Feb 26, 2013 3:21 PM

From left, top row: Steve Durr, Chuck Ainlay, Alicia Warwick, Ben Fowler, Nick Palladino. Bottom row: Ashley Ernst, Julian King, Susan Stewart, Jon Randall Stewart, Jeff Balding, Terry Palmer, Laura Crawford.

Photo: Robert Clyne

The Recording Academy's Producers & Engineers Wing announces that Nashville Mayor Karl Dean, Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools (MNPS) Director Jesse Register, and John Esposito, president/CEO of Warner Music Nashville, have announced the creation of a student-run record label to be a key component of Music Makes Us, the new music education initiative at MNPS. The project will be centered around a state-of-the-art recording studio at Nashville's Pearl-Cohn Entertainment Magnet High School that is designed, equipped and will be guided by the efforts of members of The Recording Academy's Producers & Engineers Wing.

Members of the Pearl-Cohn Subcommittee of the P&E Wing, including Subcommittee Chair Jeff Balding, Nashville P&E Wing Co-Chairs Chuck Ainlay and Justin Niebank, Steve Durr, Ben Fowler, Julian King, Nick Palladino, and Terry Palmer, all contributed their collective knowledge, wisdom and passion to the project, which will feature a 32-channel API 1608 console in the main control room and two post/editing suites equipped with SSL Nucleus DAW controllers. Additionally, the project will feature products from Audio-Technica, Fredenstein Professional Audio, Harman Professional brands (AKG Acoustics, JBL Professional and Lexicon) and Shure. The recording studio is scheduled to open in mid-April.

"When we were approached with this project, we were delighted," recalls Grammy Award-winning producer/engineer Chuck Ainlay. "But we also realized that the recording studio aspect would need more than just equipment — it would need a solid acoustical design and a layout that would work well for students and teachers as well as for artists and engineers."

Ainlay says they turned to award-winning recording studio designer Steve Durr, also a Nashville resident, whose portfolio includes studios for Austin City Limits, the Black Keys, Mark Ronson, Lenny Kravitz, and Zac Brown. Durr laid out the acoustical and ergometric designs, which are being constructed at Pearl-Cohn Entertainment Magnet High School.

"I tried to achieve a design that would allow students to experience recording music with both machines and people," Durr explains, citing the large control room that will allow several students and teachers to work comfortably using drum machines, digital samplers and synthesizers as well as the recording equipment, and the sizable tracking room where they will be able to capture great recordings of live musicians playing in ensemble. "What I hope this ultimately accomplishes is that kids will now be able to learn about making music in an environment that was designed around great sound. Kids who have been brought up on MP3s can experience what music can really sound like. That can change their lives."

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