APHEX TWIN - SYRO

i think i'd say it's my favorite aphex album, including all the monickers. unless you consider analord one huge album.

Yep. Not sure what the issue is with mastering. It sounds great on vinyl on my old Tannoys, smooth from MP3 on my Genelec 8030As, great on my $10 car speakers, fantastic on my Bose noise cancelling headphones, great on my Tivoli kitchen stereo and crappy Dick Smith portable speakers. No mastering issues to my ears.

Been heavily fling in love with Analord series too. There are tracks on 11 that sound like Syro test beds. Lovely crunchy goodness.

As far as the actual signal on cdda at least, most of the tracks are amp'd way up unfortunately. Seeing how much was a surprise, the whole thing is still sounding steadily better (starting from 'decent') to me listening-wise this many weeks later, something no album's ever done to this extent for me. What's weird is minipops is the only one with actual cutoffs from what I can tell (tons, through most of the song)...almost makes me wonder if it was intentional. The rest comes across just-as-designed and works like aces for me right now, but ya, subjective.

You don't need a particularly fancy set of speakers to tell they kind of botched the mastering.

Speaking as someone who doesn't mind "hot" mixes, it doesn't sound overcompressed but it's somewhat badly mixed, there is a lot of mud and problem frequencies in the low-mid range on most tracks, the buried lo-fi drum sounds mainly contribute to the lifeless feeling. It must have been difficult to work with the original audio which was probably pretty noisy.

Wire's best record of the year.

Who's Richard Dawson?

  On 12/10/2014 at 5:06 PM, cebec said:

http://www.richarddawson.net

  On 12/10/2014 at 5:17 PM, trananhhung said:

 

  On 12/10/2014 at 5:06 PM, cebec said:

http://www.richarddawson.net

 

I don't think RDJ could churn out a crisp, clean, noiseless mix/master to save his life, especially with his monster setup. It was one of his idiosyncracies when he was making simpler tracks full of reverb and distortion in the 90's. I don't like the compression on Syro either, but the weird EQ gives it a kind of timeless / Raymond Scott quality.

The mixing/mastering on this album actually made me feel self-conscious about my own in a way most electronic albums don't, so I'm not sure what you guys are on about... aside from the noise thing, which comes with the analogue synth territory. Some of those constant high pitch hums could have no doubt been EQed out quite easily if he really cared about them. Everything just sounds so much bigger compared with most electronic albums. Perhaps this is a bad thing on club PAs, but through my studio mons and headphones it sounds ultralush. Any nitpicks I have about Syro are more to do with how some tracks are arranged. I'd be curious to hear more of the early versions.

I think the above post contains my personal record for most edits (5!)

  On 12/10/2014 at 4:38 PM, chim said:

You don't need a particularly fancy set of speakers to tell they kind of botched the mastering.

 

Speaking as someone who doesn't mind "hot" mixes, it doesn't sound overcompressed but it's somewhat badly mixed, there is a lot of mud and problem frequencies in the low-mid range on most tracks, the buried lo-fi drum sounds mainly contribute to the lifeless feeling. It must have been difficult to work with the original audio which was probably pretty noisy.

Good points. The "quality" of the mix is pretty evident even on cheap audio systems. But I think it is over compressed. Mainly the rhythmic parts of the tracks. The drums does not deliver. Transients and peaks missing. No swing.

EDIT: Anyway, I agree that the mixes themselves are more of a culprit than the mastering.

But I think it was all deliberate by Richard. This is simply not an album for me. Will wait for the next time for some new Cymru Beats.

  On 12/12/2014 at 5:16 PM, Jev said:

But I think it was all deliberate by Richard. This is simply not an album for me. Will wait for the next time for some new Cymru Beats.

I'm not sure if it will ever happen at this point but I would love to hear some new very digital productions. I sort of miss his hyperactive/hyper-creative "computer music" days.

  On 12/12/2014 at 5:08 PM, Jev said:

 

Good points. The "quality" of the mix is pretty evident even on cheap audio systems. But I think it is over compressed. Mainly the rhythmic parts of the tracks. The drums does not deliver. Transients and peaks missing. No swing.

 

EDIT: Anyway, I agree that the mixes themselves are more of a culprit than the mastering.

 

try vinyl! sounds different, mastered by different guy. more oldschool smooth and analoug to my taste, no mashed potatoes snares

rules deny links so grab it somewhere or buy

I've gotta say, after the first couple weeks, I have listened to this WAY less than I'd have ever thought. Even after release, I wasn't entirely taken by it, but I definitely enjoyed it. If you'd asked me the first week or two, I'd have said that it was definitely a contender for record of the year. A couple months later, and I haven't touched it in weeks. Not sure why, but I wonder if there's many others with similar feelings.

No.4 album of the year in The Guardian today

The first 2 tracks are untouchable. After that I think Syro grinds to a halt, picking up a little in the latter stages (syro u473t8+e [141.98][piezoluminescence mix]) and the Japanese track helps.

As it's Aphex I'll say I might curveball on this opinion in the future. As I've done massive u-turns before. Just for me right now, being honest, I'd say I am honestly disappointed. Sorry Richard, sorry Joyrex, sorry Watmm. I just have to admit it.

  On 12/12/2014 at 7:09 PM, auxien said:

I've gotta say, after the first couple weeks, I have listened to this WAY less than I'd have ever thought. Even after release, I wasn't entirely taken by it, but I definitely enjoyed it. If you'd asked me the first week or two, I'd have said that it was definitely a contender for record of the year. A couple months later, and I haven't touched it in weeks. Not sure why, but I wonder if there's many others with similar feelings.

I OD'd on it to the point I got very bored with it. But no album could withstand THAT many plays and still be completely entertaining. I didn't listen to it for 3 weeks and just yesterday put it back on with full volume and full attention. Back to loving it again.. but I have to say, not in a very "deep" way. More in a "this is fucking awesome almost every moment" kind of way. Certainly no flims, rhubarbs on this one though.

  On 12/12/2014 at 7:59 PM, beerwolf said:

The first 2 tracks are untouchable. After that I think Syro grinds to a halt, picking up a little in the latter stages (syro u473t8+e [141.98][piezoluminescence mix]) and the Japanese track helps.

 

For me the album picks up after the first two tracks... but I think both of those tracks would be favorites of mine with the right arrangements. I agree most of the latter half and bonus track are very strong.

4bit is my favorite i think.

I noticed something a bit weird the other day, aisatsana is now the most popular Aphex Twin song on Spotify (Avril 14th previously).

I don't think there's many people that would say the prefer aisatsana over Avril 14th so I'm just surprised that it really jumped up like that.

I guess people mostly just listen to an artist's newest album.

Heh, that's the only track on Syro that I skip.

i think shrymorning is probably my favorite, with 4bit and earth portal close behind

1.Xmas-Eve

2.Earth Portal

3.Minipops

4.Produk

5.Piezoluminescence

6.Syrobonkus

7.4 bit

8.Shrymoming

9.Papat

10.Marchromt

11.aisatsana

12.pseudotimestretch

13.180db

Drukqs>ICBYD>Syro>Tuss>SOSW>Analord>SAWII>26mixes>RDJalbum>....

imo tbqh