What's up with you and vinyl?! | Let's Talk Mastering Audio with Piper Payne

Let's Talk...Audio

Hello World! Piper Payne is a world class mastering engineer currently based in Nashville, TN, with Infrasonic Sound (https://www.infrasonicsound.com/piper). This interview was recorded over https://squadcast.fm/ on December 1st, 2020.

How did Piper become a mastering engineer? She first got into audio some 15 years ago with an interest in mixing classical music. Piper likes to say "Mastering is genre-agnostic." Piper is currently in the process of opening a vinyl pressing plant. This opening five minute introduction was awesome and next we try to unpack it.

When Piper first started thinking about college she thought she would be a veterinarian, but then switched to electrical engineering by the time she entered. She ended up switching to a performing arts and technology program. Piper went to Norway for graduate studies.

Since college is not required for most audio industry careers, was college a worthwhile investment? Piper muses on the discipline of long-term accomplishment and the networking aspects of college. Math, physics of sound, and acoustics are pertinent areas of study worth investing in, with or without a degree at the end.

Next we discuss the benefits of getting some schooling abroad. Piper recommends Bob Katz' *Mastering Audio the Art and Science*, (here's a review of it https://www.soundonsound.com/reviews/bob-katz-mastering-audio) which she studied both in undergrad and in Norway. Her stay in Norway was the knife's edge of a leg up that got her an assistant's position with *the Bob Katz*, in Florida.

After talking some more about pros and cons of studying abroad, Tangela inadvertently suggests a memoir title to Piper: "What's up with you and vinyl?".

In the process of answering that question, a previous interview with Piper (here: https://www.workingclassaudio.com/wca-045-with-piper-payne/) is referenced.

Mastering is about making audio ready for a variety of formats of consumption (streaming, CD's, vinyl, motion-picture soundtrack, etc.) and Piper feels that learning to cut lacquer on a lathe is an ideal manifestation of the mastering profession.

As a result of pursuing this knowledge, she developed a reputation as a mastering engineer that could best ready an artist's audio for the vinyl product.

Through her work with a variety of artists who sought to publish on vinyl, she found that the industry has woefully inadequate quality assurance and customer service. Piper debriefs a couple of different screw ups on the part of different vinyl plants. "... pressing a record out of mp3s ... that's ... bullshit! ..."

She also discusses how her first attempt to open a plant (in Oakland) failed for different reasons. Piper has since developed some quality control technology for record pressing, and is working to get a plant opened with some new partnership.

Piper's motivations behind getting into the manufacturing of vinyl come in two categories: 1) she believes there's a lot of room for quality improvement in the industry, and 2) royalties on hard, manufactured products are structured more in the artists' favor, and vinyl is one of the only ways an artist can recoup the costs of creating an album.

And by the way, record collections make moving expensive XD, especially when it's an entire wall of 3000 records.

What vinyl record has Tangela been listening to? Mean Girls the Musical which you can see detail for here: https://open.spotify.com/album/6m7n9JuAOMcy8X3ntO0Ktf

What's her favorite musical? Hamilton of course! https://open.spotify.com/artist/3UUJfRbrA2nTbcg4i0MOwu

What's Piper's favorite musical? My Fair Lady the Julie Andrews version. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Fair_Lady

Tangela also loves tap-dancing in musicals.

One of Piper's favorite albums is Reptilians by STRFKR https://open.spotify.com/album/5pfqk4oFycMVynOD8S2Cqs

RX8 and the history of audio repair tools. Piper remembers the days before Izotope, and man have we come a long way. reNOVAtor (http://www.algorithmix.com/en/renovator.htm) and NoNoise (https://sonicstudiopro.com/nonoise-3/) and Cedar Retouch (https://www.cedar-audio.com/products/cambridge/camretouch.shtml) are mentioned.

Live sound's equivalent changes in tech, from analog to digital boards and iPad mixing.

What is mastering again?

"About preserving the quality of the music ... across different formats that all sound different ..." AND

"About taking a collection of songs that were all recorded in different studios by different engineers and producers ... If more than one person has worked or collaborated on the album, they're hearing it and making decisions ... through their own lens ... It's my job to translate, to figure out how to take songs A, C, and D, and make them sound like B, E, and G, and take the things that are common across all of those songs and exploit that ... and that's what I do as a mastering engineer." AND

"The third part about mastering that is arguably the most important is the quality control process ..."

And in this third part, Piper shares how she manages relationships with the artist and the mixing engineers, etc., to help them sound the best at the end of the day.

She does about 1 album per day, or an EP and a handful of singles.

Why is Mastering crucial, and how do you judge the quality of a mastering job afterwards? Piper addresses these and then points out that mastering a project usually costs only about 10% what the project cost to record, produce, etc. up to that point.

How do different genres of music affect the mastering process?

Why did Piper switch from being fully independent in California to joining Infrasonic in Nashville? Basically it was an offer she couldn't refuse. Piper always wanted to move to Nashville. And she gets to work some world-class engineers who are also really great people. Piper still gets to function quite independently in terms of pricing and projects and pace.

Next we talk about women in audio, elevating people of diverse backgrounds, and *also* maintaining high standards of quality. Piper's had a hand in working with such initiatives in the audio industry, and continues to do so.

"Put your money where your mouth is."

She originally got into such work reluctantly through the slow realization that perhaps she got repeatedly lucky where other women have not.

Reminder: LTA has a Discord server!

As usual you can find Tangela on her website where you can sign up for the Newsletter!