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

This has been such a above real experience.

You guys are something else

  On 11/7/2013 at 12:02 AM, Sean Ae said:

ok people i'm running away too

don't stay up too late chatting now

see you both!

  On 11/6/2013 at 10:03 PM, Rob Ae said:

 

  On 11/6/2013 at 9:35 PM, xox said:

YJY UX is my fav Ae track at the moment. It has such a huge impact on me; especially on my 'spiritual' state of mind ...like i'm at the center of sahara at sunset and transcendental things are starting to unfold. Such a joy! I'm literary experiencing it.

 

Can u please say anything more about it? ... i'm happy with anything u drop at me.

 

Thnx!

 

  On 11/6/2013 at 9:51 PM, olo said:

So, like when your term is up here on watmm, (minus what I posted several threads ago about what I think will actually happen),

 

Will there be a "goodbye watmm!" or will you just disappear, whilst lurking, laughing at all the questions that will be pouring in for days?

i thought joyrex would lock it no?

 

when is the over? what timezone…..

 

okokok let my try the shameless push too... >>> What about my Q, Rob? :'(

  On 11/6/2013 at 11:58 PM, Joyrex said:

I set it to close at midnight - I would imagine that would be CST, my time zone, so that would be +6 UK time, so 6AM UK time on the 8th of November.

 

Huge thanks and respect to both you and Sean (AE) for not only taking the time to answer these questions, but to continously be in here answering them - far more than I think anyone here expected. Really cool.

hey Joyrex, its been a pleasure actually. madly, its better this way, i hate lists of q's. this is people.

cool, so yeah ok thats the zone - i reckon i'll be in tmoro anyway.

  On 11/7/2013 at 12:02 AM, Sean Ae said:

ok people i'm running away too

don't stay up too late chatting now

Thanks Sean for a really interesting chatting with you. Appreciate it. Wish you the best.

Ať se daří a ahoj, Seane!

Many many thanks Sean, Rob; and Joyrex.

What a crazily awesome thread this has been.

Thanks Rob and Sean, and Joyrex, and of course watmmers for all the great questions.

2013 - legendary year!

  On 11/7/2013 at 12:14 AM, Wurstwasser said:

Many many thanks Sean, Rob; and Joyrex.

cool, we'll be here tmoro - just saying.

Okay, so this will probably be my last post in this thread - thank you Rob, thank you Sean, it's been a really great time and I hope you two will stick around.

Thanks for taking your time and answering this shitload of questions. Not to many artists have such a dedication in this aspect.

Wish you the very best!

Auf Wiedersehen.

What created the idea for known(1)? Sounds like a work in progress that went in another direction.

Don't tell me you got distracted watching Knowing starring Nic Cage.

See you tomorrow Rob!

  On 11/6/2013 at 11:54 PM, Sean Ae said:

 

argh i don't even know why i carried on watching tbh, they snagged me somehow, it got progressively more weakening, the end was just, oh fuck off

 

i dunno man i can't tell wtf i'm meant to think of the prequels

i wonder if he watches them at all

 

 

 

i dunno i mean both huxley and orwell nailed some things, but i reckon huxley was more insightful, altho both of them were really a product of the time

we have a kind of mixture of bits of both but neither of them really understood what comms was going to end up like

i'm not as paranoid about surveillance as a lot of people seem to be tho

 

hmm dunno i don't eat much dessert its years since i had something memorable, and i can't even rem what that was

 

i slightly liked ai - but i saw some of the work chris did for it back when kubrick was doing it, and i wish it had been kubrick basically, it would have fucking owned

 

 

edit: oh yeah nice shirt

 

yay, thanks alot man for your replies! and thanks for your comment, (I made it myself :) )

wow, yeah Kubrick making AI would certainly been something. I really need to get around and see more of his films...

anyway thanks man!

oh.. and just one last thing... any chance to see you guys back in Norway for a future gig?

  On 11/6/2013 at 11:34 PM, Sean Ae said:

 

  On 11/6/2013 at 11:30 PM, Friendly Foil said:

Just how "generative" (not sure this is the right word for this) were some of the tracks on Confield? Tracks like Sim Gishel, Parhelic Triangle and Uviol, for example.

I've read so many rumors and theories about this, that I don't know what to believe at this point. I mean, it sure doesn't sound like you just hit record and then left the computer running for a few minutes, since all the tracks seems to go somewhere. Were you adjusting stuff on the fly or?

 

hella good album btw

 

edit: also, last question. I promise. for realz.

 

 

parhelic triangle wasn't algo at all

 

sim gishel was slightly

 

uviol was a lot

 

but none of it's in the way you prob think of 'algorithmic' with loads of randomness. it was all planned out, with bits of it being executed after intervals etc

like a track but codified

 

that's the thing when u say algorithmic people think you mean unplanned and sprawling. doesn't mean that at all in our case, just means procedural

 

So with things like the extended version of Uviol we heard on one of the webcast, was that essentially just a different 'take' of pressing play on what you had already set up? From what I understand y'all basically have lots of 'if x happens then y happens. after y happens z times then execute c' but far more complex of course...so would pressing play 5 different times result in 5 slightly (or drastically) different 'versions' of the songs?

I've done things like this with melody before, but very simply...and a bit more complex with Ableton Live on drums and other bits...surely not as crazy as what y'all come up with though

Time's about up and I wanted to say thanks! This has been great. I worked hard to keep up with the first ten pages but then the thread got out of hand. So much to read.

  On 11/2/2013 at 5:34 PM, Sean Ae said:

 

  On 11/2/2013 at 5:25 PM, Bread said:

What is your favourite track from Exai?

 

currently cloudline

 

I've been listening to cloudline since page 5 and have been loving it.

Thanks for answering my question some 50 pages ago. Respect.

The track "T ess xi" is probably the most melodically complex on Exai. I'm curious whether it was composed in a similar algorithmic way to Oversteps material as an extension of your live set around that time. Was it jammed out on keyboard or sequenced straight to the grid?

The chord progression in the first section almost has a jazz feel. Any particular influences on that track that you can remember?

question for Rob - a mate I met at recording school gave you a demotape of his before one of your shows in 1998, somewhere in New England, I think. I'm curious whether you've got any memory of him, or the tape? He was making tracks as both ESP and Spool at that time.

deco Loc = decrementation locked ?

bladelores = sharp (high resonance) lores~ ?

  On 11/7/2013 at 12:53 AM, Jev said:

 

  On 11/7/2013 at 12:01 AM, Jev said:

 

  On 11/6/2013 at 11:55 PM, Rob Ae said:

hey all, i'm not sure if you'll be here tomorrow? will you?

 

what the score with the 7th, who's' 7th is the right one, amerika or uk zones. IYKWIM.

 

if i leave, is this the end? will i dream etc etc…..

 

bye

watmm

 

Well, if you really go already ( ) then it's been a pleasure to chat with you and I wish you the best to the future days, months and years.

 

  On 11/7/2013 at 12:06 AM, Jev said:

 

  On 11/7/2013 at 12:02 AM, Sean Ae said:

ok people i'm running away too

don't stay up too late chatting now

 

Thanks Sean for a really interesting chatting with you. Appreciate it. Wish you the best.

 

fuck off

sorry

  On 11/6/2013 at 10:25 PM, Sean Ae said:

 

  On 11/6/2013 at 10:21 PM, feltcher said:

Fuuu, finally caught up with this thread again.

 

Given that Quaristice Special Edition was limited to 1000 copies, do you guys get peeved that pretty much everyone has a ripped digital copy?

 

 

 

BTW, this thread should be watmm's most IDM 2014. Jus' sayin

 

nah obv we knew that was gonna happen, but only 1000 people get the nice metalwork and hopefully they'll look after them

 

sadly, mine came from warp with a bunch of clear glue stuck on the second disc, rendering it unreadable. Was so pissed off about that...

still have the case of course

  On 11/6/2013 at 11:37 PM, Sean Ae said:

 

  On 11/6/2013 at 11:34 PM, Indicator said:

I repost my question about vocal samples from deco Loc (soz) and opinions about bocs harvest

i like TH and i'm waiting to see who figures out the samples

 

Godley Cream?

so there's going to be one more day?

just one bump for this then:

  On 11/6/2013 at 1:11 PM, usagi said:

how did the Skeng remix come about? did Ninja Tune contact you to get something special for their XX boxset, or did Kevin, or did you guys initiate? how do your remixes come about generally, do other artists/labels contact you first? do you choose to remix stuff depending on how you like the original tune, or just if you can think of interesting ways to mangle it?

 

I have to say I was excited as fuck when I heard that you were doing that one, and it turned out top-notch in a way that I totally didn't expect but which made total sense when I heard it. shit was "correct". the Earth remix was another one that I was really pleased to discover you did, although I have to say it's the most puzzling one I've ever heard lol. I know there's subtle differences (gated/compressed snare, if I recall correctly) but I can barely hear them. maybe if I listened for 3 hours and got into a way-out headspace...

 

keep up the stellar work btw. your consistent output and dedication to the craft is inspiring even to non-musicians.

and also, any word on Aus dates for the Exai tour?

Hey guys! Apologies if the question is too late, has already been asked, or is silly. (Every time I come back to this thread it's doubled in size and I can't read through it all in time)

Just something I'm curious about, do either of you have sort of a 'specialty' between yourselves when you're making your tracks? Like say Sean focuses on a drum beat more often while Rob has a certain kind melodic thing he does himself more often. Or is it more of each of you share doing everything?

Thanks for doing this by the way, you and your stuff is brilliant.

  On 11/7/2013 at 2:15 AM, Grimmie XII said:

Just something I'm curious about, do either of you have sort of a 'specialty' between yourselves when you're making your tracks? Like say Sean focuses on a drum beat more often while Rob has a certain kind melodic thing he does himself more often. Or is it more of each of you share doing everything?

just fyi, this has been asked a few times already, specifically the Rob=melody/Sean=beats dichotomy which they have stated is false

  On 11/6/2013 at 11:28 PM, Sean Ae said:

 

  On 11/6/2013 at 11:22 PM, John Ehrlichman said:

I'm curious too about the Oval question, and it ties into the mysteriously unanswered physical modeling questions as well. Real guitar manipulation or simulated?

 

no guitars on our stuff, if you're hearing strings it's simulated

 

unless u mean oval

 

yes i meant Oval (do you think hes using a real guitar like all the press claimed, or is he simulating a guitar with synthesis?), and for luck I'll ask the original question. How much physical modeling synthesis have you guys employed on your more modern works? A lot of the plucky string stuff sounds almost in-between FM generated and physical modeling, and I know you said Simm's title has a clue as to what you used in it, I have no idea what it could be I'd guess an FS1r? I'm probably wrong.

I'm just curious since you guys are probably the most innovative act right now using dsp and new synthesis technology, how fond are you of physical modeling as a type of synthesis. It feels like it's in oversteps here and there, but it's not used in a realistic/mimicking a real instrument sort of a way.

I'm also curious if you guys ever had a Yamaha Vl1 or VL series hardware, which came out in 1994 but as far as I'm concerned is still more impressive than where most physical modeling technology is currently at.