Walter Becker, Steely Dan Guitarist, Dies at 67.
Walter Becker, Steely Dan Guitarist, Dies at 67.
Richard
Green Valley Recording
My cats have nine lives; my life has nine cats.
Just a few weeks ago, I was chatting with one of the session guitar players who recorded one of the eight solos for Steely Dan's "Peg" back in '77 (I won't say who it was because his track obviously didn't get picked!) and he was telling me that the vibe he got from Walter Becker back then was that he was a little miffed that HE didn't get to play that famous solo. I hope he got over it forty years later. RIP, Walter.
Not in the case of Steely Dan.
Roger Nichols always did a awesome job of putting together those great albums and they went through hell putting those songs together.
Countless drum edits down to single bars - I would have never done it that way but obviously the end results were good.
Personally I prefer the first two albums over the later stuff which sounded more like a band playing rather than piece work.
RIP Walter - you gave us some great music.
Last edited by Dave Labrecque; 09-05-2017 at 04:02 PM.
Dave "it aint the heat, it's the humidity" Labrecque
Becket, Massachusetts
Electronic programmable drums: http://rogernichols.com/Wendel
Richard
Green Valley Recording
My cats have nine lives; my life has nine cats.
You're correct; as I understand it, he used sampled drums for "Wendel". How he manipulated those samples I don't recall, but there's a lot of information on-line about his early work. I remember reading about him in Mix Magazine back in the day (...or was it called "Recording Engineer/Producer" back then???)
Richard
Green Valley Recording
My cats have nine lives; my life has nine cats.
I didn't remember whether or not they arrived concurrently... but obviously they did. I've been getting Mix digitally, and it's difficult to find time to read it. And it too often focuses on existing studio promotion and new gear introduction anyway, rather than providing really helpful information; R E/P was much more informative, as you've noted.
Richard
Green Valley Recording
My cats have nine lives; my life has nine cats.
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