The Wendel was of course, the digital drum replacement system developed by engineer Roger Nichols and debuted on the Steely Dan album "Gaucho." What an amazing feat for the time. Anyway I just came across this manual for the machine, might be interesting to compare the complexity and time consumption of doing this in the 70's as compared to now. What an ordeal! 
 
http://rogernichols.com/w.../Wendel-1op-manual.pdf

Nobody reads manuals now (that ARE for current stuff), do you really think they'll read a manual for something that's 40 years out-of-date? 
 

 
RTFM - Read the Forty-year-old Manual?

craigb
Nobody reads manuals now (that ARE for current stuff), do you really think they'll read a manual for something that's 40 years out-of-date? 
 

 
RTFM - Read the Forty-year-old Manual?

idk, once I start reading these obscure things I cannot stop.....

sharke

craigb
Nobody reads manuals now (that ARE for current stuff), do you really think they'll read a manual for something that's 40 years out-of-date? 
 

 
RTFM - Read the Forty-year-old Manual?

idk, once I start reading these obscure things I cannot stop.....

That's why you're in this forum, ya? 

"The Wendel was of course"
 
Proper etiquette here but I've never heard of it and I'm more or less from the 70s.
Yes and what an ordeal. We are so certainly spoiled today.

I remember reading about it in 'Reeling in The years', the SD biography, very ingenious stuff. With something like 45 takes to get the title tracks drums down, no wonder Nicholls invented a machine.
 
As a side note, I watched a recent SD live vid the other day, Becker and Fagen are not aging well at all, particularly Becker, who looks like he's gained about 40 lbs since I saw them on the Two Against Nature tour.

TL;DR
 
Where's the pictures FFS?
 

 

I used one once on a project I worked on in the early 00's. We had recorded an album in living rooms with a couple adats and a hodge podge of cheap gear with a low budget and even less engineering talent (I was the engineer). Then we went to a well stocked vintage gear type studio in Hoboken to mix it.
 
A couple of songs had a really sub-par kick sound. The house engineer said well we can try the Wendel on it. I'd never heard of it before that moment. They patched it in and then dug through an old shoe box full of cartridges to find an 80's pillow kick sound. Once we got the sensitivities set, it was like magic, we had an amazing kick sound in minutes. 
 
Really cool piece. Its amazing how even in 2002 the ability it offered was deemed a perk of working in a mid/high-budget room. And now its just an after thought sort of feature that all of us have but probably rarely use. 

All programmed in assembly language as well. The guy had many talents.