Sound 80

Sound80 is a recording studio in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States founded by engineers 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 and Cat Stevens' Izitso in 1977, as well as demo tapes for Prince's first album For You in 1977. On June 2 of the following year Sound80 also made what is believed to be the first digital audio recording to be commercially released—The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra's recording of Aaron Copland's "Appalachian Spring" and "Short Symphony," and Charles Ives' "Symphony No.3."

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 Sound80 name came from advertising man Brad Morrison, who had previously named Hormel's Cure 81 ham product (supposedly while drinking Vat 69 Scotch). "The number didn't mean a thing," Pilhofer later explained. "Eighty-one was already taken [by Hormel]. Eighty just sounded right and it looked good."

3M, based in neighboring Saint Paul, Minnesota, brought in a prototype digital recording system in the late Spring of 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.

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