Sound 80 Studios was founded in 1970 by composer/musician Herb Pilhofer and recording engineer, Tom Jung. Intending to be the premiere recording studio in the midwest, Sound 80 began working in collaboration with 3M in 1975, who had just invented multi-track digital recording. Through this collaboration, Sound 80 became “The World’s First Digital Recording Studio.” (Guinness, 2004) becoming the first multi-track digital recording studio. In the fifteen years that the studio was in operation, artists such as Bob Dylan (Blood on the Tracks, 1974), Prince (For You demos, 1977), Cat Stevens (Izitso, 1976), Leo Kottke, and Lipps Inc. (Funkytown, 1980) recorded in the space. Sound 80 recorded The Saint Paul Chamber’s Orchestra’s “Appalachian Spring” by Aaron Copland, which became the first piece of digital classical music to win a Grammy. This collaboration between Sound 80 and 3M led to Sound 80’s recognition in 2006 by Guinness as “The World’s First Digital Recording Studio.”

Since selling the building to Orfield Laboratories Inc. in 1990, Orfield has maintained Sound 80’s studios, which are historically correct to date. The recording studio was a client of Orfield Labs since 1975, providing acoustic and lighting consulting for them. In 1990, Steven Orfield bought the studio and moved Orfield Labs into our new research headquarters. In 1995, a large addition was added to create our NIST / NVLAP (Lab Code 200248) accredited acoustical lab. The lab offers tours of the studio, which have been maintained and are historically correct to date.