The legendary Sigma Sound Studios has been a leader in the Philadelphia music community for over 40 years. Sigma is an award-winning brand, recognized for countless hit records and has hosted leading recording artists from yesterday and today such as David Bowie, The O’Jay’s, The Jackson’s and Madonna. Sigma Sound Studios has earned a reputation for its rich music heritage, outstanding service and sonic excellence. As featured in the book “Temples of Sound”, Sigma is known as one of the greatest recording studios that helped shape the music industry. Although famous for “The Sound Of Philadelphia”, Sigma has amassed over 190 gold and platinum records for its work with recording artists in many genres of music, including R&B, Rock, Dance, Pop, Blues, etc. As a testament to this fact, every 11 minutes somewhere in the world a song recorded at Sigma Sound Studios is being played.

Located in center city Philadelphia, Pennsylvania USA, Sigma Sound Studios opened for business in 1968. Sigma was founded by Joseph Tarsia who, with a background in electronics began his recording career as an avocation to his job as a senior laboratory technician for the Philco Corporation. Tarsia, formerly chief engineer at Cameo Parkway Records, turned Sigma into a fully operational recording studio, complete with an eight-track recorder with 14-input mixing console, which at the time put Sigma on the cutting edge of recording technology. It is said that timing is everything; this could be no truer than in the case of Sigma Sound. From the day Sigma opened its doors, hit recordings began to put Philadelphia and Sigma in the world spotlight. By the early 70′s the US music charts were bursting with hits from the likes of Jerry Butler, The Intruders, Billy Paul, Dusty Springfield, Wilson Picket, the Ojays, Delfonics and Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes. The sounds and music styles that migrated from America’s south to the street corners of Philadelphia were now being heard throughout the world. “The Sound of Philadelphia” was born. The driving force behind this initial success was a group of young producers and songwriters led by Kenneth Gamble, Leon Huff and Thomas Bell.

Joe Tarsia described the Sound of Philadelphia as being sophisticated urban music with large orchestras. While one may easily identify the root of the Philadelphia sound, defining this unique musical expression is a little more complex. The core of the Philadelphia sound was not much different than most of the R&B records of its time with their driving rhythms and soulful vocal performances. The elements that made the Philadelphia sound so special were its great, infectious melodies and orchestrations that bordered on the classical. Strings, horns and layers of background vocals brought R&B music to a new level. It was not uncommon for a typical production to have, with layering, as many as 50 players. Sigma, not growing up in a music community per se, created their own techniques, in the way it recorded strings, for instance, and the way it recorded rhythm. Sigma was instrumental in creating some of the style and sounds that got known around the world. Without question, it was Sigma’s isolation that allowed it to develop it’s own direction and was new territory for the entire camp.

Like those of Motor Town, the Bay area, or Manchester, the emergent Philadelphia sound of rich rhythm-propelled soul was defined as much by what it wasn’t as by what it was, something Tarsia equates with Sigma’s early growth as well. Philadelphia once again became a major recording center from the late ’60s through the ’70s. Most agree that Motown was never the same after the label moved to Los Angeles in the early ’70s; indeed, it’s around that time that the Philadelphia Sound really began to take off and Gamble and Huff’s Philadelphia International label topped the pop and R&B charts with one song after another.

By 1974 Sigma’s success was attracting artists and producers from all over the world who came to capture some of the Philadelphia magic. Sigma now had a staff of 24 engineers and support personnel and had grown to a 4 Studio, 24 track recording complex. By 1976 Sigma expanded its operations to Broadway in New York City where it opened 3 state of the art studios. For the next 14 years of its existence Sigma Sound Studios was considered one of the cities leading recording facilities and attracted a host of users that included Billy Joel, Madonna, Paul Simon, the Village People, Steely Dan and Whitney Houston.

Today, as part of a full-scale transformation and expansion, Sigma is once again repositioning to help redefine the arts and entertainment industry in Philadelphia. Harboring a strong commitment to the integrity and longevity of the arts, Sigma Sound Studios has recently undergone massive renovations to the facility. Sigma’s world-class facility offers clients a high-end, five-star atmosphere, featuring five state-of-the-art production studios, a live production sound stage, and media production center. Sigma’s vision is to play a major role in bridging the incredible performing arts community in Philadelphia with the rapidly emerging digital arts and new media entertainment business.

With the development of its 12,000 square foot facility and a complete overhaul of it’s legendary brand, Sigma Sound will be Philadelphia’s premier, full-service destination that serves as a talent hub for the creation of music, new media and television and film content. We will support and serve as a creative home for artists, producers, and other creative talent in the music, television & film industries. In addition, Sigma will provide music education and comprehensive new media training for the changing digital entertainment market. Once fully operational, Sigma will house, manage, and develop all phases of audio & video production from education, to engineering, to live performance. This range of production capabilities combined with the great direction and leadership will once again put Sigma Sound Studios in the international spotlight and propel its historic brand for another forty years.