Nicole Scherzinger of the Pussycat Dolls was at Legacy Recording (NYC) tracking vocals for an upcoming 50 Cent album. Dr. Dre produced and Steve Sola engineered…Fenix Studios (Staten Island, NY), where the live room was recently redesigned/upgraded, hosted mixing sessions for a new release by James Blood Ulmer with Vernon Reid (of Living Colour) producing and Matt Rifino mixing. Rifino also tracked and mixed Pork Foot with Joey Martino assisting, and produced/engineered rock band Temporary Grace with assistant Martino…There's always plenty going on at Avatar Studios (NYC). Recent sessions include Celine Dion recording vocals with producer/engineer Humberto Gatica in Studio C, assisted by Anthony Ruotolo. Counting Crows were in Studio A with producer Gil Norton and engineer James Brown, assisted by Bryan Pugh; and Walter Becker and producer Larry Klein were in Studio B with engineer Helik Hadar and assistant Chad Lupo. On the mastering side, Fred Kevorkian mastered an upcoming live album for moe., as well as studio recordings by The National, Ladybug Transistor and Boondogs…Singer/composer/musician Nellie McKay self-produced seven new songs at Red Rock Recording Studio (Pocono Mountains, PA). Kent Heckman engineered…Business partners Jeff Glixman and Jim Gentile have signed Tyrone Vaughan (son of Fabulous Thunderbirds' Jimmy Vaughan, nephew of the late Stevie Ray Vaughan) to a production deal with their StarCity Recording (Bethlehem, PA) studio and StarCity Productions label. Vaughan will record 12 tracks with Glixman and staffer Zak Rizvi co-engineering.

At Catalyst Recording (Charlotte, NC), Safe Return Doubtful recorded an EP with engineer/owner Rob Tavaglione and assistant Philip Morgan. Tavaglione also produced/engineered Jay Mathey's latest EP and engineeered Wolf Cell Solid. The last was produced by Level Up and mastered by Colin Leonard at Glenn Schick Mastering (Atlanta)…Studio B Mastering's Dave Harris (Charlotte, NC) recently put the finishing touches on releases by Two Dollar Pistols, Lejeune Thompson, Lou Ford and Candye Kane…At NPALL Audio (Nashville), engineers Nick Palladino and Brian Straka contributed sound design and mixing for TV and radio ad campaigns for O'Charley's, Cracker Barrel and Bristol Motor Speedway.

Mastering engineer Bob Boyd put the finishing touches on the first release from Until June and the second from Dizmas at his Ambient Digital (Houston) studio.

Punk-rock Elvis Presley tribute band G.G. Elvis & The TCP Band recorded an album at 60 Psycho Hum Productions (Medford, OR) with engineer Doug Hill…At Studio 880 (Oakland, CA), owner John Lucasey continued mixing tracks for Walmart's Soundcheck Series, including tracks from John Mellencamp, Norah Jones, Fall Out Boy and Pretty Ricky. Doug Logan did the mastering.

Odds on Recording (Henderson, NV) has acquired a custom, three-way OWA415T monitor system from Ocean Way Monitor Systems, designed by Allen Sides.

At mastering facility Sound Bites Dog (L.A.), engineer Hans DeKline mastered releases by Joe Askew (mixed by Malcolm Burn) and Joe Brucato (recorded by Mick Guzauski and mixed by Alan Marino)…At Gavin Lurssen's new Lurssen Mastering (Hollywood) studio, numerous recent clients have included T-Bone Burnett, John Doe, Joe Henry, Loudon Wainright, Randy Newman and Frank Wolf, as well as the God of War soundtrack for PlayStation.