Sound 80 and Me

Sound 80 was the preeminent recording studio in Minnesota in the 1970s and early 1980s.

Numerous acts recorded there, Bob Dylan and Prince the most notable. I had visited there in 1979 with a demo tape of the Explodo Boys that their A & R man, Steve Barnett, passed on. Undaunted, I continued doing sound for local bands and, a few years, later I had put together an LP that needed to be mastered.

So it was back to Sound 80. They had a new computerized mastering lathe, a scarce and essential item in the conversion of tapes to vinyl. Arrangements were made, and I dutifully showed up at the studios and was escorted into the “lathe room”—a below-grade dungeon where I was greeted by Bob Berglund, an experienced engineer, and we went to work. After we got a few initial problems ironed out, we mastered the LP in a two hour session and I went on my way.  The LP sold out and is now a collector’s item. One track from it has received over 30,000 plays on YouTube.

Little did I know then that what I thought was a thriving business was, in reality, on the brink of collapse. Herb Pilhofer, the studio’s owner, was going through a messy divorce at the same time as the economics of a large studio were changing. Sound 80 was soon shuttered, and the building was put on the market. At that time, I was working across the street at a for-profit ‘school’ of communications that needed a new campus. The school’s owner and I toured the premises with a realtor but it wasn’t a good fit. A few days later I went back to Sound 80 for one final time and bought a few items from their ‘garage sale.’ 

An AV company then occupied the building for a time and, after they left, Prince (who by that time was a big star) made an offer on the building but was turned down. It then sat empty for several years until it was purchased (at a bargain price) by its current owner, Steve Orfield. Orfield Labs is an acoustic research facility and home of an anechoic chamber that is billed as “the quietest place on earth”.

Sound 80 still exists, doing commercials and related work, in a downtown Minneapolis office building.

Images: Orfield Laboratories, Inc.