Engineering Steely Dan's GAUCHO: Interview w/ Elliot Scheiner

A technical interview focusing on the studio gear and recording methodology behind this audiophile masterpiece, May 4th, 2021. http://tyler-burns.com
Edit/Subs/Post by Alec Eagon

How many analog multitrack recorders were being used upon mixdown, one or two?
One.

Were you using a slave machine?
No.

What type of multitracks were being used?
Studer A800 (mk I) 24-track at A&R, and at Soundtrack a 24-track 3M m79. Most of the record was done on an A800 (mk I).

What tape speed and were you using noise reduction?
30 IPS for tracking, no NR, except for electronic keyboards/synths and guitars.

If so, what kind of noise reduction?
Synths and guitars were Dolby A.

What tape formula and how hot?
456, +3
What was the main mixdown (two-track) tape machine for this record?
Studer A80 (no specification as to whether it was an RC or VU model)

What tape speed for mixdown?
15 IPS.

Noise reduction at mixdown?
No.

Were there any electronic modifications that you were aware of for either the multitracks or the mixdown machine?
No.

What was your mixbuss (compression/eq/limiting) signal chain for this record?
None.

What console was used for tracking?
Neve 8068

Was this same console used for mixing, as well?
Neve 8068 and an 8078 at The Village.

What was Donald Fagen’s lead vocal mic chain?
[Elliot did not track Donald’s vocals, but he believes that Donald preferred a U87 with no EQ and no compression upon tracking.]

How were backing vocals recorded? In mono and panned or in stereo?
[Elliot did not work on this. This was Roger Nichols’ specialty.]

Can you tell us about the plate reverb used on this record and any details about the send/return processing?
A&R had four EMT 140s, tuned by Phil Ramone, with a 4-track tape machine as the tape delay going into the plates. So, the pre-delay would have been about 150 ms coming off the playback heads. There was no EQ processing on the send or the return. At The Village, in L.A., where most of the mixing was done, it was a combo of EMT 140s and a live room for re-amping.

What digital effects were being used on this record?
[None that Elliot remembers.]

What was your mixing process like? What parts did you mix first? Rhythm section?
Drums were mixed first, then bass guitar, then keyboards, then guitars, horns, etc. Vocals would be last.

How much high pass filtering were you doing?
None.

How did you track/mix kick and bass, at that time, to work so well together? They are so balanced compared to modern records!
Kick and bass would be soloed together and made sure that they both were the same volume.

What mix processing, in terms of EQ and compression (and what units), were you using on Donald Fagen’s lead vocals?
A DBX 160 VU was used for limiting Donald’s vocals, (not compression). EQ would have been the Neve board. The top end would be boosted and a little bit of 1 kHz would be cut.

The fascinating panning scheme on Gaucho!
There would be three mono EMT 140 reverbs panned left, center, and right, and then one stereo EMT 140 reverb. If an element was panned left or right, it would be sent to the respectively panned reverb return. (Center instruments would often go to the stereo EMT 140 or the center-panned mono EMT 140.)

Were you using mixing automation on this record?
Yes. Moving fader automation on the Neve 8068 at The Village, where most of the record was mixed. (There was no automation on the 8068 at A&R.)

It seems like a lot of elements were recorded in mono and simply panned on this record. What stuff was actually tracked in stereo?
Electric piano (sometimes), piano, organ, and sometimes guitar. Rhythm guitars were always mono. The Rhodes was recorded DI (there are stereo outputs), sometimes using a stereo phaser.

How were Donald Fagen’s vocals comp’d? Were they submixed or automated from the original takes?
There was no comping. Donald would just punch in. He would work all day on a vocal, punching in and out on one track.

What percentage of the drums on Gaucho were real and how much were the Wendell drum computer?
“Babylon Sisters,” was all real drums. “Hey Nineteen” was all Wendell. “Glamour Profession” was all Wendell. “Time Out of Mind” was all real drums. “My Rival” was all Wendel. “Third World Man” was real drums. (If a drummer was credited for a song which used the Wendel, it simply meant that his drum samples had been used in the Wendell for that song.)

The late 90s CD master of Gaucho, which is what I prefer listening to, was sourced from an early 80s digital backup by Roger Nichols. What digital system would Roger have done those digital backups on in the early 80s?
Sony F1 at 16 bit, 44.056 kHz

How were you recording snare drum?
One single SM57 on top.

Overheads?
A pair of U87s or a pair of 451s.

Kick drum?
D12.

For synthesizer and bass guitar, were you just DI’ing into the console preamp?
For bass guitar, it was DI’d. Synthesizers were just DI’d and went into the console preamp.

What’s your favorite console?
Neve.

Tape machine?
Studer.

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