THUNDER SOUNDTRACK

Putting together the soundtrack for Thunder Over Louisville is a massive job as you can imagine! For Thunder producer Wayne Hettinger of Visual Presentations planning for the musical soundtrack generally starts right after Christmas, but much of the preparation work goes on year-round.

"We want the soundtrack to be an emotional roller coaster ride", said Hettinger. "Starting hard and fast, building to a peak. Then a slow down, adding in some surprises and hard turns. Then we take it to the top again."

He said an average of about 38 musical artists are used in each year's soundtrack, with countless edits and "stretch notes."

"In the early days, when we edited on recording tape, we literally had piles of edited outtakes," Hettinger said. "Musically, we stay away from anything that is in bad taste, or offensive. For past shows we've used - pop, rock, Broadway turns, classical, rap, country, soul, and children's songs."

The 28-minute Thunder soundtrack is broadcast in partnership with our friends at Cox Radio. They will be broadcasting the soundtrack on Lite 106.9 WVEZ. This is important because the fireworks are choreographed to be synchronized exactly to the musical score with eruptions on certain musical beats. A computer that is linked with the U.S. Naval atomic clock channels thousands of cues to the correct sources throughout the day.

Hettinger is adamant, "Make sure you're near the sound system or bring your radio with you - you'll want to make sure you can hear everything we have in store for you!"