Outlaws sing out — virtually

Over the past month, the Sisters High School Concert Choir has been busy creating their first virtual song performance — which can be found at bit.ly/OutlawsSing.

“Choir rehearsals have been challenging since distance learning began seven months ago, choir director Rick Johnson reported. “Zoom and Google Meet online software is not powerful enough to allow multiple students to share audio at the same time. We have been rehearsing with every student microphone on mute. The students can hear me, the director, but they cannot hear each other. I also cannot hear the students.”

Throughout rehearsal, the students send chat messages to Johnson, telling him where they are having problems with the music and then they focus on those problem areas. After learning all their notes and rhythms, every member of the 34-member choir recorded their voice parts from their homes into an online recording software called Soundtrap.

Johnson took the recordings of individual voices, balanced their volumes, and digitally combined them into a virtual choir audio recording. He then recorded a video of the choir Zoom class singing along with their virtual choir audio.”

“There is a special message written and narrated by Ian Cash in the middle of the song,” Johnson said. “Ian, our student of the month, does a great job of reflecting how the song applies to our current lives. While this virtual choir performance is not perfect, it does show that the music can go on — even from distance learning.”