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

[Root5]

 

Oh I have one more track specific question. I forgot to ask about Outh9x. It's my favourite autechre track, and I could ask leading questions based on my interpretation of it as a polytonal masterpiece. But maybe I should ask about it in a more general way.

 

What was it like writing Outh9x? How did you come up with matching that bass melody with those pads? What gear is playing what part?

a lot of that is NMG2, and simmonsSDE. trying to get the tunes to peel off upwards all the time, most of it quick instinctive off the cuff reactions, but we were just quite careful not to rush it i think cos we had to get thebleakerthemorebeautiful bits to really work in the second half.

 

Thanks for the response!

 

And thanks for the music. You have so many tracks that are awesome in a way I've never heard before.

[purlieu]

I always thought the numbers were percentages of the disc, so if they're on a disc with other tracks they don't really work.

edit - Garbage, that is.

Edited November 6, 2013 by purlieu

[Sean Ae]

Do you often set out with a specific brief before making music? (Such as 'make a beat which inverts the position of the up and down beat over time' or something like that)

 

not really

might try it out as a sketch, if i have an idea that basic a sketch would be a good test, but in terms of implementing that i would more likely then shelve the idea so that it can come to me as a flash later when i'm in the middle of something else

I always thought the numbers were percentages of the disc, so if they're on a disc with other tracks they don't really work.

edit - Garbage, that is.

 

yeah exactly, 100 watmm points

[MadameChaos]

 

 

What where you doing there, Rob?

on my imaginary phone, yeah sand in my eyes, no crying

 

are you sure no crying coz in this next one it really looks like you are.

 

[Rob Ae]

Do you have track titles for the live tracks you do?

i need them as a sort of memory aid, i mean, i have done. not sure if i always will do tho'.

[Guest skibby]

Is Banksy's real identity something also famous? Like is he famous for something else too?

[Guest KunoMerit]

your picks:

 

r8 vs machinedrum

 

dx100 vs tx81z (don't know if these were ever used by you in particular but nice question. little dx100 with buttons vs tx81z multitimbral - you ever spend time on dumb questions like this? I do and I know it is such a waste - esp. when i own both and are so cheap).

 

nord g1 vs g2

 

did you use the machinedrum to trigger the nords like with the r8? maybe this was already answered as i know you had the g2 around on tours with the elektrons?

[Sean Ae]

 

 

What do you think of banksy?

utter shit

 

Can you elaborate? I'm curious to hear your opinion, seeing as you have had a history in graffiti.

 

 

yeah his style is shit and his shit cynical jokes are unfunny

 

and risk free cos stencils, so fails at graff

[thehauntingsoul]

 

What's a day in the life of Ae?

 

Any interesting stuff you can say about any of these tracks? Theme of sudden roundabout, iera, cfern, nuane, latent quarter, 777, netlon sentinel, perlence, they're a few of my faves.

 

Can you name my oxygen 49?

 

Space, deep sea or Antarctic?

 

Android or iOS?

 

Cheers, thanks again for this q&a session, it's been a great show!

will get to this tmoro

 

You broke my heart by not delivering, Rob. I'm going to run away and cry now.

[Sean Ae]

your picks:

 

r8 vs machinedrum

 

dx100 vs tx81z (don't know if these were ever used by you in particular but nice question. little dx100 with buttons vs tx81z multitimbral - you ever spend time on dumb questions like this? I do and I know it is such a waste - esp. when i own both and are so cheap).

 

nord g1 vs g2

 

did you use the machinedrum to trigger the nords like with the r8? maybe this was already answered as i know you had the g2 around on tours with the elektrons?

 

r8 cos it was there first

 

dx cos it pushes you more (but that's a tough one)

 

g2

 

nah but not thru choice or anything, just never did that

[Rob Ae]

I absolutely love

kruton: smallfish pa track 2 (autechre remix)

 

 

Can you tell me a bit about it and have you listened to it recently?

 

Any source for the original track online?

 

Its so filthy!

not sure i can find it online. could be out there somewhere.

[sergeantk]

do you enjoy Nutella spread?

 

do you enjoy listening to your tracks over anyone elses'?

Edited November 6, 2013 by sergeantk

[Guest]

 

 

 

today for example i'm listening to a smart playlist which is sorted by bpm

 

 

haha! speeding up or slowing down?

 

 

also, actual bpm or computationally guesstimated?

 

 

speeding up, but its happening really slowly, takes like 2 hours to get thru each whole bpm

 

computationally. but i like that cos some come out half speed or it sometimes plays one with the kicks doing a hemiola thing or whatever, it breaks things up nicely

 

 

this is indeed excellent.. running this analyzer over my lib now, intermediate results are already quite good: http://www.beatunes.com/itunes-automatic-bpm-detection.html

 

reminds me of another thing, not really a question tho... you mentioned earlier that working with data mining on your own music is not really a thing you're into if i understood right..

however, have you ever? there's e.g. this online API: http://developer.echonest.com/docs/v4/

 

it has a thing where you can get detailed analysis of an audio file, down to a "perceptive" description of each individual detected "played note" or hit in a piece.. more info about this here: http://developer.echonest.com/docs/v4/_static/AnalyzeDocumentation.pdf (PDF link)

 

basically you upload a track and get back some JSON/XML with lots of number/timestamp pairs relating to timbre/tonality and such.

interesting stuff imo... so far have only used it for visualization myself, but could be interesting for generating synth automation etc., especially related to how a BPM analyzer gets things wrong with interesting results nonetheless...

[olo]

 

I'll assume by not answering, I was on to something.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rob & Sean,

 

I know nothing of your personal lives, but, like, you guys sitting in your respective homes, answering a bunch of questions from fanboys & girls for most of the day, the past several days.

 

Aren't your wives/girlfriends like "awwright, can you like fix the damn running toilet, get the kids to school, go pick up some milk & cream, take out the trash, for christ sake, do something besides tappity, tap, tapping on your laptops!!!"???

 

or

 

"Oh, you're on watmm dear, let me top off your tea & fluff that pillow...carry on love."?

 

Don't get me wrong, you guys are f'ing champs for doing what your doing, but aren't you like bored yet?

lol

 

"...carry on love"

 

i fluff my own pillows thnx

 

Seriously though, in deeper context, you guys have spent several days on watmm. You realise now, watmm has slowly crept into some synapses & implanted itself in you. There is no going back I fear. After this experiment is over, you'll go back to your kickass lives, but days will pass. Maybe weeks or months. But, you'll be compelled to come back, you won't know why, but you will post here again. Slowly but surely swallowed into the bowels of watmm.

 

You will post threads about goatse. You will ponder the true meanings of heat or night. Threads about RDJ's next release will consume you. You will one day be like "who the fuck really was CUP?"

 

I pray for you.

 

on a side note, when you guys blow through Detroit again, you should find a way to do a guerilla set at the old packard plant. The Autechre sounds will draw in bald white dudes, (some German, some Polish), and the scrappers already in the plant will have some working music. Would be damn mental.

 

Holla when you guys come through. Again, cheers for helping me waste my days at work in this thread.

 

 

 

 

lol

 

 

Mr. Rogers arm wave

 

[Sean Ae]

 

 

 

What where you doing there, Rob?

on my imaginary phone, yeah sand in my eyes, no crying

 

are you sure no crying coz in this next one it really looks like you are.

 

 

 

 

she was like, sit here lads (in the windiest sandiest part of the british isles)

[SUPiERo]

 

Hi, Sean and Rob. Please answer the following questions:

1. What hath made you most proud of? (track, album, or something other than music). And they would like to forget?

2. What is your favorite place on the planet?

3. Please give a name for my new home audio system

Thank you very much

heya, liked your wedding photo btw, wasn't ignoring yr post. but i can't scribble on it.

 

1 dunno what makes me proud really. probably just actually getting a record out, and being out and watching people i didn't know hear it . that was a significant point i think.

2 deep water below clear skies sunshine/moonlight/stars

3 vanishing point

 

Rob, thank you for your answers. We are very pleased

Please answer by 5 short questions. We have reduced our list of questions. We understand that you all have time to answer difficult

1. Which track Autechre us to include? He will always be associated with our Honeymoon

2. What are your favorite wine and cheese?

3. FC Barcelona or Real Madrid? Cristiano Ronaldo or Messi?

4. Porsche or Ferrari?

[Rob Ae]

 

 

Do you have track titles for the live tracks you do?

not usually

but like, when we get handed a PRS form to fill in we make up a ton on the spot

so there are a lot of PRS listings for weird tracks that are only parts of live sets and that we subsequently forgot the names of

 

Do you still have such list? Can you show it to us? Sounds it would be good for a laugh.

 

i have oversteps list here, but not sure if you'll like them lol plus its not fair on sean cos he doesn't use words.

[Guest]

Do you have more male or female groupies and did you stop counting them after so many years?

[Guest cult fiction]

So you might have seen those suicide machines:

 

 

How stable are your max tunes usually?

 

Are there some whose parameters descend into chaos after awhile and you edit them down before chaos strikes?

[Sean Ae]

 

 

 

 

today for example i'm listening to a smart playlist which is sorted by bpm

 

 

haha! speeding up or slowing down?

 

 

also, actual bpm or computationally guesstimated?

 

 

speeding up, but its happening really slowly, takes like 2 hours to get thru each whole bpm

 

computationally. but i like that cos some come out half speed or it sometimes plays one with the kicks doing a hemiola thing or whatever, it breaks things up nicely

 

 

this is indeed excellent.. running this analyzer over my lib now, intermediate results are already quite good: http://www.beatunes.com/itunes-automatic-bpm-detection.html

 

reminds me of another thing, not really a question tho... you mentioned earlier that working with data mining on your own music is not really a thing you're into if i understood right..

however, have you ever? there's e.g. this online API: http://developer.echonest.com/docs/v4/

 

it has a thing where you can get detailed analysis of an audio file, down to a "perceptive" description of each individual detected "played note" or hit in a piece.. more info about this here: http://developer.echonest.com/docs/v4/_static/AnalyzeDocumentation.pdf (PDF link)

 

basically you upload a track and get back some JSON/XML with lots of number/timestamp pairs relating to timbre/tonality and such.

interesting stuff imo... so far have only used it for visualization myself, but could be interesting for generating synth automation etc., especially related to how a BPM analyzer gets things wrong with interesting results nonetheless...

 

 

 

yeah i sometimes sort large folders of one-shots by crest factor (p useful) - u can do that in sample manager

i did a load of tracks that are made of 1000s of drum machine presets all sorted by crest factor and then appended, so it keeps getting more intense over time

just for sport i might add

 

 

edit: this looks cool btw, thanks

Edited November 6, 2013 by Sean Ae

[spptrl alt del]

do you rate any british "free" improvisors, like keith rowe (prepared guitar) and john tilbury (piano) ? these two make a lot of unusual, atonal sounds (AMM, as a group) in realtime. their recordings, such as "newfoundland" are similarly odd and alien-sounding as autechre. the approach being different of course. curious if there's any interest there..

 

thanks for doing these questions, this is insane. and thanks for all the quality output

[Sean Ae]

So you might have seen those suicide machines:

 

 

How stable are your max tunes usually?

 

Are there some whose parameters descend into chaos after awhile and you edit them down before chaos strikes?

 

usually theres some control built in or some self regulation or whatever (pure chaos can be a bit silly ultimately)

 

i mean chaos in the trad sense there not the maths sense

do you rate any british "free" improvisors, like keith rowe (prepared guitar) and john tilbury (piano) ? these two make a lot of unusual, atonal sounds (AMM, as a group) in realtime. their recordings, such as "newfoundland" are similarly odd and alien-sounding as autechre. the approach being different of course. curious if there's any interest there..

 

thanks for doing these questions, this is insane. and thanks for all the quality output

 

i like fred frith a lot but i dunno the others u mentioned, its not a 'scene' i dig into much, just cos it seems to vary so much

[Guest KunoMerit]

you ever see this video?

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IwidT13MNBA

 

really turned me on to the nord lead.

 

really still holds up as a va.

[Rob Ae]

When people say Envane is all reworkings of Nuane, are they talking out their ass or is there truth to this?

they were done super close periods same studio/gear/tastes, not a reworking of the same one track no. but its really the naming characteristic they have most in common.

[Guest]

So you might have seen those suicide machines:

 

 

 

That sound. A Cipater machine.

Edited November 6, 2013 by Guest