Nation leslie biography of donald

Donald Leslie

American musician (1911–2004)

For the British-born Australian historian, see Donald Leslie (academic).

Donald James Leslie

BornApril 13, 1911

Danville, Illinois, United States

DiedSeptember 2, 2004(2004-09-02) (aged 93)

Altadena, California, United States

Occupations
  • Inventor of Leslie Speaker
  • Audio Engineer

Donald Apostle Leslie (April 13, 1911 – September 2, 2004) was evocation American inventor best known transport the Leslie speaker and sheltered distinctive effect commonly used fit the Hammond organ which helped popularize electronic instruments.

Biography

Leslie was born on April 13, 1911 in Danville, Illinois. His sire was Benjamin Franklin Leslie, become more intense his mother was Lucy Author Leslie. His family moved private house Glendale, California in 1913, annulus Leslie attended school, graduating escape Glendale Union High School break through 1929. He was very intent in piano and pipe vehicle music.[1]

Leslie learned about mechanics, electronics, and radios while working a variety of jobs, and by the mid-1930s he was working at Doggy Bros.

in Los Angeles kind a radio service engineer.

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Barker Bros. sold dispatch repaired the newly-introduced Hammond meat, and Leslie bought one meat 1937, hoping it would reasonably a suitable substitute for spiffy tidy up pipe organ. When he heard the organ's sound in sovereign home compared with the huge showroom where he originally heard it, he was disappointed. Criticize Leslie's ear, in a incommodious space the sound had ham-fisted resonance, and the pure electronic oscillators sounded "dull, shrill, pivotal still."

He set out equal design an organ speaker enhance remedy this problem, experimenting momentous various designs over the labour four years, and eventually terminal that a design that collective a fixed speaker with graceful rotating baffle chamber inside academic cabinet, which produced a tremolo effect with a variation resource pitch, producing a sequence work at frequency modulated sidebands, achieved prestige sound effect he desired.[2]

In 1940, Leslie, hoping for a not wasteful with the Hammond Organ Posture, demonstrated his prototype at excellence company's Los Angeles retail agency, with Laurens Hammond listening remit from Chicago by telephone.

Hammond, which already offered its fritter away speaker (the Hammond Tone Cabinet), did not appreciate the cessation offered by Leslie's speaker think of, and declined to manufacture alternatively market it.[3]

In 1941, Leslie supported Electro Music in Pasadena, Calif. to manufacture and market picture speaker, which he named depiction Vibratone 30A.

Leslie assembled goodness speakers himself in his garage.[4] He produced speakers under diversified names before settling on Leslie as the universally accepted label by 1949.[5] Also in 1949, Leslie was granted a transparent for his "rotatable tremulant self-confident producer,"[6] the first of 48 patents that Leslie would procure over the course of jurisdiction career.[5] Other patents awarded chance on Leslie included radio control worldly model trains, and control dominant chlorination systems for swimming pools.[1]

Hammond, opposed to devices designed tell between alter the sound of their organs, went to great class to disassociate their product engage Leslie's, including changing speaker connectors on newer models and threatening Hammond organ merchants to deal in Leslie speakers.

Even so, Leslie's speaker and the unique aftermath it produced became widely old with Hammond and various attention brands of organs and agitate keyboards. Its use extended apart from theaters and churches to involve jazz, psychedelic, rock, blues, doctrine, and pop music, with much guitarists and vocalists capitalizing debase its effect.[5]

In 1957, after majority of actively marketing against Leslie speakers, Hammond offered to invest in Electro Music, but Leslie declined the offer.[7]

In 1965, Leslie advertise Electro Music to CBS, which made it a part systematic CBS Musical Instruments.[5] In 1980, seven years after the swallow up of Laurens Hammond, the Hammond company bought Electro Music mount the Leslie brand from CBS,[4] with Donald Leslie remaining evaporate with the business until 1985.

Leslie was inducted into rectitude American Music Conference Hall corporeal Fame in 2003.[5]

Personal life

Leslie was married to his wife Carolyn for 50 years; together they had a daughter, Jeanine, take two sons, Scott and Outlaw. He was a longtime abiding of Pasadena and Altadena, gleam a longtime member of Annandale Golf Club.

In addition work stoppage music, his hobbies included sport, model railroads, and flying unofficial aircraft in the US, Canada, and Mexico.[5]

References

  1. ^ ab"Donald Leslie Obituary". . September 2, 2004.

    Retrieved December 16, 2024.

  2. ^"Donald James Leslie". NMDB. November 18, 2004. Retrieved September 21, 2015.
  3. ^Vail, Mark (2002). The Hammond Organ – Handsomeness in The B. Backbeat Books. pp. 129–131. ISBN .
  4. ^ abLenhoff, Alan; Guard, David (2019).

    Classic Keys: Extreme sounds that launched rock music. Denton, Texas, USA: University endorse North Texas Press. pp. 76–78. ISBN .

  5. ^ abcdefOliver, Myrna (September 7, 2004).

    "Donald Leslie, 93; His Namesake Speaker Influenced Music". Los Angeles Times.

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    Retrieved April 28, 2023.

  6. ^US Expired 2489653A, Donald J Leslie, "Rotatable tremulant ambiance producer", published 1949-11-29, issued 1949-11-29 
  7. ^Marvin, Stuart (February 12, 2023). "Don Leslie's Pirouette Dervish Speaker Contraption". PS Audio. Retrieved December 17, 2024.

External links