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

two questions:

1) during your periods when you were working with raw audio files, how did you manage collaborating with each other? did you have a system of tagging? any sort of timecodes or marker systems for syncronisation? categorise them as percussionhits/soundevents/beds/beats or did you just go freestyle? (also, any related anecdotes about co-operative workflow could be extremely illuminating)

2) do you have any methods for organising/planning the overall 'form' of a track, (as in, labelling and co-ordinating all the 'sections') and have you built up your own vocabulary to explain these things?

  On 11/4/2013 at 2:13 PM, salvaKPO said:

Was the software used in the Oversteps tour the same as the one used for the album?

What were the roles that your Macs/ PCs played in live shows, over the time?

I remember you (Rob) talking about that you could do entire tracks on old computers and that now we need lots of processing power to do that same. What software did you run on those old computers?

I remember seeing Sean in a video with some IBM laptop, making stuff with granular synthesis. What software was that?

I am a computer guy.

Sorry for all this batch.

Thanks.

its been changed quite a lot since oversteps, on that tour it was expressly designed to drive the sequencing for outboard nord synths.

 

the load i would get on a thinkpad w/48mb ram, was higher at one time that i could on later macs (PPC 7200), but not a true or fair comparison, cos i reckon the reliance on plugin inserts had shot right up in mac os compared to windows.

 

once when we used an early mac laptop for live work, we also opted to get an IBM thinkpad so we had both at the same time. the thinkpad ran windows version of NM editor amongst other things exclusive to PCs in a live set.

 

i think that granular synth was Granulab, what video, i wouldn't mind taking a look.

  On 11/4/2013 at 2:18 PM, jhonny said:

 

  On 11/3/2013 at 6:04 PM, jhonny said:

I spend most of my time driving the snake pass and can see why it's been important/referenced by you (and rdj). It really pulls you in but is massively frustrating as well (mottram bypass pls). It's also pretty magic in the dead of night and a great time to listen to tunes. Do you still get up to Sheffield much? Fancy DJing the new Computer Club night at the uni that Hanal is sorting?

sorry but I think my crappy question got skipped. Was drunk. Thanks!

 

didn't miss it, can't say, not been to sheff for a while, Hanal is a close friend so anything he does is good by me.

actually, I have one more:

PD vs Max: I use PD and find it hard to manage the cpu usage by hiding all the gui elements in subpatches, (and it seems that not many people really do huge compositions within it like you do) is max any easier to manage this specific problem?

I think you missed one of my questions:

 

Edited November 4, 2013 by Cornphlex

  On 11/4/2013 at 2:20 PM, Refund said:

two questions:

 

1) during your periods when you were working with raw audio files, how did you manage collaborating with each other? did you have a system of tagging? any sort of timecodes or marker systems for syncronisation? categorise them as percussionhits/soundevents/beds/beats or did you just go freestyle? (also, any related anecdotes about co-operative workflow could be extremely illuminating)

 

2) do you have any methods for organising/planning the overall 'form' of a track, (as in, labelling and co-ordinating all the 'sections') and have you built up your own vocabulary to explain these things?

2 when we first met, we got on well because of a similar lack of musical training but a similar descriptive understanding of what we liked in the forms of actual sounds (more than full tracks). kind of a bottom up language which works well to this day.

 

1 i guess just staying up to date with contents of folders is easy enough, say in older work, DP's 'edge edit copy' creates new files each time theres a change, so only latest files needed sharing.

 

no real anecdotes recently - its quite easy to remove whole channels by accident - i ruined seans' latest version of the skeng remix by losing a track. it was a while before we realised, while i was commenting on the mix so far, that what i had was completely wrong.

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

actually, I have one more:

 

PD vs Max: I use PD and find it hard to manage the cpu usage by hiding all the gui elements in subpatches, (and it seems that not many people really do huge compositions within it like you do) is max any easier to manage this specific problem?

yeah it has presentation mode.

  On 11/4/2013 at 1:26 PM, Rob Ae said:

 

  On 11/4/2013 at 12:44 PM, I am citizen insane said:

"in a world ruled by immediacy and ease , contemporary artists try to deconstruct reality, and reconstruct it in a much complex way, which offers all kinds of prospective and aspects" : do you relate to this statement?

another two smaller questions:

have you ever used modular synthesizers? what do you think of this kind of instruments?

is there any chance to see you live in Italy?

not really too attached to statements about contemporary artists, i mean not to miss the point of the q much, but if people have more options, i expect more outcomes, dunno.

 

yeah we have a handful of modulars, real and unreal, bought and made.

 

yeah we visit Italy almost every time. we've had lots of support from italian people thanks!

 

thank you for replying.

 

concerning modulars, how much do you use them in the studio? because it happens to hear some sounds in your record that make me think: "that awesome sound... must be a modular!"

  On 11/4/2013 at 2:38 PM, I am citizen insane said:

 

  On 11/4/2013 at 1:26 PM, Rob Ae said:

 

  On 11/4/2013 at 12:44 PM, I am citizen insane said:

"in a world ruled by immediacy and ease , contemporary artists try to deconstruct reality, and reconstruct it in a much complex way, which offers all kinds of prospective and aspects" : do you relate to this statement?

another two smaller questions:

have you ever used modular synthesizers? what do you think of this kind of instruments?

is there any chance to see you live in Italy?

not really too attached to statements about contemporary artists, i mean not to miss the point of the q much, but if people have more options, i expect more outcomes, dunno.

 

yeah we have a handful of modulars, real and unreal, bought and made.

 

yeah we visit Italy almost every time. we've had lots of support from italian people thanks!

 

thank you for replying.

 

concerning modulars, how much do you use them in the studio? because it happens to hear some sounds in your record that make me think: "that awesome sound... must be a modular!"

 

good, that suggests its deep - which is nice because i have a tendency to feel that modulars give deeper results - and the studio right now is all maxmsp.

 

for other older tracks - that depends on which tracks your thinking of

  On 11/4/2013 at 2:44 PM, Rob Ae said:

 

  On 11/4/2013 at 2:38 PM, I am citizen insane said:

 

  On 11/4/2013 at 1:26 PM, Rob Ae said:

 

  On 11/4/2013 at 12:44 PM, I am citizen insane said:

"in a world ruled by immediacy and ease , contemporary artists try to deconstruct reality, and reconstruct it in a much complex way, which offers all kinds of prospective and aspects" : do you relate to this statement?

another two smaller questions:

have you ever used modular synthesizers? what do you think of this kind of instruments?

is there any chance to see you live in Italy?

not really too attached to statements about contemporary artists, i mean not to miss the point of the q much, but if people have more options, i expect more outcomes, dunno.

 

yeah we have a handful of modulars, real and unreal, bought and made.

 

yeah we visit Italy almost every time. we've had lots of support from italian people thanks!

 

thank you for replying.

 

concerning modulars, how much do you use them in the studio? because it happens to hear some sounds in your record that make me think: "that awesome sound... must be a modular!"

 

good, that suggests its deep - which is nice because i have a tendency to feel that modulars give deeper results - and the studio right now is all maxmsp.

 

for other older tracks - that depends on which tracks your thinking of

 

 

is there much modular on pre-untilted stuff?

oops wrong thread, delete pls

Edited November 4, 2013 by jasondonervan

  On 11/4/2013 at 1:14 PM, Rob Ae said:

 

  On 11/4/2013 at 4:15 AM, modey said:

What are the weird high-pitched noises at the end of The Trees made from? I've heard something similar in a few electronic tracks (not just ae tracks, even though I seem to remember it being at the end of reniform puls too). It reminds me of FM radio noise when a station is slightly not tuned correctly.

 

those noises are made from The Trees.

 

cheeky monkey

  On 11/4/2013 at 2:45 PM, pigster said:

 

  On 11/4/2013 at 2:44 PM, Rob Ae said:

 

  On 11/4/2013 at 2:38 PM, I am citizen insane said:

 

  On 11/4/2013 at 1:26 PM, Rob Ae said:

 

  On 11/4/2013 at 12:44 PM, I am citizen insane said:

"in a world ruled by immediacy and ease , contemporary artists try to deconstruct reality, and reconstruct it in a much complex way, which offers all kinds of prospective and aspects" : do you relate to this statement?

another two smaller questions:

have you ever used modular synthesizers? what do you think of this kind of instruments?

is there any chance to see you live in Italy?

not really too attached to statements about contemporary artists, i mean not to miss the point of the q much, but if people have more options, i expect more outcomes, dunno.

 

yeah we have a handful of modulars, real and unreal, bought and made.

 

yeah we visit Italy almost every time. we've had lots of support from italian people thanks!

 

thank you for replying.

 

concerning modulars, how much do you use them in the studio? because it happens to hear some sounds in your record that make me think: "that awesome sound... must be a modular!"

 

good, that suggests its deep - which is nice because i have a tendency to feel that modulars give deeper results - and the studio right now is all maxmsp.

 

for other older tracks - that depends on which tracks your thinking of

 

 

is there much modular on pre-untilted stuff?

 

yeah some

Edited November 4, 2013 by Rob Ae

  On 11/4/2013 at 2:26 PM, Rob Ae said:

 

  On 11/4/2013 at 2:13 PM, salvaKPO said:

Was the software used in the Oversteps tour the same as the one used for the album?

What were the roles that your Macs/ PCs played in live shows, over the time?

I remember you (Rob) talking about that you could do entire tracks on old computers and that now we need lots of processing power to do that same. What software did you run on those old computers?

I remember seeing Sean in a video with some IBM laptop, making stuff with granular synthesis. What software was that?

I am a computer guy.

Sorry for all this batch.

Thanks.

its been changed quite a lot since oversteps, on that tour it was expressly designed to drive the sequencing for outboard nord synths.

 

the load i would get on a thinkpad w/48mb ram, was higher at one time that i could on later macs (PPC 7200), but not a true or fair comparison, cos i reckon the reliance on plugin inserts had shot right up in mac os compared to windows.

 

once when we used an early mac laptop for live work, we also opted to get an IBM thinkpad so we had both at the same time. the thinkpad ran windows version of NM editor amongst other things exclusive to PCs in a live set.

 

i think that granular synth was Granulab, what video, i wouldn't mind taking a look.

Sorry, I couldn t find it on Youtube but you two watched at the back when something sounded like broken or something similar. You were using a cellphone at the time of that sound happening, maybe.

  On 11/4/2013 at 2:50 PM, Rob Ae said:

 

  On 11/4/2013 at 2:45 PM, pigster said:

 

  On 11/4/2013 at 2:44 PM, Rob Ae said:

 

  On 11/4/2013 at 2:38 PM, I am citizen insane said:

 

  On 11/4/2013 at 1:26 PM, Rob Ae said:

 

  On 11/4/2013 at 12:44 PM, I am citizen insane said:

"in a world ruled by immediacy and ease , contemporary artists try to deconstruct reality, and reconstruct it in a much complex way, which offers all kinds of prospective and aspects" : do you relate to this statement?

another two smaller questions:

have you ever used modular synthesizers? what do you think of this kind of instruments?

is there any chance to see you live in Italy?

not really too attached to statements about contemporary artists, i mean not to miss the point of the q much, but if people have more options, i expect more outcomes, dunno.

 

yeah we have a handful of modulars, real and unreal, bought and made.

 

yeah we visit Italy almost every time. we've had lots of support from italian people thanks!

 

thank you for replying.

 

concerning modulars, how much do you use them in the studio? because it happens to hear some sounds in your record that make me think: "that awesome sound... must be a modular!"

 

good, that suggests its deep - which is nice because i have a tendency to feel that modulars give deeper results - and the studio right now is all maxmsp.

 

for other older tracks - that depends on which tracks your thinking of

 

 

is there much modular on pre-untilted stuff?

 

yeah some

 

 

ooo. interesting. i remember reading that untilted was a modular heavy album, and kind of just never associated the earlier albums as not having any/much modular synths.

Edited November 4, 2013 by pigster

i've been kind of at a wall with putting together releases lately (burnt out on the whole dub techno scene), any advice for experimentation? i always get stuck doing the same things on most tracks.

  On 11/4/2013 at 2:57 PM, sergeantk said:

i've been kind of at a wall with putting together releases lately (burnt out on the whole dub techno scene), any advice for experimentation? i always get stuck doing the same things on most tracks.

try really hard to do a very shit track

I saw you mentioned footwork in your recent Fact interview, has it been inspiring you at all? Been getting more and more into it recently... people have been making some interesting fusions with it as well. The drums in Runrepik sound a bit footworky...

 

 

Do you ever get inspiration to your tracks from other media (films/photos/art/books/architecture)? If so, are there any particular tracks released that you'd care to share the inspirational source to?

Ey up,

 

Do either of you still live around Manc? i heard that sean did, but Rob maybe you live further south. if so, how do you like being an honorary southerner?

Only asking cos i remember seeing you both about a bit at gigs etc in the mid 2000s and thinking it was ace that you were there (i.e. at sequence a few times, sure i saw you in pelicaneck chatting to Mr Hall etc).

 

Also do you think that music is a man made creation or is perhaps something that transcends humanity and is universal?

I remember you mentioning that you sometimes feel like you are discovering music as opposed to creating it, hence the question, plus ive got loads of crazy ideas in my head about music being as old as time but thats just me.

  On 11/4/2013 at 3:01 PM, Gravity said:

I saw you mentioned footwork in your recent Fact interview, has it been inspiring you at all? Been getting more and more into it recently... people have been making some interesting fusions with it as well. The drums in Runrepik sound a bit footworky...

 

 

not inspired by the current incarnation per se, but as a form of what i like to think of as general hip hop styles, we've always been in into the kind stride some heavy percussion at the right tempo has. Runrepik beats are oversteps tour sound system test patches.

Maphive reminds me of Legend of Zelda. Any coincidence there?

  On 11/4/2013 at 2:53 PM, salvaKPO said:

 

  On 11/4/2013 at 2:26 PM, Rob Ae said:

 

  On 11/4/2013 at 2:13 PM, salvaKPO said:

Was the software used in the Oversteps tour the same as the one used for the album?

What were the roles that your Macs/ PCs played in live shows, over the time?

I remember you (Rob) talking about that you could do entire tracks on old computers and that now we need lots of processing power to do that same. What software did you run on those old computers?

I remember seeing Sean in a video with some IBM laptop, making stuff with granular synthesis. What software was that?

I am a computer guy.

Sorry for all this batch.

Thanks.

its been changed quite a lot since oversteps, on that tour it was expressly designed to drive the sequencing for outboard nord synths.

 

the load i would get on a thinkpad w/48mb ram, was higher at one time that i could on later macs (PPC 7200), but not a true or fair comparison, cos i reckon the reliance on plugin inserts had shot right up in mac os compared to windows.

 

once when we used an early mac laptop for live work, we also opted to get an IBM thinkpad so we had both at the same time. the thinkpad ran windows version of NM editor amongst other things exclusive to PCs in a live set.

 

i think that granular synth was Granulab, what video, i wouldn't mind taking a look.

 

Sorry, I couldn t find it on Youtube but you two watched at the back when something sounded like broken or something similar. You were using a cellphone at the time of that sound happening, maybe.

 

from ~4:30 mark

  On 11/4/2013 at 3:09 PM, telefunken said:

 

  On 11/4/2013 at 2:53 PM, salvaKPO said:

 

  On 11/4/2013 at 2:26 PM, Rob Ae said:

 

  On 11/4/2013 at 2:13 PM, salvaKPO said:

Was the software used in the Oversteps tour the same as the one used for the album?

What were the roles that your Macs/ PCs played in live shows, over the time?

I remember you (Rob) talking about that you could do entire tracks on old computers and that now we need lots of processing power to do that same. What software did you run on those old computers?

I remember seeing Sean in a video with some IBM laptop, making stuff with granular synthesis. What software was that?

I am a computer guy.

Sorry for all this batch.

Thanks.

its been changed quite a lot since oversteps, on that tour it was expressly designed to drive the sequencing for outboard nord synths.

 

the load i would get on a thinkpad w/48mb ram, was higher at one time that i could on later macs (PPC 7200), but not a true or fair comparison, cos i reckon the reliance on plugin inserts had shot right up in mac os compared to windows.

 

once when we used an early mac laptop for live work, we also opted to get an IBM thinkpad so we had both at the same time. the thinkpad ran windows version of NM editor amongst other things exclusive to PCs in a live set.

 

i think that granular synth was Granulab, what video, i wouldn't mind taking a look.

 

Sorry, I couldn t find it on Youtube but you two watched at the back when something sounded like broken or something similar. You were using a cellphone at the time of that sound happening, maybe.

 

from ~4:30 mark

 

thanks for this, not seen this before. yeah thinkpad, yeah Granulab, but they've hit the screen hard with that premiere plugin its hard to be certain. they knew they were pushing their luck with that camera fully in our faces so i think they were scared to show it.

oversteps and quaristice got a lot of critisism from autechre fans, i thought it was some next level shit

they are one of the best albums i ever heard, are you proud like a boss of them?

  On 11/4/2013 at 3:18 PM, Rob Ae said:

 

  On 11/4/2013 at 3:09 PM, telefunken said:

 

  On 11/4/2013 at 2:53 PM, salvaKPO said:

 

  On 11/4/2013 at 2:26 PM, Rob Ae said:

 

  On 11/4/2013 at 2:13 PM, salvaKPO said:

Was the software used in the Oversteps tour the same as the one used for the album?

What were the roles that your Macs/ PCs played in live shows, over the time?

I remember you (Rob) talking about that you could do entire tracks on old computers and that now we need lots of processing power to do that same. What software did you run on those old computers?

I remember seeing Sean in a video with some IBM laptop, making stuff with granular synthesis. What software was that?

I am a computer guy.

Sorry for all this batch.

Thanks.

its been changed quite a lot since oversteps, on that tour it was expressly designed to drive the sequencing for outboard nord synths.

 

the load i would get on a thinkpad w/48mb ram, was higher at one time that i could on later macs (PPC 7200), but not a true or fair comparison, cos i reckon the reliance on plugin inserts had shot right up in mac os compared to windows.

 

once when we used an early mac laptop for live work, we also opted to get an IBM thinkpad so we had both at the same time. the thinkpad ran windows version of NM editor amongst other things exclusive to PCs in a live set.

 

i think that granular synth was Granulab, what video, i wouldn't mind taking a look.

 

Sorry, I couldn t find it on Youtube but you two watched at the back when something sounded like broken or something similar. You were using a cellphone at the time of that sound happening, maybe.

 

from ~4:30 mark

 

thanks for this, not seen this before. yeah thinkpad, yeah Granulab, but they've hit the screen hard with that premiere plugin its hard to be certain. they knew they were pushing their luck with that camera fully in our faces so i think they were scared to show it.

 

I think I mixed two interviews in my head. The cellphone and the sound was another, I think.

  On 11/2/2013 at 7:40 PM, Sean Ae said:

 

  On 11/2/2013 at 7:21 PM, LimpyLoo said:

Do you guys see a parallel between what you do and what classical composers or jazz musicians do? Do you like any of that stuff?

 

yeah sometimes i hear jazz and i like it a lot but i'm not digging into it or anything

like - phil washington (cygnus) sent me this album called yellow fields by eberhard weber which i reckon is amazing, silky smooth strings, but when i tried to follow it up by going thru other things he did or other ECM things none were as good. it tends to be a really occasional thing, where the sonics are just right or something.

classical, same thing really, it depends on how it was recorded a lot for me. like, i like shostakovich chamber works but only when the strings sound really grey, somehow that sounds like i imagine he wanted it to. i might be way off there tbh i know so little about him really

 

I'm a huge fan of eberhard weber but I totally think his stuff is hitormiss too.

"fluid rustle" and "silent feet" are the two diamonds in the rough if you ever feel like giving his stuff another run over.