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Roger Scott Nichols (September 22, 1944 – April 9, 2011) was an American recording engineer, producer, and
inventor An invention is a unique or novel device, method, composition, idea, or process. An invention may be an improvement upon a machine, product, or process for increasing efficiency or lowering cost. It may also be an entirely new concept. If an ...
. Nichols is best known for his work with the group Steely Dan and
John Denver Henry John Deutschendorf Jr. (December 31, 1943 – October 12, 1997), known professionally as John Denver, was an American Country music, country and Folk music, folk singer, songwriter, and actor. He was one of the most popular acoustic m ...
. He was also the audio engineer for numerous major music acts including the
Beach Boys The Beach Boys are an American rock band formed in Hawthorne, California, in 1961. The group's original lineup consisted of brothers Brian, Dennis, and Carl Wilson, their cousin Mike Love, and their friend Al Jardine. Distinguished by thei ...
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, Crosby Stills & Nash, Al Di Meola, Rosanne Cash, Roy Orbison,
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, Plácido Domingo, Gloria Estefan,
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, Béla Fleck and the Flecktones, Rickie Lee Jones, Kenny Loggins,
Mark Knopfler Mark Freuder Knopfler OBE (born 12 August 1949) is a British musician. He was the lead guitarist, singer and songwriter of the rock band Dire Straits from 1977 to 1995, and he is the one of the two members who stayed during the band's existence ...
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, Michael McDonald, James Taylor, and
Toots Thielemans Jean-Baptiste Frédéric Isidor, Baron Thielemans (29 April 1922 – 22 August 2016), known professionally as Toots Thielemans (), was a Belgian jazz musician. He was mostly known for playing the chromatic harmonica, as well as his guitar and wh ...
, among others. On February 11, 2012, Nichols was awarded a Special Merit/ Technical Grammy Award, his eighth Grammy overall. In May 2010 Nichols was diagnosed with stage IV
pancreatic cancer Pancreatic cancer arises when cell (biology), cells in the pancreas, a glandular organ behind the stomach, begin to multiply out of control and form a Neoplasm, mass. These cancerous cells have the malignant, ability to invade other parts of ...
. He died from the disease at his home on April 9, 2011. In his subsequent ''
New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'' obituary, Nichols was referred to in the headline as an "Artist Among Sound Engineers." '' The Roger Nichols Recording Method'', his guide to audio engineering, was released by Alfred Music Publishing on June 17, 2013.


Early life

Roger Nichols was born in
Oakland, California Oakland is a city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area in the U.S. state of California. It is the county seat and most populous city in Alameda County, California, Alameda County, with a population of 440,646 in 2020. A major We ...
. His father was a U.S. Air Force B-47 pilot; as a result the Nichols family lived in various spots in the U.S. for the first eleven years of his life. In 1957 his family settled in Cucamonga, California, where Nichols attended High School. One of his classmates was
Frank Zappa Frank Vincent Zappa (December 21, 1940 – December 4, 1993) was an American guitarist, composer, and bandleader. In a career spanning more than 30 years, Zappa composed Rock music, rock, Pop music, pop, jazz, jazz fusion, orchestra ...
; Zappa would drop by Nichols' house to "play guitar, and we would do multiple passes of guitars and bounce them together" on Nichols' first recording device, a reel-to-reel tape deck using quarter inch tape. He attended
Oregon State University Oregon State University (OSU) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Corvallis, Oregon, United States. OSU offers more than 200 undergraduate degree programs and a variety of graduate and doctor ...
where he studied
nuclear physics Nuclear physics is the field of physics that studies atomic nuclei and their constituents and interactions, in addition to the study of other forms of nuclear matter. Nuclear physics should not be confused with atomic physics, which studies th ...
. From 1965 to 1968 he was a nuclear operator at the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (aka SONGS).


From nuclear operator to recording engineer

Nichols and some friends created their own
recording studio A recording studio is a specialized facility for Sound recording and reproduction, recording and Audio mixing, mixing of instrumental or vocal musical performances, spoken words, and other sounds. They range in size from a small in-home proje ...
, Quantum Studios, in
Torrance, California Torrance is a coastal city in the Los Angeles metropolitan area located in southwestern Los Angeles County, California, United States. The city is part of what is known as the South Bay (Los Angeles County), South Bay region of the metropolitan ...
in 1965. The facility originally was a four-car garage; it was converted into a four-track studio to record high school bands. A hi-fi supply store, created as a side business by Nichols and his partners, brought in clients and contacts that led to recording
commercials A television advertisement (also called a commercial, spot, break, advert, or ad) is a span of television programming produced and paid for by an organization. It conveys a message promoting, and aiming to market, a product, service or idea. ...
, with future stars Karen Carpenter and Larry Carlton performing on some of the spots; another musician Nichols recorded in this era was the former Mouseketeer Cubby O'Brien, on the drums. Nichols also recorded
Kenny Rogers Kenneth Ray Rogers (born Kenneth Donald Rogers) (August 21, 1938 – March 20, 2020) was an American singer and songwriter. He was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, Country Music Hall of Fame in 2013. Rogers was particul ...
, then with the First Edition; the studio was expanded into a former post office and upgraded to 16 tracks. Sales of recording equipment and machinery to
ABC Records ABC Records was an American record label founded in New York City in 1955. It originated as the main popular music label operated by the Am-Par Record Corporation. Am-Par also created the Impulse! jazz label in 1960. It acquired many labels bef ...
' first recording studio led to a contact with Phil Kaye, who was in charge of the facility. Nichols was hired in 1970 to maintain the equipment and do engineering work with Kaye and Steve Barri. Some of the clients Nichols recorded at this time included John Phillips and Denny Doherty of the Mamas and the Papas, the Grass Roots, and Hamilton, Joe Frank and Reynolds.


The Steely Dan years


First meeting

In 1971 Nichols met Gary Katz, newly hired at the ABC Dunhill label as a record producer. Walter Becker and Donald Fagen were also working at ABC as song writers; one night Nichols was drafted, when no one else on the staff wanted to be involved, to stay and engineer a demo session that Becker and Fagen were holding to record their tunes for use by other artists. Nichols discovered he had a great deal in common with the then-unknown duo, including sharing a taste for impeccable audio quality. Nichols was asked to engineer their first record album in 1972, and he would wind up working with Katz, Becker and Fagen in recording the first, decade-long incarnation of the band that became known as Steely Dan.


Engineering the birth of Steely Dan

As a result of working with Nichols, Becker and Fagen and producer Katz were determined to have him seated behind the recording console for the 1972 start of studio sessions their first album, '' Can't Buy a Thrill''. This conflicted with Nichols' summer vacation, and the decision was made to postpone recording until Nichols returned, much to ABC president Jay Lasker's annoyance, due to the amount of money advanced to the fledgling band. Once begun, the process was exacting. Nichols later commented:
We finished it in six months, which was quick for them. But even then their acceptance level was way above everyone else's. They never had the attitude of 'It's getting late that's good enough', or 'No-one else will notice'. Everything had to be as near perfect as technically and humanly possible.
The album sold well and yielded two hit singles, ensuring Nichols would be tied to the band's fortunes. Nichols was involved in engineering every Steely Dan album.


Nickname: "The Immortal"

Interviewed in 1993 for 'Metal Leg, the Steely Dan Magazine', Nichols stated (regarding his nickname that appears on many of his credits):
...they were trying to kill me. I was working on a Johnny Winter session on the weekends, with Steve Barri all day and with Steely Dan all night, so they had me going 24 hours a day. They tried running me into the ground, but it didn't work. Then there was the time when we were working at Cherokee Studios when two of the tape machines were grounded improperly and I touched both of the machines and everything shorted out. The face plate on one of the machines was completely melted but I didn't feel a thing. They figured something weird was going on.


Innovations for 'Countdown to Ecstasy' and 'The Hand'

When Becker and Fagen expressed frustration during the band's second album '' Countdown to Ecstasy'' with the difficulty in acquiring a steady drum
tempo In musical terminology, tempo (Italian for 'time'; plural 'tempos', or from the Italian plural), measured in beats per minute, is the speed or pace of a given musical composition, composition, and is often also an indication of the composition ...
, Nichols was forced to improvise. The track " Show Biz Kids" had proved especially challenging in regards to a steady beat. As quoted in Brian Sweet's biography of Steely Dan, ''Reelin' in the Years'', Nichols recalled:
It was just one of those tunes that that was so very difficult to play exactly in tempo, with every instrument in sync. ... There were no drum machines in those days, so we made a 24 track, eight bar
tape loop In music, tape loops are loops of magnetic tape used to create repetitive, rhythmic musical patterns or dense layers of sound when played on a tape recorder. Originating in the 1940s with the work of Pierre Schaeffer, they were used among ...
, which at 30 ips was a considerable length of tape, trailed it out through the door into the studio, around a little idler which was set up on a camera tripod, back into the studio and then copied that to a second 24 track machine. Everything was on tape except the lead vocal and the lead guitar. It worked like a dream.
The album's back cover photograph featured a photo of Steely Dan in the recording studio control room, and included Nichols' seemingly disembodied hand on the
mixing console A mixing console or mixing desk is an electronic device for Audio mixing (recorded music), mixing audio signals, used in sound recording and reproduction and sound reinforcement systems. Inputs to the console include microphones, signals fro ...
while he hid beneath it.


Steely Dan's studio-only years

After the third Steely Dan album '' Pretzel Logic'' and the tour by the band in support of it, Steely Dan ceased touring and turned into a band that only performed on recordings. Nichols' duties became more diverse, and ranged from diagnosing a flaw on the master tape of the band's biggest selling single, " Rikki Don't Lose That Number," (a workman's gob of mustard on the tape was found by Nichols to be to blame), to helping to recover the sound on their fourth album, '' Katy Lied'', which had been recorded at ABC Recording Studios and had suffered when the master tape was processed through a faulty
dbx dbx or DBX may refer to: * dbx (debugger), a Unix source-level debugger * dbx (company), a professional audio recording equipment company ** dbx (noise reduction), a noise reduction system invented by dbx, Inc. * .dbx, the file extension for Micros ...
noise reduction system while mixing.


Grammy Awards with Steely Dan

Nichols would win his initial three Grammy Awards (Best Engineered Recording — Non-Classical) for his late 1970s-early 80s "meticulous studio work" with Steely Dan on the 1977 album ''Aja'', which was his first Grammy, the hit single " FM (No Static at All)" and then for his engineering contributions to the 1980 release ''Gaucho''. Nichols won three additional Grammys with Steely Dan, including the notable achievement ' Album Of The Year' for his sonic accomplishments on their comeback album, '' Two Against Nature'' (2000).


Firing by Steely Dan

Steely Dan biographer Brian Sweet disclosed in 2018 that Nichols had been fired in early 2002 when recording sessions for '' Everything Must Go'' at New York City's River Sound resumed, having been suspended after the 9-11 attacks, without Nichols' participation or knowledge. Sweet's updated revision of his book ''Reelin' in the Years'' stated he was "... cut off without any notification or justification. Nichols was devastated to be treated in such a manner by his friends and after 30 years of working together."


Inventions

In 1978, Nichols pioneered the technique of "digital drum replacement" by inventing the Wendel sampling computer, which was used to provide some of the drum and percussion sounds on Steely Dan's album, ''
Gaucho A gaucho () or gaúcho () is a skilled horseman, reputed to be brave and unruly. The figure of the gaucho is a folk symbol of Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay, Rio Grande do Sul in Brazil, the southern part of Bolivia, and the south of Chilean Patago ...
'', notably the song " Hey Nineteen." This technology is now commonplace in music production around the world. He invented and produced a rubidium nuclear clock under his company name Digital Atomics. The purpose of the clock was to provide the accuracy of nuclear timekeeping to better synchronize
digital recording In digital recording, an audio signal, audio or video signal is converted into a stream of discrete numbers representing the changes over time in air pressure for audio, or Color, chroma and luminance values for video. This number stream is s ...
equipment in the studio, but at a lower cost than the typical cesium clocks such as those used in military and aviation applications.


As author

Roger Nichols was a pro audio columnist and gear reviewer for many years at ''EQ'', a professional audio magazine. He also wrote prose extensively, including material for master classroom use, which he intended to turn into a textbook on recording technique. He did not live to see the final publication of his works, the first of which, ''The Roger Nichols Recording Method'', has been compiled and edited by his wife Conrad Reeder and Mike Lawson for Alfred Music Publishing, under the oversight of Alfred CEO Ron Manus, who in early 2013 stated "We are so thrilled to have the opportunity to publish Roger's work. I can think of no better way to honor his memory and legacy than by making his unparalleled experience and knowledge available to the world." Reeder stated, "I am especially grateful to Ron Manus, Mike Lawson and the entire Alfred Publishing team for ensuring that a new generation will benefit from Roger's artistry and inventive brilliance in the recording studio by releasing ''The Roger Nichols Recording Method''. Roger would also be thrilled about it, especially since Alfred CEO Ron Manus, was once his 2nd Engineer in the studio."


Other activities

Nichols lectured before numerous audiences, including as a guest lecturer for the Berklee School of Music,
University of Miami The University of Miami (UM, UMiami, Miami, U of M, and The U) is a private university, private research university in Coral Gables, Florida, United States. , the university enrolled 19,852 students in two colleges and ten schools across over ...
, and Recording Workshop. Nichols was also a
scuba diving Scuba diving is a Diving mode, mode of underwater diving whereby divers use Scuba set, breathing equipment that is completely independent of a surface breathing gas supply, and therefore has a limited but variable endurance. The word ''scub ...
instructor, an avid
photographer A photographer (the Greek φῶς (''phos''), meaning "light", and γραφή (''graphê''), meaning "drawing, writing", together meaning "drawing with light") is a person who uses a camera to make photographs. Duties and types of photograp ...
, and an airplane pilot, and was close friends and flying buddies with singer/songwriter
John Denver Henry John Deutschendorf Jr. (December 31, 1943 – October 12, 1997), known professionally as John Denver, was an American Country music, country and Folk music, folk singer, songwriter, and actor. He was one of the most popular acoustic m ...
. Nichols engineered and produced albums for Denver over a nearly twenty-year period, including the 1998 children's railroad
train A train (from Old French , from Latin">-4; we might wonder whether there's a point at which it's appropriate to talk of the beginnings of French, that is, when it wa ... , from Latin , "to pull, to draw") is a series of connected vehicles th ...
album titled ''All Aboard!'' which earned Denver his first Grammy, awarded posthumously. Nichols was on his way to
California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...
to fly with Denver in his new experimental Long-EZ plane when he learned of the crash in which Denver was killed.


Personal life

Nichols was married to writer/musician Conrad Reeder with whom he had two daughters, Cimcie and Ashlee.


Death

Nichols was diagnosed with stage 4
pancreatic cancer Pancreatic cancer arises when cell (biology), cells in the pancreas, a glandular organ behind the stomach, begin to multiply out of control and form a Neoplasm, mass. These cancerous cells have the malignant, ability to invade other parts of ...
on May 29, 2010. In early 2011 he was reported to be "fighting for his life." Nichols died on April 9, 2011, aged 66.


Grammy Awards

*1977 "Best Engineer Non-Classical" Steely Dan '' Aja'' *1978 "Best Engineer Non-Classical" Steely Dan '' FM (soundtrack)'' *1981 "Best Engineer Non Classical" Steely Dan ''Gaucho'' *1997 Producer "Best Children's Album" John Denver ''All Aboard!'' *2000 "Best Pop Vocal Album" Steely Dan '' Two Against Nature'' *2000 "Album of the Year" Steely Dan ''Two Against Nature'' *2000 "Best Engineer Non-Classical" Steely Dan ''Two Against Nature'' *2012 Special Merit/ Technical Grammy Award for "contributions of outstanding technical significance to the recording field." In 2006 Nichols' work was formally recognized by The Recording Academy (Grammys) Producers and Engineers Wing.


References


External links


Roger Nichols official site
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Nichols, Roger 1944 births 2011 deaths Amateur radio people American audio engineers Record producers from California Businesspeople from Oakland, California Deaths from pancreatic cancer in California Grammy Award winners 20th-century American businesspeople Oregon State University alumni