We look forward to introducing you to someone we can't believe it's taken so long to interview! Meet Paris based, French, mastering, vinyl cutting, and audio restoration engineer Marie Pieprzownik. In 2013 Marie started mastering and cutting her first lacquers on a Neumann AM32B at Masterlabs in Dublin, Ireland. A pressing plant was built next to the studio, and she became the one in charge of all the lacquer cuts and audio restoration duties, handling analogue master tapes, vinyl records, and cassettes.

In 2019 she moved to Paris and joined the team at Translab Studios to work as a mastering and vinyl cutting engineer with a Neumann VMS80 which was a nice upgrade! Here she collaborates with a large range of artists and musical genres. Marie has rapidly established solid collaborations with the artists, indie labels and majors with whom she works closely.

When not working, "I often go to concerts in Parisian venues like the Supersonic, l'International and la Maroquinerie to discover new bands (especially post-punk rock music). I like to spend the rest of my free time in a quiet atmosphere to let my ears rest. I do a lot of craft hobby like sewing, crochet or pottery. I'd love to say that I like running but I find my weekly run to still be both difficult and boring! I prefer doing yoga."

How did you get into your industry / What motivated you?

I have always been drawn to sounds. Music became very important in my life during my teenage years when I used to be bullied in middle school. Music was my refuge to feel better and free. Funnily enough at the time I thought it was too late to become a musician, so I became interested in all of the other creative professions in this industry. Being attracted to everything technical, I naturally turned to the profession of sound engineer. After exploring various aspects of the job through internships, I was able to refine my intention to work in a music studio.

What is a day in the life like?

What I love about my job is that everyday is different. The two main categories of my work are mastering and vinyl cutting. In the course of a single day, I am switching genres and techniques. Mastering is the last creative step when making an album. The goal is to create harmony amongst all the tracks of an album and prepare them for any format (streaming, CD, vinyl, cassette, etc.) Vinyl cutting is the very next step and consists of transferring the master onto a lacquer disc, that will later be sent to the factory. It is always easier to cut something that I have mastered because I know the album well but I also cut records that have been mastered by someone else. I ask to be sent masters that are specifically optimized for vinyl cutting, but not all mastering engineers know the specificity of vinyl so I often need to make special adjustments to the masters so the vinyl has the best possible sound and can be played by all kind of turntables. I also work with tapes which I love doing. In my studio I’m able to cut records straight from tape, all analog.

In your opinion what has been your favorite / the coolest thing you've worked on?

I feel very lucky I got to do some of the latest Daft Punk’s albums recuts such as Discovery, Homework, R.A.M 10th anniversary and drumless editions, Alive ‘07 and Something About Us (Love Theme From Interstella 5555), working very closely with their sound engineer Florian Lagatta. I’m also very proud to have cut albums straight from tape such as X from Fred Pallem & Le sacre du tympan.

What has been / is the most difficult part of your job?

When a client asks for my “feminine touch” on his master or his vinyl, whatever this means!

What advice do you have for someone wanting to get into pursuing what you’re doing?

Don’t hesitate to ask questions, you might feel silly for a minute but you’ll keep the answer for the rest of your life!

I would say try and get in touch with professionals and visit them. Observing is a good way of getting a sense of what the job really is. Don’t hesitate to ask questions, you might feel silly for a minute but you’ll keep the answer for the rest of your life. Professionals might be busy and late to reply, so I think persistence is key.

Are you a vinyl collector yourself? What drew you to it?

I was born in 1991, so when I was growing up, my parents had already put their vinyl records aside. It was the dawn of the digital age, with CDs, MP3 format, and ultra-compressed sound. When I discovered a vinyl cutting machine in a mastering studio in 2013, I was immediately drawn to this format because it was the opposite of everything I had known until then. There was so much to discover, and even today, I enjoy exploring it. The vast majority of my vinyl records are the ones that I have cut.

What types of things are happening in your industry / with vinyl that you’re excited or worried about? i.e. innovation, or trends you’re seeing.

I have observed some initiatives to create more eco-friendly vinyl records, a French company called 'M Com Musique' attempted to make vinyl records from algae, and other companies manufacture 'bio-vinyl' from recycled oils. I think this is one of the biggest challenges for the future of our industry.

From a more creative perspective, I admire people who create work inspired by the vinyl format itself. For example, the latest record of Camilla Sparksss is a picture disc with a mirror in the center of the record where the projected pictures become animated when the disc turns.

Who has been influential to you and your growth as a professional in this industry? 

A year after starting my School of Sound, I did an internship in a studio in Toulouse, my hometown. I was told I had just missed a session with Alicia Keys and her sound engineer Ann Mincieli. I couldn’t believe it. It was the first time ever I was hearing about a female sound engineer. I had chosen this path knowing that it was a “man’s job” so funnily enough I had never envisioned that it could be any different.

Nowadays, I can say that I love doing assisted sessions. This is what makes me grow as an engineer. I find it’s always good to get someone else’s point of view when working, wether it’s an artist, an engineer or a label manager, so that I keep questioning my work and my methods and hopefully improve.

Anything else you’d like to add; if not tell us what you're listening to: 

If you're ever in Paris, don’t hesitate to get in touch with me. I'm always happy to meet women from the vinyl industry!

Photos thanks to Jeanne Pieprzownik: https://www.instagram.com/jeannepieprzownik/