Everybody's hands and feet inside the car? Good. Let's get started...


The band San Bernardo have been in Studio A since mid-January laying down tracks for their latest CD. They play a form of Mexican/Latino music called "Banda" that is far different than anything we've recorded before. Tracking finished the last week of February, and the mixing will begin this month. Although I was the main engineer on the project, I had advanced digital students Jon Mattingly and Paul Dorval running the boards so they could get some of that good ol' real world experience with bands that expect you to know your stuff. The sessions really put their engineering skills to the test and the guys did great. More on San Bernardo next month...

Multi-genre artist Lauren Mink is back to cut more vocals for her debut Country CD. Erin is running the sessions for Lauren, and it is sounding great. The CD is nearing completion with Lauren recording finals for 4 or 5 songs over the next few weeks.

Lexington's own Jonathan Webb stopped by in February to use Studio A to remix the latest single "Sara". The session went smooth as silk, and I'm happy to say that the song has already hit the airwaves! I haven't got to hear what the radio station compressors are doing to it, but I've heard from others that it sounds great. Congrats guys!

The latest addition to our engineering family, Deshawn "Big Time" Steele, is hard at work with Hip-Hop/Rap artist Jerome Jones on the final tracks of his upcoming release. The sessions are going good and it looks like the project may be ready to go by the end of the month. I'll keep ya'll posted on their progress.

I was gonna save this for next month, but The Torques (pronounced Tor-Kays) a band of true "golden oldies," is invading Long Island Recording for their next studio release! During the '60's, The Torque's was "The Band" with lots of fans and plenty of bookings (virtually every weekend for 8 yrs). The band made records (9), cut a live album, backed up some pretty big stars (Wilson Pickett, Jimmy Ruffin, Major Lance) and had a lot fun doing whatever they did. Then in 1968, reality set in and 4 members left the band for the legitimacy of medical school, law school and the draft. The heart of the Torque's had been cut out and the band died, or so we thought. Well, they're back, and I can't wait to see what they've got up their sleeves! Look for more news on this next month and the new studio release from the Torques in late spring!

Now I know that some of you are saying, "But Steve, you're talking about real live sessions and I thought this was a school! What's going on with the school??" Well, I'll tell ya...

The Recording School is going great! We have expanded to 8 Pro Tools stations with a few more planned, and believe me we're gonna need 'em! There's been a lot of new faces around the halls of LIRCo in the past couple of months, and there's more coming in every day! I'd like to take a second now to welcome the latest additions to the Recording School...

Shannon Gritton, Matthew Craig Newton, Michael Ford, Justin Bond, Emily Young, ,J.D. Hart, Jordan Hall, Daniel Carroll, Kyle Clark, Dustin Hoover, Jason Calia, Sherylene Holbrook, and Patrick Hairston. Whew! A great big LIRCo welcome to you all! There's a lot more that are starting the course even as we "speak", but I'll get to them next time...

Many students are nearing the completion of their stay here, and I'd like to congratulate Nicholas Nethery, Brandon Stokes and Ryan Golden for completing the course. All three did great jobs in the course, and are beginning their journeys to Grammy gold! Speaking of journeys...

I'm proud to announce that LIRS graduate Brianna Spratt has landed a position working with sound on this years' Warped Tour! She'll be on the road for a few months, cris-crossing the country with some of the hottest bands out today! Hey, next year, this could be YOU!! Receiving this news made me realize that not enough graduates keep in touch. SO, I'm asking all of you that have graduated and are putting your skills to good use to EMAIL US and let us know your progress. It's always great to hear that someone is doing what they really love to do. We want to hear from you!!

And here we are at the end of our own journey. I told you that's a lotta action! But around the halls of LIRCo, we wouldn't want it any other way. Don't forget that you are welcome to stop by and tour our facilities anytime. Just give us a call at 859-335-8440 (if you're local) or TOLL FREE at 877-335-8440 to set it up, so we can give you the ultimate LIRCo experience. That's all I've got for now. Check back next time when I'll continue to give you the inside track all the happenings here at Long Island.

Steve Nall
Head Engineer, LIRS