Baker Sound Studios is Philadelphia's premier resource for commercial audio production and post-production. Located in the Rittenhouse District of Center City, Baker is within easy walking distance of world-class hotels, restaurants, and retailers.
The facility features three ProTools-based suites, each equipped for high quality voice recording, editing, and post-production. Specialties include radio production, film and video post including Automated Dialog Replacement (ADR), corporate production with special emphasis on technical recording for the pharmaceutical industry, audiobook recording and editing, sound design, and custom original music by our award-winning MONSTER TRACKS division.
Baker Sound was founded in 1964 by trumpet player, arranger, and engineer Norman Baker. Working out of a small motel room in Camden, New Jersey, Baker began recording album projects for groups including the famous Philadelphia Mummers. In 1970 he relocated his growing business to a larger space on Chestnut Street in Philadelphia, where he quickly became a resource to the local advertising community. Before long, voiceover recording, radio production, and jingle work had become the studio’s primary focus. Throughout the 1970s, Baker and his team created some of the best-known advertising in the Philadelphia region. A 1980 fire forced a move to the facility’s current location on Ranstead Street.
In 1984, after twenty years of ownership, Baker sold the business to his Chief Engineer, Gary Moskowitz. Moskowitz immediately began modernizing the facility, which would become one of the country’s first all-digital recording studios. In 1987 he added engineer Rick DiDonato and partnered with composer Chuck Butler to create Baker’s MONSTER TRACKS music division. Numerous awards for radio production and original music followed, further solidifying Baker’s reputation among ad agencies and corporate producers.
In August of 2006 Moskowitz sold the facility to Chief Engineer Rick DiDonato. Since taking ownership, DiDonato has added staff engineer Jeff King, made numerous improvements including the addition of a new lounge area for clients and talent, broadened services to include audiobook and podcast recording, increased the studio’s focus on political advertising and production for the pharmaceutical industry, and continued to build Baker’s reputation as the go-to resource for ADR (dialog replacement) in the Philadelphia area. Most recently, in response to client requests, DiDonato has for the first time taken Baker into the visual realm, adding animation and design to the facility’s roster of services.
Our goal is to make the process of creating top-notch audio productions easy and fun. We do that by creating a relaxed and comfortable environment that feels like working from home, and by ensuring that technology never interferes with creativity.
Baker Sound is located in the Musical Art Club building at 1821 Ranstead Street. The Musical Art Club (founded 1909) included members of the Philadelphia Orchestra, The Orpheus Club (men’s chorus), and The Franklin Chess Club, as well as other arts-related groups in and around Philadelphia. The organization moved into their newly-built home on Ranstead Street in 1916, where they rehearsed, gave performances, played chess and billiards, and held receptions for such musical luminaries as Victor Herbert, John Philip Sousa, Leopold Stokowski, Efrem Zimbalist, and Fritz Kreisler. The Club was active until about 1927.
The Musical Art Club building is one of the oldest poured-concrete structures in the United States. Designed by the architectural firm Price & McLanahan, this unique space features two magnificent fireplaces and a variety of fixtures and appointments by Henry Chapman Mercer, renowned founder of the Moravian Pottery and Tile Works. Much of this custom work remains visible and in good condition today, thanks in part to restoration efforts by Baker Sound.
Since 1927 the building has been home to numerous businesses from architects to printers. Today, Baker Sound shares space in the building with Visual Innovations (video production) and Noir Worldwide (animation/design/interactive).