Francis F Lee one of the founders of Lexicon has died aged 96. Lexicon, the company which he founded with Charles Bagnaschi was one of the most significant Pro Audio companies of the 20th Century.
We’ve all heard of Lexicon, the pioneers of digital reverberation. But fewer of us will be familiar with the name of Francis F. Lee. Born January 28, 1927, in Nanjing, China, and a graduate of MIT, it was through his development of digital cardiac monitoring equipment that some of the first digital audio delays to be used in professional audio in were developed in 1971 and went on to form the foundation of professional digital reverb.
Time Compression/Expansion To Reverberation
An important part of Lexicon’s story is Varispeech, hardware which could change the playback speed of audio without affecting pitch, something we’re very familiar with today but this was in 1972. This technology was initially aimed at the language market, allowing visually impaired users to access text more quickly.
Introduced in 1981 a later development, the Time Compressor 1200, allowed this technology to be used on audio visual material, for example speeding up or ‘Lexiconning’ audio to fit time slots without the need to edit out content to reduce the length of the audio. Subsequently Lexicon was awarded a 1984 Emmy for technical contributions to editing. But it is digital reverb for which Lexicon is principally remembered, with its groundbreaking 244 from 1978 and 1986’s 480L models in particular enjoying legendary status as hardware which created the sound of modern records. Lexicon reverb probably needs little introduction to readers of this blog.
Later Years
Beginning in the 1980s, Francis suffered major personal losses: the murder of his youngest daughter; the sudden death of his wife and childhood sweetheart Teresa; and the untimely death of his son. In the 1990s, reorienting himself from these tragedies, Francis spent time traveling the world, and crossing the US several times in his beloved VW EuroVan camper. In 2009, he settled in San Mateo, California. In his later years, Francis suffered from both deafness and dementia. However his love of the English language and his sense of humour were still evident; he was still playing Scrabble in late December 2023.
He is survived by his wife Ellen Li; his daughters Elizabeth Lee and Gloria Lee; his grandsons Alex, Benjamin, Mason and Sam; his sister Li Zhong; and family friend Angelique Agbigay. He was preceded in death by his parents, wife Teresa Jen Lee, sister Li Ping, daughter Roberta Lee and son Franklin Lee.
Francis F. Lee died peacefully on January 12, 2024. The proximate cause was renal failure. He was comforted by family, friends and students.