Donn Landee

Who is Donn Landee?

Donn Landee is an American record producer and recording engineer. Much of his work as an engineer has been done with producer Ted Templeman. The pair worked with a wide variety of artists for Warner Bros. Records during the 1970s and 1980s. Landee is probably most notable for his work on Van Halen albums between 1978 and 1988. Other notable artists Landee has worked with include Sammy Hagar, Van Morrison, Montrose, Captain Beefheart, the Doobie Brothers, and Carly Simon.

In the late 1960s Landee began working on recording sessions at TTG Studios on La Brea Avenue in Hollywood. The studio was owned by engineer Ami Hadani. The upstairs studio featured a custom vacuum tube console. Landee recorded "Sky Pilot" in this room for Eric Burdon and The Animals and created the phase effect used in the song "The Big Hurt." Landee then worked at Sunwest Studios as an engineer in 1968, where he later became manager before moving on to Amigo Studios under Lee Herschberg. It was at Amigo that he gained a large number of music industry contacts. API desks utilizing solid state microphone preamplifiers and mix systems were used at Amigo Studios.