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

[jules]

 

 

i feel like untilted > untilted tour > quaristice > quaristice tour was like 1 big creative chunk of exploration. has working out live stuff from 1 record always contributed to the next album as much as it did with that stuff?

yeah this throughput was useful defo, but hard to answer definitively cos live sets were very often a separate setup cos we ether a) not like to 'do' studio tracks in live context. like whip out bass cadet on request. b) couldn't do it with the gear we wanted to jam onstage with. c) or other.

 

but after each tour we'd come back to reset, untitled/elektrons et al - like sean said earlier were easy to get out the box after moving house/studio. so it was a starting point to mess with what was in there.

 

then moving on from hardware live setup, had the effect like in reverse.

 

theres been a strong sense of contribution from previous live set to the following album, but not always in literal use of gear terms. sometimes just a reaction to it. not sure if that is clear tho'

no, that's awesome. thanks!

[Cornphlex]

Do you like Prefuse73 ?

[joshuatxuk]

Thank you so much for doing this! I'm still catching up with reading all of the Q&As, so apologies if this is a repeat:

 

It's been mentioned Sean recorded the numbers station sample for the Boards of Canada track "Gyroscope." (There's been some other sources saying it was from the Cornet Project). I was wondering if you had any more background about this but more broadly, I was wondering how much experience either of you have with amateur radio/ham radio and how much said activity has been incorporated into any of your music and/or influenced it?

[mosca]

Don't know if this has been asked but, how many tunes have you posted in Your Latest Creations that have been slated by the watmmassive?

 

Like a fox.

[Adamovich]

Do you like Prefuse73 ?

 

Yeah speaking of which...

 

 

...deco Loc vocal samples, Remember sources and their actual origin?

 

 

Sean and Rob pls, more stuff like this

 

thanks

Edited November 4, 2013 by Indicator

[Lesley]

 

 

 

1) How did you do that great repeating delay feedback sound in Drane where is sounds like the delay time is being changed a lot?

 

2) LP5 sounds really clean and crisp (for want of a better word) compared to anything that came before it, was this your first major move to Max/MSP and away from outboard synths / effects?

 

3) Who is Jacobean?

1 not telling

 

2 no

 

3 sorry?

 

 

Jacobean from Mask 500: http://www.discogs.com/Various-MASK-500/release/19800

 

now u have me playing the Dranes back to back really loud.

 

 

Including Drane3?

Sean said it has lush synths.

[lumpenprol]

I suspect Sean was pulling our collective legs with the reference to a (likely nonexistent) Drane 3

[Goiter Sanchez]

 

Ever thought about doing a Autechre goes classical show ? Tracks converted into scores for an orchestra ?

Aye I'd love to hear Arch Carrier performed with a string ensemble - Not sure how they'd do the percussion though !

 

There's this (@ 42:00) though it's a cover rather than a piece created specifically for an orchestral setting:

[mcbpete]

Ah nice - I wondered if Alarm Will Sound had done anything else. Great find :)

[Rob Ae]

do you you have specific visuals / spaces / ideas for your tracks that persist, or do they change over time so you see the music in a new light?

yeah nothing specific visually, its usually too wild or turbulent to be literal. yeah things change mostly down to adding more experiences on top of experiences.

 

disembarking off a cliff edge but horizontally is a recurring good one.

Edited November 4, 2013 by Rob Ae

[digit]

something i've always wondered: what synth did you use for 'Altibzz'? such a beautiful sound on that one.

[Guest cult fiction]

What does the title 'jatevee C' refer to?

[logakght]

favorite programming language besides MAX?

[Guest SammyTheCrab]

Hello Rob.

some questions

What is your fav acid house 12"

What is your fav album or 12" cover art

Can you remember the label of that acid 12" with the hip hop acapellas ove the top (ice t shante ) etc.. as im trying to find a copy.

are your decks original or did you ever have to replace them

[o00o]

 

Can a recommend a certain generative music patch / vst / software you like a lot (besides the ones you created yourself)?

 

Did you replace midi in favor of a modified version of osc or did you create something new from scratch?

 

Do you like any sepecific ios / android music app you would suggest?

 

What do you think about software like noatikl, synfire, melodyne and liquid notes?

when sean pointed me to SunVox on IOS i was pretty chuffed.

 

wow SunVox looks really nice

 

could you please answer this:

 

Can a recommend a certain generative music patch / vst / software you like a lot (besides the ones you created yourself)?

[Sean Ae]

If the yellow power ranger is a girl then how the hell do you explain this?

 

 

the director was obviously implying that gender is a social construct

[Guest skyking]

Hey Rob! Hey Sean!

 

What is your stance on illegal file sharing?

A collab with VHS Head possible in the future?

What are your thoughts on Vatican Shadow output?

That last track on Radio mix - one of your own unreleased tracks or a remix?

Sean, that Casio Databank is still working?

 

Thanks!

[Sean Ae]

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).

 

nah u know what, i only read about that on here like a week or two ago

i haven't even heard it

obv. it's a huge fuckup as i'm guessing they shifted a few of them by now

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

 

i dunno i guess we were reacting a bit to everyone asking why the japan only tracks were always a bit rubbish

 

 

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?

 

 

i might but if i got sidetracked and ended up making something different then i would see that as a good thing

[Sean Ae]

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.

 

tbh it's only frustrating in a third party kind of way

like, if i'm seeing someone trying to explain to someone else what's good about a track and they end up resorting to ill-fitting metaphor or cliche-speak

but in terms of us, and process, or playing rob stuff, nah, u can just tell if someone is getting it, there are a ton of unconscious signals i think. or i feel, i mean

[Sean Ae]

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.

 

they were done in our studio as a chunk of tracks, i.e. we got the request and then did the tracks one after another

[Rob Ae]

Hello Rob.

some questions

What is your fav acid house 12"

What is your fav album or 12" cover art

Can you remember the label of that acid 12" with the hip hop acapellas ove the top (ice t shante ) etc.. as im trying to find a copy.

are your decks original or did you ever have to replace them

 

it changes, prob my most awesome fave is very often : Jaquarius - Love Is Happiness(Acid Rain) 1988 - YouTube

 

what!? one cover? right now as yr asking : Unsane. the one with the track : Bath on it

[Sean Ae]

Hi there,

 

Was wondering if you could confirm whether the track in this youtube video really is by you, or whether it was mislabelled - doesn't sound like your other stuff, but i guess you guys aren't known for keeping to one style. It is at the second half of this video, starts at around 4 min. (also its not the track labelled in to comment section)

 

 

cheers!

 

yeah it's our remix of various artists

http://www.discogs.com/Various-Artists-Remixes/release/13017

[encey]

So, you write your music; and a lot of the rhythms and melodies vary widely from bar to bar.

 

When I listen to it, I have memorized some of them, but there are always parts that sound new to me because I don't remember that particular variation, and there are so many different ones (fills, riffs and such) -- does that happen to you too? Are you still surprised by what happens in the songs, or do you know them backwards and forwards since you made them and listened to them so many times during the final mix process? (I know generative vs. non-generative writing makes a difference here, feel free to comment on either case.)

 

Btw, that's one of my favorite parts about your music, that (cliché as it sounds) I am always hearing new things and being surprised and entertained. :)

[Sean Ae]

Do you like the matrix sequels?

 

god no they were absolutely shit

What item under $100 would you suggest to someone who wanted to start making music?

 

renoise

[Rob Ae]

 

Hello Rob.

some questions

What is your fav acid house 12"

What is your fav album or 12" cover art

Can you remember the label of that acid 12" with the hip hop acapellas ove the top (ice t shante ) etc.. as im trying to find a copy.

are your decks original or did you ever have to replace them

 

it changes, prob my most awesome fave is very often : Jaquarius - Love Is Happiness(Acid Rain) 1988 - YouTube

 

what!? one cover? right now as yr asking : Unsane. the one with the track : Bath on it

 

 

does todd terry count, not acid, but house, such a prolific house producer

u mean like 'sharp as a knife', brandon cooke 12" - club records?,

ones my proper first 1210mkII

the others a bit newer.