Hmm… come to think about it, he’d make an excellent president as well, eh?
Well the kid recording project went pretty smoothly, thanks to all your suggestions which we did actually use.
Thanks for all the ideas,
Doug
Hi Doug - I’m on for the same job as you next week. Gosh, it is only … 50 kids between 6-12. And my first real life job. Must admit I’m not totally at ease …
To date, I have only recorded the solo-voices, all with headphones, and I’ve seen no problems yet (6-10 years old, no-one had any experience - me neither). The headphones I use where the sort of walkman-style cheapo’s. The kids sang with one ear covered and the other open so that they could hear themselves and this seems to have worked surprisingly well. The only thing I noticed only afterwards was a very faint registration of the headphone sing-along-music (which is metronome, basic piano and adult voices). I didn’t hear it immediately, so I don’t expect problems at mixing - a gate will do I think. 
For the 50-odd children I planned it as follows … I made a sort of headphone multicable myself which I plan to connect straight onto a 4ohm amplifier output. I’ve tested this with 8 headphones and it works surprisingly well. The stereo headphones all have about 32ohm impedance, but I’ve wired L/R in parrallel so that makes 16. Then I put a 33ohm resistor in series with the headphone (some 50ohms) - soldered 11 of them together (in parrallel) on a long wire - so that makes about 4ohm. I now have 2 multi-headphone cables with 11 connection each - so I will be able to record 22 kids at the same time. Essentially, I will record the same thing 3 times with about 20 children, and pick whatever take is the best.
Just for completeness : the multiphone cables are no connected directly to the amplifier output : I’ve protected these with another 1 ohm power resistor for short circuit protection … 
I wish you all the luck.
Wish myself luck too …
Ludo@Home,
50+ Kids huh-I assume you are not trying to record in your converted attic hallway like we did…
Good idea with the walkman headphones. We prerecorded about 9 songs with adults / guitars.
We recorded one a cappela song with 4 of the older girls that took the most time. I had thought about trying 5 kids at a time using a little passive headphone distributor box I put together with some mono headphones I picked up somewhere for a buck a piece, but after talking it over, we decided to record all the kids at the same time and got 5 more songs done before we lost their attention.
Hopefully, you will be able to put together some help. We asked 2 adults to arrange games, food and stories for the kids downstairs. I got one guy to be in charge of the mics and another to take pictures of the whole thing. I basically recorded with nTrack while my wife directed the kids.
We are going to bring the older girls, (14-17 years old), back in to record the remaining songs possibly with our 5 and 8 year old who can both sing in tune. I think I will try the headphones out on this group and possibly give each her own mic (SM58) and use our condenser mic (Kel HM-1) to pick up the whole thing on a separate track.
Let us know how it all goes.
Pfffwwww … 3 days after the D-day … Two days working with 50 kids is about all a human being can take … 70 pct of useable tracks taken day one while it was all new and while there was enough adrenaline (that’s about 40 minutes) - 20 pct day two in the morning - nothing in the afternoon (concentration was all gone). Yes I know : 10 pct is still missing … 
And yes, we had lots of crew around to keep the “non-singers” busy in the spare time.
The trick with my “multi-jack”-cable worked perfectly well ! I’ve been able to record 22 head-phoned kids at the time with nearly no blead-through of “click-piano-track”.
We’ve recorded with only two condensor mics in a side-hall of a church. I damped all awfull reflection with loads of carpets etc … on the walls and I’m happy with the results.
Now the hard work starts I guess … turning the recordings into sellable music …