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

[Sean Ae]

look here

thats prob the most weirdest (I know thats totally wrong english but thats just the best way to describe what it is) webpage related to autechre

comments?

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Music/Autechre?from=Main.Autechre

 

>canon discontinuity

 

stopped reading there

Were there any equivalents in your opinion of you and RDJ (In my opinion, haha) in before you started releasing stuff? I mean in terms of dedication, taste, experimentation, etc. All those things that make you and him unique.

 

i dunno what you think marks us out tbh, there were tons of amazing electro producers before us

[Rob Ae]

first thanks for doing this and esp. thanks for answering all the very specific questions about tracks, titles, methods, gear, etc. - it is good to have these answered as they are not things that a normal journalist interviewer would ever ask. without this question-and-answer session i'm sure many things would never be answered. i'm sure i hear an autechre track daily and have little questions that stay with me for years.

 

 

questions:

 

it's 1986 - pause button breaks, what do you jam in there to continue making mixes? i found a screw-driver to work the best. the little plastic pause button hinges always broke.

 

mpc1000 - what role does it play live? samples only or sequencing too? are most of those nice kicks from the nord or samples?

 

you seem to run the nords, etc. dry live or is there compression going on other than house sound system protection compression? i never really got the need for compression on electronic instruments other than dancy-effects compression. you seem to master most of it with the programming. or is there something i'm not seeing?

 

would you say you are "into" synthesizers? like do you keep bits of gear around that aren't part of the current recording/jamming studio? or is it strictly using what is needed and not getting bothered with gear obsessions.

the pause button mixes were more serial compositions than what i think you actually mean, turntable pairs of tracks could be edited like a splice to get beats running into each other. the pause was used as a razor in trad tape edits.

mpc1k, on untitled tour, mpc was samples/fx, sequencing those and the nord modulars. some kicks were samples, usually the dirtier ones, clean mostly nord.

 

usually we had a pair of comp/lim units at each of mine n seans' workstations', and one at the master, then yeah one at the FOH console.

 

i tend to keep gear lying around, or stacked up in the studio - but my actually main workspace where i focus on current tracks is less random. i like having it around, but not obsessively

Edited November 7, 2013 by Rob Ae

[MadnessR]

Do you master your own albums? If not, have you ever been disappointed in the mix?

[Sean Ae]

Do you master your own albums? If not, have you ever been disappointed in the mix?

 

no and anyone who thinks that's a viable option doesn't really know what mastering means

 

we do the mix ourselves (mixing != mastering)

[Guest InSpectr]

why not continue lentic catachresis these beautiful chords and rolled in broken stuff?

how to relate to today's listener can feel a difference between a rave nineties and so what happens now?

[casual helipad]

Greetings again! you still keep up strong, are you glad it's almost done, or could you keep on a couple of days longer? I must say this is fan-service like I've never experienced before, just super cool of you guys to do this! :)

 

ok so just a a couple of follow ups from previous posts.

 

- so Sean, while we're at the topic of Lost and SW.... any opinons on JJ. Abrams taking the SW franchise further with epVII? On imdb the original cast (Hamill, Ford, Fisher) is even rumored to reappear in their original roles. Will you watch it when it's released? or just forget that this whole thing is even happening?

 

- and speaking of books/literature, were any of you guys into Roald Dahl as kids? He was my childhood favourite, Willy Wonka, The BFG, the Twits and so on... so many memorable characters! his adult fiction is pretty ace as well, read anything of that?

 

 

 

 

some more random bits (a few questions from a post way back I think they were left unanwered):

 

- Dali or Escher? (any thoughts why you'd prefer either)

 

 

- Did you know that "pule" actually means "to fuck" in Norwegian? was that a conscious choice when naming the track or coincidence? I think it's pretty cool anyhow, and the track is great as well. It follow that pattern from Amber and Tri Repetae were you had one more ambient track towards the end of the album. It's almost like these albums (amber, tri repetae, chiastic slide) creates some kind of a narrative in a way (but then again I guess your whole discography taken as a whole, does :)

 

 

 

- what do you guys think of xploding plastix? like tracks such as these:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tnJ998Trn7g

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WDz1Q_pxgc0

 

 

 

- What kind of teas are you mostly into? had noteworthy lately you'd like to recommend?

[salvakkpooo]

 

look here

thats prob the most weirdest (I know thats totally wrong english but thats just the best way to describe what it is) webpage related to autechre

comments?

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Music/Autechre?from=Main.Autechre

 

>canon discontinuity

 

stopped reading there

Were there any equivalents in your opinion of you and RDJ (In my opinion, haha) in before you started releasing stuff? I mean in terms of dedication, taste, experimentation, etc. All those things that make you and him unique.

 

i dunno what you think marks us out tbh, there were tons of amazing electro producers before us

 

I think that the output of things like good taste, experimenting with stuff and being dedicated is something that I love in music, I think. You and RDJ seem to be like that for me. I know that there are other good thinks that kind of have this, but I think that they lack of tastiness in many times.

[nizzleone]

Speaking of limiters, and this goes back to the mastering question I asked before, but do you usually put any compression/limiter on the main bus or do leave that up to Noel?

 

Do you guys make more money from releases or touring?

[Guest TSF]

please o please!!!!!

 

 

Hello WATMM!

 

 

Hello Sean and Rob!

 

....yes, this is a serious question: ....what is you opnion (if any) of classic country music? (any and all between 1928-1984)

 

 

 

 

gotta get in on this....relics are vital for me as a memory substitution

 

please name my Octatrack....and name ME (serious)

 

....please name my future modular synth

 

names, names, namesaroo..

 

 

so long and thanks for all the _______

 

 

ps- bc of Valis, I think Radio Free Albemuth gets swept under the rug unfairly...chack it out if you haven't already

 

thank you o thank you

[Guest rd1994]

do you enjoy when people need 3 or 4 times before the albums you do "click" or do you prefer if they like it straight away?

[Guest skytree]

Saw you were already asked a few questions about field recordings, but if either of you could choose (1) a favorite man-made sound and (2) a favorite "natural" sound, in terms of something you've just always enjoyed since you were younger or ideas they've inspired, what would they be?

IE: found the other day that the little strips of bark that spiral off of a birch can be whittled down easily to produce specific pitches, then played like a kalimba...made a melody for a track this way recently. I'm curious if this sort of thing happens in your process very frequently, at least in terms of inspiration coming from the sonic environment around you.

Apologies if this has already been asked in some form, and thanks again for doing this guys. Used to moderate here years ago but actually just rejoined so I could hop in this thread. It's good to be back. Cheers.

P.S. If you could name my EH Holiest Grail, that would be most rad.

[Sean Ae]

why not continue lentic catachresis these beautiful chords and rolled in broken stuff?

how to relate to today's listener can feel a difference between a rave nineties and so what happens now?

 

with electronic music there are always going to be overlapping generations of producers, it doesn't have the same kind of physical limits that being a rock star seems to

 

as far as knowing what a younger audience thinks of early rave music, i have no idea

house has been quite trendy over the last cpl of years, and i'd like to think that's cos some of the good stuff has enduring aesthetic qualities

(but then i hear someone play 'ride on time' in a club and i realise i might be a bit wrong about that)

[Rob Ae]

Greetings again! you still keep up strong, are you glad it's almost done, or could you keep on a couple of days longer? I must say this is fan-service like I've never experienced before, just super cool of you guys to do this! :)

 

ok so just a a couple of follow ups from previous posts.

 

- so Sean, while we're at the topic of Lost and SW.... any opinons on JJ. Abrams taking the SW franchise further with epVII? On imdb the original cast (Hamill, Ford, Fisher) is even rumored to reappear in their original roles. Will you watch it when it's released? or just forget that this whole thing is even happening?

 

- and speaking of books/literature, were any of you guys into Roald Dahl as kids? He was my childhood favourite, Willy Wonka, The BFG, the Twits and so on... so many memorable characters! his adult fiction is pretty ace as well, read anything of that?

 

 

 

 

some more random bits (a few questions from a post way back I think they were left unanwered):

 

- Dali or Escher? (any thoughts why you'd prefer either)

 

 

- Did you know that "pule" actually means "to fuck" in Norwegian? was that a conscious choice when naming the track or coincidence? I think it's pretty cool anyhow, and the track is great as well. It follow that pattern from Amber and Tri Repetae were you had one more ambient track towards the end of the album. It's almost like these albums (amber, tri repetae, chiastic slide) creates some kind of a narrative in a way (but then again I guess your whole discography taken as a whole, does :)

 

 

 

- what do you guys think of xploding plastix? like tracks such as these:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tnJ998Trn7g

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WDz1Q_pxgc0

 

 

 

- What kind of teas are you mostly into? had noteworthy lately you'd like to recommend?

really not feeling the kazoo in here or the washboard stuff - thats totally wack, but the carpenter esque stuff with mellotronage at the beginning is nice - overall comes over as knowingly bad goofy. some sounds in it are good - like deep acoustic percs, but its not really focussing on any in particular, like needlessly switching to the wrong instrument every time i notice a good bit. seems like they're not 100% sure what they like imo.

[DorkingtonPugsly]

So my music teacher wants me to write a paper on Augmatic Disport. But I don't know what to write. Help pls?

[keltoi]

dunno if covered already so soz if so...

 

it's rumoured both you and cunningham didn't like the 2nd bad vilbel vid? any truth in any of that?

[Sean Ae]

Saw you were already asked a few questions about field recordings, but if either of you could choose (1) a favorite man-made sound and (2) a favorite "natural" sound, in terms of something you've just always enjoyed since you were younger or ideas they've inspired, what would they be?

 

IE: found the other day that the little strips of bark that spiral off of a birch can be whittled down easily to produce specific pitches, then played like a kalimba...made a melody for a track this way recently. I'm curious if this sort of thing happens in your process very frequently, at least in terms of inspiration coming from the sonic environment around you.

 

Apologies if this has already been asked in some form, and thanks again for doing this guys. Used to moderate here years ago but actually just rejoined so I could hop in this thread. It's good to be back. Cheers.

 

P.S. If you could name my EH Holiest Grail, that would be most rad.

 

 

i think we already did this but i like this q so will answer again

throwing stones onto an icy lake is really lush

and the sound of an approaching train sometimes sends shockwaves up the tracks which you can hear way before the train arrives, i always liked that

 

that fact about birch is amazing, so the harmonies are built into the structure of the wood already. mind = blown

yeah i mean we stumble upon things a lot

i think the thing is to stay open minded so when things like that occur you actually notice them, as opposed to rigidly finishing the task you started (this is the main reason i prefer max to sc)

Edited November 7, 2013 by Sean Ae

[Rob Ae]

Saw you were already asked a few questions about field recordings, but if either of you could choose (1) a favorite man-made sound and (2) a favorite "natural" sound, in terms of something you've just always enjoyed since you were younger or ideas they've inspired, what would they be?

 

IE: found the other day that the little strips of bark that spiral off of a birch can be whittled down easily to produce specific pitches, then played like a kalimba...made a melody for a track this way recently. I'm curious if this sort of thing happens in your process very frequently, at least in terms of inspiration coming from the sonic environment around you.

 

Apologies if this has already been asked in some form, and thanks again for doing this guys. Used to moderate here years ago but actually just rejoined so I could hop in this thread. It's good to be back. Cheers.

 

P.S. If you could name my EH Holiest Grail, that would be most rad.

hi, juicy avatar btw.

 

yeah re sounds…. i like yr tree find there, i have loads of London Plains trees near me, the ones with the camo bark that wants to peel off in really neat pieces naturally, tapping the ones that are only part way off are very cool to listen to.

 

EH is now called The Splund

Edited November 7, 2013 by Rob Ae

[Sean Ae]

dunno if covered already so soz if so...

 

it's rumoured both you and cunningham didn't like the 2nd bad vilbel vid? any truth in any of that?

 

nah not at all

i mean we had no money at all to make it, it was all favours, and when we got the original edit we wanted to tighten it up a bit so me and rob went in with chris and kim (the editor) to see if we could make it seem more 'in time' and what we got was pretty good considering

i know chris was never quite into the alien bits and later he did his own edit in final cut to try to remove the bits he didn't like but i always preferred the original myself, i like how cheap it is

[hoggy]

Are the 303 and the Amen break magical?

[Sean Ae]

Speaking of limiters, and this goes back to the mastering question I asked before, but do you usually put any compression/limiter on the main bus or do leave that up to Noel?

 

Do you guys make more money from releases or touring?

 

we might but noel never does, all he ever does is roll off a tiny bit of bass (we have smaller speakers than him)

 

more from releases but touring doesn't make a lot of money for us cos of all the expenses, we like it like that tho

one off gigs are a lot more profitable than both

Are the 303 and the Amen break magical?

 

nah they're both really well tuned

Edited November 7, 2013 by Sean Ae

[nizzleone]

Oh yeah, what is the noise in the beginning of 2nd Bad? That is kind of the best noise ever.

[Rob Ae]

So my music teacher wants me to write a paper on Augmatic Disport. But I don't know what to write. Help pls?

why don't u write about the polarity of the beats or something, just made up stuff. something about the to-and fro of the 'forward looking vs the backward looking' bits. and the amount of the percussion thats where it should be compared to the parts of percussion that are inexplicably absent in others. dunno see if yr teacher buys it.

[Guest Tok]

Can you give us a hint about wether there is a hidden message encoded in the covers of Exai and/or L-Event?

Many cryptomancers are working on it. But without any result yet:

 

http://www.reddit.com/r/codes/comments/1mmmqu/hidden_message_in_autechre_cover_art/

:wang: :wang: pls

[Guest skytree]

 

Saw you were already asked a few questions about field recordings, but if either of you could choose (1) a favorite man-made sound and (2) a favorite "natural" sound, in terms of something you've just always enjoyed since you were younger or ideas they've inspired, what would they be?

 

IE: found the other day that the little strips of bark that spiral off of a birch can be whittled down easily to produce specific pitches, then played like a kalimba...made a melody for a track this way recently. I'm curious if this sort of thing happens in your process very frequently, at least in terms of inspiration coming from the sonic environment around you.

 

Apologies if this has already been asked in some form, and thanks again for doing this guys. Used to moderate here years ago but actually just rejoined so I could hop in this thread. It's good to be back. Cheers.

 

P.S. If you could name my EH Holiest Grail, that would be most rad.

 

 

i think we already did this but i like this q so will answer again

throwing stones onto an icy lake is really lush

and the sound of an approaching train sometimes sends shockwaves up the tracks which you can hear way before the train arrives, i always liked that

 

that fact about birch is amazing, so the harmonies are built into the structure of the wood already. mind = blown

yeah i mean we stumble upon things a lot

i think the thing is to stay open minded so when things like that occur you actually notice them, as opposed to rigidly finishing the task you started (this is the main reason i prefer max to sc)

 

edit: oh yeah the name

 

er - orinoko

 

Figured it might be re-treading a bit but it's one of my favorite questions on this front as well.

 

Re: icy lakes - thoroughly agreed. Listened to a light dusting of snow coming down on a frozen lake recently and it sounded like a billion microscopic, beautiful bells sounding off into infinity. Impossible to record with the gear present. Too subtle. It's playing hard to get.

 

Lakes are also quite useful for the relatively regular periodicity of the waves generated by passing boats as well. I've used this as a percussive/textural backdrop several times. I'd like to ask you guys several more questions in this regard but everyone should get their chance of course. Feel free to add anything if you would like or have time.

 

The pitches created by the birch bark vary substantially depending on temperature. I get the best recordings for those kinds of phenomena on cold days. The colder the better. The bark spirals are fibonacci-based, which may have something to do with the surprising consistency and tone.

 

Oh, and Orinoko it is. :)

 

Edit: Rob, since Sean already named the Holiest Grail, "The Splund" will go to my EH Memory Man. Seems like a good compromise! They tend to work together. Btw avatar is Kilian Eng, a favorite as of late.

Edited November 7, 2013 by skytree

[Sean Ae]

Oh yeah, what is the noise in the beginning of 2nd Bad? That is kind of the best noise ever.

 

a korg ms-10 patch