Three studio albums from Carlos were released in the 1980s. The first was "Digital Moonscapes" in 1984, Carlos' first to only feature digital synthesizers. She wrote the album's tracks for orchestra "or orchestra replica", inspired by various astronomical subjects, which used some leftover material from her score to "Tron". Soon after, Carlos secured a deal with Audion Records, a smaller label, as she wished to "get away from that kind of big, monolithic government-like aspect that had dealt with for so many years". In 1986, Audion released "Beauty in the Beast", which saw Carlos experiment with just intonation, Balinese scales, and four new microtonal scales she devised for the album: Harmonic, Alpha, Beta, and Gamma. The album features the first instance of a 35-note octave. Carlos considers the album as the most important of her career. She followed the album with "Secrets of Synthesis" in 1987, her final album for CBS/Columbia, featuring several introductions and demonstrations of synthesized music from Carlos with audio examples from her previous albums.