Steely Dan

[IbogaProject]

3. They spent $150K on an improved atomic clock

In the late 70s they wanted a better atomic clock and funded its development to better time their drum machine. They started recording their drum tracks into a sampler and then used an early drum machine to adjust each hit individually, rather then doing another take and dropping in different takes during the mix like a collage. One of the greats.

From https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24178711

The original sampling drum machine was created by Roger Nichols in 1978 for now-somewhat-forgotten 70s band Steely Dan. It was called "Wendel" and it received its own platinum record.
The Steely Dan people were notoriously obsessive about drum timing, which was a bad thing to be when all you had were human drummers.

So when they said "It's a shame we can't build a machine to move the drum parts back and forward by milliseconds" Nichols said "I can do that if you give me $150,000." It took him a few weeks.

It was an S100 system connected to a video-grade DAC/ADC sampling at 12-bits and 125kHz - which was incredible tech for the late 70s.

He also built a commercial Rubidium atomic clock for use as a digital timebase in recording studios. (Because why not?)

____

>"The original sampling drum machine was created by Roger Nichols in 1978 for now-somewhat-forgotten 70s band Steely Dan.
Steely Dan has been a continuous staple of AOR and classic rock radio since their first album in 1972. There was even a huge resurgence of their popularity with the whole "yacht rock" movement. They even won three Grammys for 2001's "Two Against Nature" record.

>"The Steely Dan people were notoriously obsessive about drum timing, which was a bad thing to be when all you had were human drummers."

This is not correct. Steely Dan's stable of studio musicians were the best in the business. Their drummers on this album Rick Marotta, Steve Gadd, Jeff Porcaro and Bernard Purdie would all be considered perfect time keepers. The impetus for the creation of the "Wendell" was not to make up for precision in time keeping, it's primary function was as a drum sampler. This would then allow Becker and Fagen the ability to obsessively control things like inflection - a softer high hat here, a different snare accent there, after the drums were recorded. It's primary function was not a source of time keeping. For example it's actually Rick Marotta's drum playing you hear on "Hey Nineteen", just sampled via the Wendell and then compiled from many different takes.