John Ariosa founded Sheffield in 1968. The original studio was located in the Ariosa basement on Old Court Road in Pikesville. John slowly built the studio obtaining new Ampex 2 and 4 track 440 Recorders “this was big stuff back then” John says.
By 1972 John had grown tired of lugging the equipment up and down the basement steps. He also needed more room. The studio was moved to a building in Timonium across the street from the fairgrounds Also in the same building John began his high-end stereo equipment store called The Sound Factory. Both operations continued at that location until 1978. By that time the recording service had grown to 8/16 track with an MCI console and they needed yet more room. Sheffield Studios was moved once again. This time to its current location on Sunnybrook Road in Phoenix, Maryland.
By the 2000s Sheffield grew to become a full-service audio recording service offering up to 48 digital or analog tracks. State of the art video recording also a specialty. All services done in the studio or in the field using their state-of-the-art mobile recording truck. Sheffield’s client list includes hundreds of top name musicians from all over the country. From its humble days recording local bands in the family basement – to a full-service commercial recording facility, Sheffield is truly a local success story and a historical part of the Baltimore music scene.
