*** NOW WRITING IN 2023 *** -
HEY EVERYONE! - PIPER HERE! SOME EXCITING NEWS BELOW, and historical context below that:
Holy cow! The NSAQ (no stupid audio questions) project BLEW UP!! I got so many questions that I had to rope in my fellow mastering bud, Dan Bacigalupi to help me answer them and keep everything straight! We ended up filming over 20 hours of content with our good friend, Loic Maestracci, who runs SF Music Expo, and he hosted our video chats. Through the NSAQ project, I even found my FOREVER RIDE OR DIE Colby Gustafson.
Here’s the thing though.. after a while, we kind of ran out of audio things to answer… We brought in guest engineer question-answerers, gear manufacturers, artists, baller music company execs, and even the GOVERNMENT! But with my vinyl record pressing plant opening in early ‘22 (yes, it’s all-consuming) and with the folks attending the NSAQ chats starting to get real audio jobs, we put the project on hold for a bit.
BUT — WE’RE READY TO BEGIN AGAIN! This time, we’re turning it on its side, though. Now we’re going to be answering NO STUPID VINYL QUESTIONS!
So, send your questions in. We’re here to answer them - as always, if we don’t know the answer, we definitely know someone who does. So send your (non) stupid questions about music for vinyl, hi-fi systems, turntables, lacquer cutting, record pressing, collecting, reissues, handling records, vinyl release advice, and even starting/owning a record plant (yes, I learned how to answer this one the hard way). We’re here for it. Also, as always, this is 100% ANONYMOUS.
Go to the form and anonymously submit a question. The password is “cheeseburger”. It is seriously anonymous… We have no desire to know who submitted the question; we can’t handle that kind of pressure ;) … the form just goes to a google spreadsheet with the following fields: submission timestamp, category, and question. That’s it. We’ll use the spreadsheet to organize and then answer the questions and we’ll publicize the answers :)
*** WRITTEN IN EARLY 2020!! *** -
…as if I didn’t have enough projects on the go…
I find myself doing all of these presentations about my skills, experience, and career. I love doing these kinds of things, especially because I’m a pretty social mastering engineer, but more so because I’m driven to teach and spread what I’ve been lucky enough to learn through my career. So while recovering from foot surgery (I collapsed my arches in the Grand Canyon last year) during the COVID-19 lockdown, I figured I’d put together a FAQ hit list of what I get asked when doing presentations. But then I thought, “why not do this live? and why not take new questions from our social community of audio engineers, both new and experienced????”… but then I also thought “we audio engineers are sometimes too shy to ask questions in a forum because we’re nerds and spend a lot of time by ourselves” and how about an anonymous no stupid questions repository? So here begins the No Stupid Audio Questions project. I want to bring our community together and attempt to dispel myths, clear up confusion, and answer any and all audio inquiries. If I don’t know the answer, I’m sure someone in my network does (and now they’ve probably got more time on their hands (while washing them for 20 seconds 20 times a day)!
So, give them to me… no stupid audio question… try to keep it simple, please. I’ll answer them live or via this website in June (or sooner if I get a whole lot!!) and maybe we’ll all learn something in the process.
Go to that form and anonymously submit a question. The password is “cheeseburger”. It is seriously anonymous… I have no desire to know who submitted the question, I can’t handle that kind of pressure ;) … the form just goes to a google spreadsheet with the following fields: submission timestamp, category, and question. That’s it. I’ll use the spreadsheet to organize and then answer the questions and I’ll publicize the answers :)
Thanks for your time!
- Piper
Enjoy! Send me an email with any questions - piper@piperpayne.com