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| It's Nall in the Mix... |  |
Today is Wednesday, October 15 | |
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Hello everybody and welcome to an extremely belated edition of “Nall In The Mix”. It’s been a few months since my last update and a lot has been happening around the halls of LIRCo and LIRS, so let’s jump right in and get down to it, shall we? | |
| I guess the biggest news is that Studio A has undergone an equipment upgrade! Along with our tried and true Sony DMX-R100 fully automated digital mixer, we are now running Pro Tools HD2, which allows us to have up to 192 individual tracks! Not that we’ll ever need that many, but isn’t it cool to have ‘em? Our previous system, a Pro Tools TDM system, only allowed for 32 tracks and updating to the new HD2 has come in extremely handy lately with some sessions reaching up to 60 tracks! | |
Last time we “talked” Gospel artist Jody Conley was finishing up vocals on his debut cd “Only Believe”. I am now proud to say that everything came out great and the finished product returned from mastering and duplication a few weeks ago. Check out a sample here. Special thanks go out to graduated students Michael Ford, JP Pennington, John Carter and Josh Warden for their assistance on this project. Great job everybody! |
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| The reggae/rock band Passafire made the trek all the way from Savannah, GA to cut their latest release “Submersible” in Studio A. With myself as Engineer and Phase 3 students Jerrimica Lock and Frank Renner assisting, the band was able to not only track everything but also complete the final mixes in just one month! If any of you have been in a studio before, you know that is no small feat! The mix alone can take up to a month, and it is a testament to the bands’ ability and well thought out pre-production that we were able to finish in such a quick timeframe. | |
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As many of you know, Louisville, KY has a number of great bands playing all over town and two of them, Last To Reconcile and Dallas Alice (featuring graduated student Nick Rifesteck) hit us up to cut a few tracks in Studio A as well. Last To Reconcile put their metal foot down cutting two blistering songs in just a few days and on the other end of the scale, Dallas Alice took a day out of their busy schedule to lay down some serious “classic rock” sounds of their own. Metal is fun to record, but having some variety in the studio is a great way to keep any engineer on his mental toes! | |
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And speaking of variety, Nashville, TN jazz/fusion band Midnight Rooster dropped in on a Saturday a few weeks ago to wow us all with their technical prowess and a truly great instrumental song. These guys are only in their early 20’s and they already play with the ability of seasoned vets, knocking out the 7 minute (!) song in just under 6 hours. A long session indeed, but very worth the effort! It’s always a pleasure to record them and I can’t wait til they once again darken the doors of LIRCo. Sample their music on our site. | |
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Switching gears slightly, the recording school is just getting better and better! We have now added a Producer Course, where students learn all about what it means to produce a band. Believe me, it’s harder than you think! Students are taught how to chart out a song (a must to work with most session musicians) and set up for a live gig, as well as seminars on the business and on the major producers in music today. Speaking of seminars, LIRS has recently added two more seminars to the monthly schedule. With the addition of a “session troubleshooting” seminar, we’ve also added one very personal to me where I show you ten of the tricks and tools I use to make my mixes the best they can be! All the seminars are used to give the students a more in depth look into some of the major aspects of audio engineering such as the use of compression and microphone setup techniques.
And of course, what’s a school without students? More and more are coming thru the doors every month and since my last update, there’s been a boatload! At this time I’d like to give my customary “Hello!” to the following new recruits…
Aaron Boyd, Chris Burton, Shiloh Collins, Sarah Crabtree, Jeremy Crane, Zac Day, Joe Dungan, Nic Francis, Kyle Gadbois, Matt Hines, Ian Kozlowsky, Colin Morgan, Shaun Nalley, Paul Patterson, Johnathan Reece, Jay Jay Rogers, Nathan Rogers, Eric Rolph, Beth Shoemaker, Jason Smither, Tif Souder, Tyler Thurman, Matt Walker and Trevor Wilmott. Steve Nall |