How does the Aphex Twin Program Fast Stuff?

[mjudge55]

. Some of RDJ's best work is where he consciously chose to put out what he probably regarded as "cheesy" music - RDJ album for example. That's not to say he disliked his own tunes, you can love your songs and laugh at them too, that's all part of the fun and what helps you get past your self consciousness. Some of our best stuff is probably the stuff we're embarrassed about.

Richard d James album cheesy ?
You’re trippin
The one album that could be considered cheesy but genious at the same time is melodies from mars

i think come to daddy is his cheesiest piece
but i grew up listening to death metal, and his cookie monster is pure cheese

still a cool track.

there are some, lets say "twee" quite soft tracks, some on druqks too. but not "cheese" in the common sense of the word no

I just need to reiterate for the record I said RDJ himself, the bloody man himself, not little humble church mouse mjudge55 thousands of miles away, probably thought 30 years ago or whatever there was some cheese on that album. Not me. I love that album more than my mother. If she said it was cheesy I'd divorce her I swear to god. If I stepped in poo then I stepped in poo and I take it back but all I'm suggesting is the man can laugh at his tunes and love em at the same time.

And I'm glad you brought up death metal because having known a few purveyors of that fine wine I can tell you in my experience they laugh and laugh and laugh at that music too at the same time they are stab-you-in-the-eyeball serious about it. And god bless to that.

[vurt]

yup, i agree he does have some humour to him.
i just personally think the tracks are more twee, very english wistfulness to some of them. those that arent so much drill n bass ratchet beats.

and indeed, many of my friends still do the growly metal and distorted guitar grrrr, and i still enjoy listening to such things but i dont make that stuff myself now, as i moved on to enjoying the exploration of sound, rather than writing songs i guess

[gentleclockdivider]

Yeah , everyone remembers when they first encountered aphex , it's like your first kiss , popping your cherry etc..
For me it was back in 1995,classics was just released on R-S records .
Hooked ever since
Fak Yeah

[vurt]

92 or 93 saw him in newquay at a festival. honestly don't remember much.
then moved in to a shared house, a guy there had two records, saw (double gatefold picture disc) and rockwell - he's a cobra.
so i got to hear saw a lot, which is where i started taking notice.
seen him a couple of times since.

[mjudge55]

96-97 recall listening to burnt cds of rdj album through 90 minute commutes to government job along drizzly I-5 corridor in pacific nw USA thinking Christ my life sucks why do women ignore me. No other takeaways really other than that Radiohead was right they missed the boat with ok computer but at least kid a was good.

[JerGoertz]

re the video above, just took me ten minutes to knock up the drum loops (battery) and basses (absynth) then as long as the video in the sampler module. so 15 minutes, from nothing for that.

as i said earlier, if i was going to make a track like this, i would then take the above audio, slice loops out of that, put them back in the sampler, and trigger with some filtering and so on.
then maybe chop up the results and arrange loops on the time line.

Cool vid. When you refer to the "sampler module", do you mean a hardware module in your rack modular?

[vurt]

re the video above, just took me ten minutes to knock up the drum loops (battery) and basses (absynth) then as long as the video in the sampler module. so 15 minutes, from nothing for that.

as i said earlier, if i was going to make a track like this, i would then take the above audio, slice loops out of that, put them back in the sampler, and trigger with some filtering and so on.
then maybe chop up the results and arrange loops on the time line.

Cool vid. When you refer to the "sampler module", do you mean a hardware module in your rack modular?

yes, sorry, thats a sample module in the hardware modular.
but all its doing is choosing start points in the sample and length of playback.
the fast drill bits were programmed via midi (64s or 128s).

with time and effort, it's doable, just for me personally, it gets either very robotic and repetitive or sounds totally random, i don't seem to have the balance rdj/autechre/squarepusher have, where i can make a coherent and flowing piece, using drums

[VariKusBrainZ]

I would also suggest programming it at half speed and then double for the full goodness

[Opaque]

The impressive thing was never really the technique, that arrives by itself, or just the speed of percussion, but how it was programmed/sequenced. There are many "imitations", people doing fast stuff, etc. which is relatively easy to do nowadays, yet it's hard not to make it sound like random gibberish which, despite a lot going on, quickly starts sounding boring.

For me, in tracks like Girl/Boy Song, Logon Rock Witch, Alberto Balsalm, Xtal, Windowlicker, Minipops, etc. percussion, with its licks, chops, and stutters, flows very "naturally" and follows the rest of the track, it's not just occasional random glitches with an idm plugin. Also, the tasteful choice of sounds and effects with which it was processed was always the most impressive thing to me, because it would blend in with the rest of the track, as if percussion were an accompaniment to his melodies.

[Bunny_boy]

Personally, I'd just program slow stuff, then speed it up. Outrageous I know.

Fleur, the first tune on Exai by Autechre is just that, with some additional stuff over the top. So when it's slowed down some of it sounds much less manic, and some of it sounds time stretched.

---------------

And, yes it's Autechre, but the Digital Performer screen grab in this might be a pointer

https://www.soundonsound.com/people/autechre

[mojoslide]

I've been able to mimic some of his sound by just working with samples and a grid in my DAW. Then tweak it bit by bit to add some more life to it (mess with attacks, volumes, etc.). Mostly it's all about chopped up/sliced samples and reordering plus speeding way up. Then use 64th and 128th notes like some have mentioned already to get his "glitches" which really aren't like modern glitch tracks or a plugin. I think he programs it or just destructively edits it into what he wants (which is actually pretty easy).