AAA - Ask Autechre Anything - Sean and Rob on WATMM!

[Sean Ae]

Oh, just remembered a question, Dual Purpose is you two, right?

 

And which one of you wrote the lyrics to Augmatic Disport? Or was it a joint effort? I find them very emotional, especially the bit about the bowl of crisps.

 

nah dual purpose is another gescom related person

 

the lyrics came to us both in a dream

[Guest dubathonic]

from this thread & recent interviews it seems like you work primarily with software now, but you have used a lot of gear over the years.

 

do you spend much time these days checking out other hard/software to see how it might inspire you or meet a need?

 

i expect the answer to this next one depends a lot on situationally specific factors, but fwiw: what has been your general approach to trying a new piece of kit? put another way, what goes into deciding whether you'll find use for it? does it for example need to make immediately inspiring sounds that you can hear yourselves using, have a great interface that leads you to dig into it even if it doesn't instantly speak to you, etc.?

[Guest terra incognita]

What's the name of the last track on your Radio mix (WARPCD51)?

[Blir]

 

Oh, just remembered a question, Dual Purpose is you two, right?

 

And which one of you wrote the lyrics to Augmatic Disport? Or was it a joint effort? I find them very emotional, especially the bit about the bowl of crisps.

 

nah dual purpose is another gescom related person

 

the lyrics came to us both in a dream

 

 

I want to say Rob Hall, I feel like I can hear similarities between that stuff and Viral... but you wouldn't tell me.. would you?

[Sean Ae]

What's the name of the last track on your Radio mix (WARPCD51)?

 

you know what i can't remember

i know the track tho, and it does have a title

 

 

Oh, just remembered a question, Dual Purpose is you two, right?

 

And which one of you wrote the lyrics to Augmatic Disport? Or was it a joint effort? I find them very emotional, especially the bit about the bowl of crisps.

 

nah dual purpose is another gescom related person

 

the lyrics came to us both in a dream

 

 

I want to say Rob Hall, I feel like I can hear similarities between that stuff and Viral... but you wouldn't tell me.. would you?

 

 

nah

[pikkio]

pls can you give a name to my cheap mfb2 synth? thank you!! this AAA is awesome!

[Sean Ae]

from this thread & recent interviews it seems like you work primarily with software now, but you have used a lot of gear over the years.

 

do you spend much time these days checking out other hard/software to see how it might inspire you or meet a need?

 

i expect the answer to this next one depends a lot on situationally specific factors, but fwiw: what has been your general approach to trying a new piece of kit? put another way, what goes into deciding whether you'll find use for it? does it for example need to make immediately inspiring sounds that you can hear yourselves using, have a great interface that leads you to dig into it even if it doesn't instantly speak to you, etc.?

 

could be anything really; the sound, ease of use, apparent workflow, a feature

 

sometimes we would buy things not even knowing if we wanted them and later find something cool about it

i think cos we grew up using anything we could get our hands on we don't really care about what's supposed to be the 'right thing' to use. you can get good stuff out of anything really

pls can you give a name to my cheap mfb2 synth? thank you!! this AAA is awesome!

 

your mfb2 is now called julianian

[rekosn]

 

bit of a daring question:

 

ISS Sean Alone ?

 

do people actually think it means that?

eew

 

not really, just me.

someone made a comment on discogs, but nevermind

[Sean Ae]

Earlier I was asking about the drums in a live track, the track is this one: http://youtu.be/fTWYjCAcCs8

 

Do either of you remember what drum machine/routing set up/manipulation you were using to create and modify those drum sounds? They're amazing, every damned time I hear them.

 

 

that's the nord rack

[Herr Jan]

Wow, for years I thought Dual Purpose was AE... turns out to be not true. No involvement at all?

That radiomix from 1997 has a tracklist, so that last track must be Skinny Puppy - Killing Game (AE mix), according to what I have.

And related to that radiomix, the third track is an unreleased Keynell remix apparently, how on earth did that stay unreleased? Was it never intended for release? It's one of my fave tracks of all time.

Edited November 3, 2013 by Herr Jan

[Guest WNS000]

Are you intersted in movie/game sound FX design? Have you studied some literature etc. that deal with this in order to achieve something in your music?

[thief]

whose idea was the looped vocal sample near the end of zeiss contarex? its one of my fav parts on ep7

 

and why did blyz castl get such a limited release?? do u not like it or something? its bangin m8

[Sean Ae]

Let's say you could have just 2-4 pieces of hardware (excluding your laptop) to record your guys next album, what gear would you choose?

 

mic

soldering iron

mpc1000

rs integrator

[Alcofribas]

this is related to my earlier question -- since you rate snow so shite, does the cover of amber ever make you want to stand side by side kicking those hills while smiling playfully? always wondered.

 

have you ever been walking through a tunnel and suddenly looked at each other and thought "vltermx" would sound wicked in here?

 

when you did those noise blasts in secondbadvilbel were you both like "wicked" or was one of you like "that's just noise mate"?

 

is the end of "vose in" your way of showing rdj that you could pwn him?

[Alcofribas]

just thought of one more...if you were outside and suddenly the bat-signal was shot up in the sky but instead of the bat logo it said "sean pls" wtf would you do?

[gmanyo]

Have you ever thought about doing a total 180 with an EP or even just a single where you some entirely different genre, or just a new style, like only recordings of acoustic instruments with live players?

[Sean Ae]

 

- When programming, do often spend a long time trying to make more general purpose tools with a ride range of uses, or is it usually more ad-hoc? What are some of the more interesting/unexpected design challenges for you when making these tools? I'm particularly curious about how you decided to handle recording/storage and playback of continuous parameter changes, i.e. stuff you control with knobs/faders.

- Do you ever find it uncomfortable to use a mouse as much as Max requires? If so, how do you mitigate the effects on your wrist/arm?

- Could you talk a little bit about how your custom communication protocol differs from OSC?

- Could you pretty please name my Nord Micro Modular and my Octatrack.

 

 

i might start out making a specific thing but then i get distracted by an idea for something else do it becomes the new thing

i don't really care if i get to finish the thing i started

everything is continuous basically, there is no recording as such, just a stream of data being generated strictly

it's no worse for wrist burn than anything else, i use a massive trackpad, ymmv

how it differs from osc? hugely, it's not packet-based for a start

 

your micro modular is now called miranda

your octatrack is now called waterwaterwaterwater

[Sean Ae]

Guys, are you able after all those years imagine a sound you would like to create and then really create it? Or are you at least able to predict what your patches will do? Or is it re-discovering over and over again and just trying new things all the time?

 

more into finding things than making ersatz versions of imagined things

[lumpenprol]

Oh, here's a question someone should have asked:

 

Are you aware of the gap in the middle of Teartear on the American release of Amber? Do you know how that happened, and is it fixed now?

 

(I actually bought the album twice but both had the gap, so I assumed it was intentional, only to find out years later it wasn't...seemingly all the US versions, at least from that time period, had this problem).

[pikkio]

Always wondered how you came up with the "trumpet" melody in Drane2, it makes me cry everytime!!!

[Guest WNS000]

 

Guys, are you able after all those years imagine a sound you would like to create and then really create it? Or are you at least able to predict what your patches will do? Or is it re-discovering over and over again and just trying new things all the time?

 

more into finding things than making ersatz versions of imagined things

 

 

So if you have a work in progress track where you can totally hear in your head a sound design idea for that track that would make it a killer track you would not try to make it real?

[hoggy]

What do you think might be the effect of extreme cerebral stimulation of listening to for example especially long tracks on Exai? Especially when that stimulation is hard to vocalise or simply emote to or physically express?

 

For example, sometimes when I really love something and find it intangibly stimulating, I find that I have no way to express it to people (a description can't really express 'that thing') - do you ever get this kind of frustration? Do you think it might effect how someone thinks, behaves, feels?

 

To try to clarify a bit more - I'm talking about extreme stimulation with no real world counterpart - that thing where something just 'does something' you can't explain it.

Edited November 3, 2013 by hoggy

[Guest ExtraLife]

Were the Peel Sessions done in the BBC studios in a short period of time, or were they older tracks dusted off? It amazes me how so much pure emotion is funneled through Drane.

[Rob Ae]

If y'all were doing something else today, what would it be?

Listening to fireworks

[mrmegaman]

just a funny story

i saw you at i think se1 for the untitled tour and was very drunk.

there were some posters up around the gig and everyone was taking them, but when i tried the security would stop me.

because of my cheeky drunken state i would keep on trying to take it.

when i did get the poster as the security was not looking he then walked up to me and got on his radio and called for back up.

i was then walked in to the corner of the room so he could then screw up the poster and put it in the bin. i thought i was going to be kicked out of the gig.

he then made me take it out of the bin so he could laugh at me.

the poster is now on my wall and it puts a smile on my face when i look at it.

 

you also talk of playing in the dark and reading the post i agree with you on why you do it.

Are you aware of all the camera flashes that go on? they totally screw with your eyes when they go off its very funny.

its kind of like a strobe and how they mess with your head.

its a good thing when they go off some people get very confused when one goes of next to them.

i also wonder why people take them as all i have managed to get a good picture at your gigs.

o i do have a question.

what was your last gig you went to and what gigs have you been to that stick out in your mind.

 

thanks (-;