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when people says your track sounds like AE or AFX?

cern

By cern
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ignatius Grand Master

ignatius

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everyone hears shit differently. perception being what it is. 

i don't think anyone really sounds like autechre especially the last 10 years or so.. but really forever.. i mean.. you know when it's autechre. 

reading a grischa lichtenberger interview a couple years ago he was asked about autechre and comparisons etc and his reply was somehting like "you can't make weird music w/o someone comparing it to autechre" or something like that.. but he mentioned how he's mostly focused on sampling and sample processing/mangling and they're mostly about synthesis. 

regardless i don't think i've ever thought "grischa sounds like autechre"  - i think we're all well passed that discussion aren't we? anyone who's been listening for a while knows ae created a new genre like every 3 years or something and "autechre music" is the genre and it's a genre of 1.

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chim Grand Master

chim

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15 hours ago, ignatius said:

eading a grischa lichtenberger interview a couple years ago he was asked about autechre and comparisons etc and his reply was somehting like "you can't make weird music w/o someone comparing it to autechre" or something like that.. but he mentioned how he's mostly focused on sampling and sample processing/mangling and they're mostly about synthesis. 

regardless i don't think i've ever thought "grischa sounds like autechre"  - i think we're all well passed that discussion aren't we? anyone who's been listening for a while knows ae created a new genre like every 3 years or something and "autechre music" is the genre and it's a genre of 1.

Same goes for afx, he's made everything from ibiza dance pop to sandpaper noise gigs so it's hard to evade all association on a real fan forum. Maybe the idea is that only someone who didn't really listen to anything deeper down the iceberg would say that, so it became uncool. My only real problem is people who think there's four genres, synthwave, edm, afx and ae and if you do any non-dancey wanky stuff you're in the latter camps. So any comment really says more about them than you. 

"Sounds like" and "sounds exactly like" are a lot different, you could say sex pistols sound like the beatles, there's drums, guitar and some brits singing badly into a mic. I wouldn't pay too much attention.

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flacid Mentor

flacid

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Without getting too wanky about it I think normally it's a comparison of 'palette' rather than having decent/interesting rhythms or melodies. 

Detuned synths with 808/606 samples recorded to lo-fi tape etc etc "Sounds like early AFX mate."

A lot of the AFX 'copies' can't develop a track beyond it's initial idea. 

A lot of the Autechre 'copies' think that making an irregular rhythm makes it good. 

 

At the end of the day, most of the "Sounds like X" comments are just people trying to be nice about something they like. 

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flacid Mentor

flacid

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17 hours ago, ignatius said:

reading a grischa lichtenberger interview a couple years ago he was asked about autechre and comparisons etc and his reply was somehting like "you can't make weird music w/o someone comparing it to autechre" or something like that.. but he mentioned how he's mostly focused on sampling and sample processing/mangling and they're mostly about synthesis. 

Interesting, always thought Autechre were equally big on fucking up samples? I think the comparison thing is if you make good 'weird' music that has a tone, sound quality, personality and keeps your interest (whether rhythmic, timbral or melodic) then you're bound to be compared to Autechre. 

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thefxbip Mentor

thefxbip

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They're probably right.

You can react:

1- by being insulted

2- by being flattered

3- by being indifferent

4- try to make more original stuff

Let's just say that happened to me a lot because of my love of braindance lol. If you make braindance/idm you have to deal with it its just gonna happen.

If you want it to stop, you have to force yourself to make original and totally new sounding stuff.

Which is NOT easy AT ALL and is the reason why there is a lot of more or less derivative stuff (am 100% guilty of this)

I have nothing against things that don't reinvent the wheel but if people say it sounds like AFX/AE you got to be honest with yourself and realize it probably does.  There is nothing inherently wrong about that but original stuff will always have the upper hand.

These days i take it as a challenge to go from there and try to find new ideas from whatever i learned in the genre.

But yeah true originality and true artistic vision is not easy and is basically the artistic Graal. Some find it very quickly, some find it later at year 5-10-15 of practice, some never do.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited by thefxbip
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zkom Grand Master

zkom

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Actually I've had also the reverse happen to me. I sent a link to an Autechre track to them and they responded by saying that it sounds like my music. Damn Sean and Rob ripping off my style!

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modey Grand Master

modey

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I don't mind the AFX/Autechre comparisons, because I still rip off Autechre pretty regularly.

The worst one for me is when I include even the slightest hint of a slow minor chord arpeggio and people say "sounds like stranger things!!".

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ignatius Grand Master

ignatius

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8 minutes ago, modey said:

I don't mind the AFX/Autechre comparisons, because I still rip off Autechre pretty regularly.

The worst one for me is when I include even the slightest hint of a slow minor chord arpeggio and people say "sounds like stranger things!!".

when i worked at a synth shop people would come in and play that and try to patch it on a modular. i'd always walk over and point to the headphones with a smile.  after the first 10 times..  enough already. 

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exitonly Mentor

exitonly

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3 hours ago, ignatius said:

when i worked at a synth shop people would come in and play that and try to patch it on a modular. i'd always walk over and point to the headphones with a smile.  after the first 10 times..  enough already. 

 

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zkom Grand Master

zkom

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On 2/22/2022 at 8:37 PM, ignatius said:

reading a grischa lichtenberger interview a couple years ago he was asked about autechre and comparisons etc and his reply was somehting like "you can't make weird music w/o someone comparing it to autechre" or something like that.. but he mentioned how he's mostly focused on sampling and sample processing/mangling and they're mostly about synthesis.

I was thinking about this the other day when listening Grischa and I agree that vast majority of his stuff doesn't sound like Autechre but there are some tracks that come pretty close.

Like I could imagine this being an Ae track around Confield-Draft era. Maybe just the lack of reverb and the overall track structure betrays it a bit. And I think that time Autechre was also more into sampling?

 

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cern Grand Master

cern

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When people call synthesizer and drum machine "Oh Instant AE"

I can just play some metallic percussion on my MD and people like " YEAH Autechre style!"

FM-syntesis: Oh Autechre style yeah

:facepalm:

 

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