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Aphex Twin's mixing process/tools


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hmmm, okay, i guess ill jump start this topic then..

 

so, analogue bubblebath 1, track 1:

 

i hear an 808.. i think.. ha. and thats all i know, those other synths, no idea.. sounds like it's all going through tape, with a lotta saturation.

 

fuck. welp. not sure if its possible to know how he makes stuff or if id even wanna know how he made it...

 

maybe the mystery makes it a little more exciting

 

 

I would hazard a guess that he doesn't even remember how he made it. Remember when he said he tried to recreate Digeridoo and he couldn't do it? Probably because back then he was wiring shit up and jamming out, and wasn't a pro yet.

 

 

wow, interesting.. i've never heard that interview.. so some of his techniques were even a mystery to him. that's actually fucking awesome. pure experimentation. no way of retracing. some magical shit right there.

 

 

I mean I imagine he could get pretty close, but I guess he didn't get it quite there. I bet is studio setups are ridiculous, and especially doing routing during stoned moments of pure music making bliss he might have trouble retracing his steps. I know I've had similar experiences looking back at some of my routing experiments in Reason. Obviously, that isn't even close to some of the complicated nonsense he must go through routing up all this amazing gear so...I bet that is one reason why we wouldn't see a live analord show as well.

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I bet is studio setups are ridiculous

 

 

Seeing as how he once mentioned having "a rack of modular behind his head", I'd imagine so, yes.

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marf and CT, how do you guys know those were his handles? A guess?

 

 

Yo, flowline was discovered by someone on a buhla forum that i cant find anymore. Flowline asked a question about the music easel. Something about morphing between presets, someone replied, and he replied back but with one of the well known aphex emails. I think it was the eric hard jams one. .. i cant find the forum now. So, youll have to trust me.

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marf and CT, how do you guys know those were his handles? A guess?

 

 

Panflet is called Richard:

http://search.retrosynth.com/ah/search/lookit.cgi?-v0407.382

 

And he owns a GX-1:

http://search.retrosynth.com/ah/search/lookit.cgi?-v0408.882

 

 

"A midi`d gx1 would really be an incredibly lush rich/full analogue setup"

 

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people are focused on the gx-1 but notice he mentions patching up an expressionist midi to cv box in poly mode to a synthi 100? a polyphonic synthi.

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he said to me he near enough every oldschool keyboard you can get, i mentioned my dw800 and he said that was one of the only ones he doesnt actually have.

 

 

his studio must look unbelievable

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Guest chops727

he said to me he near enough every oldschool keyboard you can get, i mentioned my dw800 and he said that was one of the only ones he doesnt actually have.

 

 

his studio must look unbelievable

Depends what his partner looks like ha, btw Messiaen did he have a bird on the go, who was he at Pleasure Principle with ? Yes I'm nosey.

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he said to me he near enough every oldschool keyboard you can get, i mentioned my dw800 and he said that was one of the only ones he doesnt actually have.

 

 

his studio must look unbelievable

 

Has he ever mentioned any other specific pieces of gear?

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he said to me he near enough every oldschool keyboard you can get, i mentioned my dw800 and he said that was one of the only ones he doesnt actually have.

 

 

his studio must look unbelievable

Depends what his partner looks like ha, btw Messiaen did he have a bird on the go, who was he at Pleasure Principle with ? Yes I'm nosey.

 

 

 

The-Creep-ft-Nicki-Minaj-John-Waters-the

 

he has a sexy young 24 year old wife like all them other cradle robbing idm superstars

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he owns every piece of gear you can buy with money. so if you buy any synth you are already trying to be aphex twin.

I suspect he really loves the buchlas. i bet he has some incredibly rare stuff in that world. you are talking big money and major rarity

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he owns every piece of gear you can buy with money. so if you buy any synth you are already trying to be aphex twin.

I suspect he really loves the buchlas. i bet he has some incredibly rare stuff in that world. you are talking big money and major rarity

 

An excellent reason to build your own synths, to make music that genuinely no one else can. (Unless they had the exact same idea of what kind of synth to make, which would be incredibly unlikely...)

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I bet most of his production/mixing process isn't half as complex as we'd imagine. But his tunes are done with such amazingly good taste and skills for composition and arrangement (in the melodies themselves and the sounds he choses to use) that it's mind-blowing.

 

Of course, all the gear he's supposed to have help having an amazing sound palette. But don't forget that some of the simplest routings, such as linking velocity to several carefully chosen synth's parameters can produce some beautiful sounds. And when you combine those amazing sounds with breath-taking notes and grooves...

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Here's a nice trick he's used a few times: he sometimes groups the music into patterns that are five bars long instead of four, with the fifth being a break, and then introduces new elements in the break that continue over to the next iteration. It's a pretty cunning way of introducing new elements without jarring the listener. (Sorry, I don't know the correct terminology, but it's a neat thing to try out.)

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I bet most of his production/mixing process isn't half as complex as we'd imagine. But his tunes are done with such amazingly good taste and skills for composition and arrangement (in the melodies themselves and the sounds he choses to use) that it's mind-blowing.

 

Of course, all the gear he's supposed to have help having an amazing sound palette. But don't forget that some of the simplest routings, such as linking velocity to several carefully chosen synth's parameters can produce some beautiful sounds. And when you combine those amazing sounds with breath-taking notes and grooves...

 

Well up until about Come to Daddy, his production's actually been pretty amateur. I love the choices of unique, homebrewed timbres, and the naïve, outsider art style approach to composing, but I never could make up my mind whether the simple production detracted from the otherwise great tracks, or added to their charm. I've been getting really into Melodies From Mars again lately, and most of it sounds like little more than someone trying to play samples of raw waveforms in real time, taking the worst of both worlds of chiptunes and amateur live performances. But that doesn't matter, because it's some of the cutest, happiest music I've ever heard, and I can't think of anything else quite like it, for better or for worse. Lately, I've started to think that its woefully basic realisation might actually add to its charm, and that a more professional sounding version might actually be less fun, even though it would be technically better. I guess it's not about what's best so much as what's appropriate. Either that, or I've been listening to it too much, and become attached to works in progress in a way that's dangerous if you want to actually finish making them into something better... (If he really is still refining this album, as he claims, I'm sure he'll prove me wrong and it will be much better than this version that's grown on me so much.)

 

Anyway, yes, it's about the ideas and their execution much more than the equipment. I still prefer SAW 85-92 (likely made on a Casio FZ-10M, DX-100, Quadraverb and Atari ST, using samples for the TR-808 hits and so on) to most of the Analord series (likely made on dozens of expensive and much revered pieces of classic equipment). Though both are very good in their own right and such a comparison is unfair, you can certainly make great music with limited equipment.

 

I think what I'm trying to say is that I agree with you. :)

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Of course, all the gear he's supposed to have help having an amazing sound palette. But don't forget that some of the simplest routings, such as linking velocity to several carefully chosen synth's parameters can produce some beautiful sounds. And when you combine those amazing sounds with breath-taking notes and grooves...

 

I agree with this.

 

Plus, I had sex with AFX once... I found his equipment left much to be desired.. ahem.

 

I found him in sound on sounds sex ads...

 

Ginger Cock in good condition, just gathering a bit of dust now! Cosmetically 6/10 Functionality 5/10, could do with a good service. If you're looking for a classic, look no further. Contact me for pics/video.

Email Richard 25/06/13

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Here's a nice trick he's used a few times: he sometimes groups the music into patterns that are five bars long instead of four, with the fifth being a break, and then introduces new elements in the break that continue over to the next iteration. It's a pretty cunning way of introducing new elements without jarring the listener. (Sorry, I don't know the correct terminology, but it's a neat thing to try out.)

 

Care to point out an example or two, Zoe?

Reading your description reminds me of the harpsichord lines at the end of Fenix Funk 5, which drifts out for a little bit when it goes into a higher octave (4:34) before falling back into place. But this doesn't seem to be what you're discussing.

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He sometimes groups the music into patterns that are five bars long instead of four, with the fifth being a break, and then introduces new elements in the break that continue over to the next iteration.

 

Care to point out an example or two, Zoe?

Reading your description reminds me of the harpsichord lines at the end of Fenix Funk 5, which drifts out for a little bit when it goes into a higher octave (4:34) before falling back into place. But this doesn't seem to be what you're discussing.

 

 

I was going to say Fenix Funk 5 is a good example, but I guess I'm misremembering it... In the bit that starts at 3:54, the drums are re-introduced in the second bar out of five, then in the iteration after the next, the scattered hi-hats are introduced on the second bar. So I'm misremembering it being in the break, but it's not the first bar, which makes a nice change from most composers.

 

Fingerbib's grouped into five bars at a time, not four, although changes are made at the beginning of a new pattern with this one.

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Grouping bits of the music into a number of bars that's not a power of two seems kind of underrepresented in music, doubly so electronic music. A few good examples:

 

  • [Rhubarb]: 4.75 (or it's in 19/4 time, depending on how you want to look at it)
  • Alberto Balsalm: 6 (4 bars of melody + 2 of drumbreak, except in the bridge)
  • Next Heap With: 5
  • AB5 track 2: 5
  • Cornish Acid: !!!
  • Fingerbib: 5 (4 main + 1 break)
  • To Cure a Weekling Child (Contour Regard): 9
  • If I remember correctly, Windowlicker has half a bar somewhere...

Anyway, you get the idea, I'm sure.

And then there's tricks like polyrhythms, not the proper kind where the different instruments play bars as long as each other but with different, non-divisable numbers of notes, but the kind where the different instruments are playing bars of different lengths but with the individual notes in sync (the kind that's doable with a step sequencer). That kind of thing's fun in Vaz Deferenz and Bodmin 3, not to mention a good amount of Hardfloor's work, Nine Inch Nails' album The Fragile, and so on...

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But what really fascinates me about some music (second era Aphex Twin, the last few years of Hans Zimmer so far) is combining orchestras or samples of orchestral instruments with non-instrument percussion and homebrew synth patches. It's so timbrally rich and original whenever anyone does this, and their results are vastly different to anyone else who does it. I kinda wish there were more albums that sound like Pancake Lizard, On, At the Heart of It All, tracks 1 and 8 of Analogue Bubblebath 5, and bits of ...I Care Because You Do and the Richard D. James Album, but mostly I just wish there were more albums that sound nothing at all like those, but just as original.

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And then there's tricks like polyrhythms, not the proper kind where the different instruments play bars as long as each other but with different, non-divisable numbers of notes, but the kind where the different instruments are playing bars of different lengths but with the individual notes in sync (the kind that's doable with a step sequencer).

This is called polymeter.

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