeting of Andreas with both Christina and Savas because Andreas and Christina suggested some important changes that Savas happily agreed to make.
Andreas met Christina in the studio at 10.00 am. Christina had the song well-prepared and started to warm her hands on the piano while Kostas was setting up the two Neumann microphones used for the recording of the piano, the same microphones used for the choir and the piano of the song version. The piano was recorded on the Otari Digital Multitrack.
After Christina practiced the piece for some times, she had no problem to record with just one take the whole piece with problems only on the really difficult passages. So she had to focus on them and re-play them. Like he did for the choir, Kostas used the "punch-in/punch-out" method to replace the trouble passages with the correct recording. He did an outstandingly perfect job, aided by Christina's wonderful emotional and accurate piano playing. The recording is so good that it is impossible to tell that it is not a first-take recording. At the end, Kostas added a great and appropriate for the piano reverb using the legendary Lexicon 480L effect processor and gave Andreas a CD with the recording. A perfect recording both musically and technically thanks to the skills of Christina and Kostas.
SONG FOR THE CHILDREN CD SINGLE
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The Music of Song for the Children
The Making of Song for the Children