ZoeB
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Posts posted by ZoeB
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http://bytenoise.co.uk/Aphex_Twin
Have this "Throughout Richard D. James career" article been posten here on watmm before?
It has, but I'm glad you like it. :) I need to publish more of it at some point.
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Agreed! As much as I like some of his releases more than others, it's great that each release (series and compilations aside) is unique. Variety is the spice of life. ^.^
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I'd always try to focus on what benefits the piece of music in question the most, and not worry so much about its historical context or whether it would be seen as fashionable or traditionally fitting in with it, but that's one of them, ah, philosophical questions, I guess.
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And "innovations" are not in your face like they were in 90s. Syro is new for me in terms of composition - it's so alive and morphing like nothing out there. We've heard all synths and percussion before, basically, and maybe that's why people are complaining that it sounds like tuss outtakes on the first listen.
If you're suggesting there haven't been many real innovations in music making technology lately, then you're probably right. Additive, subtractive, amplitude modulation, frequency modulation, phase modulation, phase distortion, wavetable, pulse code modulation (sampling), and physical modelling synthesis have all been around long enough for their patents to have expired, and although we're starting to get a lot more processing power and some nice new interfaces, it's been a while since anyone's discovered or invented a whole new method of synthesis, to my knowledge.
But I'm sure there are plenty of alternative methods of synthesis out there, we just haven't thought of them yet. It would be naïve to assume we've just about finished work on pretty much anything. Of course, this has nothing to do with musicians releasing albums, and everything to do with engineers releasing synthesisers. Although musicians drive the demand, and most people (myself included) seem to be getting really into old school synthesis methods right now.
Having said that, musicians as a whole still haven't really pushed samplers anywhere near as far as they can go. They can turn any sound in the world into a musical instrument, but most people seem to just want to play the Amen break on them.
Come to think of it, one of the nice things about Syro is the use of acoustic percussive instruments that are pretty obscure in popular music. That's good lateral thinking.
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As time went, we have discovered almost everything about sound synthesis, heard almost all possible combination of waveforms and beats imaginable. It's not that album isnt innovative by itself, it's the nature of sound that is creating the barrier. We can't jump higher because focking physics and laws of nature.
I'll just leave this excerpt from Bill Bryson's wonderful book A Short History of Nearly Everything here:
The whole world clanged and chuffed with the machinery and instruments that their ingenuity had produced. Many wise people believed that there was nothing much left for science to do.
In 1875, when a young German in Kiel named Max Planck was deciding whether to devote his life to mathematics or to physics, he was urged most heartily not to choose physics because the breakthroughs had all been made there. The coming century, he was assured, would be one of consolidation and refinement, not revolution. Planck didn't listen. -
I'm still having a pretty difficult time telling apart some of Syro from Monolith's work. Even the little riffs in Vigton 3 Stun and 4 bit 9d api+e+6 [12626] sound pretty similar to me. As do their names, for that matter.
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If we're talking about iOS, check out Korg's MS-20 and Electribe clones, the VCS3 clone and Peter Vogel's Fairlight CMI clone.
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I've got all the Panflet posts, but haven't singled them out as he clearly wanted his privacy for those.
wait, what what? there are more panflet posts besides analogue haven?
Sorry, no, I meant just the Analogue Heaven (and SuperCollider) ones. I have an archive of a lot of public messages (USENET and e-mails on mailing lists), which includes, for instance, a lot of Analogue Heaven and the IDM list from way back. This kind of thing is useful if you're, say, researching how the TB-303's gate works (it stays on for 3 clock pulses then goes off for 3, except for rests and slides, although there's a delay with it turning off that looks as if it's staying on until the next half of a clock cycle, which it isn't). It's also interesting to read about Squidge in My Fridge way back in the early 90s.
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Thanks, both of you!
I believe the message you're thinking of is the "anyone remember when 303`s were £50? and coke was 16p a tin? crisps 5p" one. I believe the original post was deleted a long time ago, with no proper archive, although plenty of people copied and pasted it. I've got all the Panflet posts, but haven't singled them out as he clearly wanted his privacy for those.
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I'd been thinking about modular vocoders a while ago, that's awesome Zoe. Done any funky stuff with it?
Not yet, I'm afraid. I still need to get a preamp of some kind (maybe the A-119, although perhaps the R-51 can fulfil this role...) before I can even use it. I got a bunch more cables yesterday so at least I can patch together a patch with slew in it, once I actually install all the modules. But right now, my mind's pretty focused on writing firmware, I'm afraid. So no music making for me, for the last few months, and for probably another month still...
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Niice..I have the Assblaster. Bit unpredictable, and it can be too much, but sometimes it's really magical. How do you like the R-51?
Hard to say yet. It sounds good for distortion so far. I'm also hoping to use it more subtly, to gently colour the final audio output of every channel on future mixes. Hopefully the cumulative effect should be warm and slightly quirky.
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Today's new arrival:
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speaking of, it's a bit weird there's no roland tb-303 or yamaha gx-1 listed on there... i swear i heard a 303 line in minipops
One of the items on the list is the insanely vague "Modular systems/Eurorack", which could be referencing hundreds of different modules by dozens of different manufacturers right there, including several that sound rather TB-303-like.
Strange, though, that I see a few euro modules listed by name as well. I remember hearing that Intellijel got into making modules because he heard that Richard built his own synths. He must be pretty happy to see it come full circle!
Yes, it does seem a bit inconsistent. He lists some Cwejman modules too, for instance, but not e.g. the Metasonix ones.
It's still easily the most complete and accurate gear list we've ever gotten out of him, I think. I'm going to try to avoid staring at it for too long and making my wallet sad.
Oh, yes, it's still nice to see his equipment list, especially the breakdown per track. It certainly satisfies my curiosity. I don't mean to complain, sorry. Well, I do, but only about him hoarding three PS-3300s! :)
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speaking of, it's a bit weird there's no roland tb-303 or yamaha gx-1 listed on there... i swear i heard a 303 line in minipops
One of the items on the list is the insanely vague "Modular systems/Eurorack", which could be referencing hundreds of different modules by dozens of different manufacturers right there, including several that sound rather TB-303-like.
Strange, though, that I see a few euro modules listed by name as well. I remember hearing that Intellijel got into making modules because he heard that Richard built his own synths. He must be pretty happy to see it come full circle!
Yes, it does seem a bit inconsistent. He lists some Cwejman modules too, for instance, but not e.g. the Metasonix ones.
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speaking of, it's a bit weird there's no roland tb-303 or yamaha gx-1 listed on there... i swear i heard a 303 line in minipops
One of the items on the list is the insanely vague "Modular systems/Eurorack", which could be referencing hundreds of different modules by dozens of different manufacturers right there, including several that sound rather TB-303-like.
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Thanks! Should I start a new thread? I don't want to take over this one too much!
definitely deserving of its own thread (with instructions on how to purchase!)
Thread added!
Does anyone know if there are any modular meetups in London? I was tempted to head down to the Hackspace music hacking night, but wasn't sure if it was really what I was looking for (more modulars rather than circuit bending.)
Check out the Muff's meetups forum, it's international. There are certainly London meetups quite often.
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Thanks! Should I start a new thread? I don't want to take over this one too much!
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Thanks everyone! It's really more Nina's child than mine, but I wrote most of the sequencer's firmware (about 2,600 lines of C). Nina helped me with the lower level parts of the sequencer's firmware, wrote all of the interface board's firmware, and designed and built all of the hardware, from designing the circuit boards and front panel layout to sourcing the parts to soldering it all together. In the early stages, she even etched the circuit board in the kitchen of our old flat. (Incidentally, those chemicals look disconcertingly like chip shop curry powder.) She's since repurposed an Argos toaster oven as a reflow oven. So I can only take a small part of the credit. She's the real genius behind it, and certainly the perfectionist.
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Thank you, BCM and Delet. :) And Grain, you should definitely pop along to the next modular synth meetup if you're so inclined. :)
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Nice - I'm looking at probably getting a modular at some point so its cool that lots of cool people are involved.
Where was that meet? I noticed your Bandcamp say 'Stoke on Trent' - I'm in Cannock just down the road :)
It was in Leeds. Hopefully there'll be one in Liverpool soon. You can read about upcoming meetups on Muff's and a few relevant Facebook groups if you're interested. From what we saw last weekend, they're a friendly bunch!
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While not a studio, that meetup was good, by the way, check it out:
A Moog modular with a Minimoog mounted in the middle of it (he assured me he could put it back together again afterwards!), a well-built Oakley system, a sprawling DIY 5U system, a whole lot of Eurorack (we plugged our system's clock out into our neighbour's clock in, which was fun), I think some frac rack, and a Yamaha CS of some variety and a TR-808. Not to mention the pleasant company! -
Is it a synth as well or just a sequencer??
Looks cool, hope it sells well for you.
Thanks! It's just a sequencer, with CV, gate and accent outputs, as well as run/stop and clock pulse inputs and outputs. It has no oscillator, filter, attenuator or envelope generator, you have to hook it up to external ones. We're going for the modular / Unix approach of "do one thing, and do it well."
We gave away about 40 business cards last weekend at the meetup the above photo was taken at, and several shops have contacted us, so it looks like our biggest problem might be keeping up with demand, to begin with. The best kind of problem!
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nice, is that your thing that you and your partner designed?
It is! :D We start selling it next month. I'm so excited!
APHEX TWIN - SYRO
in Aphex Twin
Posted
Get out me tank!