NUAGE Is "His Thing"

	Kevin Ray, bass; James Tillman, assistant; Nicholas Petricca, vocals and keys; Ashley Shepherd, producer/engineer; Ely Maiman-Guitar; and Sean Waugaman, drums.

Audiogrotto is a full-service audio recording facility built in a turn-of-the-century church and located in the historic East Row district of Newport, Kentucky, serving the greater Cincinnati area.

Recently, Ashley Shepherd, owner and engineer of Audiogrotto, used the NUAGE Advanced Production DAW System, the joint collaboration between Yamaha and Steinberg, to record, mix, and master RCA artists Walk the Moon remake of "It's Your Thing" (originally performed by the Isley Brothers in 1969). Shepherd co-produced the single with the band and was assisted by part-time studio staff and students of the University of Cincinnati's College-Conservatory of Music, James Tillman and Ryan Fine.

"The remake of 'It's Your Thing' was used as a promo for ESPN's coverage of the MLB All Stars game in Cincinnati," states Shepherd. "They wanted a local band to cover a song that they could use throughout the broadcast, including bumpers, stingers, and music transitions. The band even played live in the stadium for the Home Run Derby. We had a lot of fun doing it." Walk the Moon is also planning to include the recording on a future EP release for RCA.

The Audiogrotto NUAGE system has been in place for several years now and Shepherd says he uses it every day. The system is a one-fader, one-master unit using a NIO 16A audio interface and a Yamaha Rio64-D input/out box connected to the studio's MADI gear. He's been a Nuendo user (and beta tester) from the beginning so he was able to pick up NUAGE rather quickly with assistance when required from Yamaha and Steinberg.

"We had two days to complete the project, from working out the arrangement all the way to the final mix for ESPN," Shepherd adds. "NUAGE enabled me to move fast and stay in a creative mindset during production. We used the CLASP system to record the drums and overdubs through an Otari tape machine, so the recording setup was complex. The system, however, gives me quick access to many channels at once, and editing functions that are deep in Nuendo are at the touch of a button, keeping everything else simple."

The fader unit really changed the way Shepherd thinks about mixing. "I can hop around the project instantly and rearrange the channel layouts on the fly, making it enjoyable to mix again. Having immediate access to the EQ and dynamics in Nuendo without 'mousing' around is a huge time saver and allows me to keep my ears focused on the sound, not the controls."

The basic functions are right in front of the user, Shepherd notes, so it's quick to get going. "Deeper functions require a little reading but it's so worth it once you get a system customized to your own workflow. There's no way I'm going back to just a mouse and a few faders, no way!"

For more information on Audiogrotto, visit www.audiogrotto.com.

For more information on NUAGE, visit the URL below.