How does the Aphex Twin Program Fast Stuff?

[ghostwhistler]

Take the bass part at the start of this, which is probably one of the more benign examples I could choose

Does he use some software to program these passages? Does he play it al in by hand?

[whyterabbyt]

Does he use some software to program these passages? Does he play it al in by hand?

Noone is going to know for sure, because he consistently makes stuff up about how he does things and what he uses.

[Dunbar]

I recall an interview from the late 1990s where Richard stated he used "an expansive Mac", yes, "expansive". This was a reference to the 'Symbolic Sound, Kyma Capybara' system. Many of the EDM producers of the period (Autechre, Squarepusher, etc..) also used the Capybara.

[KingofBeers]

Hi,
Its just basic midi programming/triggering ---(i.e drawing it in) (Old Atari ST sequencer etc) --- what sets it/him apart is the musicality (expression)(not midi cc11 expression) of his programming not just the notes. Lots of 1/64th 1/128th lengths and not just your basic 4/4 16th's etc... As Hans Zimmer says, the computer is an instrument and can be as rigid or loose free flowing as you like.

Hope that makes sense.
Cheers.

[ghostwhistler]

Thanks, but is it that simple though? is there no technical trickery? Some clever software or hardware that does this?

[stillshaded]

You really don’t need anything fancy to do it. Squarepusher sequenced his early stuff with a friggin dr-50, which would make it much more difficult than any random daw that currently exists.

So yea, it’s 100% just composition/arrangement. I mean.. just set something at the tempo the same as the above tune and start programming stuff in. Tweak it til it sounds good to you. It’s definitely not played in by hand, btw. He’s stated he rarely does that, with the exception of a few pad lines.

[KingofBeers]

Thanks, but is it that simple though? is there no technical trickery? Some clever software or hardware that does this?

It really is that simple, though it is a "manual labour" of love......back in the day we didn't have the tools, auto generators and glitch FX like today. One technique was to map out drum slices and one shot copy's of the same sample on different keys and have different loop points keyed up in your samplers etc..

Cheers.

[Dunbar]

Thanks, but is it that simple though? is there no technical trickery? Some clever software or hardware that does this?

...back in the day we didn't have the tools, auto generators and glitch FX like today.

Yes we did.

Unfortunately, the tools were eye-wateringly expensive. These sound design tools were the preserve of the film and television industry, mostly. They could also be found in sound and physics research labs.
One of the first commercially available granular sound design environments was released in the late 1980s by Symbolic Sound Corporation. The presets from their Kymar software/DSP system can be heard all over Squarpusher's first album.

[Dunbar]

...

[KingofBeers]

Well if you want to talk semantics , then of course you have fairlight in the late 70's , old eventide fx early 80's etc, kyma system etc...yeah you had to be rich... You also had Max/MSP (programming environment) which was about in the late 90's, and Soundforge etc..

I'm talking about the quick fix plugins we have today. ... The OP was asking about fast programming basslines and that is just midi, no sound manipulation tools needed.

Cheers.

[ghostwhistler]

Hi,
Its just basic midi programming/triggering ---(i.e drawing it in) (Old Atari ST sequencer etc) --- what sets it/him apart is the musicality (expression)(not midi cc11 expression) of his programming not just the notes. Lots of 1/64th 1/128th lengths and not just your basic 4/4 16th's etc... As Hans Zimmer says, the computer is an instrument and can be as rigid or loose free flowing as you like.

Hope that makes sense.
Cheers.

Well sure you can do it that way, bit tedious perhaps

But I'm trying to find out what he actually does, if not this?

[vurt]

try finding some interviews, but mostly to retain mystery he just makes shit up.

but it does sound like lots of clever intricate programming, which is then sampled and tweaked.
probably repeated passes, especially for percussion, then slice out the interesting bits, create loops, repeat the tweaking process...

[cthonophonic]

There's a video of the "melodic" part of Vordhosbn that shows the original was made in the tracker PlayerPRO. Lots of 8-bit, 22khz samples of various synths in there:



It would make sense if the drums were also programmed in the same software, as the fast ratchet-y sounds are typical of tracker Retrig commands. But really who knows? I doubt there was a single software that he used for everything.

[Dalle]

He talked a lot about sequencing hardware with the Cirklon sequencer around that time. But he can do and has done it with anything.

[cron]

There's a video of the "melodic" part of Vordhosbn that shows the original was made in the tracker PlayerPRO. Lots of 8-bit, 22khz samples of various synths in there

Interesting to see this, as I remember a few people saying (though I never personally checked) that Drukqs had barely anything going on above around 14 kHz. There was speculation that he cut everything above 14k because he could no longer hear that range and thus couldn't fully control/author it - impressive that he's reached a status where bystanders will invent improbable Aphexian legend on his behalf - but this seems like a far more likely explanation.

To the OP, indeed I expect it's all just programmed. IDM was never really about advanced equipment designed to make unusual sounds, it was much more about using existing equipment in unusual and unexpected ways. Autechre wringing pure insanity from (then) reasonably affordable gear like the Roland R-8 and Ensoniq sampler is a good example.