Episode 57 - AMA and a (Re)Introduction

Jenn and Robyn kick off the third year of the podcast, with a reintroduction, and an AMA answering your questions. Vinyl podcasts are everywhere these days, but Women in Vinyl stands apart by amplifying the voices of minority groups often overlooked in the industry. From the hands-on experts pressing records to the innovative minds running indie labels, cutting lacquers, and curating collections, Jenn and Robyn as “the women in vinyl” dive deep into the technical side of vinyl, offering both education and empowerment. Each episode celebrates the trailblazers shaping vinyl’s future, sharing their challenges, triumphs, and the passion behind it all. 

These episodes are for everyone no matter how you identify. Thanks for joining us as we embark on this exciting new chapter—sit back, relax, and enjoy the ride into the year ahead!

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to the Women in Vinyl podcast with Jen Dugenio,
founder of Women in Vinyl, and contributor Robin Raymond. This
podcast facilitates conversations with those working in the vinyl record
industry to educate, demystify, and diversify the vinyl community.

Speaker 2 (00:23):
Welcome back to the Women in Vinyl Podcasts and episode
fifty seven. As we roll into year three, we're excited
to introduce ourselves again and be even more connected to you.
While vinyl podcasts are popping up everywhere these days, the
Women in Vinyl podcast stands out by amplifying often overlooked
voices and diving deep into the technical side of the

(00:44):
industry to empower and educate from people actually working in
the field. We celebrate the trailblazers, those pressing records, working
at indie labels, curating collections and cutting laquers and more.
We share their challenges and successes and highlight passion that
is shaping finals future. Thank you for joining us on
this next chapter and enjoy the episode. And we're back. Hi,

(01:11):
it's twenty twenty five.

Speaker 3 (01:12):
Here we are.

Speaker 2 (01:12):
Oh my god, no, it's crazy. We took a little break,
just a short one.

Speaker 3 (01:18):
Did we yeah, kind of.

Speaker 2 (01:25):
In our own way.

Speaker 3 (01:26):
It's true. It's true. Definitely as a mental break, that's
what it felt like.

Speaker 2 (01:31):
Yeah, it's nice when everybody else is off too, so
I can actually try to unplug a bit. But yeah,
I think we could reintroduce ourselves because now we're on video.
We're on YouTube, so.

Speaker 3 (01:45):
Here's our faces. Here they are, so.

Speaker 2 (01:49):
Now you can listen or watch.

Speaker 3 (01:52):
Yeah, you can even draw mustaches on us on your
little computer screen. That'd be pretty funny too. So I'm
Jen and I'm Robin. Hello. I mean you've seen this
on the instagrams. You know us. Here we are, but
now we're on YouTube, and yeah, there's there's no hiding now, captain.

Speaker 2 (02:15):
So for people who don't know what you do day
to day, what do you do?

Speaker 3 (02:21):
I mean I don't even really know what I do
day to day. It's kind of it's getting pretty wild. Well,
I am we have an final board member since twenty nineteen,
which is I feel like a day to day kind
of thing because it's always present in our minds. I

(02:43):
am also a lathe cut record maker, which I try
to do as much as possible still. But as we'll
get into with the economy and things like that. That
has changed a little bit. And I am a production manager,
tour manager, slash. I don't know, I don't think i'm

(03:05):
any key. Maybe I'm a technical director. Right now, I'm
working with the Minecraft Experience, immersive Minecraft Experience that's currently
stationed in Plano, Texas, and we'll be moving that very soon.
And so that has kind of taken on a big
part of my life.

Speaker 2 (03:23):
Excite.

Speaker 3 (03:23):
It's very Yeah, it's very exciting. And I mean that's
like the beauty part of the music business is that
you can do all kinds of things also because you
could never say no to anything because you never know
when the work is going to stop.

Speaker 2 (03:40):
And we make this out later what's that which we'll
also talk about later.

Speaker 3 (03:45):
Absolutely and then and then we do this amazing podcast
where we bring straight truth balls to your eyeballs and earballs. Now, Yes,
and you what about you? What do you do use?
You've got a new title to talk about.

Speaker 2 (04:06):
I'm the vice president of gold Crush of Vinyl that
is one of the handful of women owned pressing plants.
And I'm down in Austin, Texas. Never thought I would
live in Texas, but here we are. And yeah, my
day to day is a lot of production schedules, tracking parts,

(04:27):
funding people for things, and making sure we're pressing records.
So I've been doing this since twenty eighteen. I was
at Furnace Record pressing beforehand where I cut my teeth
from learning from the amazing Eric Astor. So yeah, here
we are.

Speaker 3 (04:45):
Here we are.

Speaker 2 (04:46):
So we put out a call for questions since some
people already know us, but we hope to hear from
other people now that we're on YouTube as well. But
how did you get started in the vinyl world? What
made you think like this is what I want to
dive into.

Speaker 3 (05:07):
Well, I was kind of had a really great record
collection and I was steeped in it with my granddad.
That was kind of his thing too, being a radio
guy for the Air Force for the Canadian Air Force,
so he used to play records on the radio and
that was his whole deal, and that was our kind
of bonding thing. And my mom really took that as

(05:34):
part of her identity as well, So records were always
like not far from me. And I worked in the
music business on the live side from two thousand and
four till about twenty eleven, and I walked away from

(05:56):
that and went back to working in manual fare and
I worked for the Canadian Bob Sled skeleton and hockey
teens as one of their annual therapists, and I did
that till twenty seventeen, and I mean, let's not say

(06:17):
that athletes are like abusive, let's not say that, but uh,
it was maybe not the best place for me at
that at the end of twenty seventeen, at the end
of my career there, and it just kind of all
had a confluence where I was like, I don't want
to do this anymore, and I've just found solace in

(06:39):
my record collection and I was like, maybe there's something
I can do with records. And at the same time,
the only pressing plant in Canada was located in Calgary,
and I was like, oh, well, I know those guys.
I could probably help them out. But by the time
I got back from being on tour with Bob Sled,
they had closed. And I was like, what, like, records

(07:01):
are the biggest thing in the whole world right now,
because we're twenty seventeen at that point, so we had
had like ten record store days by that point. So
I was like, I mean, with all the love in
my heart, but like, how did you fuck this up?
Because like what and I didn't know like what I
know now? Obviously, I mean them are just coming back

(07:24):
now and they're starting to like have a re their dance, right, Yes, yes, honey,
they are. But like, knowing what I know now, I
feel like I have nothing but sympathy and empathy for
those humans and what they were trying to do and
the challenges that they experienced because of the like voracious

(07:46):
appetite that they were trying to keep up with and
really like having no mechanical support, which as well we've
talked about a few times, like you really need that
part because you don't just press the button.

Speaker 2 (08:02):
Ooh and a record Oh no No.

Speaker 3 (08:06):
So through finding out that they closed, I started kind
of like working along with this label called Inner Ocean
Records here in Calgary, and Corey Zero Dano, the guy
that runs the label, he was like, oh, like you
really love records and stuff and where we do a
lot of records, We're like we're looking at this like
little machine. And I was like, oh, that's cool. And

(08:30):
I was kind of like, don't I don't know that
I would want to be a pressing plant person, but
like cutting records one by one in real time obsessively
sounds like something that totally would float my boat. So
I went all in on that. I went to the
Making Vinyl Conference in twenty seventeen, yeah, in October November.

(08:52):
It was the very first one in Detroit, Michigan, and
met the lovely and talented Mike Dixon and he was
like overwhelmed by my enthusiasm, as most people are, but
I was like, Hey, should I do this? And He's like, yeah,
fucking totally. I was like all right, cool, and came home,

(09:13):
got a line of credit in which like the actual
bank guy was like sliding the paperwork across from me,
and he was like, I should not give you this money,
and I was like, no, you shouldn't, but now I've
signed it lol, and ran out of the door with
my money and all the way to Germany to get
my little record machine. And I kind of struggled with

(09:34):
it for about a year. Went back to the Making
Vinyl conference in twenty eighteen, where my friend Jessa had
encouraged me to come back because she was like, oh,
are you coming to the conference, And I was like, well,
I'm not really making any records, so I'm kind of
a faky Vickerson. So she was like, yeah, but everybody
that you need to know that might be able to

(09:55):
help you will be there, and I was like, oh, yeah,
you're right. So I went and I met no Immense
and Kevin Park from Lack Channel Astering and you, which
seems just like literally a million years ago at this point.

Speaker 2 (10:11):
It's crazy, but yeah.

Speaker 3 (10:13):
I met you there too, and I mean so many
friends that I've had now for the last seven years.

Speaker 2 (10:21):
Yeah. Yeah, that was a great one. That was a
really conference.

Speaker 3 (10:26):
It was it really really was. Yeah, it's crazy that
you were there because it was just yeah, we were
and we were just kind of just like Instagram buds
at that point, like WIV was just like kind of
a little spark in your eyeball at that It.

Speaker 2 (10:43):
Was our very first presentation. Jet got up and talked
about when the final and two of us and uh yeah,
they were like, oh, you named it after the panel
that we at the Detroit.

Speaker 3 (11:01):
One and I was like, no, of course they said that,
and we'll elaborate on that more too. But yeah, twenty
eighteen was kind of a banner year. I met all
of those humans and you, and got a job offer
to move across the country to Toronto work at Laquer

(11:23):
Channel mastering, doing short run and apprenticing under the mighty
Kevin Park with the Noyman, and yeah, pulled up stakes,
packed everything into a little box and moved all the
way to Toronto in twenty nineteen and worked there through
twenty nineteen with like another job, which was tough. Got

(11:46):
a job at Precision Pressing in twenty twenty right before
the pandemic. Resigned there because I was getting way too
busy with records at Lacquer Channel and yeah, just like
went all in, I'm making records for twenty twenty and
yeah I think I made like six thousand records that

(12:07):
year or something wow, which yeah crazy. Yeah, And then
uh yeah, worked in Toronto twenty twenty, twenty twenty two,
moved back here and haven't really stopped. I mean, everybody
in Toronto was like, what are you going to do
for a job. I was like, well, I don't know,
probably the same thing we'll see, I guess. But yeah,

(12:32):
that's that's kind of my my story. I guess, Yeah,
what about you?

Speaker 2 (12:40):
Oh. I also had kind of a roundabout way because
I was designing kids clothes for Target and Oshkosh and
people that don't know that's what I went to school for.
So I went to school for textile design and did
that until I couldn't swear.

Speaker 3 (12:56):
Merch always looks so sick.

Speaker 2 (12:59):
Bro, Yeah, it's my time to do something that I
could never have done before because I designed for the
new mom who only wants bunnies and bears for some reason,
and so I could not draw another bunny, could not
reinvent it another year, and so I left that and

(13:22):
became a career advisor, which is one of the best
jobs I've ever had, helping people in industrial design and
textile design find jobs. And that was at the college
I went to. And then Savannah was just too small
of a town and Ray and I wanted to find
something else, and we moved to Nashville for a second,
where he worked at United Record Pressing, and there wasn't

(13:46):
really opportunities for me there, and I wanted to get
into it, and so my mom was like, there's a
record pressing plan opening at home. Come home, and so
we moved back to Virginia and it started working at
Farness as they were building the pressing plant there. Yeah,
and uh yeah, it was a real learning experience because

(14:07):
it was like literally just machines that they scrounged from
Mexico and got referbed, and we were trying to figure
out how to do it, how to plumb them in
what it took. What it ended up taking was replacing
them with Phoenix Alpha's new ones. But yeah, lots of

(14:30):
trial and and uh so yeah, I mean, and it
was just a perfect kind of amalgamation of all the
things I did because I can combine my design with
you know, definitely advising people. Labels and artists need a
lot of advising and uh yeah, make some records. I've
always been a collector like you. It was in my family, and.

Speaker 3 (14:53):
So yeah, I need but you say collector, but I
mean you are prolific though. I mean I think that
I've done a pretty good job. But then I'm just
like nah, no, no.

Speaker 2 (15:12):
No, uh it's between Ry and I it's getting a
little crazy. So I have records all over the floor
in here. I need to get organized.

Speaker 3 (15:20):
But yeah, it never I mean that part never stops.
And that's coming from somebody that just like never organizes them. Also,
so there's that.

Speaker 2 (15:31):
Yeah, definitely different organizational methods if you're new here.

Speaker 3 (15:35):
Yes, I embrace and celebrate chaos. I did, however, get
them forty five boxes to put my forty five's in mace.
I do I do have that.

Speaker 2 (15:45):
Now, what about with Russell? Is he into records and
like organizing them or is he in the same kind
of chaos?

Speaker 3 (15:54):
Oh no, he's obsessive. Yeah no, his are like put
into genre and alphabetized nicely. And he just kind of
looks at mine and it's just like, what are you doing?
And I'm like, you have two shelves. Just stop you
stop right now, take that judgment and just stop it.
But yeah, he I mean he's a DJ too, so yeah,

(16:17):
he has an appreciation for the medium. But yeah, he's
still working on his collection. But he's much more organized
than I am. Yeah, I appreciate him. But he also
like wants to do a thing where we go on
stream and like he go it's a title of like
a thing that he wants to do every week, whereas

(16:38):
like my girlfriend doesn't organize her records, like help us
play one and then we'll put on a like a
spinner thing and like pick from this cube and like
six from the left and we'll see what we get,
because I mean that's kind of the way that I
listened to them anyway.

Speaker 2 (16:52):
Why not, Well, we have a question from our friend
Gary at Marshall who's at Gluehoo on Instagram, and he
wants to know what grail do we still hunt for.

Speaker 3 (17:04):
I mean, I don't know that I have one, to
be honest, Yeah I had. I had one that I
was on the lookout for for a really long time,
but it wasn't that like, it wasn't that elusive. It
was just kind of expensive and I just waited on
it for a long enough time that I either made

(17:25):
more money or just it came down at the same
time and I was like, hooray, it's fine. So I
finally got it.

Speaker 2 (17:34):
Yeah, I don't know, and it's hard for me now too.
Like the one behind actually was my big grail, the
Japanese with the obie, because we're selling it for over
one thousand dollars everywhere, and I was like, it's literally
a piece of paper, Like I understand it's survived since
the seventies, but like, let's be real. And finally I

(17:58):
found it from a man in Japan who was as
thrilled to sell it to me as I was to
buy it.

Speaker 3 (18:05):
I love that. Hey, that's what this collectorship is all about.
That's that's the thing. I think. If there's one that
I want, it's just like it's it's silly, but it's
because it's like a history of mastering kind of situation
where I would really like to get the hot cut
of Zeppelin two that Bob did that made the daughter's

(18:31):
record player skip, and so they repressed all of Zephelin
two because it was too hot, and I'm like, oh,
I just want to hear what it sounds like, and
like look at the grooves under the microscope. But again, yeah,
it's like between three hundred seven hundred thousand, yeah, seven hundred.
It's crazy.

Speaker 2 (18:49):
I think that is the thing. Now. It's like you
get to a certain point, I feel, where you're hunting
for things like that that have an interesting story or
you know, they're like weird. You know, we've for Nutribullet,
which I still haven't found it, but since it's been
out for a minute, I can talk about it. But
it was like, literally they're blender sounds. I mean, this

(19:09):
thing is like iconic. It's amazing. It has like a
Smoothie label on one side and a Blade label on
the other. Yeah, and I think it went to some influencers,
I guess, but like, honestly, that's the kind of thing
that like I want to find just the most weird
random stuff.

Speaker 3 (19:31):
Yeah, yeah, I think I do have like a it's
like an infomercial for a guitar amp from the sixties
or something, or like for for something, And yeah, it's
it's just like one of those like promotional advertising weird.
Well everybody talks like this, like that kind of a record, Like,

(19:53):
that's kind of what I want. It's just just like
history of recorded sound stuff is kind of where where
my collector's is now.

Speaker 2 (20:01):
Yeah, it was like, Yeah, what's your grail? I mean
I think it's that Gary. Yeah. Actually, I would love
to know what Gary's is. He's yeah, he's got a
great record collection. One of the most awesome people.

Speaker 3 (20:16):
So yeah, yeah, Gary, get at us, let us know
what your grail is. I would love to know that. Okay,
number two from Nasario two three nine one. When was
the first time that you listened to Black Sabbath? You
want to go first? I mean you're probably going to
be upset with my answer, like I actually don't like him.

(20:45):
I mean, I know that I wasn't a teenager. I
probably was in my late twenties early thirties, I imagine.
I think I had let's see, we did Monsters of
Rock with Ozzie in two thousand and eight. I don't

(21:05):
want to say it was then, but.

Speaker 2 (21:09):
Maybe were you into like hard rock in high school
or were you more into like punk or like what
kind of stuff were you listening to?

Speaker 3 (21:19):
I think, yeah, it was kind of all over the
place because I had my mom's record collection, so it
was a lot of like Beetles, Rolling Stones, Zeppelin, Yeah,
obviously Fleetwood Mac and Nine Inch Nails. I had, uh
the Pretty Hate Machine in nineteen ninety four.

Speaker 2 (21:37):
Yeah, it's a good one. When I was thirteen, that's
about when I started. That's when I first heard Black Sabbath.
Was when I was like around that age off kid,
and I was really into like, uh, hard rock, Nine
inch Nails, you know. It started the same like led Zeppelin,
but then I think, like when you're kind of in

(21:59):
that world, it's inevitable. Yep. So yeah, I mean the obsession,
you know, I think that started a little later, and
then the specific obsession started probably almost ten years ago,
so yeah, I mean it's kind of.

Speaker 3 (22:16):
An evolution a little bit. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (22:19):
Yeah, I mean because even though I collected records, I
wasn't as crazy about all the variants right away. Like
I think that was that was something that was a
rabbit hole that was discovered later.

Speaker 3 (22:33):
Oh yeah, when you found out that you could get
more of them from other countries and you're like, oh,
hang on, wait a minute, why are these all different? Yeah?
So yeah, yeah, I mean that's that's the cool thing
about like that record specifically, is that there's like a
bunch of different you know, jackets and labels and whatever.
But on the flip side or on the b side,

(22:56):
I guess looking at doing the same thing with like rumors,
they're all the same. Like they all kind of look
the same. It's kind of a bummer.

Speaker 2 (23:06):
Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (23:08):
I was like, oh, maybe it's got a different label
like slightly, but not really. I think it was just
because it was such a massive record that it was
just like get it out there. Whatever. Yeah, let's all
still have to consider where and what to figure out
multiple country variants of something for you know, Like I

(23:31):
feel like I'm almost at that part of my collection
where I'm just like, I need something to inspire me
to want to buy another record because.

Speaker 2 (23:37):
I just have so many that I'm just like, hey,
I'm going back and still buying a lot from the
CD era. So a lot of that stuff that's getting
reissued from the nineties is what I'm kind of looking
at now. And it's hard to get some of that stuff.
I mean, it'll come out immediately be sold out because
probably everybody else doing it too.

Speaker 3 (23:56):
Yeah. Well, and I mean they don't know how many
to make too, so I think they underestimate, like their
run number two, and then they're like, oh, oh, we
just one and twenty five minutes, Maybe we should do
a reissue. But as we know, then they have to
get somebody else to cut it and played it again
and figure out if they're going to do a wacky
color or something too. So then it gets still late. Yea,

(24:22):
oh okay, oh cheesez megs, Oh geez, can you say
that one? I feel good when pronounce the next year? Yeah,
any autobiography of a musician that you would buy immediately
if they had one.

Speaker 2 (24:42):
I mean Ozzie made an our autobiography yet, yes, And
I honestly that that's the kind of books I love
to read, so I buy and read pretty much all
of them. I just for Christmas got one called Cured
on the Cure, so that's weird. Yeah, I mean I
have tons, so any any and all bring it on. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (25:05):
I just got the Kim Gordon. I want to read
that biography and I got I also get Kim Deal too.

Speaker 2 (25:16):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (25:17):
I think I have two Kims on my shelf right
now that I have to read. But I'm finding it
very difficult to read these days. It's like two pages
and I dropped the book on my face and I'm like, okay, well.

Speaker 2 (25:27):
No, I'm trying to honestly schedule my free time, which
sounds insane, but like.

Speaker 3 (25:32):
Oh it doesn't, knowing what I know of you, No, no,
it doesn't. That is very on brand, and I'm glad
that you're doing it so that you actually get something.

Speaker 2 (25:43):
My god, I'm like, maybe I can fit thirty minutes
to read here.

Speaker 3 (25:47):
That's good. That's good. I like that I've really tried
to do it, like at the last part of the night,
so I can kind of try and wind down and
be like no, put that, put the phone away, put
the laptop away, no more of our kings. Yeah uh yeah.

Speaker 2 (26:04):
So at my greatest heavy rock vinyl wants to know
what year was the best for great rock albums seventy seven?

Speaker 3 (26:13):
Yeah, I think except for sure, Yeah, nineteen seventy seven,
that's when everything changed.

Speaker 2 (26:20):
Yeah, and then I would say the nineties, late eighties,
early nineties.

Speaker 3 (26:27):
But unfortunately that's when the rise of the CD started
to happen. So then you have to have the format
discussion at the same time. True, true, yeah, Okay, Moving
on to industry insights, Johnny's final said, do you see
more issues with color as opposed to black vinyl? Yes,

(26:52):
hands down, yes, other than clear for me especially, but
I mean also from the plant perspective.

Speaker 2 (27:01):
Yeah, I mean, I think from the plant perspective, it's
like plant to plant, QC to QC. I mean, some
colors just don't want to work as well, like yeah,
I mean, it just it depends. Honestly, I don't think
the I don't think your normal collector will know if
people are making good records and Q seeing them before

(27:23):
they go out the door, you really shouldn't be able
to tell any difference.

Speaker 3 (27:26):
Yeah, I mean yellow and white, like from my limited
experience in QC was probably the hardest to see any
kind of imperfections like nonfill and like stitching and stuff.
But I mean, if you're not playing your first offs
or you're you know, hourly checks at max pitch at

(27:48):
forty five rpm, I think you're probably going to be
able to pick up on any kind of issue that's happening. Yeah, yeah,
I mean I.

Speaker 2 (27:57):
Mean that's the thing. Yeah, it's all about quality and
q like really, you know, the press ops will dial
in a machine and keep fighting it until they make
the best record. Yes, yeah, we have an anonymous one.
How has the industry changed since the resurgence? I mean

(28:18):
it's been a roller coaster.

Speaker 3 (28:20):
Yeah. I mean a lot of people got in thinking
that it was a way to make money, and a
lot of those people are finding out the hard way
that it's not. Yeah, but even you know, people were

(28:43):
expanding capacity. Now they've had to shrink capacity, sell machines off.
I mean, if you look at the actual researcher, like,
I mean, that's that's kind of the question, is like
where do you point to as the actual like the
peak of the resurgence?

Speaker 2 (29:03):
Is that like and that's I mean back to your pandemic. Yeah,
Like to your history, I think a lot of people
think that the resurgence is like just suddenly happening. Yeah,
Vinyl came back, when record Storey came back, Yeah, and
so like that was a growth period. But I think

(29:25):
that that was a more controlled growth period. And then
to your point, the pandemic is when everything went haywire.

Speaker 3 (29:33):
Yeah, and that was its own like little kind of
I don't know, capsule of madness, because that's when you
had everybody shut in their houses, refalling in love with
their music collections, were just buying turntables and you know,
getting as many records as they could, all at the
same time. Meanwhile, all of the pressing plants had to

(29:57):
try and stay staffed while everything was shut down because
we all had that kind of conversation as to whether
we were essential. And I mean if you look at
sales and stuff, then yes, I mean for mental health absolutely,
but fighting for PBC globally when PBC and PETG are

(30:23):
the two major plastics that are used for biomedical things
and now like every other shipping thing that we're doing.
In addition, increased demand on cardboard and paper and all
of that kind of stuff, I mean it's a wonder
that you know, we actually got things out truly.

Speaker 2 (30:45):
And that's you know, we've talked about it before. I
would say, like check some of our old episodes, but
especially that year in review with Billy Fields that we did,
because I think it really explains a lot of people
still to this day will be like, oh, you know
now that Adele isn't clogging up the pipeline and Taylor
Swift and I'm just like, that's not it. So, I mean, yeah, unfortunately,

(31:09):
I feel like people that weren't very established before the
pandemic as far as lants go, are going to have
a little bit of a harder time because it's not
an easy thing to do.

Speaker 3 (31:19):
No, that's for sure.

Speaker 2 (31:21):
No.

Speaker 3 (31:21):
I mean and even like on the lathe, like on
the Laith side of things, you know, people are always
especially now with the economy. Yeah, you know, people are
really obsessed with that like economy of scale situation. And
you're only going to get that with a pressing plant.
You're not going to get it with lathe cuts because
we have to do them one by one in real time.

(31:41):
I mean, some cutters will do them, you know with
two because they have two lathes and that's you know,
that's fine and finding good, but like, still it's only
two records at a time. It's not one record every
twenty two to twenty eight seconds. So now with the
continued and I'm going to say it financial abuse of

(32:05):
musicians by streaming services and the rise of AI in
those streaming services by labels, you know, most of these
artists don't have that kind of capital to be able
to do a lot of physical product. Yeah, so my
side of the business has really decreased. I mean it's
still there, and I'm still doing records and I'm still

(32:26):
you know, blessed and highly favored with the projects that
I get to do, and I love all the people
that you know, choose me to do their records. But
i mean, I'm one of the most economical in North America,
and I still get price matched with pressing plants and oh,
your per unit is too high, and I'm like, well,
what do you want it to be? Because you know,

(32:47):
plastics still cost money, and you know, it's it's all
that that kind of thing. So you know, quantities have
changed and all that kind of stuff. So there's I
think you can look at every single portion of the
business and and see like an arc and how it's
changed since since records started getting hot in two thousand

(33:12):
and seven, two and eight.

Speaker 2 (33:14):
Yeah, And I think that goes perfectly into the next question,
which is about common misconceptions in the industry. I feel
like everybody that isn't in it thinks that. And you know,
I'll preface this by saying that we are very lucky
and it is an awesome job and it's very cool.
But I think that that's what people think, is that
we all sit around and get to just listen to
records all day and it's like, you know, at the

(33:37):
end of the day, it is it's very hard work.
There's a lot of hard timelines, just like any other
product that you're trying to get out, except that you're
dealing with like how it sounds, is it cut right?
Is it? You know? Is the quality that are people
going to complain about it? How's the packaging? Like, there's
so many things that it's still a job. I mean,

(33:58):
there's a ton of stuff that comes across my desk
that I'd love to check out, but I couldn't possibly
listen to everything.

Speaker 3 (34:06):
Yeah, And I mean, and other than having to listen
to every single record that is on my uh on
my lathe, one by one in real time. Like sometimes
that's the only new music that I'm gonna listen to
for the week because I'm like I'm tapped.

Speaker 2 (34:19):
Out, Like ah, yeah. You come home sometimes and.

Speaker 3 (34:22):
You're just like I need a minute, like you quiet,
and you know that's that's enough, Especially when I'm doing
like those like drone ambient records that are just noise,
and I'm just like, it's stressful because you think that
your machine is just like getting fried and at a
point you have to just be like Jesus, take the
wheel whatever. We're just we're doing it and it's fine. Yeah,

(34:47):
but it's so true. I mean, even when I took
the QC job at the pressing plant, like I thought
it was going to be something that it totally wasn't
and then having the like, I don't know, the misconception
of my job at Lacquer Channel. In addition, so the
people that were at the pressing plant had a misunderstanding

(35:10):
of what my job was at Lacquer Channel too. So
even within the industry there's misunderstandings of what we all do.

Speaker 2 (35:20):
But yeah, it's I.

Speaker 3 (35:21):
Mean, the press ops I think have one of the
hardest jobs on the planet. Yeah, because they have to
be heavy duty mechanics. They have to understand fluid dynamics
and it's a high pressure situation literally and figuratively, and

(35:41):
they don't. They're not listening to music period.

Speaker 2 (35:44):
I mean, it's the same thing over and over. They're
looking at you know, for large runs. They're looking at
that record for days in some kids.

Speaker 3 (35:53):
Sometimes weeks. Yeah, absolutely, and to expect them to have,
you know, the mental acuity sometimes on the tenth day
of that record is you know, that's that's a feat
in itself to make sure that it's that the labels
haven't changed, that the font is right, that there's no

(36:14):
spelling mistake, because that is all part of that QC team.
That's pressops and QC and print guys and girls and
them's and days and all the people that are involved
in all of those little parts, you know, making sure
that the stampers are correct even oh yeah, and if
you break and if you break one then then what happens?

Speaker 2 (36:35):
And yeah, and I mean even just like boilers chillers totally,
all of this stuff is like you know, heating and
cooling cycles, it's it's a harder job, I think than
people think it is understanding weather and how weather is
impacting your plant to.

Speaker 3 (36:54):
I mean, I was just in Texas in a snowstorm,
which is hilarious for Canadian but then weather here. Yeah,
but I mean watching people just like drive around with
no lights on in a snowstorm, I was like, you guys.

Speaker 2 (37:11):
They do not know what to do. No, no, I'm
from the East coast, like living down here. They are baffled.

Speaker 3 (37:18):
Yeah, and with good reason. I mean, like I said,
like opposite wise, like if I was coming from Texas
and I came to Canada and I was like expected
to drive in a snowstorm, I probably wouldn't know what
to do either. But yeah, yeah, but you know, but
we were talking about rolling like blackouts that are going

(37:41):
to happen there this week because of that. So I mean,
I don't is there a pressing planet Dallas hand drawn?
Oh yeah, hand drowns Intel. So so I wonder, I mean,
I wonder what Dustin would say about their power situation
and how that weather impacted their last week, because yeah,
like everything was shut down.

Speaker 2 (38:02):
Yeah, they closed.

Speaker 3 (38:03):
Schools and transit and everything. And I was like dude,
do you have an hanch of snow?

Speaker 2 (38:09):
Well, it's also and to your point, like they don't understand.
They don't they're not used to it, right, so it's
like uh, dripping faucets. They don't know what to do,
so like pipes burst. So there's all kinds of things
like that too that are happening. Yeah, but yeah, what
is the biggest challenge facing the industry? And how do

(38:31):
we see sustainability playing a role in vinyl production? Uh?

Speaker 3 (38:37):
Biggest challenge, I guess I would say economy, like global economy,
and then availability.

Speaker 2 (38:45):
Of materials, yeah, and sus I think is part of that.

Speaker 3 (38:50):
Yeah, and and and just again predatory practices by streaming
artists aren't getting paid for money, so are getting paid
for their work. So I mean, if we eventually only
have AI music, I would say that's the biggest crisis
is like musicians. If we don't have musicians, we don't

(39:13):
have music. Yeah, we don't have anything to make records
out of other than the nineties catalogs that we're going
to keep killing, right, But that's all we're going to
have because they're not going to be able to have
their jobs as creators as like actual musician creators.

Speaker 2 (39:32):
Yeah, I think to something we talked about before was that,
you know, with this sort of boom post pandemic, is
people investing in what's considered sexy, which is the pressing plant.
You know, you get to make the pretty thing, the
pretty product, and not investing in electro plating and cutting
and the innovation around that, which is something like we

(39:55):
are trying to really push for. But yeah, I mean
I think that that's still an issue. I mean lacquer,
you know, there's still only MDC making lacquer and like
and that's it. That's it. And the innovation around sustainable
records it's not there yet, like the ocean plastic awful. Yeah,

(40:23):
the well we talked to the green vinyl guys and
you know there's the injection molding, but there's still electroplating,
so yeah, you know parts of those that process still
need to be fixed.

Speaker 3 (40:38):
Yeah, I mean they're from the Making Vinyl conference last year.

Speaker 2 (40:42):
There was.

Speaker 3 (40:44):
Some innovation with electro plating which was like the the
s butter method where they were coding it in a
different way and they the way that the coating went
on to the actual stamper use. Like one hundredth of
the amount of chemicals or one one thousandth of the

(41:05):
amount of chemicals. So there's like, you know, fits and
starts of those little things. But there's also going to
be a collective loss of knowledge in our fields too,
especially with cutting records and maintaining lathes and making those
those things work, because those still haven't been really updated.

(41:30):
I mean, there's this stilito lathe that's probably the newest
one on the market. There's one in Australia and then
one in Oh, forgive me, my friends, I'm trying to
remember where you were, but I think you're in Nashville. Yes,

(41:51):
there's one in Nashville too, Sorry, Ray. And I think
those are the like, those are the two with lads
on the market, and yeah, I think there's only like
one or two in North America period. Yeah, So like
that that part is you know, still lacking.

Speaker 2 (42:11):
Yeah, And on the sustainability front, I think it's like,
you know, we have bioplastics, which is like considering like
if you were to change your car over to frier oil,
a similar process there with biovinyl, but it's expensive and
I think the US is still very far behind regulations
that Europe and the UK have well.

Speaker 3 (42:33):
And unfortunately, now that you've had a change in administration
coming down the pipe, that's absolutely going to take a
back seat yet again mm hmmm, because you have to
have somebody that is, you know, mindful of the global environment.

Speaker 2 (42:50):
As well climate change.

Speaker 3 (42:52):
I believes in climate change, which I mean as we're
seeing our friends in California literally light on fire and
loseer everything. Yeah, it's yeah, there's there's there's lots of
problems with the industry, and you know, sometimes it's just

(43:12):
like that's why I'm like, oh, I'm just like happy
to do you know, a handful to make sure that
you're getting what you need and it's all good and
you know, I use recyclable things and I feel pretty
good about that. I mean maybe that maybe that's the
way forward too, is just you know, moving to some

(43:33):
sort of a one to one kind of method to
be able to decrease the amount of waste that we use.

Speaker 2 (43:40):
Well, And that's a good point. I think a lot
of it is on the consumer, to be honest. I mean,
consumers think that lathe cut records aren't as good, or
consumers think that regrind isn't as good or when it
is right, it is and that's and that's a big
problem is that they or or they don't want to
pay for you know, the eco jacket or whatever it is.

(44:02):
But it's those kinds of things where it's like, if
you truly want to do it, then you have to
you know, literally put your mouth this.

Speaker 3 (44:11):
Yeah, you have to buy in the whole way. Yeah yeah,
And I mean there's just there's just so many of
the opinionated loud talkers out there that just say like
this is the way and this is the only way,
and oh my god, it's got to be one hundred

(44:31):
and eighty grams or it's got to be this, or
it's got to be that, And I mean they just
don't have any space for anybody else. And if you
don't know, then you're going to listen to it and
be like, oh okay, well, you know, why would they lie,
why would they say that that that's something that's not right?
But you know, they don't want to hear it from

(44:53):
people like us, people that look like us and have
our gender and things like that that challenge the way
that they have approached their own collections and listening environments. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
and then d Aristar says, do you or you employee

(45:18):
or your employees listen to what you produce? Well, I
don't have any employees, ri I Pete Parker. Uh oh
he was. He was the only employee that I had.
It was my twelve year old black lab and he
died last year, so he doesn't get to listen to
any more records now. But I definitely force my boyfriend

(45:39):
to listen to the records that I make to make
sure that I am not just believing in my own
brilliance all of the time. I'm like, does this sound good?

Speaker 2 (45:49):
Like?

Speaker 3 (45:49):
Does this actually sound good? Do you hear that? Oh
my god, did you hear that? Does it sound like this?
Are you getting this like sound? And he's like, can
you calm down? No, it's fine. So we trotted around
two different turntables in our house to make sure that
I'm not losing my actual mind. But I listened to
a lot of records that come out of Gens planned.

Speaker 2 (46:10):
Yeah. I mean, I think if it seems like something
that I would be into, yeah, I listened to it.
But lucky enough to do some fun drag records, so
those are fun.

Speaker 3 (46:25):
Yeah, so we love those.

Speaker 2 (46:27):
Yeah, and employees. Yeah, I think people listen to you know,
QC might hear something that they think is cool, tell
other people and then they listen to it. Hopefully they're
quality checking anyway. So mm hmmh same person. How many
records per day with the specification of eight hours of
work can be produced on your equipment? Uh? Well, for me,

(46:54):
if you think like thirty second cycle times and can
probably get a little under one thousand.

Speaker 3 (47:01):
I was gonna say as a one machine or two.

Speaker 2 (47:03):
Yeah, I mean like nine hundred something I guess per machine.
But then like you have to factor and waste, so
you might well, you might get eight hundred let's say
on a great day, but maybe five hundred are passable
or you know whatever. So yeah, yeah, what about I
mean for you, it's probably the length of the record.

Speaker 3 (47:27):
Yeah, that's why I prefer to do seven records because
I actually feel like I'm doing more work. I can
do about again, depending on side length, I can usually
do about thirty seven's fully assembled in like a six

(47:50):
hour day. Because of the ear strain, so I have
to give my ears a little bit of a break,
not only from the vacuum is because that is oppressive
and never stops and then the music as well, so
because otherwise, if you are listening with fatigued ears, then

(48:11):
you're not going to pick up subtle distortions and things
like that and the records that you're making, so you're
just making scrap. So why would you do that?

Speaker 2 (48:21):
M m yeah. This next one is from raylan j first.

Speaker 3 (48:27):
While Yeah, Ray mastering Extraordinary at Infrasonic in Nashville. Sweet
little Baby Angel, love her so much. I'm not the
coolest human being.

Speaker 2 (48:42):
That's not.

Speaker 3 (48:45):
I could say that right back to you. She says,
why is Robin the coolest human being? And I say that, like,
I'm not just blowing myself up. And she wants to
know about mono and stereo lathe cuts, so that kind
of goes to the machine. Mono is kind of the

(49:05):
older vintage equipment like from the forties, fifties and sixties,
the prestos the record cuts, and it's more embossing rather
than cutting, so they am embossed with a tungsten needle
rather than a diamond or a sapphire or ruby that

(49:28):
we cut records and lacquers with. It also just has
like one channel that it has audio from, so as
we all know and love mono records from the sixties
have the same information on all parts of the tapes,
or just getting all of that just mainlined down all

(49:48):
of the speakers, it's just glorious. But then the Beatles
had to go and figure out how to record in
four and eight channel and come up with these stereo
recording So now we have two different channels that we're
trying to put everything in, and so that's where mastering

(50:08):
is important for making records because of the information in
both of those channels and what it actually does to
the groove and what that subsequently does to your ears
as well. So yeah, I mean I can cut in
mono if I just master it that way, and sometimes
I have to if things aren't cutting properly because you

(50:31):
get lift outs and all those wonderful cutting things. Yeah,
I mean that's the quick and dirty way to do it,
I think, to explain it. Do you have any insight
on that jet that's d Yeah, I'm definitely not the coolest,
especially not the coolest in this room. You're you're right

(50:54):
up there along with me, Kido. So uh and we
love you Ray, thanks for your thanks for your work.

Speaker 2 (51:00):
Yeah uh At Sean xt. What's the work process with
local independent musicians and creating their physical records.

Speaker 3 (51:10):
Well, I'll let you start with that one, because yours
is a little bit more involved.

Speaker 2 (51:14):
Yeah, I think it depends. So if someone is what
we affectionately call an one who is putting out their
first record, then it's it is a lot of advising,
a lot of coaching, a lot of teaching the process
because if you're taught the process, if you if you

(51:36):
go directly to a pressing plant, you'll have a customer
service rep who can really work with you through that process.

Speaker 3 (51:41):
You're not a broker, Yeah.

Speaker 2 (51:45):
Yeah, because you want to know where your records are
made and you want to you know, support your local
pressing plant too. And if you know the person who
you're working with, then you can ask all the questions
and they'll guide you and make sure you're getting the
best cost effect but coolest package for you and your listeners.
So yeah, I mean a lot of it is quoting,

(52:06):
a lot of it is emailing. I think that it
is cool when you are working with someone local and
they can come pick up. I think that's always exciting
for that and it's fun to meet those people too.

Speaker 3 (52:18):
So it's cool to put people's music in their hands. Yeah, absolutely, Ultimately,
like that's the best feeling ever because they're like, oh
my god, it's real now. Yeah, it's not just like
this thing that I at this random file that I
uploaded into some server somewhere.

Speaker 2 (52:35):
And I think that's something that you will probably be
able to speak to too. Is that like with that
education component, is like understanding that maybe your whole musical
opus doesn't need to be put on a single record
and you can eliminate some tracks or edit yourself. People
don't understand that that one groove physically has to only
contain a certain amount of material, so like you cannot

(52:57):
fit crazy amounts of music, and so that I think
is part of that process. Or someone will see cool packaging.
I think that's another thing they'll see like some crazy
like quad gatefold or like yeah, we'll cut something and
then you're like, well for two hundred units, that's going

(53:18):
to run you twenty five dollars a jacket. So like,
you know, if you have a pressing plant, customer service
person that you can work with, then they can guide
you to get something that will still be cool but
within a reasonable price.

Speaker 3 (53:31):
Yeah, well and then like on my side because a
lot of those like locals and independent musicians, I mean
even labels too, I don't just deal with you know,
self represented human beings. But there's just like a a
misunderstand a misunderstanding also when it comes to mastering and

(53:52):
having things ready for cutting, and having appropriate side lengths
or the way that the side is laid out, so
that you have your most dynamic track at the beginning
of the side and your least dynamic, most tender love
song at the end of this side, so that you
know you're your grooves aren't getting so smashed together that

(54:15):
you're getting just on one a distortion everywhere. You're having
to just compromise on the overall level of the side.
So then you have the conversation of why is in
my record as loud as my digital master And then
you go those two things aren't the same. Yep, Oh
they never will sound the same. This is the first

(54:36):
time that you're ever hearing it in physical and that's
what it's going to sound like, because that's what it
sounds like. Yeah, So there's all of that conversation too.
But then just even getting down into art and like
having templates and you know, going back and forth with
like CMYK and resolution and the just the parameters that

(54:58):
you need to make a good print, and then yeah, like,
oh yeah, I want a gatefold. I'm like, well, you're
you're dealing with twenty units, my friend, Like, you're not
going to get a gatefold.

Speaker 2 (55:07):
Yeah, you're not.

Speaker 3 (55:08):
Like they just won't even entertain that conversation. So it's
like managing expectations right out the gate, and then there's
always the price question, and then they shoot for the
moon with their asks right out the gate, and then
you have to pare it down and they have to
pare it down again, and then it goes away for
three weeks and then it comes back and then you

(55:29):
pay it down again and you change it again. And
it's just kind of having that understanding that you're making
a physical product and we all want it to be
the best that it is. But they're not cheap, yeah,
in any way that you do them, They're just not.

Speaker 2 (55:46):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (55:46):
So I mean, if if you want to, if you're
trying to make a lot of money off of your
physical product, like it's just it's not going to happen.
And on the on the back side of that, like
being someone who counsels and mentors some of these independents.
I'm like, I'm sure you're brilliant, but is this your

(56:07):
first record? Yes, then you don't want a hundred copies.
I guarant fucking to you you do not want a
hundred copies because you are going to be looking at
your abject failure in your basement for the next five
years of your life. And next year when you make
another record, you're going to want to make records out

(56:28):
of that too, And then you'll be like, oh, well,
now you need to make another record. Now you're going
to have two hundred units of this one as well
as one hundred units of the one before, and then
you're gonna wind up with what still over one hundred
and fifty copies that you haven't been able to sell.
So your return on investment is zero dollars because you've
had to pay for every single record that you have
picked up from the pressing plant, regardless of what its

(56:49):
per unit is. Your return on investment is zero dollars
if you don't sell them all. Yeah, and when you
have to start discounting them because you've got a second
record out, then what happens. So I mean that's and
that's a question back to you and this vice president.
Will the change in economy start to affect the number

(57:11):
of units that pressing plants have as their minimums.

Speaker 2 (57:16):
I think it depends on the pressing plant in their
customer base, you know. I think when it comes down
to it, the reason why, for example, we don't go
lower than two hundred units is just because when you
factor in the cutting and the plating and the print,
which print normally has a minimum of five hundred units.
So even if you're doing two hundred units, we're probably

(57:38):
still having to charge or buy five hundred pieces which
we can then store or hold, you know, for a repress.
But when you add all of that in the cost
to do that, if you're only doing one hundred records,
makes your cost per unit so high that it doesn't
really make sense anymore. And so that's why a lot
of times, if people want less than that, we always
refer them to cutting, you know, we robin because it's

(58:02):
like it makes more sense if you want that many
to to do a length cut, just financially. So I
think if it's a pressing plant that's working with a
lot of indies, I think you know that two hundred
range makes sense where you can still get you know,
twelve to fifteen dollars per unit and make something on
top of it.

Speaker 3 (58:23):
Yeah, if you sell them all. Yeah, And that's like it,
and it's I mean, it's probably a different conversation like
on either side of the border too, because with the
sheer number of people that live in America and the
number of opportunities for bands and artists to play, you

(58:43):
have the ability to potentially do one hundred records and
sell them in six months because you've played one hundred shows.
But in Canada especially, you know, you don't have that
opportunity to play. We have thirty six million people across
our country. The major cities are at least eight to
thirteen hours apart.

Speaker 2 (59:04):
Yeah, much more so.

Speaker 3 (59:06):
Yeah, yeah, so if you're if you're touring, and then
again like yeah, if you're if you're touring, are you
bringing five boxes of vinyl with you?

Speaker 4 (59:14):
Or are you.

Speaker 3 (59:14):
Bringing a drum kit? Like? Those are the other questions too.
Sometimes it is easier to do CDs and that's it's
totally fine, you can do that.

Speaker 2 (59:25):
And I think the frustrating thing working with some labels
is they just go to cheapness, you know. So it's
like they may go to a GZ company or you know,
in a company like that, an independent small business like
Bulldrush or Furnace or gott a Groove or any of
any of the cascade like those are all independently owned,

(59:50):
and so we can't compete with people who are getting
print from overseas and it's cheap. And so I really think,
you know, again, it's like support quality, support local, support
people that are those small businesses, because they're the ones
that are keeping everything going. I mean really, especially especially

(01:00:13):
in your town. Yeah, like Easy, big Massive, you know,
or like United or Memphis or some of those plants
that have like hundreds of machines. Let them do those
large runs and then like if you're pressing one thousand
to five thousand or less, even use a smaller pressing plant.

(01:00:34):
It's a big job for us in a good way.
It's it's we can get it done quickly for you.
It might be a little more expensive, but it's gonna
be good quality. And we don't ever put majors ahead
of independence. And I think that that's a complete misconception.

Speaker 3 (01:00:52):
Too, absolutely, And I mean the other side of the
other side of that too, is how many actual artists
are employed at places like press plans totally. So, I
mean you're reinforcing the community and the scene right there
as as you were, you know, getting your records bust.
It might be your friend Steve that plays bass in

(01:01:13):
that band that your band always plays with, he's making
your records, I mean, and what a great story.

Speaker 2 (01:01:19):
Yeah it rules.

Speaker 3 (01:01:20):
Yeah, So so man, okay, uh from d Airstar again
this one, I'm gonna I don't know how long does
it take to make a vinyl flow plate?

Speaker 2 (01:01:35):
Maybe they mean just like a like a stamp. How
long does it work in time or quality? I'm guessing
as stamper. Yeah, so this is something I think that
you know, Robin and I want to cover when in
another episode we did a vinyl one oh one as
our second episode ever, and go to our website. We

(01:01:56):
have a start here button and I highly recommend listening
to that. But you know, we'll do a video component
at some point to really share those things better. But
terminology is really important, and you don't know what you
don't know, but that helps in communication through and correct information.
So I think what we're talking about is a stamper,

(01:02:19):
which you know, I was just explaining the whole thing
to someone the other day and I was like, here's
our here's our infographic. Because it's a lacker. Maybe so
you're we can.

Speaker 3 (01:02:34):
Talk about book, talk about the stamper though.

Speaker 2 (01:02:36):
So your your laquers cut first, then it goes into
electro plating where it's sprayed with silver, goes into a
chemical bath where it grows a father slash stamper onto it.
If it's a one step, that first plate gets used
in your machine as your stamper. If it's a two
step plate, then you the other side of it is

(01:02:58):
your mother, which then can make more stampers. And if
it's three step, then you save that first stamper, you
make another stamper from the mother, and then that goes
to the pressing plant. So it's very confusing. That is
the like quick and dirty of how that works.

Speaker 3 (01:03:16):
And usually stampers will last between five hundred and one thousand.

Speaker 2 (01:03:19):
Stamps, but they are and they are considered consumables. So
like you can on machine break you're working with me,
do they'll replace it if they broke it? So yeah,
get broken.

Speaker 3 (01:03:33):
It can get scratched, just like a regular record, even
though it's made out of metal. Yeah, if you're asking
about uh Lacker, which is the master uh it works
until it's plated and then it is destroyed in that process.

(01:03:53):
So that's it. If unless you're unless you're getting a
dub plate, which they do, I mean sometimes they still
do for people, but now that all of us Lathe
cutters are around, usually are foregoing the dubplate for a
plastic version so that it lasts longer. If you were

(01:04:14):
to play a lacquer or a dub plate, you would
get maybe a hundred plays out of it, but every
single time you play it, it's going to degrade in
quality and longevity. So so yeah, I mean, let us
know what which one which answer was right?

Speaker 2 (01:04:35):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (01:04:35):
Which answered your question? I guess, And then we can
expound farther if we need to. I do have a
box of stampers and laquers and everything to do story
time with when we delve into that. So that's all good.
Our next question is from gles Clo ge les Clo,

(01:05:00):
I'm not sure why do some brand new vinyl records
sound distorted when I play them?

Speaker 2 (01:05:08):
Do you want to take that one?

Speaker 3 (01:05:10):
Because they are distorting it's I mean, it can be
a myriad of things. It can be your playback equipment yep,
which it usually is. It can be uh a pressing issue,
which it usually is not. It can be a cutting issue,

(01:05:33):
which sometimes it is. It's I mean sometimes that record
was not cut by a human being, that was cut
by a machine. So they're not going to know the
difference because they don't care because they're robots.

Speaker 2 (01:05:48):
And sometimes the plant or or not the plant, sorry,
the band or label will say, you know what, time
is more important than a recut. Just do it, because
if we get all the way to test pressings before
somebody notices that there was a distortion in the master
or the cut, then we have to go back to
that cut and start over. So going back to the

(01:06:10):
question about time, it usually takes about a week in cutting,
two weeks and plating, and then a week or two
at the pressing plant to get press q sed and
ship to you for a test pressing. So if you
consider about five weeks for a test pressing, let's say
some people might be faster or slower, then a band
or label might be like, you know, my release shows
more important. It's fine. I can live with it so,

(01:06:32):
but I agree, I feel like it's probably playback. Yep.

Speaker 3 (01:06:37):
Sometimes, I mean majority of the time I find that
it's playback, but yeah, just sends yeah yeah, I mean
it can be just like bad mastering. It can be
a like a bad recording too.

Speaker 2 (01:06:54):
Like it.

Speaker 3 (01:06:55):
It can be an issue at every single one of
those staffs, but generally it's not a pressing plant tissue
if it's distortion and that I mean, that's one of
the things that always kind of drove me crazy at
working at the record store because people will be like, oh,
it sounds terrible, and I'm like, oh wow, let me

(01:07:17):
just put it on this trusty Tech twelve here and
we'll see how it sounds. And I mean, like the
record store playback system was nothing revolutionary, no, no, no,
but I mean it did the job for sure. Yeah,
and it was. I mean, it was incredible to show
just the how different playback systems can illuminate different parts

(01:07:43):
of the record. But yeah, that's yeah, that's that's why
maybe you just need to change your cartridge, my friend,
that might be it.

Speaker 4 (01:07:54):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:07:55):
Uh oh trends.

Speaker 2 (01:07:57):
Sure, oh at Chords Records shout out. They have a
YouTube channel. We'll check it out. Why aren't there more
gen X Vinyl community channels.

Speaker 3 (01:08:12):
I don't know, Maybe because we're too busy working.

Speaker 2 (01:08:16):
True. Also, I mean that's the thing, like if this
was our job, like cool, but editing videos a lot,
it's a lot of work. As I'm Sures knows from there.

Speaker 3 (01:08:29):
Too, totally. And I mean, if you want to help
make it Gen's full Chop, go to the Patreon thanks. Ah,
that would be great, and then that that would be
just fine.

Speaker 2 (01:08:44):
We are doing some surveys around the newer generation though,
and so maybe we'll share some of that in the
future episode.

Speaker 3 (01:08:52):
Yeah, we like to know what you guys are all
up to. All of you days and thems and He's
and she's in nb's, all of you. You're welcome and
celebrated here. Yes, Yeah, we want to know about your
record collections and why you have a YouTube or why

(01:09:14):
you don't have a YouTube.

Speaker 2 (01:09:16):
And what we should do on TikTok because that's lost
on us.

Speaker 3 (01:09:19):
Well, I mean, it depends on if you're allowed to
have TikTok very soon, doesn't it.

Speaker 2 (01:09:23):
Yeah, I guess that's true. Hey, maybe we were ahead
of the curve. Yeah. Our last question is from that
Eddie Hex, What has you excited for all things final
in twenty twenty five?

Speaker 3 (01:09:42):
Continued employment is cool?

Speaker 2 (01:09:47):
Yeah, I think yeah, honestly, with a lot with the
way that a lot of things are shaking out, being
able to do this job, I'm happy to do it.
I'm excited for it. I think there's going to be
some cool releases coming up.

Speaker 3 (01:10:02):
Yeah, I've got the seventieth anniversary of Godzilla coming someone's cool.

Speaker 2 (01:10:08):
Yeah, I'm excited. In Japan, that'll be cool.

Speaker 3 (01:10:12):
Yeah, all things Vinyl in Japan will be very cool.

Speaker 2 (01:10:17):
And women in Vinyl will be doing some cool things.
Check out our favorite Things resource on our website. It's
very time consuming page to put together, and we will
probably be continuing with some more info sessions with a

(01:10:37):
different twist this year. We have a whole new board
of amazing humans, so very excited for what they have
to bring. Yeah. And the podcast, I mean, you know
we're here. We're excited to be more connected with everybody
here and expanding our podcast because there are Vinyl podcasts

(01:10:59):
popping up everywhere. But we are going to talk about that. No, Nope,
But we we work in this field and we're a
safe space to ask questions, even silly ones.

Speaker 3 (01:11:13):
So silly questions. Oh my god, give me a silly question.

Speaker 2 (01:11:17):
No, I think you know. I don't know. I guess
it's because maybe we are women in vinyl that people
think they can't listen if they're a man. I don't know.
I know that all of you guys that are listening
know that that's silly, but I don't know. We We
welcome you here, everybody. Yeah, Yeah, we're just the gals

(01:11:38):
telling you the facts.

Speaker 3 (01:11:41):
Yeah, because she's a boss and I'm a boss, and
so we don't have to worry about anybody getting above
us and saying that we're wrong or that we shouldn't
say things like that on the internet.

Speaker 2 (01:11:53):
Yeah, headwag.

Speaker 3 (01:11:58):
Twenty twenty five. I mean, yeah, I think what we're doing.
I think this year is the most exciting part for me. Well,
we just kind of disregard all of the imitators and
keep forging the path that you started back in the day.

(01:12:22):
And we've got some interesting ways that we're going to
enrich and continue to engage with the community that will
be coming up pretty soon. So keep your peepers peeped
because that'll be cool. Yeah, you know, just trying to
be the change.

Speaker 2 (01:12:42):
Yep.

Speaker 3 (01:12:43):
Yeah, we're continuing to be the change.

Speaker 4 (01:12:46):
I guess yeah over here in our little corner, yeah,
or you know, live from a airport near you, as
might be next weekend.

Speaker 3 (01:12:59):
Yeah. So thanks everybody for setting in your questions. Really
appreciate all of your thoughtful prompts. But we want to
know in the comments step below, because now that's the thing. Yeah,
we want to know what you think. What makes you

(01:13:20):
excited about twenty twenty five? Is there some record that
you are on pre sale for that you were just like,
when is it kind of ship? Where do I going
to get it?

Speaker 2 (01:13:30):
Where?

Speaker 3 (01:13:31):
Because we just had a postal strike here in Canada
so that, yeah, we'll be getting all kinds of packages
hopefully soon, which is great.

Speaker 2 (01:13:41):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:13:41):
What what would you like? What would you like to
see on the tubes now from these delightful millennials that
are your new best friends, like subscribe all the things,
join the Patreon Patreon dot com, women in Vinyl to
get the newsletter, and then all of the things. Yes, first, first,

(01:14:02):
first knowing on all of the exploits. One of your
two besties, we sub merg vinyl space Yeah yeah, no bunnies, no, bears,
we promise.

Speaker 2 (01:14:15):
And as we continue to do some of the things
that Robin mentioned to come, Patroon will be the best
place to link in to some of those things.

Speaker 3 (01:14:23):
So yeah, and if you want to get involved, that's
the best place to uh start.

Speaker 2 (01:14:28):
Yep.

Speaker 3 (01:14:30):
Tell us about your favorite record store. Yeah yeah, tell
us about your grail, Gary, Gary, Yes you are grail.

Speaker 2 (01:14:41):
Tell us what you want to hear.

Speaker 3 (01:14:42):
We love it, yeah, and we need it because we're
floundering as millennials on YouTube. Just like here's the thing
that Yes, we love and appreciate all of you. Thanks
for welcoming us into the tubes. We're happy to be
here and we appreciate you watching our little faces.

Speaker 2 (01:15:06):
Yeah, see you.

Speaker 3 (01:15:07):
Next listening us to in your ears. I don't know
where you're where are you doing it? Maybe you're doing
it the same time. That'd be a lot, that'd be
so much. Yeah, until next time. Episode fifty seven. What
crazy wow.

Speaker 2 (01:15:25):
Right.

Speaker 3 (01:15:25):
Thanks to thanks to the board, Thanks to everybody that
helps us out. Thanks to Ray for being an awesome
editor and make me sound like I know what I'm doing.

Speaker 2 (01:15:37):
See you next time like a subscribe, Bye bye, Thanks
for listening. Don't forget to like, subscribe, and leave us
a review on your favorite podcast platform. Join the conversation
on social media at Women in Vinyl. We want to
hear from you. Shoot us a message for topics you
want to hear, feedback and more to info at Womenanvinyl

(01:15:58):
dot com. Huge shout out and thank you for all
our supporters, affiliates and sponsors like Marshall Headphones. Visit our
website Womeninvinyl dot com for ways to get involved, and
you can always contribute to the education, demonstification and diversification
of the vinyl industry by donating at Women Invinyl dot

(01:16:19):
com slash donate. See you next time.

Speaker 1 (01:16:22):
This episode has been brought to you by Women in
Vinyl and Red Spade Records. Thank you for listening. Please
remember to subscribe and you can always contact us directly
by visiting www dot com. Women in Vinyl dot com.