Richard D James SoundCloud - A Gift To The Fans

[Vaaler9]

 

Funny how Aphex fans very often think his music came much later than it actually did. That's what happens to most trailblazers because they are fucking with our concept of time.

^ this

 

obviously Aphex fan here, but I don't think the newest track is 2014 or even 2005, sounds like an improved Universal Indicator to me (improved because most of UI was a bit boring)

 

this at least has the melody n variation n stuff

 

I have a fairly strong feeling these were made around the same time as Fenix Funk.. which maybe wasn't made right before releasing analord10.. Maybe he made them in 1979 and sat on them until 2005 because he finally deemed them ready for public consumption.

Edited May 14, 2015 by Vaaler9

[Hodorsbn]

Is it just me, or has his comments section disappeared....?

 

Edit: appears to be soundcunt glitchery...

Edited May 14, 2015 by Hodorsbn

[relaks]

Sometimes I feel like Joyrex just likes stirring the rumor/speculation/misinformation pot.

 

*Edit by sometimes I mean pretty much all the time

Edited May 14, 2015 by relaks

[chenGOD]

D14 - must be ages old.

Pretend Analog extmx 2b - I'd hazard a guess that it's made around the same time as the analord stuff.

 

edit: and jus biked in again to say that I fucking love PAE2b. good lord how did this not get pressed up.

[brian trageskin]

you can tell afx made rushup edge by those lush pads on pretend analog. what a tune

[Vaaler9]

you can tell afx made rushup edge by those lush pads on pretend analog. what a tune

Good call. For sure.

[relaks]

So he just posted that glock&onion was made after nannou. Windowlicker was released in 1999? So that def helps date that bit

[Guest damageis]

• velvets says at 1:56:

  Rich, this is fantastic....whimsical in the best way. how did this not make a record?

• Posted 8 mins ago8 minsuser18081971 says at 1:56:

  @velvets: coz theres so many! im puttin up the ones first that i would probably never release, not because I dont like them, just some I dont think about releasing, actually most ha

[relaks]

Not that I know what the fuck this means, but description of pretend analog is now first track i did, everything virtual analog.

[atypic]

Not that I know what the fuck this means, but description of pretend analog is now first track i did, everything virtual analog.

 

I think it might mean I'm not a good Aphex Twin fan because I thought it was post-2000 ; )

[Hodorsbn]

Nah, not "first track i ever made" but "first one i made with all digital emulation of analog synths"

[atypic]

Nah, not "first track i ever made" but "first one i made with all digital emulation of analog synths"

 

I was being sarcastic. It doesn't prove it was post-2000, but virtual analog didn't really become much of a thing until the 2000s.

[Vaaler9]

He knows how to make virtual analogue pads sound damn amazing.

[Hodorsbn]

 

Nah, not "first track i ever made" but "first one i made with all digital emulation of analog synths"

 

I was being sarcastic.

 

I see this now. Sorry I mistook you for a dingus.

[ZmillA]

Oh man another new favorite track, Pretend Analog is so good. It's insane how good Richard is at making music. It's getting to the point to where I'm upset he isn't even more well known.

Edited May 14, 2015 by ZmillA

[awepittance]

 

Nah, not "first track i ever made" but "first one i made with all digital emulation of analog synths"

 

I was being sarcastic. It doesn't prove it was post-2000, but virtual analog didn't really become much of a thing until the 2000s.

 

if you're talking about Arturia and the software world yes (which to me sounds like what Photodementia was made using), but plenty of hardware synths came out in the 90s doing virtual analog synthesis, Yamaha and Novation come to mind

Edited May 14, 2015 by John Ehrlichman

[mcbpete]

Really thought I was keeping on top of these but since all those playlists have gone up it seems I'm missing quite a few of the 320 .mp3s .... Only have like 17 out of 21 of 'headstrong'

[atypic]

Comment re: Polygon Window album 2 playlist - yes please.

[Goiter Sanchez]

I really feel sorry for people releasing electronic music of the more experimental/braindance ilk at the moment... I can't tear myself away from these Aphex tracks to listen to anything else!

[Ingwe]

 

 

Listen to the 256kbps rip on a good system, and then the CD/flac(better the 24bit) to my ears it's quite obvious the sound is way more full, but maybe most people aren't used to earing what is a good production...

 

24 bit is a complete waste of time, the bit rate only represents the dynamic range, 16 bit is already far more than is required to handle both quietest sounds the human ear can hear, and the loudest sounds that will actually cause pain and damage your hearing. Vinyl has about half the dynamic range as a 16 bit source for example. High bit rates only make sense in production and mixing, when that extra range can be useful to have in the signal path, but the final mixdown need never be higher than 16 bit.

 

Higher sampling rates can capture higher frequencies, and that is all, they cannot improve on the reproduction of the lower frequencies that are already being recorded, which is solely dependant on the quality of the AD/DA converters (and the filters they use), and the dithering algorithm being used. 44.1khz samples (which result in handling frequencies up to 22.05khz) should be more than enough for virtually every human ear, we cannot hear above 20khz, and most adults not much above 16-18khz, so there's already plenty of unnecessary data in there, adding more is a waste of time. Again, in terms of music production having extra frequency data might be helpful if you want to play around with it, but a final mixdown will never require it.

 

That doesn't mean that people can't genuinely tell the difference between so called high def releases (though in most cases they probably can't), but in the cases where there is a genuine difference it's down to the fact that the high def release will have been mastered differently. If you conduct blinded tests between a regular CD release and a HD release you'll be dealing with different masters, the main difference probably being that the HD release will be louder (which is enough to fool a person into thinking the overall quality is better). If however you did the test based off a high def release and a transcode of that release to 44/16 then no-one could tell the difference.

 

correct in principle, but somewhat inaccurate.

16 bit audio has around 96dB of dynamic range, decent stereo equipment and human ears have more like 120-130db of dynamic range. so 24 bit is audible - if you have a good stereo and if the audio is not massively compressed. otherwise, yeah, diff btwn 16/24 is not really audible to the avg listener.

 

the "you don't need to go over 44.1k because you can't hear over 20k" thing many ppl believe is also missing the point a bit. audio recorded at 44.1 has to be filtered to prevent aliasing, and this filter rolls off audible frequencies due to the slope of the filter, as well as causing audible phase distortion. this is why older converters sound better at higher sampling rates, because the filter is not needed, or is at such a high freq the artifacts are inaudible. most converters today always record at 96k-384k sampling rate, and downconvert on the fly to the rate you request. so you don't hear the diff between 44.1k and 96k coz everything is recorded at 96k or higher.

 

sorry for ot, just see these misconceptions all the time.

[awepittance]

I really feel sorry for people releasing electronic music of the more experimental/braindance ilk at the moment... I can't tear myself away from these Aphex tracks to listen to anything else!

the one good effect is i think that Aphex throwing the gauntlet down like this will hopefully encourage electronic music producers to be more creative and playful. For the people who weren't aware of or who forgot that Aphex had such a diverse playful way of making music instead of just one way or a couple of ways i think this is a bigtime wakeup call. The net result i think will be certain electronic musicians, especially ones who have been heavily inspired by Aphex to loosen up and explore more (instead of just riding on one specific aphex style for example). I run an experimental electronic label and this dump has made me more excited about what im doing with the label than anytime in the last 5 years.

There is nothing threatening or bad about being overshadowed by the master, in fact i think electronic music as a whole would have probably been a lot more interesting the last 15 years if Aphex continued putting out music very regularly during that whole period. Instead what happened was the gauntlet of Analord caused thousands of people (mostly laptop musicians) to think they could buy analog electronic music hardware and be able to make cool shit with it, obviously this didn't happen but we're turning a corner now where a lot of the people who got into hardware in the mid 00's are now figuring out how to make really amazing stuff with it

Edited May 14, 2015 by John Ehrlichman

[nyr22]

I really feel sorry for people releasing electronic music of the more experimental/braindance ilk at the moment... I can't tear myself away from these Aphex tracks to listen to anything else!

True but don't miss out on Mike P he's throwing some serious serious heat and up to 180 tracks now himself

[awepittance]

180? damn. Yeah definitely recommend checking those out too, especially the stuff tagged from the 1980s (that sounds like it was made in the 1980s).

[Hail Sagan]

Just got home not too long ago. This Pretend Analogue Extmix 2b IS THE FUCKING JAM!!!

 

 

I need to calm down.

 

 

For real though,

 

the jam.

 

 

[YO303]

Comment re: Polygon Window album 2 playlist - yes please.

 

 

i remember always joking around about SOSW II and how i wanted to break into afx's house just for this album, now its a reality and no laws had to be broken, lol,

Edited May 14, 2015 by Deer