iZ Technology Corporation

Studio Profile: Leon Lee Dorsey Studios

Bassist, composer and arranger Leon Lee Dorsey owns and runs Leon Lee Dorsey Studios - a beautiful, fully professional in-house studio located in his penthouse suite in the heart of Manhattan.

Leon Lee Dorsey Studios - Patio and cityscape views from the terrace of this penthouse-suite studio.

Leon Lee Dorsey is a bassist, composer and arranger who has performed with an impressive list of jazz luminaries including: Dizzy Gillespie, Wynton Marsalis, Freddie Hubbard, George Benson, Lionel Hampton, and Grammy Award-winning jazz vocalist Cassandra Wilson. He has also performed in big bands including the Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra, Benny Carter, the Duke Ellington Orchestra, Charlie Persip's Superband and performed under the baton of conducting legends Lukas Foss and Robert Fountain.

The entrance to Leon Lee Dorsey Studios (right) opens up to a live room that sounds as beautiful as it looks (left).

After moving to New York in the early 80's Leon had a vision to create a recording facility specifically suited to the need of the acoustic jazz genre. That vision inspired Leon Lee Dorsey Studios – a professional in-house studio in Leon’s penthouse home in Manhattan complete with a RADAR 24 Nyquist hard disk recording system.

"We wanted to build a studio specifically for acoustic jazz using the best of what new and vintage technology has to offer." says Leon. "Our recordings are performed with very little in the way of isolation. The goal is to recreate an intimate club or small stage ambience. To that end we minimize the use of gobos for isolation and rarely use headphones."

Quality was the main consideration when equipping the studio. "We wanted the purest possible signal path for our recordings." relates Leon, "We are blessed with great sounding spaces to record in so we focused on investing in the best gear available. We have an Audient console; Neve, Telefunken, Focusrite and UA mic pre's; and GML, Manley, SSL/Alan Smart and Tube-Tech EQ's.”

When Leon set out to choose a recorder for the studio he did his homework. "I've done some recording using "popular" computer based systems and they just don't cut it. I read reviews and talked to others in the industry and the RADAR kept coming up and everyone spoke very highly of it. We set out to get sound quality that rivalled or surpassed 2" tape and that's exactly what we got with the RADAR. It enables us to make recordings that compare to tracks cut in multi-million dollar studios here in New York." RADAR is the exclusive recorder at Leon Lee Dorsey Studios and is used on all projects.

Leon added his RADAR 24 system with Nyquist converter cards to his studio in 2001. Since then, he’s customized his system with 24 channels of AES Digital I/O and a DVD-RAM/DVD-R/CD-R Combo drive. The AES Digital I/O is great for easy transfer between RADAR and his ProTools HD 3 rig, which is used primarily for editing and for clients who have existing Pro Tools session files. The Combo drive makes for fast audio file burning, import/export, and backup/restore functions.

The control room complete with RADAR 24 system, an Audient console, and a sweet collection of outboard gear.

Leon’s studio sees a steady flow of impressive clients which include Bill Cosby, Danny Glover, Ron Carter, Hilton Ruiz, Dr. Billy Taylor, Gary Bartz, Dave Valentine, Monty Alexander, George Coleman, Grady Tate, Frank Wess, Billy Hart, Reggie Workman, Charlie Persip, Houston Pearson, Rodney Jones, Antonio Hart, Roy Meriwether, and many others.

Says Dorsey, "Jazz requires the highest level of knowledge, study and training across the board. In the studio, it’s all about capturing the moment - RADAR helps facilitate that. The smoothness of the workflow is great and clients are blown away by the sound.”

For more information and a complete list of credits be sure to visit Leon Lee Dorsey’s website at http://www.leonleedorsey.com

Leon Lee Dorsey Studios – Equipment List

Console
Audient 8024 ASP Console

Recorder
iZ RADAR 24 Nyquist

Mic Pre
John Hardy M1 4Ch Pre (2)
Telefunken V72 2Ch MicPre (2)
Neve 1272 2Ch MicPre
Universal Audio 2-610
DW Fearn VT-2 (2)
Focusrite ISA 110 MicPre (2)

D/A Converters
Cranesong Hedd 192 AD/DA

Processing
Cranesong STC-8 Comp/Lim
Cranesong Trakker Comp/Lim
Tube-Tech LCA 2B Comp/Lim
Neumann U473 Comp/Lim
Manley Massive Passive EQ
API 550A EQ (2)
Tube-Tech PE-1A EQ (2)
Telefunken W295 (2) & W395 (6) EQ's
Telefunken RFT W734 EQ (2)
Lexicon PCM 91 Reverb
Alesis MasterLink