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

  On 11/3/2013 at 3:00 AM, Schlitze said:

They taught themselves with tape deck edititing

this is true to an extent cos i didn't know anything about how machines worked but i learned a lot about how rhythm works just by doing tape edits

can you name my first born son pls?

  On 11/3/2013 at 3:01 AM, uelogy said:

Hello Ae,

 

I was wondering if you have a piece of hardware (instrument/effect, not computer) which you rely on and use frequently as a 'go to', due to the character/magic it brings.

 

Also wondering what your worst hardware disaster was - as in, spilling orange juice on a computer type of disaster.

 

Cheers

over the years there have been several pieces that we've fallen in love with for one reason or another, but atm it's mostly stuff we built

which i guess is kind of weird but it's just turned out that way, i have goto modules now instead of bits of hardware

oh yeah once i knocked a whole mug of tea over mat steel's new atari

he was surprisingly cool about it

I can see you are pretty good at naming synths and similar gear so I have a bit of a challenge for you. Can you name my electric guitar? I tend to use it mainly as a source of sound for some very processed and textural things if it helps. And I think it's "she" but what do I know.

  On 11/3/2013 at 3:14 AM, Deer said:

do you still think UFOs are real?, ever had a sighting/close encounter?

 

 

yeah

yeah

Is it actually possible to add too much reverb to a track, or is that simply a myth?

  On 11/3/2013 at 3:15 AM, cloud capture said:

I felt a solid Miami bass/electro vibe in some of your earlier albums/eps. Any truth in that?

yeah - dave storrs, andre manuel, egyptian lover, aldo marin, arthur baker, juan atkins

  On 11/3/2013 at 3:18 AM, Ascdi said:

Any healthy living tips for those of us who, like you guys (I imagine), are stuck either by choice or necessity inside in front of a computer or LCD screen for long periods of time working? Get up often, take breaks, get some sun, etc?

 

Is there an Ae workout plan or diet regimen you’d recommend? I am actually not joking, btw. Personally I’ve been experimenting lately with a mostly gluten-free diet, which is a pain but seems to be treating me much better.

standing desks are good if you can handle them

altho tbh asking me for health tips prob isn't the best idea

  On 11/3/2013 at 3:26 AM, thehauntingsoul said:

Can we get explicit confirmation

nah

  On 11/3/2013 at 4:32 AM, Shit Attack said:

hi autechre Dont you think Another world was cooler than Flashback ? I could never get past the start of that + I think they were made by the same people or something

 

 

 

thanks

i just picked that av cos i expected flashbacks (i was right)

tbh i feel a bit like conrad right now

  On 11/3/2013 at 2:16 AM, Sean Ae said:

 

  On 11/3/2013 at 1:03 AM, vincentvc said:

so you like the venue to be dark, but what about over-the-top visuals like Amon Tobin's ISAM? (did you see it?) do you think something similar would work for an autechre set? i mean obviously the identity of the space is still there, but the crowd gets really focused on an object etc that's in front of them - so in that sense it gets removed..right?

 

it's not just about removing identity it's about occupying the space with sound

it's something that used to happen in really dark clubs and warehouses, the sound became more physical and tangible, it works my synaesthesia more

what i like about sound is how it surrounds you, you are inside it even if it's coming out of one speaker

visual things can't really do that yet

 

oh not to mention the cheesiness of using projection mapping, it's like a corporate presentation or something

 

haha fair enough (wasn't a fan of the ISAM set musically anyways - what do you think of Amon Tobin other than that?). the oversteps set you guys did in AB (Brussels) is still pretty much the most mind-blowing gig I've ever been to.. but anyways recently saw Tim Exile, not sure if you're familiar with what he does but it's pretty much all improvised on the spot with a lot of interaction with the crowd which is an entertaining dynamic to say the least. musically not as interesting as what you guys do live - but still good fun and in a way on the same track. but you actually see him press buttons/pads, tweak knobs etc .. don't you feel that's something what is missing in your sets? (well you probably don't, but don't you think a crowd sort of needs some visual feedback of the band they went to see play?)

  On 11/3/2013 at 4:34 AM, pixelives said:

Hey guys,

 

So first time I saw you was around this time of year in 98 in NYC at the Other Music warehouse party for the launch of their website (!!). I remember it being pretty mental (w Plaid and Stockhausen+Walkman).

 

Was this set recorded? Any memories of that night?

 

Also: I was super excited when you played that Herb Alpert track in the radio mix. One of my favorite jams. Production is deep as fuck for some 80's balaeric jazz.

 

jazz

yeah there's a bootleg of that floating around, taken from the mixer

ask watmm i'm sure they can find it somewhere

yeah that alpert track is so good, i dunno what it is about it, that mid section where it's just looping the low notes for ages is brilliant

  On 11/3/2013 at 2:10 PM, lumpenprol said:

 

- do you guys ever pull any practical jokes on each other?

- is there any "myth" about ae that you'd like to dispel? Or any myth that has been kind of fun or useful so you let it stick around (I'm thinking along the lines of the BoC myth of cultlike activity, or the Aphex myth of sleeping in a bank and driving a tank around, etc). I can't think of any ae myths offhand...maybe something to do with generative music doing all the work for you? Is there any myth you'd like us all to propagate for you?

 

that ain't no myth, lumpy...

at least not for the listeners anyway

  On 11/3/2013 at 4:41 AM, duck said:

are you into any classical composers or periods?

i'm not very knowledgable about classical music but i really like ligeti

  On 11/3/2013 at 12:16 AM, Sean Ae said:

 

  On 11/2/2013 at 10:37 PM, kieselguhr kid said:

 

  On 11/2/2013 at 10:36 PM, Sean Ae said:

 

  On 11/2/2013 at 9:14 PM, Ivan Ooze said:

is the sample in deco loc david bowie?

 

(i'm too hi)

 

nah

i keep waiting for someone to get one of them but no one has yet

there are 2 main ones

„Being Boiled“ by Human League? read that somewhere in a review...

 

nah

 

  On 11/3/2013 at 12:14 AM, psn said:

Does Deco Loc sample the a cappella intro to Personal Jesus?

I really think that's David Gahan crooning in there, you see. :P

  On 11/3/2013 at 5:13 AM, chunky said:

Why do you concentrate on new techniques and gadgets instead of concentrate on creating beautiful content? Is it because you favour commercial success over artistic success? Or is it because you like sound editing techniques more than music itself? Do you like the music on Record Label Records?

What is your take on the latest trend of toylike synths that are coming out at the moment? I'm thinking about the Korg Volcas and the likes, and to some extent the teenage engineering OP1 (although that is pretty much it's own thing). Are you mainly creating your audio in computers or do you play around with outboard gear as well? Any new musical gear that has you all giddy (software or otherwise)? I get the impression that you're mostly building the stuff you need in max and that's that.

  On 11/3/2013 at 5:41 AM, digit said:

each of your albums have their own unifying 'vibe' or identity that comes both from the hardware / software used as well as the compositional process:

 

untilted - densely programmed step sequenced kit.

quaristice - looser & sparser live jams with hardware.

oversteps - evolving generative melody (i'm assuming sequenced via Max?).

 

i'm curios what the process/vibe was for Exai? what was the hard/software situation that the album grew out of and how were those early experiments refined and evolved to get the 'Exai sound' ?

the software used for exai grew out of the software we made for oversteps

mostly realtime stuff so, long jams edited down

not all of it tho, some of it was worked on more compositionally (the software can do both)

  On 11/3/2013 at 6:12 AM, chassis said:

 

  On 11/2/2013 at 8:28 PM, Sean Ae said:

 

  On 11/2/2013 at 8:08 PM, chassis said:

Whats your favourite album, of your own and of someone else's work.

i find these kind of Qs impossible

 

depends on context and timing

 

 

How about at present.

 

past and future you will answer different, but I'm asking now.

 

of ours - chiastic slide

others - residents - intermission

that's today mind you

do you have any desires to release more ridiculously long pieces of music in the future?

i ask because perlence subrange 6-36 is really fucken incredible. the way it plays with perception is sort of amazing, and the length of the track plays a big part into how well the track works overall.

i was also thinking, the longest track on an autechre album is sublimit, which is the length of a record side. but you've also released through your webcast an 18 minute version of uviol.

do you have any preference for longer more drawn out versions of your tracks, that don't make it onto an album for whatever reason?

thanks:)

did you record perfence in a soviet nuclear sub?

  On 11/3/2013 at 7:03 AM, rekosn said:

sorry Rob and Sean. I didnt mean to come as disrespectful

my english is bad and I try to make up for it

oh

i don't think you did

tbh i don't rem what you asked

Hello guys, I have been making music till 7 AM here today. I often find out that stuff that I really enjoy making at night often suck a lot when listening in to them in daytime. Obviously it has something to do with how brain works. Do you know this situations too? How do you "combat" it? Are you limiting yourself in this situations when to do music and when not?

Another question,

I know that you used to, lets say, "not use deliberately" musical theory approach with your music when composing. But have you ever been in a composition of a track that you could not figure out at all (because of so many notes in complicated compositions on different tracks and so on) that you had to use some of the classical, methodological approach to complete your track? For example looking up the scales for notes in question? Or is it mostly trial and error? OR you have developed some software that can check it for you?

Again, excuse my English.

  On 11/3/2013 at 7:18 AM, jules said:

ol dirty, gza or rza?

 

anyone better then rakim, if so, who?

 

I'd love some insight into your role in the design process of the last few album identities that tdr had the pleasure of making basic shapes for.

gza obviously

they're not basic shapes, you're seeing it wrong

Autechre tracks are a bit unique for me in that for the most part I have literally no idea how they're made. I'm really curious what the process is, especially on the later stuff like oversteps and exai. Whenever you drop little snippets in interviews (like the beat in pen expers coming out of a sample-loaded md player on random) it's always pretty much the opposite of what I expect. Would you be willing to talk us through the creation of one of your more recent tracks, or is that giving away a bit too much?

do you guys still build synths in Max or just use it for sequencing hardware?

  On 11/3/2013 at 8:26 AM, nene multiple assgasms said:

 

  On 11/2/2013 at 4:54 PM, Sean Ae said:

 

  On 11/2/2013 at 4:27 PM, wabby said:

Given that's you gus have been at the leading edge of sonic explorations for 20+ years have you developed any personal alternate theories and postulations about what music actually is?

 

yeah music = speech - text

 

at least roughly - i reckon it's a kind of super-developed version of the pitch and intonation parts of speech (the aural bit that doesn't contain textual info)

 

 

you should check out this book:

 

http://www.amazon.com/Music-Language-Brain-Aniruddh-Patel/dp/0199755302/

 

thanks

  On 11/3/2013 at 10:32 AM, digit said:

do you have any interest in making / releasing computer apps or audio plug-ins?

not yet