Who cut the vinyl master for Confessions II?

Miles Showell cut the vinyl master for Confessions II. The album’s official credits distinguish his vinyl-cutting role at Abbey Road in London from the separate mastering work completed for the release.

Vinyl production involves several stages that are easy to conflate. A mastering engineer prepares the audio for the intended format, while a cutting engineer transfers the vinyl-specific master to a lacquer or cutting medium used in record manufacture. For Confessions II, Ruairi O’Flaherty handled mastering at Sterling Sound in Los Angeles, while Showell cut the vinyl master at Abbey Road.

Showell is an Abbey Road mastering engineer known for work on high-profile analogue and archival releases. His name appears across the album’s track credits, not just beside one song, indicating that the vinyl edition used a consistent album-wide cutting credit.

The distractors reflect different parts of the project. Stuart Price was Madonna’s principal collaborator and producer, Danny Zook handled sample-clearance duties, and Ruairi O’Flaherty is credited with mastering rather than cutting the vinyl master.