Michael Romanowski

Michael is the owner and chief mastering engineer at Michael Romanowski Mastering in San Francisco, California. He started his audio career as a live sound engineer in Nashville, Tennessee, and quickly went from that to recording, mixing and producing.

In 1994, he moved to the San Francisco Bay area and started his mastering career at Rocket Lab, with Mastering Engineers Paul Stubblebine and Ken Lee. Learning from two of the best in the business was invaluable to him as his career moved forward. Michael helped start the mastering room at Sausalito’s Plant Studios in 1999, where he was the chief mastering engineer.

In 2001, Michael reunited with Paul Stubblebine in Paul’s mastering room at Hyde Street Studios – the famed Studio C. In 2003, Michael and Paul built two state of the art 5.1 mastering rooms at the former Coast Recorders building, now known as 1340 Mission, where he continues to work today.

Michael is the President of the Board of Governors of the San Francisco Chapter of NARAS , and is the Chairman of the chapter’s Producers & Engineers wing. In addition to his service in music community, Michael teaches mastering at San Francisco State University, and is active at conferences such as TapeOp, AES, CES, VSAC and NAMM . He is a co-owner of a music label, with Paul Stubblebine and Dan Schmalle, The Tape Project, which only releases direct copies of original analog masters on 1/4” analog tape. And, he continues to record, mix, produce and perform.

Michael Romanowski
1340 Mission Street
San Francisco, Ca. 94103
(510) 761-5520
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Paul Stubblebine

Paul began his mastering career in San Francisco in 1973. For eleven years he worked at a recording and mastering facility on Folsom Street which, originally owned by CBS, was later bought by David Rubinson and became known as The Automatt.

During the CBS period, in addition to the CBS catalog, the studio also brought in outside work from the Record Plant and Wally Heider’s including records by The Grateful Dead, The New Riders of the Purple Sage, Sly Stone, Santana, Joan Baez, Bill Evans, Tony Bennett and Jane Fonda’s phenomenally successful workout record engineered by Leslie Ann Jones.

This is also where the mastering was done for the US releases of Rough Trade and Factory Records including Joy Division, and New Order. During this period, records mastered at the Automatt were on the charts continuously.
Paul then went on to become chief engineer at Rocket Lab, also in San Francisco, where he worked until starting his own company, Paul Stubblebine Mastering, in 1997.

Paul Stubblebine
(415) 522-0108
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Piper Payne

A recent transplant to the Bay Area, Piper received her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Performing Arts Technology–Media/Sonic Arts Concentration from the University of Michigan. While pursuing her degree in this technologically rigorous program, she gained four years of experience as a Resident Student Engineer (RSE) in the U of M recording studios. Her position as RSE put her at the hub of a major studio upgrade and gave her high-level experience in teamwork and project management.

Piper finished her education at the University of Stavanger, receiving a Graduate Studies Certificate in Music Production and Recording.

In Norway, Piper had the opportunity to learn analog-to-digital archiving with MemNor Sound Archival Service and apprenticed with Thor Legvold at Sonovo Mastering. In 2009, she worked as mixing engineer and mastering assistant with Bob Katz at Digital Domain in Orlando, Florida and in 2010 accepted the post of Senior Audio Associate at The Banff Centre in Banff, Canada.

Piper also began operating her own location recording business as an undergraduate in Michigan, and this business has traveled the world with her. Piper is an active member of the Audio Engineering Society. She plans to use her skills in recording, mixing, and mastering as she embraces the San Francisco soundscape.

Piper Payne
(313) 580.6660
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