Autechre Elektron

[Guest moo duck]

it sounds elektron-ish and that's it. i don't believe in gear influence on ideas of ae

 

Actually they talk all the time about how different pieces of equipment influence their work.

honestly i don't believe much what they talk, really. not talking make the musics. of course, it can't be done out of the environment and certain methods, but that's not what i consider as musical direction

[Guest Rook]

oh yea. That shake sound and snare sound in the beginning of Sublimit is pretty standard machinedrum.

 

And yea their live sets, especially Glasgow, are an elektron party. But seriously, I have been trying to emulate that snare sound Sean uses a lot like forever and I can never get it quite right. Like the one in LCC and in the LCC remix during the live sets. The one that is all over the place during the quaristice tour. The really powerful one.

 

you know i was thinking the snares they use might be from the MPC as well, after all they do have one on stage during both of those tours. the snares are probably the weakest aspect of the Machindrums, the claps sounds fucking great especially through the compression and reverb master effects, but just straight snares (especially the synth generated ones) are kind of disappointing for me.

 

Yea, I use the EFM Bass Drum for snare hits lol along with the noise machine and that really good clap one.

 

 

Did you try the LCC sysex file on elektron-users that Futureimage did ? He get quite close.

 

Yea, I heard that. His timing is pretty darn close, but his machines don't have the same power that sean gets out of those bad boys.

[Lianne]

besides what Rook already mentioned, the bass drums on perlence are from the physical modeling machinedrum kit pretty much unaltered

the clicking "tap tap tap" drums at the end of chenc9 are a slightly altered md kit, forgot which one

Io is pretty monomachine and machinedrum centric but its very effected and manipulated probably not many presets being used here.

90101-5l-l sounds like exclusively monomachine an machinedrum but is also heavily effected with lots of lfos running to make the drums get all skittery.

 

What about a track like 'Simmm'? What's going on there? That one sounds like nothing else I've heard.

 

Someone mentioned that Iera had a bass-drum preset. I kind of thought that track had genius timing and lots of weird original sounds spinning about...so that's slightly disappointing.

 

When you people say that tracks sound like they're off the monomachine or whatever, is that just drum hits, or have they used entire preset patterns/rhythms?

 

Btw, thanks for all the tech-talk sirs. I actually find all this stuff really interesting.

[Guest Rook]

besides what Rook already mentioned, the bass drums on perlence are from the physical modeling machinedrum kit pretty much unaltered

the clicking "tap tap tap" drums at the end of chenc9 are a slightly altered md kit, forgot which one

Io is pretty monomachine and machinedrum centric but its very effected and manipulated probably not many presets being used here.

90101-5l-l sounds like exclusively monomachine an machinedrum but is also heavily effected with lots of lfos running to make the drums get all skittery.

 

What about a track like 'Simmm'? What's going on there? That one sounds like nothing else I've heard.

 

Someone mentioned that Iera had a bass-drum preset. I kind of thought that track had genius timing and lots of weird original sounds spinning about...so that's slightly disappointing.

 

When you people say that tracks sound like they're off the monomachine or whatever, is that just drum hits, or have they used entire preset patterns/rhythms?

 

Btw, thanks for all the tech-talk sirs. I actually find all this stuff really interesting.

 

 

Not patterns or rhythms. All of that is genuine ae. And I only recognize two sounds in all of Iera. Simmm uses the monomachine fm synthesizer, but in a pretty amazing way. I thought it was awesome when I heard it.

[soundwave]

Not wantimg to seem like an Elektron promoter but this is worth a read from the official Elektron site for those who haven't already seen it... http://www.elektron.se/extras/?sPage=stori...=2&iSubId=1

[Blir]

Whoa guys, chill out, you're making AE sound boring for me.

 

I'm honestly not all that bothered by preset sounds, as long as they're put together well then I'm down. I love Quaristice and Untilted so FUCK OFF

 

 

 

:)

[Lianne]

Whoa guys, chill out, you're making AE sound boring for me.

 

I'm honestly not all that bothered by preset sounds, as long as they're put together well then I'm down. I love Quaristice and Untilted so FUCK OFF

 

 

 

:)

 

I'm no geek head, but I do find other musician's technical insights into all this stuff really interesting. I mean, if you can't discuss this stuff here, where can you? Some might say it should never be discussed, but I don't see why not. For those of us new to all this who find the "behind the scenes stuff" interesting, we can read these threads which much joy. For those that feel it destroys the experience of listening - well, you don't need to read the thread, do you? Maybe you can bug off instead.

[Guest Rook]

Seriously though, if someone other than AE did what they did on Simmm, the "electronic music" (lol) world would be all like "omg most amazing thing evar." But yea, Quaristice is good, just not as good as prior work. I still think that Untilted is the better album. Plus, the extra disc and accompanying ep's make it hard for me to think of Quaristice as an album.

[Dale]

Right at 2.00 of Pro Radii, where the dark pads step in, then you got that drum pattern over the top - is that percussion from an elektron? I love it

[Guest Rook]

Right at 2.00 of Pro Radii, where the dark pads step in, then you got that drum pattern over the top - is that percussion from an elektron? I love it

 

 

Sounds like it to me. It sounds like their might be a filter from something else though.

[Blir]

Whoa guys, chill out, you're making AE sound boring for me.

 

I'm honestly not all that bothered by preset sounds, as long as they're put together well then I'm down. I love Quaristice and Untilted so FUCK OFF

 

 

 

:)

 

I'm no geek head, but I do find other musician's technical insights into all this stuff really interesting. I mean, if you can't discuss this stuff here, where can you? Some might say it should never be discussed, but I don't see why not. For those of us new to all this who find the "behind the scenes stuff" interesting, we can read these threads which much joy. For those that feel it destroys the experience of listening - well, you don't need to read the thread, do you? Maybe you can bug off instead.

 

That wasn't what I said. I like reading and discussing the technical aspects, but I don't think using preset sounds makes the music any less good. Which seems to be what people are implying.

[Lianne]

Whoa guys, chill out, you're making AE sound boring for me.

 

I'm honestly not all that bothered by preset sounds, as long as they're put together well then I'm down. I love Quaristice and Untilted so FUCK OFF

 

 

 

:)

 

I'm no geek head, but I do find other musician's technical insights into all this stuff really interesting. I mean, if you can't discuss this stuff here, where can you? Some might say it should never be discussed, but I don't see why not. For those of us new to all this who find the "behind the scenes stuff" interesting, we can read these threads which much joy. For those that feel it destroys the experience of listening - well, you don't need to read the thread, do you? Maybe you can bug off instead.

 

That wasn't what I said. I like reading and discussing the technical aspects, but I don't think using preset sounds makes the music any less good. Which seems to be what people are implying.

 

Oh right, sorry.

 

However, I can understand that view, though, and I partially agree with it. Thing is, I wouldn't care if lots of electronic artists used some presets, because their music has other elements that do something for me. Like Plaid; I don't mind that some of their sounds resemble cheesy presets, because I love their harmonies and melodies; or the better pieces by the likes of Tangerine Dream or Vangelis or even Jean Michel Jarre, because again, there's other qualities that drive their music. However, when music is devoid of any traditional harmonic or melodic or structural ideas, I'd hope that the organized sounds present in the music are actually made by the composers themselves. Otherwise, what is there?

[Blir]

That's a very good point.

 

I suppose that's hard to say though, because most artists use several bits of kit so it's unlikely you'd spot every preset sound. Unless you're Awepittance of course, who'd have you believe he's used every piece of hardware and software known to man. Hell, he's probably banged a couple of tunes out using Sean Booths mum as an instrument.

 

I'm not saying I don't believe him.

[soundwave]

I think as in terms or creative electronic music I think you can only get away with using a preset once and if you get there early enough as very soon everyone will be using it or avoiding it beacuse you used it first.

[Guest Rook]

I think that Quaristice just surprised elektron users that's all. I mean, it has been a really long time before AE used straight ahead out of the box sounds in their music. I mean, they have been using a Nord Modular for 10 years. Thousands of people use Nord Modulars but they don't make them sound like Autechre. Same with Max/Msp etc... Hell, Pen Expers was made using a DMX drummachine. Have you ever heard a dmx drummachine? It sounds nothing like Pen Expers at all. However, with Quaristice, and in a few places on Untilted, some of the sounds are simply out of the box sounds. The elektrons come with a few stock samples, and then a whole bunch of "machine" synthesizers. So you can tweak the synth sounds however you wish. Yet some of the sounds AE have used lately have been untweaked. I mean, of course they have done this in the past, but not for a while.

[awepittance]

I think that Quaristice just surprised elektron users that's all. I mean, it has been a really long time before AE used straight ahead out of the box sounds in their music. I mean, they have been using a Nord Modular for 10 years. Thousands of people use Nord Modulars but they don't make them sound like Autechre. Same with Max/Msp etc... Hell, Pen Expers was made using a DMX drummachine. Have you ever heard a dmx drummachine? It sounds nothing like Pen Expers at all. However, with Quaristice, and in a few places on Untilted, some of the sounds are simply out of the box sounds. The elektrons come with a few stock samples, and then a whole bunch of "machine" synthesizers. So you can tweak the synth sounds however you wish. Yet some of the sounds AE have used lately have been untweaked. I mean, of course they have done this in the past, but not for a while.

 

yes and also worth noting is some of the machine synthesizers, even with heavily tweaked parameters (not talking about lfo here) can still sound very similar to the original stock hit.

[sweepstakes]

However, when music is devoid of any traditional harmonic or melodic or structural ideas, I'd hope that the organized sounds present in the music are actually made by the composers themselves. Otherwise, what is there?

Loads. Mixing, processing or otherwise manipulating the spectral/vertical domain; sequencing, arranging or otherwise manipulating the time/horizontal domain. Most turntablists don't create their own records and having to use other people's music and sounds doesn't seem to hamper their ability to express.

 

Ever play with an old drum machine and a delay pedal? There's a world of possibility, even if the only control you have over the drum sounds is their level and sequencing.

 

In other words, I don't think that Autechre needs to manipulate synthesis parameters in order for the listener to glean any enjoyment or edification from listening to their music. I for one certainly don't get my listening pleasure from "traditional harmonic or melodic or structural ideas". If anything, using a preset that I'm familiar with would probably give me more enjoyment because I'd feel a certain sense of subversive glee in recognizing its [ab]use. Perhaps especially if it was a cheesy one that I'd decided was awful and I'd never use.

[soundwave]

I think for every preset they use there's 100's of fucking amazing sounds they've discovered themselves that I'm struggling to begin getting to grips with.

 

However I think they could easily do another album totally different to Untilted and Quaristice using the Elektrons, they are that vast yet so easy to use.

[Guest Rook]

However I think they could easily do another album totally different to Untilted and Quaristice using the Elektrons, they are that vast yet so easy to use.

 

this is the truth. Although, if they do another elektron album, I sincerely hope it will be akin to their live sets. I would even be down for just one sixty minute long track.

 

 

For the Record: Perlence Subrange 6-36 is amazing.

[Guest spraaaa]

However, when music is devoid of any traditional harmonic or melodic or structural ideas, I'd hope that the organized sounds present in the music are actually made by the composers themselves. Otherwise, what is there?

 

that kinda answers itself... the way they're organized. that's what's so damn cool about untilted to me, it's more abut the rhythms and the crazy ways the songs fit together than what specific drum sounds they used. quaristice I like the sounds more but what makes it fun to replay is all the little variations that keep reshaping a song you think you've got memorized.

 

edit - or what sweepstakes said. don't mean to pick on you I'm just hella into these albums.

[Blir]

However I think they could easily do another album totally different to Untilted and Quaristice using the Elektrons, they are that vast yet so easy to use.

 

Although, if they do another elektron album, I sincerely hope it will be akin to their live sets.

 

 

Hmmm, I don't know... I love the live set, I've listened to LA 08 and Glasgow 05 so many times, but having that as an album I don't think would work so much. AE sound huge live, I'm not sure that would translate onto an album so well. I could be wrong of course!

 

Their albums tend to be more cerebral though, while their live show is much more thumping. I think I'd like it to stay this way.

[Guest Rook]

If they do a more cerebral album next, I really hope it is a lot of found sounds/computery work. Not because I am sick of the elektron sound or because I don't think the elektron's can do that, simply because I am really aching for that kind of sound from AE.

[Guest Goum Le Chat]

If they do a more cerebral album next, I really hope it is a lot of found sounds/computery work. Not because I am sick of the elektron sound or because I don't think the elektron's can do that, simply because I am really aching for that kind of sound from AE.

 

I agree with you - I'd like them to sound different (from md / mnm) now. We had Untitled and Quaristice and all the gigs with those typical Elektron sounds. I love it, but I want something different. I don't care about what they do next, I'll listen it to make my opinion.

[awepittance]

Whoa guys, chill out, you're making AE sound boring for me.

 

I'm honestly not all that bothered by preset sounds, as long as they're put together well then I'm down. I love Quaristice and Untilted so FUCK OFF

 

 

 

:)

 

basically what you are saying is learning facts about AE makes you like their music less, interesting !

[Blir]

Whoa guys, chill out, you're making AE sound boring for me.

 

I'm honestly not all that bothered by preset sounds, as long as they're put together well then I'm down. I love Quaristice and Untilted so FUCK OFF

 

 

 

:)

 

basically what you are saying is learning facts about AE makes you like their music less, interesting !

 

Ah, come on man, you know I was being facetious. Just bored at work!