“He had this toy, but one day he came to work and told us that the toy had become a man”: How an advanced drum machine saved a difficult Steely Dan album

Steely Dan.

During our recent Drums Week here at MusicRadar we were reminded of the fits and starts history of the drum machine. One particularly fascinating and pioneering device we felt was worth exploring a little more was invented during the making of Steely Dan’s 1980 seventh studio album, Gaucho.

Assembled out of necessity, this early drum sampler was hand-built and programmed by the group's executive engineer and technology-obsessed inventor Roger Nichols.

Essentially the musical vehicle of two men, Steely Dan’s co-head honchos Donald Fagen and Walter Becker were well established as studio perfectionists. No facet of a track was left un-scrutinised. But, on this occasion the difficulty in achieving what the polymath musician pair wanted for their song Hey Nineteen, using session drummers, was proving endlessly frustrating.