Archive of Highlighted Projects...

Over the years we've had quite a few projects come through our facility! And during that time we've had numerous projects highlighted on our News page. We have compiled a few of them here and will be adding to list in the future. Prospective clients may enjoy purusing these entries to see the wide variety of clients we have served.

Please enjoy the list below!

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Westover: 7-song EP

Westover is a praise and worship band from Richmond, KY. Showcasing seven of their original songs, this highly-anticipated release represents their debut CD! The production process for this album was a bit different in the group wanted to make sure that they could come back to it at a later date and continue producing the songs to the point where they could be included on a full album. This meant that all of the takes had to be of that quality, even if the processing and creative mixing required for a full-production album wasn't going to be in place for this release. Everyone had a great time in the studio from the tracking to the mixing. This CD is a good representation of the band's sound and creativity, and we all look forward to the day when we can produce these songs all the way!

Heartland: Full trax album

Heartland is a well-known gospel quartet in the region and include members with long-standing position in the business, including a former member of The Cathedrals. There are many hours of studio experience represented in the group, and so we were honored when they entrusted OSD to record their latest release, untitled as of this writing. The group has been taking a break from touring for the last 1.5 years due to some health issues. Since they have been getting back into it they have fielded many requests for a new CD and needed a product to represent them - fast! They have had many accompaniment tracks produced from their arrangements over the years, so for this re-entry CD they decided to use some of these along with new voicings, as well as a brand new tune written by one of their members.

The Berry Agency: Three 7-song EP's for represented artists

The Berry Agency is a fast-growing Christian booking agency representing the likes Carmen and many others. Owner Israel Berry came to us after holding an artist competition. The three artists doing their EP's here are the winners and represent various parts of the country.

Jeff Greene : "Journey Of the Soul"

Jeff's first fully-produced album, this release has already made it into the hands of some very good contacts! Jeff learned a lot throughout the process of producing this CD. And as it wasn't originally planned as a full-fledged production, we had to find some creative solutions for tracking drums after piano and a few other things that we normally wouldn't do! Things kept getting better at each stage of production, but during final mixing and mastering everything really seemed to come together. The results turned out better than anyone had expected, and OSD looks forward to starting another album with Jeff by Q3 2004. We anticipate his success in Christian music and that his organization, Highest Praise Ministries, will touch people across the country!

Alluring : Handbell Choir Christmas Album

The premeir handbell group of the Bluegrass, Alluring is a professional ensemble based in Lexington, KY. When director Michael Rintamaa came to us with the idea, we knew it would be fun and challenging! Having experienced Michael's talent as an organist on two previous recordings, we knew the level of excellence he would be shooting for, and we were very impressed to see was that the members of the ensemble shared that same passion for quality in performance! Our main recording PC is rackmountable, so we ended up taking it on location to Central Christian Church in downtown Lexington. We wanted the ultimate flexibility to do some of the editing on the spot combined with the great acoustics of this sanctuary. Well, we got it! The sound captured turned out better than even we had anticipated, and everyone was floored by the amazing degree of transparency with which we edited the takes together, even with all of the reverberation of the room. There will definitely be more to come with this group!

Verdant Groves : "The Rolling Tide"

A hymnal of Shaker music, transcribed from the original manuscripts by Dr. Vicki Bell, one of the great music professors at Asbury College in Wilmore, KY. Being brought in on the last leg of this four-year project, OSD's part is to edit the sheet music in Finale format for consistency and overall engraving issues, then to compile the individual files into book form. Many of the pieces are less than a full page, which provide interested challenges when is comes flowing the music onto the next page. Especially problematic is the requirement that there are to be no page turns between pieces, which means a piece cannot be started on any right-handed pages unless there is room for it to finish on that page. Using Adobe InDesign and some creative uses of some scans of the originals, we are working together with Dr. Bell, Larrie Curry from Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill (Harrodsburg, KY), and the printing company to make this a truely unique and historic product everyone can be proud of!

DeHaske Publications/Curnow Music Press

OSD's relationship with this major player in Europe's instrumental music scene continues to grow. Through their American daughter company, Curnow Music Press, 25 CD's have been produced by OSD to accompany their very sucessful instrumental solo "play-along" books. Each book includes solos written specifically for a given instrument (Trumpet, Flute, Clarinet, or Saxophone) and provides some very idiomatic writing that is fun for students of all ages. The 18th CD, "Great Carols", marked a major step forward in our business relationship, as DeHaske entrusted us to record a performace version played by Phil Smith, Principle Trumpet of the New York Philharmonic. Everyone involved was very impressed with the sound quality and the quick turnaround time. Our second Phil Smith recording took place at the end of July, 2003.

Asbury College Music Dept.: MIDI Lab revamp

It was getting to the point where many of the music majors at Asbury College had more functional rigs in their dorm rooms than was in the music department's MIDI Lab! That's were OSD came in. Working closely with the department head and the professor in charge of the lab, we were able to design and install a much more useful system. We even made it easier for students to use by providing a custom user guide to performing specific tasks. All parties are very pleased with the results, and ideas are floating around about setting up a tech support deal and some master classes.

Anne Stephens: "Sonshine Today" radio program

Anne Stephens is the founder and director of Sonshine Ministries & Evangelistic Outreach, Inc. in Lexington, KY. She runs a local mission (Sonshine Mission) that does a world of good for the poor in the area. Her interview-style radio show focuses on the testimonies of locally, nationally and internationally known Christians. It airs in central KY on 99.1 FM (WJMM) every Saturday at 10:00 am and Sunday at 5:30 am. Soon, we will begin airing all over the world via a local shortwave broadcasting company! OSD looks forward to a long-standing relationship with Anne as we produce her weekly show, seasonal PSA's and future media endeavors.

New Link Media : "Take My Hand"

Andy Yardy, owner of NLM, flew in from his Wilshire Blvd. facility in LA to oversee and film behind the scenes footage of his second project with us, a single for the group Wildest Dreams that was being produced for a promotional DVD for Child Care Ministries. It was a whirlwind session! The band drove down from Akron, OH, Andy flew in, session players converged and after a solid weekend in the studio the tracking was done and everyone went home. For the next week OSD (and the others via conference calls) mixed and mastered the single. Everyone was blown away by the quality of the recording and wondered how a little studio in Kentucky could compete with the sound of the project studios in LA!

Addison : "Selections From Addison"

The members of Wake are back for their third recording! This time it's an EP, with a new drummer, a new sound, and a new band name. The guys are preparing to move to Nashville in the Summer of 2003 and wanted a recording that would reflect their new style as they might sound live, without all of the production we did on their last full length release. They were going for a unique combination we called "organically produced" -- they didn't want any mistakes, but not a super-polished sound either. The acoustic in a certain part of our tracking room proved to be the perfect spot for the drums, which were tracked using only three mics. Another interesting twist -- we recorded piano on a not-so-great-sounding upright in a practice room at the Asbury College. As usual, it was quite a lot of fun working with them and all were pleased with the cool vibe yet high sound quality of the CD!

New Link Media : "Marty's Grand Adventure"

John Howard (OSD), Dave Arnold (Wake), and Jim Latimer (Ekklesia Christian Church) composed and recorded the score for this children's video. The video is being produced by New Link Media for the Creation Science Institute and is to be sold at CSI seminars across the U.S. Sales projections are for at least 40,000 copies to be sold over the next two years! CSI is also in negotiations with Family Chistian Stores for a nationwide distribution deal that would make that number skyrocket to around 100,000!

Ekklesia Christian Church: "Open Our Eyes"

14-song live album recorded onto 24-tracks via OSD's Mackie MDR2496 recorder! Extensive overdubs and post production were done for four months in the studio! This ecclectic CD represents Ekklesia's second album with us. We had the luxury being involved from the very beginning of this one, from planning and rehearsals, to the live mix (while simultaneously recording), to the finished product. It was great to have the budget to really flesh out the live tracks the way they deserved! Most of the music on this unique CD was written by Jim Latimer and required many types of ethnic flutes and various percussion instruments, not to mention 35 musicians on stage! Many songs ended up being 35 - 40 tracks wide after post, but through carful engineering all of those extra tracks sound just like they were recorded on location with the live ones. It was all worth it, as the final product sounds better than most live praise and worship albums done these days and we pulled off something creative and unique to boot!

Scott Keyland : (EP)

Local independent hard rock artist; a creative songwriter with an interesting twist on the mainstream styles.

This project is a continuation of one done last year. Scott plans to take one song from that CD and add these new ones to create a 4-song EP. Scott's first recording experience began last July at OSD. He was very impressed with the quality of the equipment and the session players, and was totally blown away by the big sound we gave him. Now he's back with some great new songs that have emerged from his maturing as a guitar player and a songwriter. We had a lot of fun experimenting with some double-amping and re-amping techniques for recording Scott's guitar, as well as some creative drum processing and the addition of a few super-tight vocal harmonies written in the studio. The sound is absolutely huge!

Sue Routin: "Savior In Heaven"

Solo Southern Gospel artist; performs at area events in places of worship; repertoire ranges from traditional favorites to more recent well-known tunes to original songs that may be considered Contemporary Southern Gospel in style.

Sue is back for her second album with this project. Her first recording was made here less than a year ago and she has done well with it. This CD exhibits Sue's diversity and growth as a singer and a songwriter. The title track is one of her original songs, the music of which was actually co-written here at the studio. Sue is also the first artist in our new artist web promotion program. To find out more about Sue and her music, check out her artist site at www.oakwoodsounddesign.com/sue

Wake: "Blackberry Winter"

Band consists of 7 core members; Rhythm - driven acoustic sound with 2 percussionists and 2 on acoustic guitars; lots of variety courtesy of instrumental solos, guest players, percussion parts ranging from laid back drums to huge heart-pounding ethnic percussion sections, and vocals ranging from edgy leads to silky layered harmonies.

This is Wake's second full album recorded here at OSD, and it marks a major step upward in the level of production. The album exhibits Wake's versatility and creativity, as well as that of producers Dave Arnold (of Wake) and John Howard (of OSD). Many creative miking techniques were employed to capture the various sounds required by the songs--anything from using four mics for two guitarists facing each other, to putting some percussion room mics at the bottom of the stairwell, to miking additional guitars set up in the room as resonating chambers! Of course the real polish was applied during mixing and mastering. Creative use of effects enabled us to create a sound that is more mainstream than their raw sound, yet retains their very unique style and a high level of creativity. This is a rare combination and has proven to be well worth the effort.

Patrick Scott: (various works for video)

An independent studio artist; experimental percussion music incorporating a variety of styles including techno, ambient, rock, and various ethnic flavors; these pieces are being used by a video production company in Los Angeles.

Patrick has provided us a unique opportunity to flex our sound design and arranging muscles, as well as do the engineering and production. So far, this project is developing into an eclectic blend of sounds. Drum kits, various ethnic percussion, techno grooves, wild synthesizer patches, Foley work and sound effects designed at OSD make up his extremely diverse style that is always full of energy!