APHEX TWIN - SYRO

Time Flies. This album has been around almost as long as the gap between The Tuss releases and Syro.... over 7 years. That's like 1992 aphex to 1999 windowlicker. Within which Aphex changed his style like 5 times.

  On 2/8/2022 at 6:35 AM, Brisbot said:

Within which Aphex changed his style like 5 times.

time for another change in style!

  On 2/8/2022 at 6:35 AM, Brisbot said:

Time Flies. This album has been around almost as long as the gap between The Tuss releases and Syro.... over 7 years. That's like 1992 aphex to 1999 windowlicker. Within which Aphex changed his style like 5 times.

True

It doesn't feel as bad to me this time. At least we've had some e.p.s, 12" live tracks and the sc dump to tide us over. 

Last time we only had youtube recordings and maybe Steinvord.

This is just a guess but I think now he is going back into semi-hibernation to focus on making new tracks. I bet the next time he starts releasing he will have finished a few EPs/LP's... in a few years.

  On 5/29/2021 at 1:55 AM, yekker said:

I hope the next one is more like collapse

Edit: more glitchy

  On 2/8/2022 at 7:01 AM, MIXL2 said:

time for another change in style!

These days it seems he prefers to shift his style between releases rather than do 180s like he did in the 90s. 

Is Syro too perfect sound wise?

I have even heard many people complaining because it is too well mastered sound wise.. 
Many producers using the first minipopstrack as a referens track cus every sound is perfectly delivered. 

Is it too much? 

  On 2/23/2022 at 5:34 PM, cern said:

Is Syro too perfect sound wise?

I have even heard many people complaining because it is too well mastered sound wise.. 
Many producers using the first minipopstrack as a referens track cus every sound is perfectly delivered. 

Is it too much? 

no its dope. ive said it before but its the dad-rock idm record. it represents where rdj was at in his life, in his 40s(?). it wants you to sit back and turn on your hifi and appreciate the smooth sounds of aphex.  would be worse if he was wearing skinny jeans and slammin everything through a mackie to DAT to try and recapture his youth.

  On 2/23/2022 at 5:46 PM, nikisoko said:

no its dope. ive said it before but its the dad-rock idm record. it represents where rdj was at in his life, in his 40s(?). it wants you to sit back and turn on your hifi and appreciate the smooth sounds of aphex.  would be worse if he was wearing skinny jeans and slammin everything through a mackie to DAT to try and recapture his youth.

Oh yeah you are so right! You want it to be perfect for that kind of comeback. It is very playful and intense but with that super clean sound.
And that he list the gear in the album is like: If you gonna sound like this u better have this 2 million worth of rare analoge synts lol.

to be honest: most of the synths listed on the track are pretty bs he included. But it is a nice showoff for sure 

 

  On 2/23/2022 at 5:34 PM, cern said:

Is Syro too perfect sound wise?

I have even heard many people complaining because it is too well mastered sound wise.. 
Many producers using the first minipopstrack as a referens track cus every sound is perfectly delivered. 

Is it too much? 

Is this another cern troll post? What kind of people use it as a reference? 

The Syro master is a mess, RDJ made a hi-fi record that got chewed thru the Warp hype machine who, anticipating the return of a pop sensation, likely demanded the sound of a pop album. Mandy Parnell & Beau Thomas are legendary cats but can't do miracles on a stereo mix recording, they did some great work with the low end, especially the huge near infrasonic sub bass on Minipops. (no surprise Beau Thomas is an old DNB head). The trade off is cutting all the body on a bunch of synth lines. The Arp 2500 and moogs on Xmas got through unscathed thankfully. There probably wasn't much else to do except make the upper mids harsh and ugly, totally defeating the point of running vintage gear thru tape. Dynamics on the busy circlon tracks are inexcusable. RDJ probably couldn't care less what his CD sounds like on Spotify. 

B Thomas did a great job on Collapse as it's more balanced with woolly sounding mids and again the bass & drums are deep & full sounding, probably due to the mix stage as RDJ must've ran the bass thru some vintage EQ+comp chain - I've never heard a single Pro One sound that big. 

My two favorite tracks from the album, PAPAT and XMASEVE, don't sound like great mixes to my ears. Admittedly, I'm not an engineer or anything, but something like the Rushup Edge EP sounds amazing

PAPAT is my favourite track on the album, and it sounds completely fucked up by HiFi wanker standards. 

  On 2/23/2022 at 9:05 PM, chim said:

Is this another cern troll post? What kind of people use it as a reference? 

The Syro master is a mess, RDJ made a hi-fi record that got chewed thru the Warp hype machine who, anticipating the return of a pop sensation, likely demanded the sound of a pop album. Mandy Parnell & Beau Thomas are legendary cats but can't do miracles on a stereo mix recording, they did some great work with the low end, especially the huge near infrasonic sub bass on Minipops. (no surprise Beau Thomas is an old DNB head). The trade off is cutting all the body on a bunch of synth lines. The Arp 2500 and moogs on Xmas got through unscathed thankfully. There probably wasn't much else to do except make the upper mids harsh and ugly, totally defeating the point of running vintage gear thru tape. Dynamics on the busy circlon tracks are inexcusable. RDJ probably couldn't care less what his CD sounds like on Spotify. 

B Thomas did a great job on Collapse as it's more balanced with woolly sounding mids and again the bass & drums are deep & full sounding, probably due to the mix stage as RDJ must've ran the bass thru some vintage EQ+comp chain - I've never heard a single Pro One sound that big. 

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I know Im trolling alot on watttmb BUT

Byou saying in other words SYRO is too god damn masterd? 

  On 2/23/2022 at 9:30 PM, psn said:

PAPAT is my favourite track on the album, and it sounds completely fucked up by HiFi wanker standards. 

Is it closed back or Open headphones the best way to listen to the album u think? 

  On 2/23/2022 at 9:30 PM, cern said:

Is it closed back or Open headphones the best way to listen to the album u think? 

Whichever bring out the crackles and the hiss in the pads and the supreme mononess of the breakbeat sample.

In general, I've noticed that the hiss and imperfection of the vintage analogue approach has been emphasized as a prominent feature in nearly all his releases from Syro and up. The heavier compression used, plus selective gating, suppresses the hiss in certain sections of the tracks, and then really brings it to the fore in others. 

Examples: Intro to CHEETAHT2, when the pads enter on MARCHROM, the breakdown in end E2, all of 42DIMENSIT + em 2500 (basically the whole Field Day album), when the kick drum drops out in the stillsons, when the drums and the bass and later the pads drop out towards the end of prememory, the pumping on m11stN. Etc. 

  On 2/23/2022 at 9:05 PM, chim said:

Is this another cern troll post? What kind of people use it as a reference? 

The Syro master is a mess, RDJ made a hi-fi record that got chewed thru the Warp hype machine who, anticipating the return of a pop sensation, likely demanded the sound of a pop album. Mandy Parnell & Beau Thomas are legendary cats but can't do miracles on a stereo mix recording, they did some great work with the low end, especially the huge near infrasonic sub bass on Minipops. (no surprise Beau Thomas is an old DNB head). The trade off is cutting all the body on a bunch of synth lines. The Arp 2500 and moogs on Xmas got through unscathed thankfully. There probably wasn't much else to do except make the upper mids harsh and ugly, totally defeating the point of running vintage gear thru tape. Dynamics on the busy circlon tracks are inexcusable. RDJ probably couldn't care less what his CD sounds like on Spotify. 

B Thomas did a great job on Collapse as it's more balanced with woolly sounding mids and again the bass & drums are deep & full sounding, probably due to the mix stage as RDJ must've ran the bass thru some vintage EQ+comp chain - I've never heard a single Pro One sound that big. 

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I think that loudness is because of Richard, not Warp. Well Warp may have been the one to go overboard on the mastering, but Richard I am pretty sure did want that loudness mastering in his record.

I remember AFX saying in an interview that he was a lil nervous about releasing something to a wider public so long after, and he seemed to imply, but didn't say, that he wanted the master to have more loudness like the trend has been in general, and that before when he was releasing his 90s and early 00's stuff he said he never cared about all the post production after he finished mixing, as long as it still sounded fine. But since then he had changed his mind to some extent and that he felt it was EXPECTED of any release.

IMO, I personally think that it was because it was focused on the synths more-so than the drums in Syro.  Kinda like what PSN said, So drum transients took a back seat to making the synths as upfront and in your face as possible. 

By the time of Collapse, again imo, that record had way more emphasis on drums than the synths. So making sure the drums work was the primary concern. Leading to much more interesting drum and drum transients, with the synths sounding more like what we would expect from Aphex Twin. Imagine if Collapse had the same loudness mastering as Syro had. It just wouldn't work nearly as well and would have been the wrong direction. 

  On 2/23/2022 at 5:34 PM, cern said:

Is Syro too perfect sound wise?

I have even heard many people complaining because it is too well mastered sound wise.. 
Many producers using the first minipopstrack as a referens track cus every sound is perfectly delivered. 

Is it too much? 

I think part what is making Syro so perfect sounding is the super lush reverb especially on those already very lush pads, which just sort of swallows everything into like this hypnotic cocoon. This element I think sort of contains the dynamics and makes everything sit in this glowy floating space. The compression style used is very buttery and chocolatey and pillowy which just adds to that. Esp when you hear some of those old school drum machines crushed hard and super dry juxtaposed against all the wetness of the other tracks. It's  super thick chunky goodness.

He set out to make an ear pleasing, chill groovy album and he succeeded!

It would be a fun treat to hear some abrasiveness or more rawness in an upcoming release of course

I think Syro sounds pretty gritty in a way. It has far from perfect sounding mixes. You can feel the dust off the mixer. The electricity. And the noise gates being put through overwork hahaha

Didnt he mention how he prefered his mixes a bit more on the lo-fi oldschool side than on the super clean, ultra HQ mixed side?

  On 4/14/2022 at 5:47 PM, Lane Visitor said:

I think part what is making Syro so perfect sounding is the super lush reverb especially on those already very lush pads, which just sort of swallows everything into like this hypnotic cocoon. This element I think sort of contains the dynamics and makes everything sit in this glowy floating space. The compression style used is very buttery and chocolatey and pillowy which just adds to that. Esp when you hear some of those old school drum machines crushed hard and super dry juxtaposed against all the wetness of the other tracks. It's  super thick chunky goodness.

He set out to make an ear pleasing, chill groovy album and he succeeded!

It would be a fun treat to hear some abrasiveness or more rawness in an upcoming release of course

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Yes indeed! A tasty AFX release would be amazing.. Something between Drukqs and Analord style 

Many tracks he have been playing that is not released.. I hope to hear more of those 909-raves! 

Yeah some of those live trx were fucking superb.

  On 4/14/2022 at 6:17 PM, cern said:

I hope to hear more of those 909-raves!

                                                              in person

Still waiting for the bolt of lightning to hit me. I am genuinely glad that loads of other fans really like it, maybe one day I will see the light 

4 bit 9d api+e+6, marchromt30a and end E2 are easy my favourites

sometimes I think if I heard this via a high end loud speaker system it might be better than headphones *shrugs* (or maybe *drugs* )

  On 4/15/2022 at 8:11 PM, Summon Dot E X E said:

I think it's his best album to date. I love all of them, but Syro is so polished.

It's probably my favourite too.

  On 4/14/2022 at 6:17 PM, cern said:

Yes indeed! A tasty AFX release would be amazing.. Something between Drukqs and Analord style 

Many tracks he have been playing that is not released.. I hope to hear more of those 909-raves! 

Haha yup, honestly anything with some aggressiveness or rdj classic emotive / playful melodies would be awesome. On the flip side, some minimal ambience would satisfy me just as much lol

  On 4/15/2022 at 11:13 PM, beerwolf said:

Still waiting for the bolt of lightning to hit me. I am genuinely glad that loads of other fans really like it, maybe one day I will see the light 

4 bit 9d api+e+6, marchromt30a and end E2 are easy my favourites

sometimes I think if I heard this via a high end loud speaker system it might be better than headphones *shrugs* (or maybe *drugs* )

I felt that SYRO has always been little bit too short. 
But now when added Marchromt30a and End E2 as last track it feels totally completed! 

I don't know if I like all that "adding tracks later" stuff.. It feels like the Vinyl or CD you are buying becoming little bit worthless. 
Its like we getting ripped! HAHA

Driving back from the beach today and end E2 came on. I love Syro but I do think how more amazing this album would’ve been with this track included when it was released. I mean I’ve added to the album now but still that was my thinking today when I was driving