Sound 80
Encyclopedia
Sound80 was a recording studio
in Minneapolis, Minnesota
, United States
founded by Tom Jung
and Herb Pilhofer in 1969. Largely involved with local artists, the studio is best known for recording portions of Bob Dylan
's Blood on the Tracks
in 1974, but also made what is believed to be the first digital audio
recording to be commercially released. Jung and Pilhofer had previously worked at the Kay Bank Studios
in Minneapolis, where artists such as Dave Dudley
and The Trashmen
had recorded. The name came from advertising
man Brad Morrison
, who had previously named Hormel
's Cure 81 ham
product (supposedly while drinking Vat 69 Scotch
).
3M
, based in neighboring Saint Paul, Minnesota
, brought in a prototype
digital recording system in 1977 or 1978. Nicknamed "Herbie" after Herb Pilhofer, the system was used for two recordings by the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra
and one for jazz
group Flim and the BB's. One of the SPCO albums won the Grammy Award
for Best Chamber Orchestra Recording
in 1979. Being a prototype, it was a very bulky and finicky system. For example, it used wire wrap
boards and few, if any, soldered
connections. When it worked, the system had a number of good qualities. However, there was no editing ability for digital media at the time, so even minor flaws would require the whole track to be re-recorded.
Tom Jung left the company to work in New York City
, but created a mobile recording unit known as Road 80, which was rented to Sound 80 studios on occasion. Jung later created the company DMP Digital Music Products
, which also pushed the envelope of later digital audio technology (the company recorded the first multi-channel Super Audio CD
).
In the mid 1980s the building became the home to AVC Systems, one of the largest pro audio contractors in the midwest. The basement, including the live echo chamber, was converted into a staging area for system fabrication. The main studio was converted to a showroom and office facilities. The smaller studio was rented by "Roger Dodger Music", a Minneapolis based keyboard/synthesizer dealer.
The Sound 80 building was sold around 1990, but the original recording studio still exists and is now home to Orfield Labs who operate an Eckel Industries
designed anechoic chamber
. At -9.4 dB
, it is listed as "the quietest place on Earth" by the Guinness Book of World Records. Sound 80 was listed in Guinness again in 2006 as the "Oldest Digital Recording Studio in the World".
Recording studio
A recording studio is a facility for sound recording and mixing. Ideally both the recording and monitoring spaces are specially designed by an acoustician to achieve optimum acoustic properties...
in Minneapolis, Minnesota
Minneapolis, Minnesota
Minneapolis , nicknamed "City of Lakes" and the "Mill City," is the county seat of Hennepin County, the largest city in the U.S. state of Minnesota, and the 48th largest in the United States...
, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
founded by Tom Jung
Tom Jung
Tom Jung is an American advertising art director, graphic designer and illustrator best known for his movie poster art, and a motion picture storyboard artist. -Early life and career:...
and Herb Pilhofer in 1969. Largely involved with local artists, the studio is best known for recording portions of Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
's Blood on the Tracks
Blood on the Tracks
Blood on the Tracks is Bob Dylan's 15th studio album, released by Columbia Records in January 1975. The album marked Dylan's return to Columbia after a two-album stint with Asylum Records....
in 1974, but also made what is believed to be the first digital audio
Digital audio
Digital audio is sound reproduction using pulse-code modulation and digital signals. Digital audio systems include analog-to-digital conversion , digital-to-analog conversion , digital storage, processing and transmission components...
recording to be commercially released. Jung and Pilhofer had previously worked at the Kay Bank Studios
Kay Bank Studios
Kay Bank Studios was a recording studio in Minneapolis, Minnesota at 2541 Nicollet Avenue. Daniel Heilicher and his brother Amos started in a business together in the '30s, distributing and stocking jukeboxes...
in Minneapolis, where artists such as Dave Dudley
Dave Dudley
Dave Dudley , born David Darwin Pedruska, was an American country music singer best-known for his truck-driving country anthems of the 1960s and 1970s and his semi-slurred baritone. His signature song was "Six Days on the Road," and he is also remembered for "Vietnam Blues," "Truck Drivin'...
and The Trashmen
The Trashmen
The Trashmen are a rock and roll band formed in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in 1962. The group's original lineup was Tony Andreason on lead guitar and vocals, Dal Winslow on guitar and vocals, Steve Wahrer on drums and vocals, and Bob Reed on bass guitar...
had recorded. The name came from advertising
Advertising
Advertising is a form of communication used to persuade an audience to take some action with respect to products, ideas, or services. Most commonly, the desired result is to drive consumer behavior with respect to a commercial offering, although political and ideological advertising is also common...
man Brad Morrison
Brad Morrison
Brad Morrison is an American record producer, musician, artist manager, record label owner and radio personality.From 1978 to 2006, Morrison produced and engineered about 70 independent records...
, who had previously named Hormel
Hormel
Hormel Foods Corporation is a food company based in southeastern Minnesota , perhaps best known as the producer of Spam luncheon meat. The company was founded as George A. Hormel & Company in Austin, Minnesota, U.S., by George A. Hormel in 1891. The company changed its name to Hormel Foods...
's Cure 81 ham
Ham
Ham is a cut of meat from the thigh of the hind leg of certain animals, especiallypigs. Nearly all hams sold today are fully cooked or cured.-Etymology:...
product (supposedly while drinking Vat 69 Scotch
Scotch whisky
Scotch whisky is whisky made in Scotland.Scotch whisky is divided into five distinct categories: Single Malt Scotch Whisky, Single Grain Scotch Whisky, Blended Malt Scotch Whisky , Blended Grain Scotch Whisky, and Blended Scotch Whisky.All Scotch whisky must be aged in oak barrels for at least three...
).
3M
3M
3M Company , formerly known as the Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company, is an American multinational conglomerate corporation based in Maplewood, Minnesota, United States....
, based in neighboring Saint Paul, Minnesota
Saint Paul, Minnesota
Saint Paul is the capital and second-most populous city of the U.S. state of Minnesota. The city lies mostly on the east bank of the Mississippi River in the area surrounding its point of confluence with the Minnesota River, and adjoins Minneapolis, the state's largest city...
, brought in a prototype
Prototype
A prototype is an early sample or model built to test a concept or process or to act as a thing to be replicated or learned from.The word prototype derives from the Greek πρωτότυπον , "primitive form", neutral of πρωτότυπος , "original, primitive", from πρῶτος , "first" and τύπος ,...
digital recording system in 1977 or 1978. Nicknamed "Herbie" after Herb Pilhofer, the system was used for two recordings by the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra
Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra
The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra , based in Saint Paul, Minnesota, is the United States' only full-time professional chamber orchestra...
and one for jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
group Flim and the BB's. One of the SPCO albums won the Grammy Award
Grammy Award
A Grammy Award — or Grammy — is an accolade by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry...
for Best Chamber Orchestra Recording
Grammy Award for Best Chamber Music Performance
The Grammy Award for Best Chamber Music Performance has been awarded since 1959. The award has had several minor name changes:*From 1959 to 1960 the award was known as Best Classical Performance - Chamber Music ...
in 1979. Being a prototype, it was a very bulky and finicky system. For example, it used wire wrap
Wire wrap
Wire wrap is a technology used to assemble electronics. It is a method to construct circuit boards without having to make a printed circuit board. Wires can be wrapped by hand or by machine, and can be hand-modified afterwards. It was popular for large-scale manufacturing in the 60s and early 70s,...
boards and few, if any, soldered
Soldering
Soldering is a process in which two or more metal items are joined together by melting and flowing a filler metal into the joint, the filler metal having a lower melting point than the workpiece...
connections. When it worked, the system had a number of good qualities. However, there was no editing ability for digital media at the time, so even minor flaws would require the whole track to be re-recorded.
Tom Jung left the company to work in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, but created a mobile recording unit known as Road 80, which was rented to Sound 80 studios on occasion. Jung later created the company DMP Digital Music Products
DMP Digital Music Products
DMP Digital Music Products was one of the first fully digital recording labels, generally specializing in jazz artists. Founded by engineer and digital recording pioneer Tom Jung after leaving Sound 80 recording studios in Minneapolis, its first releases in 1983 featured pianist Warren Bernhardt,...
, which also pushed the envelope of later digital audio technology (the company recorded the first multi-channel Super Audio CD
Super Audio CD
Super Audio CD is a high-resolution, read-only optical disc for audio storage. Sony and Philips Electronics jointly developed the technology, and publicized it in 1999. It is designated as the Scarlet Book standard. Sony and Philips previously collaborated to define the Compact Disc standard...
).
In the mid 1980s the building became the home to AVC Systems, one of the largest pro audio contractors in the midwest. The basement, including the live echo chamber, was converted into a staging area for system fabrication. The main studio was converted to a showroom and office facilities. The smaller studio was rented by "Roger Dodger Music", a Minneapolis based keyboard/synthesizer dealer.
The Sound 80 building was sold around 1990, but the original recording studio still exists and is now home to Orfield Labs who operate an Eckel Industries
Eckel Industries
Eckel Industries is an acoustics noise control company founded 1952 in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The company engineers and constructs anechoic sound chambers.-Noteworthy Projects:...
designed anechoic chamber
Anechoic chamber
An anechoic chamber is a room designed to stop reflections of either sound or electromagnetic waves.They are also insulated from exterior sources of noise...
. At -9.4 dB
Decibel
The decibel is a logarithmic unit that indicates the ratio of a physical quantity relative to a specified or implied reference level. A ratio in decibels is ten times the logarithm to base 10 of the ratio of two power quantities...
, it is listed as "the quietest place on Earth" by the Guinness Book of World Records. Sound 80 was listed in Guinness again in 2006 as the "Oldest Digital Recording Studio in the World".
Sound80 Today
Sound80 continues today under the ownership of Jan Erickson. Jan started with the company in 1969 and purchased the company in 1984. The business moved to the IDS Tower and after that to the Campbell Mithun Tower in Minneapolis where it resides today. It continues to do high quality audio recording specializing in commercial recording and small ensembles. Sound80 has moved more and more into the areas of Talent booking, payroll, and trafficking for the advertising industry, as well as developing an expertise in recording and scriptwriting for elearning programs.Recording Artists
Artists who recorded at the studio include:- Bob DylanBob DylanBob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
- Dave BrubeckDave BrubeckDavid Warren "Dave" Brubeck is an American jazz pianist. He has written a number of jazz standards, including "In Your Own Sweet Way" and "The Duke". Brubeck's style ranges from refined to bombastic, reflecting his mother's attempts at classical training and his improvisational skills...
(1978) - Debbie FriedmanDebbie FriedmanDeborah Lynn "Debbie" Friedman was an American composer and singer of songs with Jewish religious content. She was born in Utica, New York but moved with her family to Minnesota at age 5. She is best known for her setting of “Mi Shebeirach”, the prayer for healing, which is used by hundreds of...
- Flamin' Ohs
- Flim & the BB'sFlim & the BB's"Flim & The BB's" was a contemporary jazz band that became popular not only to jazz fans but also "tech-heads" because of the methods and type of equipment and technology that went into their recordings...
- Michael JohnsonMichael Johnson (singer)Michael Johnson , is an American pop, country and folk singer-songwriter and guitarist. He is best known for his 1978 hit song "Bluer Than Blue". To date, he has charted four hits on the Billboard Hot 100 charts, and nine more on the Hot Country Songs charts, including two Number One country hits...
- Leo KottkeLeo KottkeLeo Kottke is an acoustic guitarist. He is widely known for his innovative fingerpicking style, which draws on influences from blues, jazz, and folk music, and his syncopated, polyphonic melodies...
- Lipps IncLipps IncLipps Inc. was a studio band that achieved two significant hits, "Funkytown", in 1980 and "Designer Music", in 1981.The group was formed in Minneapolis, Minnesota by Steven Greenberg, who wrote and produced all of the group's music, and who also played several musical instruments...
., FunkytownFunkytown"Funkytown" is a 1980 disco hit song by the disco band Lipps Inc. The song expresses the singer's pining for a metaphorical place that will "keep me movin', keeps me groovin' with some energy". It reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and Dance charts in 1980, also reaching number 1 in Germany,...
sessions 1980 - Prince, demos (1977)
- Saint Paul Chamber OrchestraSaint Paul Chamber OrchestraThe Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra , based in Saint Paul, Minnesota, is the United States' only full-time professional chamber orchestra...
- Skogie and the Flaming Pachucos, (1972)
- SkogieSkogie (band)The Nu Kats were a popular original music rock group from Minneapolis in the 1970s, 80s and 90s. The band performed under many other names, including Skogie, Skogie and the Flaming Pachucos, The Kats, Boy and The Kat Club....
, (1973) - Cat StevensCat StevensYusuf Islam , commonly known by his former stage name Cat Stevens, is an English singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, educator, philanthropist, and prominent convert to Islam....
(1976) - The SuburbsThe SuburbsThe Suburbs were an alternative punk rock/funk/new wave band from Minneapolis, Minnesota popular in the late 1970s through the 1980s. The band frequently headlined at Minneapolis's most influential music clubs including Jay's Longhorn Bar and First Avenue....
- Suicide Commandos, Make a Record