Adrian “AD” Dickey was once simply a kid in Tallahassee who grew up with a love for music.
The possibilities for a young AD were almost unimaginable. Throughout his childhood years, AD was raised and cared for by his grandmother, Goldie, who took him in and taught him valuable lessons and principles about life.
“She gave me the outlook to know that my circumstances didn’t make me who I was,” AD says. “I could determine who that would be. So when I created Goldie Sound, to me, it was a no-brainer to honor her and name it after her. Then I also thought about music and gold records, things like that, so Goldie Sound had a nice ring,” he said.
At 15, AD really started to get serious about music. Like many teenage boys, his first attempt to enter the world of music was through rapping.
But AD quickly took an interest in engineering and the behind-the-scenes side of making music. He started by recording his friends and other people he knew, soon realizing that this was something he could make a career from.
He then went on to Full Sail University, a school in Winter Park dedicated to degrees in entertainment, where he first came up with the idea of Goldie Sound.
After earning his degree, AD moved to Atlanta and later opened his first physical location in 2007. This was only the beginning of what Goldie Sound would soon come to be.
In 2015, the studio officially relocated to AD’s hometown, Tallahassee, where it has claimed the title of the No. 1 studio in the city.
Goldie Sound is more than a recording studio, it is an experience. The brand’s mission is to create quality content, but AD has made it part of Goldie Sound’s purpose to instill important knowledge of the industry and transferable values that he’s learned in his 20 years in the industry.
Goldie Sound has become a home for music lovers from all sides of production. Ava Albert, is one of the audio engineers who moved to Tallahassee from her hometown, Houston, to pursue her dreams of a career in music at Goldie Sound.
“Specifically, they were literally willing to provide the opportunity and it seemed like I could actually grow within the system that they had growing here,” Albert says.
For newcomers in the game, working at a place like Goldie Sound and even simply recording there for the first time can be nerve-wrecking, especially knowing some of the big names that have recorded there like Kodak Black, Lil Baby and Real Boston Richey.
But it is also inspiring to see someone like AD, who turned his dream into a reality and has provided the environment for artists and engineers to network and record, like their quarterly “In the mix” event.
Michael Murray is another audio engineer at Goldie Sound, who aspires to create a life where he can make money doing the things he loves, which is making music.
“This is supposed to be a space where you are comfortable to share your actual feelings and able to express yourself,” Murray says. “We’re going to help you every step of the way to pursue that dream. Obviously, we can’t do everything for you, but this is a really good space where people can really attack their dream and make it happen.”
For the past eight years, Goldie Sound has proven to be a leader in the Tallahassee music community and the go-to destination for some influential out-of-towners. But in a lighter sense, it serves as a space where dreamers can hone in on their sound and what they want to accomplish.