He was born in Minneapolis on April 23, 1920. As a young man, Louis had an affinity for working with a soldering gun and electrical gear. He studied music at the University of Chicago. He died on 1 November 1989 in Los Angeles.

Louis studied his music degree at University of Chicago, however he also possessed a flair for tinkering with electronics. Consequently, he built much of the equipment in his Greenwich Village studio, which looked more like an old radio repair shop than a recording studio. A collection of superb photographs were taken of the Barrons studio in 1956 at the time Louis and his wife, Bebe were working on the soundscore for the movie Forbidden Planet.

At this time (1948) magnetic recording/playback technology was not widely available to the general public, however the Barrons were fortunate enough to have connections with the Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company (3M) as Louis’ cousin was one of the executives there. 3M was one of the first companies to successfully coat plastic (acetate) tape with an emulsion of iron oxide particles—magnetic tape recording became a commercially viable reality. The new tape machines were much easier to work with than the old wire machines, making it possible to approach music composition in an entirely new way.