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

awesome! i spent a whole day yesterday reading this, now still pages to go, yeah absolutely computer is hardware! could you please name my 2008 black macbook? thanks a lot! this is third biggest thing this year so far, next to exai and l-event!

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also i've done a performance in 2008 at shanghai called "antechre", maybe i should dig the recordinngs out and post them somewhere;)

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i noticed you missed my question about Beamz. here's a helpful video to introduce you to the gear. your thoughts.

http://youtu.be/8w-Sfa5HzK0

  On 11/5/2013 at 9:37 PM, Sean Ae said:

 

  On 11/5/2013 at 9:16 PM, nizzleone said:

 

Proportionally how much or your time in the studio is spent mixing? How much do you worry on stuff like EQing to reduce clashing frequencies or compression?

not a huge amount, we mix as we go along

there's no 'mixing stage' as such

Do you consider the design of one sound in relation to another to be a sort-of mixing process?

Hi Sean, Hi Rob!

I wanted to ask you about your thoughts on arts and about creative capabilities of a human being from religious perspective

Do you think that one's output is fully his own creation, or it have something to do with transmitting some information/energy from somewhere/something beyond? i mean, from one of the religious point of views, creative capabilities and talents is not something you build yourself, but it's something that is given to you, a Gift. (for example, you didn't do anything to be born as Sean Booth or Rob Brown and as a result grew up in circumstances that made you the Autechre) And that this gift can be used either for transmitting the light of God (as a source of good, order and love) through the prism of your person and character, either for transmitting "energies" of God's enemy, wich perverts your gifts into opposite to God's forces

I am asking you this because for me it's quite interesting to listen your music from this perspective - i feel a lot of dialogues of good and evil in it, especially in your early works - the most bright album from this point is Chiastic Slide, and the most dark is Confield. And a good example track is Second Peng - i hear something like evil insectoid alien swarms there!

so, the question is - have you ever felt that by your music you are transmitting some minds, messages, creatures that are out-of-this-world? And if yes, in the light of mentioning psychedelic drugs, did it felt more distinctly under the unfluences?

Do you feel that these forces you bring are more good than evil?

cuz some of your music makes me feel "good" (examples - Cipater, Pule, Cichli, Yulquen, C/Pach, 444, Theswere), but some of it, despite the fact that it's very interesting to listen, makes me feel more distant from God (Confield is a great example - for me it's the most complex and deep album of yours, but so deep it's "bad for your soul")

what sort of obstacles have you encountered since working on tracks/albums in two separate studios and locations?

i recall that you have worked from two studios from quaristice onwards or so, but am totally a bit foggy on how you work on songs/jams together.

do you ever receive a track or session from the other autechre person, and just get sort of baffled and confused as to what the other person was doing. like, it 's too abstract or confusing for you to work on or contribute to and you have no choice but to back away and say 'i'm out!'

  On 11/5/2013 at 11:46 PM, Sean Ae said:

 

  On 11/5/2013 at 11:20 PM, phudoshin said:

 

Bootlegs:

Squarepusher Alive in Japan/Liquid Room, Aphex Twin DJ sets

 

Props or nots?

 

 

 

 

i'd rather be there

 

Me too and often am, but do you listen to live bootlegs:

1) of yourselves?

2) of other warp acts - BoC, >[ ] or 7\?

3) anyone else?

I often feel while the sound quality might not be great, the vibe is undo-able in a studio setting and even the shitty sound lends itself to a certain ambiance - but thank jebus for your soundboards all the same :)

Sean or Rob, do either of you like sketch comedy? How big of Monty Python fans are you? If big fans, favorite sketch? any favorite comedians or comedy shows british or otherwise?

  On 11/6/2013 at 5:21 AM, RandySicko said:

Any personal influence regarding the fallingwater design on envane or was it just something TDR came up with that you thought looked somewhat fitting?

thats was sort of a combination of things, we'd been hitting him with some ideas, some conditions, for a few things that we had on our minds, while i think at the same time he was about to show us that falling water pic,

so iirc he went away then came back with the situation via the conditions.

  On 11/6/2013 at 11:00 AM, John Ehrlichman said:

Sean or Rob, do either of you like sketch comedy? How big of Monty Python fans are you? If big fans, favorite sketch? any favorite comedians or comedy shows british or otherwise?

aw yeah definitely, grew up with it loads. theres so many tho' at the mo the one that springs to mind is the french film rubbish dump sketch. not sure if it has a real-er name

  On 11/6/2013 at 12:44 AM, kero said:

Hi there, are u guys still messing around with Kyma language, (since pacarana has been released) ? ps loving ilanders all day.

hi, no, we let Bola use it, have it, its at his place. thank u

  On 11/6/2013 at 11:09 AM, Rob Ae said:

. theres so many tho' at the mo the one that springs to mind is the french film rubbish dump sketch. not sure if it has a real-er name

apparently it's called 'french subtitled film' didn't know it either, but great sketch nonetheless

edit: lol at the war footage spliced in, and i like the fact you chose a predominately Terry Jones sketch which shows a refined taste for Python

  On 11/6/2013 at 10:53 AM, pigster said:

what sort of obstacles have you encountered since working on tracks/albums in two separate studios and locations?

i recall that you have worked from two studios from quaristice onwards or so, but am totally a bit foggy on how you work on songs/jams together.

 

do you ever receive a track or session from the other autechre person, and just get sort of baffled and confused as to what the other person was doing. like, it 's too abstract or confusing for you to work on or contribute to and you have no choice but to back away and say 'i'm out!'

hahah nah - no bailing

we try to blow each other away with mixes, we stream or sync up to stream or loopback streaming to jam simult etc… or i go up there, or send files, or patches.

obv. we talk a lot, about trax, things that aren't trax but keep each other on page so to speak.

  On 11/6/2013 at 1:15 AM, mcbpete said:

 

  On 11/6/2013 at 1:10 AM, Restart said:

I've noticed that some tracks on Exai, like "vekoS", "Flep" and "tuinorizn", have synth sounds that seem to mimic speech patterns, almost like babbling. Also, on other tracks like "1 1 is", "nodezsh", and "runrepik", the synths feel like they are replicating how instruments create sound physically (i.e. strings being plucked, horns being blown). Is any of this intentional? If not, have you noticed these similarities between the sounds while generating them?

I'm guessing you're talking about formant synthesis and physical modelling

 

well, i suppose its easy to get an artificial oboe or flute just from messing with simple square waves and so on, so even dealing with simple shit, there can be resemblances of these real sounds, but not really a pursuit to 'model' stuff. the grey area between familiarity and not, is more interesting , more unsettling, wakes you up. and sometimes gives u nice sense of familiarity in an unusual context. to me this acts like a cognitive glue in music. a binding agent. same with speech patterns and all that.

are you touchy about opinions on your music ? like if some friends points bad remarks towards one of your track, it might ruin your day ?

also please do not post pic of your studio. i was disapointed/amused that Fennesz's studio is in his garage (i thought he was making tracks at the top of some epic mountains, face to the wind). i always have the feeling your music was composed in some death star environnement. :-)

  On 11/6/2013 at 1:28 AM, gnarlybog said:

1. are you ruthless editors? have you cut your best work because it didn't fit with the track listing of an album or ep?

 

2. do you think part of autechre's longevity is partly due to the fact that you are always finding new methods of working?

 

3. writers block q: i lately over analyze my compositions because my criteria is that it has to surprise me by its originality (which is why i love your music). it is slightly crippling. any advice?

 

thank you!

with us, the idea of best work is better described as that which works best in the context, if a tune is awesome, it still might not get put there.

if they unlock each others' best effect overall they make it in. thats ok for LPs say, one off tracks , mbe have more room to just , be.

Have you used the scripting functionality in Renoise, if so.. in what way and can you share some scripts?

Sorry for more tech questions chaps but I love the 2001 Toronto set, what was your live setup based around during this tour?

I've read that a Nord Lead and Modular G1 was used along with with some military spec laptops?? (I use an old Itronix II with mine)

Please could you tell us with what you carried on tour back then and perhaps elaborate a little on the workflow used for this minimal setup especially with the Nords?

can you play a simple melody by ear when you hear it?

  On 11/6/2013 at 1:28 AM, gnarlybog said:

1. are you ruthless editors? have you cut your best work because it didn't fit with the track listing of an album or ep?

 

2. do you think part of autechre's longevity is partly due to the fact that you are always finding new methods of working?

 

3. writers block q: i lately over analyze my compositions because my criteria is that it has to surprise me by its originality (which is why i love your music). it is slightly crippling. any advice?

 

thank you!

3 - don't seize up… just do another one, you'll have more to reflect afterwards if thats any help, if not, you have more tracks done at least.

  On 11/6/2013 at 11:15 AM, Rob Ae said:

 

  On 11/6/2013 at 10:53 AM, pigster said:

 

what sort of obstacles have you encountered since working on tracks/albums in two separate studios and locations?

i recall that you have worked from two studios from quaristice onwards or so, but am totally a bit foggy on how you work on songs/jams together.

 

do you ever receive a track or session from the other autechre person, and just get sort of baffled and confused as to what the other person was doing. like, it 's too abstract or confusing for you to work on or contribute to and you have no choice but to back away and say 'i'm out!'

hahah nah - no bailing

 

we try to blow each other away with mixes, we stream or sync up to stream or loopback streaming to jam simult etc or i go up there, or send files, or patches.

 

obv. we talk a lot, about trax, things that aren't trax but keep each other on page so to speak.

Oo thanks for answering.

  On 11/6/2013 at 11:23 AM, k h o v said:

are you touchy about opinions on your music ? like if some friends points bad remarks towards one of your track, it might ruin your day ?

also please do not post pic of your studio. i was disapointed/amused that Fennesz's studio is in his garage (i thought he was making tracks at the top of some epic mountains, face to the wind). i always have the feeling your music was composed in some death star environnement. :-)

  On 11/6/2013 at 1:41 AM, Compvig said:

Dear Rob and Dear Sean,

 

Firstly sorry for my possible English grammar mistakes, I didn't have any steady platform to practice it.

For me your music is direct proof of how certain sounds can leak into human nervous system (in this case its me) and change its structure and mechanism completely.

I remember very vividly of my first Autechre experience,It was about 4 years ago, up to that time I never listened electronic music, listening Kalpol Introl and then Bike while doing breath exercises was the first big experience for me, and the day later it was new year, so there was some party which we decided to take shrooms and at one point I put Amber and at first Foil track everyone just lost their mind since then most of the people at that party began to make music and we created some kind of electronic music collective/gathering and had wicked jam sessions. Later that year I registered to electronic engineering undergrad course in order to learn signal processing and fourier synthesis/analysis, circuits, programming etc., and it's now my last year, over these time course I bought and built dozens of analog gear and learn to operate them meaningfully, I learned max extensively (wrote down all documentation of it in order to learn every bit of every object) , bought almost all of your lp's (tri repetea vinyl was worn out due to abusively listening so I bought second one) and had inexpressible experiences while listening all of it, also your radio shows were very very inspiring to discover some oldskool-electro and acid tracks, last month I was able to meet with Jean Claude-Risset and by his colleagues help, I will start apprenticeship at IRCAM next year, I just wanted to thank you guys for every support you give me unconsciously with your music, your tunes and sounds answered all of my questions. By writing this I just aimed to simply thank for everything, Hope this message doesn't seem silly or off topic.

some couple of item specific questions:

- Are you guys still using asr-10 or quadraverb effects on your recent albums?

- Is it possible for you guys to name my roland mks-80 (it has purple lcd display)?

- On Exai's "1 1 is" track did you use fm synthesis for those bubbly sounds?

heya, mate thats a busy 4 yrs, almost like you expressly went to check virtually all boxes - even the shrooms haha!

cheers

- not using asr10 or verb at the mo. we keep them warm though.

- naming the mis-80 'withy'

- can't rem

  On 11/6/2013 at 2:02 AM, J3FF3R00 said:

 

  On 11/6/2013 at 12:35 AM, Rob Ae said:

 

  On 11/6/2013 at 12:16 AM, feltcher said:

Which track got you signed to warp? Or did they come to one of your gigs to feel the lushness first hand?

we sent them a tape, and crystel and the egg nailed the AI comp, but we didn't actually sign till during/after amber.

during the AI zone we invited them, steve n rob to a show we held at Band on The Wall (mcr). we dj'd all night and did a set in the middle.

That's so fucking dope. I was thinking of asking that.

Your AI tracks are classics, as is Amber. Love your early stuff!

 

cheers!

how to listen to your music correctly ?

is there a required mental state ? a minimum/maximum amount of time needed for proper "gettin' it" or is it designed to be as something that is explorable at own leisure ? etc.

a related question is: do you think that your music is often misunderstood and what needs to be done to fix this ?

  On 11/6/2013 at 2:06 AM, marf said:

so, it sounds like you made your last couple releases in your computer. your synths have a real sizzle to them, too. from listening today im going to guess that you layered that sizzle in there with clicky/ blippy sounds on top of the filter to give it extra sizzle. i thought it was an analogue synth but really listening and knowing you did it in the box, i think its layered sounds as opposed to one max object, am i rite?

not many layers as such here, its usually right inside there. sizzle is a nice word tho'. there are plenty of objects actually, so mbe thats what you're hearing.

Do you ever feel limited by max? There's been criticism of it taking ages to do even the most simple stuff (mathematics..), what's your opinion on that?

  On 11/6/2013 at 2:13 AM, gabrielconroy said:

I remembered what I meant to ask ages ago - is the synth line that comes in towards the background at around 3:48 in YJY UX you quoting/paraphrasing yourselves from known(1)? I swear the synth itself and the phrase is very similar. Would be really interesting to know how much you take bits of your own older stuff and pull it apart/reassemble again.

ah yeah i think know what u mean - theres that high up staccato-ey bit that appears at 1'09''? , but no not a lift from one to the other at all, just tastes cropping up.

in older stuff we would reuse bits all the time, but more like getting a favourite sound and re-apropriating it over and over, esp, with live sets, i remember a sound we had that kept coming back 'Peng' . cannibalising tunes/sounds and reusing. don't really do that now though.