Donn Landee is an American

record producer A record producer or music producer is a music creating project's overall supervisor whose responsibilities can involve a range of creative and technical leadership roles. Typically the job involves hands-on oversight of recording sessions; ensu ...

and recording engineer. Much of his work as an engineer has been done with producer Ted Templeman at Sunset Sound Recorders in Hollywood, California. The pair worked with a wide variety of artists for Warner Bros. Records during the 1970s and 1980s, including

Van Halen Van Halen ( ) was an American rock band formed in Pasadena, California, in 1973. Credited with restoring hard rock to the forefront of the music scene, Van Halen was known for their energetic live performances and the virtuosity of their guit ...

, and the

Doobie Brothers The Doobie Brothers are an American rock music, rock band formed in San Jose, California in 1970. Known for their flexibility in performing across numerous genres and their Vocal harmony, vocal harmonies, the band has been active for over five d ...

. 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 A vacuum tube, electron tube, thermionic valve (British usage), or tube (North America) is a device that controls electric current flow in a high vacuum between electrodes to which an electric voltage, potential difference has been applied. It ...

console. Landee recorded "Sky Pilot" in this room for

Eric Burdon Eric Victor Burdon (born 11 May 1941) is an English singer and songwriter. He was previously the lead vocalist of the rhythm and blues, R&B and Rock music, rock band The Animals and the funk band War (band), War. He is regarded as one of the Br ...

and

the Animals The Animals, currently billed as Eric Burdon & the Animals (featuring original frontman Eric Burdon) and also as Animals & Friends (featuring original drummer John Steel (drummer), John Steel), are an English Rock music, rock band formed in Ne ...

and created the 'phasing' effect used in the song. Landee then worked at Sunwest Studios as an engineer in 1968 and became the manager. He then moved to Warner Bros. Records' Amigo Studios working under Lee Herschberg; he gained a large number of music industry contacts.

API An application programming interface (API) is a connection between computers or between computer programs. It is a type of software interface, offering a service to other pieces of software. A document or standard that describes how to build ...

studio recording desks designed by renowned audio engineer Bill Putnam and utilizing solid state microphone preamplifiers and mix systems were installed at Amigo Studios, Sunset Sound, and at United Western Recorders in Hollywood in the early '70s. In 1983, Landee helped

Eddie Van Halen Edward Lodewijk Van Halen ( , ; January 26, 1955 – October 6, 2020) was an American musician. He was the guitarist, keyboardist, backing vocalist and primary songwriter of the rock band Van Halen, which he founded with his brother Alex V ...

build his home studio, 5150 Studios, using a mixing desk he retrieved from United Western that was nearly identical to the one the band had been recording with at Sunset during the previous five years. He also worked with Eddie on some instrumental scores for '' The Seduction of Gina'' and '' The Wild Life''.

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* American record producers American audio engineers Living people American film score composers Year of birth missing (living people) {{US-record-producer-stub