Hello everybody! Long time no see (write), huh? I know, I know it’s been MONTHS since I've written here and we've got a lot to cover.

As you may remember from last time, Tee Dee Young had begun the tracking of his debut solo release with our own in house engineer/producer Michael Thomas and myself. After the initial tracking was completed, Michael took over for the mix and as we fast forward a few months we now find all the overdubs complete and the final mixes are coming together nicely. Over half of the songs are finished and ready for mastering and the rest should be finished very soon. Tee Dee took some time off from mixing and shot videos for the songs "Strange Thing Happened To Me"and "I Gotta Move" at the Mountain Arts Center in Prestonsburg, KY and we sent some of our more advanced production students to get some real world experience by running the lights and cameras for the shoot. Everything went great and the edited videos will be in the can very soon and Tee Dee can get back to mixing!

Tee Dee Young Video Shoot

Also in Studio A these past months was another local R&B artist, Andrew Curd. Andrew has been recording on and off with us on various projects since the early 2000's, and this time everyone pitched in for the tracking and mixing stages. Patrick Hairston - our man in the analog world - has been tapped to do the final mixes on his latest 2 song project and with just a few finishing touches, should be done with the tracks and have them ready to burn any day now. I’ll try to get a sample or two up on our myspace site (myspace.com/lirco) as soon as Pat gets everything ready.

Local rock/funk band Klime are also in the studio at the moment working on their 3 song debut EP to be released on LIR Records sometime hopefully this winter. Their first track is a cover of the Heart classic "Magic Man" only now it has a much faster tempo and the band has tried to bring the track into the modern age with some new sounds and musical ideas. The band has begun work on their second track, an original, and we’re hoping to get the basics tracked for it sometime next week. Our in house engineer/therory instructor Amber Sloan is in the producers seat and recently graduated student Kyle Gadbois is taking his first go ’round in the engineer seat for the sessions. Everything is going great and Amber and Kyle are doing a great job keeping everything running smooth.

Our latest Production School students are busy in Studio A also (lots going on in A!!) cutting a remake of the Doors hit "People Are Strange". They are putting a little twist on Morrison and the boys by slapping some Reggae stylings into the mix and taking the song straight to the islands! They’ve gotten basics down and are in the midst of adding some extra percussion tracks to give the track even more "spice". Hopefully we'll have something for you in the next month or so, so keep checking back!

On the school side of things, the summer is over and our fall semester has begun. We’re being flooded with new recruits and we wouldn’t have it any other way. The mastering class is going well and we've begun to teach Music Theory as well. This is taught by Amber, and the class is all about learning how chords are set up note by note and why certain scales work for different applications. It’s a very intensive class, but in the end you learn all you need to know to make your songs and solos better and most importantly, why they now sound better!

Normally I take this time to welcome new students, but the list is not only very long, but since I’ve taken time off from this column, there are quite a few students that have already come and gone! I promise next time to get back with the original program! Until then I can only say "Welcome to you all and I hope you’re experience here is all you thought it would be!!"

Well, that’s it for now. 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. See ya next time!!!

Steve Nall
Head Engineer, LIRS