When Tricycle appeared in 1983, it wasn’t just a milestone for Flim & the BB’s, it was a watershed moment in digital recording. The album is widely credited as the first all-digital recording released on compact disc in the United States, and remains a benchmark in audiophile circles. Packed with dynamic acoustic jazz-fusion, Tricycle was also an early demonstration of what digital could truly sound like when paired with masterful musicianship and precision-engineered production. At the heart of the project was recording engineer and producer Tom Jung, whose pursuit of sonic perfection helped redefine what was possible in a recording studio.
Tricycle was recorded for Jung’s newly founded Digital Music Products (DMP) label, one of the first independent labels dedicated to digital audio. Jung, whose background included engineering work at Sound 80 in Minneapolis and pioneering experiments with digital tape, launched DMP with the aim of bringing the highest possible fidelity to jazz and instrumental music.
Musically, Tricycle is anything but sterile. Despite the crystalline clarity of the digital recording, the performances from bassist Jimmy “Flim” Johnson, keyboardist Billy Barber and drummer Bill Berg are warm, expressive and intricately interwoven. The trio’s seamless interplay, dynamic control and genre-defying compositions offer everything from tight jazz-fusion workouts to atmospheric acoustic pieces. This blend of musicality and precision recording was a rare combination in an era when most digital systems were still in their infancy.
Tracks like the album’s opener Tricycle showcase tight rhythmic accents, complex time signatures and uncompressed acoustic detail. The clarity of Barber’s piano, the low-end definition in Johnson’s electric bass, and the transient attack of Berg’s snare were preserved with astonishing realism. As a result, Tricycle became a reference disc for audio manufacturers and studios testing new gear, a reputation that persists to this day.
Tricycle was recorded live to stereo using the Mitsubishi X-80 digital recorder, one of the earliest professional two-track digital machines. Operating at 16-bit, 50.4kHz, the X-80 was designed for mastering-grade applications and provided stunning clarity, dynamic range and transient detail far beyond what was achievable with analogue tape at the time. Its use on Tricycle placed the album at the cutting edge of digital recording technology in 1983.
Tom Jung’s approach to recording was entirely purist. The trio performed live in the studio, with no overdubs, no multitrack tape, and no post-mix editing. All balances, panning and spatial character were committed in real-time to the two-track Mitsubishi recorder. This meant microphone placement and room acoustics had to be exact, and performances had to be flawless.
Jung’s typical recording sessions used an array of high-end condenser microphones, including Schoeps CMC series and Neumann KM84s on piano and drum overheads, AKG C414s and D12s, and Electro-Voice RE20s for low-frequency sources. Microphones were routed through custom analogue preamps designed for ultra-low noise and minimal distortion, feeding directly into the digital converter section of the X-80 without intermediate processing.
The signal path was kept as clean and short as possible. Rather than rely on EQ or compression, Jung focused on achieving the desired tonal balance acoustically and through exact mic placement. A minimalist analogue mixing desk was used to create the final stereo image in real time.
This stripped-down, high-resolution approach allowed Tricycle to showcase the full sonic potential of early digital. It was among the cleanest and most dynamic recordings of its era, and became a standard for testing high-end playback equipment due to its wide dynamic range, low noise floor, and uncoloured instrument tones.
Tricycle was released on compact disc in 1983, one of the earliest U.S. titles to appear on the new format. It was also later pressed on LP and cassette, though it is the CD version that achieved legendary status. In the 1990s, DMP reissued Tricycle as a 24K Gold CD, using newer 20-bit digital-to-digital transfers that took advantage of expanded headroom and cleaner converters. Many listeners noted a marked improvement in low-level detail, spatial imaging and dynamic contrast in the gold disc edition.
To this day, Tricycle is used by mastering engineers and high-end manufacturers as a demonstration disc. Its clarity, low noise floor, and natural dynamic range make it ideal for evaluating speakers, converters and amplifiers.
For Flim & the BB’s, Tricycle opened the door to a series of follow-up albums on DMP, each pushing the boundaries of live digital recording. For Tom Jung, it marked the beginning of a career-long commitment to sonic purity that influenced not just jazz recording but the entire evolution of high-resolution digital audio.