diff --git a/vall_e/engines/__init__.py b/vall_e/engines/__init__.py
index 5d1175f..4088bdc 100755
--- a/vall_e/engines/__init__.py
+++ b/vall_e/engines/__init__.py
@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@ if cfg.trainer.backend == "deepspeed":
 elif cfg.trainer.backend == "local":
 	from .base import Engine
 
-from .base import Engines, TrainFeeder, default_feeder, Engine as _Engine
+from .base import Engines, TrainFeeder, default_feeder, Engine as LocalEngine
 
 from ..models import get_models
 from ..utils import wrapper as ml
@@ -40,7 +40,7 @@ def load_engines(training=True):
 		loads_state_dict = cfg.trainer.load_state_dict or inferencing
 		ddp = cfg.trainer.ddp
 
-		engine_class = _Engine if backend == "local" or inferencing else Engine
+		engine_class = LocalEngine if backend == "local" or inferencing else Engine
 
 		if inferencing:
 			model.config.training = False
@@ -101,9 +101,9 @@ def load_engines(training=True):
 					warmup_steps = cfg.hyperparameters.warmup_steps
 				)
 
-
-
+		"""
 		# set up our LR scheduler here
+		"""
 
 		if inferencing:
 			optimizer = None
@@ -113,7 +113,7 @@ def load_engines(training=True):
 		load_path = cfg.ckpt_dir / name / "fp32.pth"
 
 		if not loads_state_dict and not (cfg.ckpt_dir / name / "latest").exists() and load_path.exists():
-			print("DeepSpeed checkpoint missing, but weights found.")
+			print("Checkpoint missing, but weights found.")
 			loads_state_dict = True
 	
 		stats = None
@@ -161,7 +161,7 @@ def load_engines(training=True):
 
 		# deepspeed inferencing
 		elif backend == "local" and inferencing and deepspeed_available and cfg.trainer.deepspeed.inferencing: #and sys.platform.startswith("win"):
-			engine_class = _Engine
+			engine_class = LocalEngine
 			model = deepspeed.init_inference(model=model, mp_size=1, replace_with_kernel_inject=True, dtype=dtype if not amp else torch.float32).module
 
 		# use base engine if requested
diff --git a/vall_e/engines/base.py b/vall_e/engines/base.py
index f55a642..6c4437a 100755
--- a/vall_e/engines/base.py
+++ b/vall_e/engines/base.py
@@ -79,7 +79,7 @@ class Engine():
 			raise Exception("freeze_all=False yet self.hyper_config.frozen_params is None")
 
 		# freeze non-LoRA params if requested
-		if not self.hyper_config.frozen_params and not freeze_all:
+		if not self.hyper_config.frozen_params and not freeze_all and cfg.lora is not None:
 			return freeze_non_lora_weights( self.module )
 
 		for name, param in self.module.named_parameters():
diff --git a/vall_e/engines/deepspeed.py b/vall_e/engines/deepspeed.py
index afa7c87..595f46c 100755
--- a/vall_e/engines/deepspeed.py
+++ b/vall_e/engines/deepspeed.py
@@ -66,6 +66,10 @@ class Engine(DeepSpeedEngine):
 		if self.hyper_config is None or not hasattr(self.hyper_config, "frozen_params"):
 			raise Exception("freeze_all=False yet self.hyper_config.frozen_params is None")
 
+		# freeze non-LoRA params if requested
+		if not self.hyper_config.frozen_params and not freeze_all and cfg.lora is not None:
+			return freeze_non_lora_weights( self.module )
+
 		for name, param in self.module.named_parameters():
 			if (freeze_all and param.requires_grad) or (not freeze_all and name in self.hyper_config.frozen_params):
 				param.requires_grad_(False)
@@ -108,8 +112,31 @@ class Engine(DeepSpeedEngine):
 		except Exception as e:
 			print(str(e))
 
-	def load_loras(self):
-		...
+	# we'll just have to live with the LoRA weights living within our main weights
+	# they're easy to extract anyways
+	def load_checkpoint(self, load_dir, **kwargs ):
+		# override to load the lora instead
+		if cfg.lora is not None:
+			load_dir = cfg.ckpt_dir / cfg.lora.full_name
+
+		return super().load_checkpoint( load_dir, **kwargs )
+
+	def save_checkpoint(self, save_dir, **kwargs ):
+		# override to save the lora instead
+		if cfg.lora is not None:
+			save_dir = cfg.ckpt_dir / cfg.lora.full_name
+
+		return super().save_checkpoint( save_dir, **kwargs )
+
+	def load_loras( self ):
+		# apply lora weights
+		for lora in cfg.loras:
+			self.module = apply_lora( self.module, rank = lora.rank, alpha = lora.alpha, policy = self.hyper_config.lora_policy )
+
+			lora_path = cfg.ckpt_dir / lora.full_name / "fp32.pth"
+			if lora_path.exists():
+				state_dict = torch.load(lora_path, map_location=torch.device(cfg.device))
+				self.module = lora_load_state_dict( self.module, state_dict )
 
 	def traverse(self, *args, **kwargs):
 		with ml.autocast():
diff --git a/vall_e/utils/trainer.py b/vall_e/utils/trainer.py
index d5af171..947d0e6 100755
--- a/vall_e/utils/trainer.py
+++ b/vall_e/utils/trainer.py
@@ -28,7 +28,7 @@ from .distributed import (
 	local_leader_only,
 )
 
-from ..engines import _Engine, Engine, Engines, TrainFeeder, default_feeder, load_engines
+from ..engines import Engine, Engines, TrainFeeder, default_feeder, load_engines
 
 from .utils import to_device, do_gc, truncate_json
 from ..utils import wrapper as ml