Which album has the best overall flow

  On 1/14/2015 at 10:53 AM, Friendly Foil said:

Oh and lolololol at saying Untilted is lacking in low-end.

+10!

don't care much about flow anyhow, I make my own playlists and weed out what I don't like (not much left of Quaristice LOL, quadrange saves the day for that album!)

  On 1/14/2015 at 7:41 AM, Mesh Gear Fox said:

jev all that low level listening stuff sounds like a bs theory to me. there's a bit of truth in there but it's hardly a rule of thumb. some music is supposed to be loud and ae are no exception. there's detail there you simply cannot hear at low levels

I see. I am sure I hear all the details in their music with low-level headphone listening. Their music has not that big dynamic range so you can listen to them low-volume no problem. I can hear all the "buried details" some guys were discussing in a thread some time ago.

All the good music I know can be enjoyed at all volumes but the most sincere emotional impact comes from a clean, low-volume listening where all the production and compositional qualities are presented as naked as they can be.

A lot of music I enjoyed loud at a festival turned out to be shit with low-volume listening. Loudness mask stuff. Also, loudness alone make a lot of emotional impact on people so it does not have to be a good sound or good music in order to trigger something intense in a man's brain. Low-level sounds has to have more complex quality in order to get your attention. This is what I believe in but feel free to speculate with me as I consider this discussions very interesting and enriching (if you want, of course).

  On 1/14/2015 at 10:45 AM, eclipsis said:

Low volume level listening will mainly give you the idea of how compressed the music is. In other words if you are able to hear everything in the mix at low volume the music clearly isn't that dynamic. Could be intended ofc and in most cases is. I guess it's because of the radio mentality - I mean you want your track to be heard even on low level background listening to catch the attention of the listener.

You are right that low-level listening clearly and brutally reveals amount of compression in music. However, it does not necessarily come from radio mentality. Some loudness stability is wanted because it is pleasurable for ears and because producers want to create an impression that sounds used are playing in the same space. There is also more stuff to discuss about dynamics. Micro-dynamics (not such an issue in music) and macro-dynamics (huge issue in music).

  On 1/13/2015 at 3:59 PM, Jev said:

 

  On 1/12/2015 at 12:26 PM, jaderpansen said:

the "epicness" in scale of each track further supports my statement, i think.

also (kinda more on-topic) the way aforementioned sections flow into each is other is quite seamless which definitely is a compositional achievement.

 

The seamlessness is definitely an achievement, I agree. I just think they've made more seamless and deep stuff than on Untilted. Untilted is really sequenced to my ears while some of their other records are like fluid.

 

ok i will stop playing devil's advocate for untilted now, considering it's probably my least favourite album anyway. note that with ambitious i didn't neccessarily mean accomplished. i just think they obviously aimed for "big" with this one. few, huge tracks with alot of narrative qualities on their own and for the most part they succeeded imo. trade off: worst sound everrrrrrr (for ae standards)... this is really the only album that sounds better in my head than on the actual record, i regularly come back to it, really in the mood for them tunes and when the first "bass"drum of LCC hits i go "ah... yeah right". and yes, i got vinyls, it's even worse there!

  On 1/14/2015 at 2:36 PM, entropi said:

 

  On 1/14/2015 at 10:53 AM, Friendly Foil said:

Oh and lolololol at saying Untilted is lacking in low-end.

 

+10!

 

don't care much about flow anyhow, I make my own playlists and weed out what I don't like (not much left of Quaristice LOL, quadrange saves the day for that album!)

 

one of these days i'll run a frequency analyzer on it and the last couple o' albums and you'll eat those lols / 10s with salt! ;P ... damn especially in comparison to quaristice it's so obvious as day/night imo...

  On 1/14/2015 at 10:53 AM, Friendly Foil said:

 

Oh and lolololol at saying Untilted is lacking in low-end.

Sorry, and you've listened to how many hundred albums on my system to make a relative comparison?

  On 1/14/2015 at 5:28 PM, jaderpansen said:

 

  On 1/14/2015 at 2:36 PM, entropi said:

 

  On 1/14/2015 at 10:53 AM, Friendly Foil said:

Oh and lolololol at saying Untilted is lacking in low-end.

 

+10!

 

don't care much about flow anyhow, I make my own playlists and weed out what I don't like (not much left of Quaristice LOL, quadrange saves the day for that album!)

 

 

 

one of these days i'll run a frequency analyzer on it and the last couple o' albums and you'll eat those lols / 10s with salt! ;P ...

 

If I knew how to do it I would

  On 1/15/2015 at 1:35 AM, Mesh Gear Fox said:

 

  On 1/14/2015 at 5:19 PM, Jev said:

 

  On 1/14/2015 at 7:41 AM, Mesh Gear Fox said:

jev all that low level listening stuff sounds like a bs theory to me. there's a bit of truth in there but it's hardly a rule of thumb. some music is supposed to be loud and ae are no exception. there's detail there you simply cannot hear at low levels

I see. I am sure I hear all the details in their music with low-level headphone listening.).

i stopped reading right here. some confidence you have, mate.

 

'i have superman ears and understand autechre supremely. nothing surprises me. brb voting republican'

 

Yes, I have good ears (brought up musically, mixing, mastering, critically listening many years throughout genres) but you should have finish my post anyway. Especially the "I can hear all the "buried details" some guys were discussing in a thread some time ago." part.

I am not making things up. I am deducing them from my actual experience.

I believe that if you can notice a really low-volume buried details during low-level listening that are only subtle even at loud listening then you can quite safely say that no details are really hidden from you during low-level listening. This is not a classical music record we are talking about. This is a very compressed electronic music with mostly inconsiderable macro-dynamics. Also, from my experience, most of the listeners have really poorly set-up systems or poorly calibrated frequency response on their systems (again apparent from the "buried details" thread) which is often masking the details in the music (mostly due to stupid abuse of subwoofers at loud volumes and bad room acoustics). Moreover, to support my arguments, low level listening reduces bass response of every non-compensating audio system and therefore make mid-range and higher mids more prominent. Another scientific fact to support my argument is that loud sounds desensitize ear and therefore dampen ear's ability to pick up little details. And yet another scientific fact support my argument and that is - loud listening quickly causes ear fatigue - a phenomenon that is absolutely crucial to avoid for critical, sensitive listeners and is one of the main enemies of all mixing and mastering engineers (and for a good reason).

So while I can imagine my statements might seem bold to you, I believe I have arguments to back up my statements.

And to "hear hidden details" or "have good, trained ears" is not the same as "I understand Autechre supremely". I don't understand Autechre supremely because there is not only one way music can be understood (even more so with abstract music like Ae's).

  On 1/14/2015 at 5:28 PM, jaderpansen said:

 

  On 1/13/2015 at 3:59 PM, Jev said:

 

  On 1/12/2015 at 12:26 PM, jaderpansen said:

the "epicness" in scale of each track further supports my statement, i think.

also (kinda more on-topic) the way aforementioned sections flow into each is other is quite seamless which definitely is a compositional achievement.

 

The seamlessness is definitely an achievement, I agree. I just think they've made more seamless and deep stuff than on Untilted. Untilted is really sequenced to my ears while some of their other records are like fluid.

 

 

ok i will stop playing devil's advocate for untilted now, considering it's probably my least favourite album anyway. note that with ambitious i didn't neccessarily mean accomplished. i just think they obviously aimed for "big" with this one. few, huge tracks with alot of narrative qualities on their own and for the most part they succeeded imo. trade off: worst sound everrrrrrr (for ae standards)... this is really the only album that sounds better in my head than on the actual record, i regularly come back to it, really in the mood for them tunes and when the first "bass"drum of LCC hits i go "ah... yeah right". and yes, i got vinyls, it's even worse there!

 

OK, I understand now. Thank you for clearing that "ambitious" vs "accomplished" part up.

I just don't know if they were aiming somewhere particularly high with Untilted because to me it is more of a jam (an excellent jam btw) than a meticulously-thought-out record. I know for the fact (from an interview), they were aiming somewhere higher (to be more "magical" as they said) with Oversteps and that they were very proud of it. And I can definitely hear that ambition in Oversteps. Oversteps is so fluid and precise it is unbelievable.

Alright guys, there's far too much talk about Untilted in this thread!

I agree it's a "jam" record, and in that sense it works well but there's no way it sets out to provide the same kind of narrative journey as many of their other albums. Every track is like an individual journey on that album but the album itself really isn't for me in the same way as Amber, Chiastic Slide, LP5, Confield, Draft, Oversteps. I mean damn... that's like half of their discography and all anyone wants to talk about here is bloody Untilted!

Speaking of Untilted, I listened to it last night for the first time in probably three years. Even close to a decade after release, I feel like it's still unrivaled today in terms of synthesized percussion arrangement.

So yeah. Untilted.

  On 12/25/2014 at 7:03 AM, thehauntingsoul said:

 

I'm almost tempted to say EP7 as ironic as that is.

Draft 7.30 for me.

tried the old fashioned approach, asked about 5 casual autechre fans at a get together last week this question and the consensus was Tri Repeate ++ followed by Amber. I seriously don't mean to be a cunt but Untitled getting this much praise seems to be an internet fanbase exclusive phenomenon

  On 1/22/2015 at 9:01 AM, John Ehrlichman said:

tried the old fashioned approach, asked about 5 casual autechre fans at a get together last week this question and the consensus was Tri Repeate ++ followed by Amber. I seriously don't mean to be a cunt but Untitled getting this much praise seems to be an internet fanbase exclusive phenomenon

Tri Rep ++? Da fuk?

Disc 2 is literally 2 EP's pasted together that are very different in style. Each one alone has a nice flow (especially Garbage imo) but I've always found the change between the 2 ep's a little jarring. Interesting insight from casual fans though... I guess I should ask my dad.

Has anyone mentioned Amber? I always thought Amber had a reallygood flow...

Draft 7.3 has a good flow as well, I need to revisit Untitled, Exai is just amazing all around and does flow quite well also.

  On 1/14/2015 at 10:53 AM, Friendly Foil said:

Quaristice flows super well.

 

Just biked in to confirm that.

Along with all subsequent Qua*e eps it makes a superb listen.

My favourite.

For me Envane has the best overall flow to it. The repetition and lathing of textural ambience has a very special place in my heart. Also well suited for bicycling or even something quiet like drawing I've found.

  On 1/31/2015 at 12:30 PM, Paul said:

For me Envane has the best overall flow to it. The repetition and lathing of textural ambience has a very special place in my heart. Also well suited for bicycling or even something quiet like drawing I've found.

Sent using magic space waves

Oversteps. Felt like they said to each other, "Hey let's make this album" and out it came as a singular sonic animal. Chiastic Slide and Confield have an intentional abrasiveness which works as a listener but is (intentionally, I think) disruptive to the overall flow

Oversteps, and this is why:

"What we didn’t want to do this time was to be so fixed to these finished tracks. We wanted to have something where we could change, at the last minute, any detail or any event. It was sort of a dichotomy, knowing that the gear was safe, everything was saved, but at any time we could completely change the idea. This is unlike Quaristice, where we were pretty much fixed with what we have. We felt it was useful that, seeing a thread, we could this entertain this thread and develop it with that in mind, because if ever we thought it was a bad idea, we could back and redo the lot of it. Even at the mastering stage, we could change one small element in one track that perhaps wasn’t fitting well with others. In the past, if any track didn’t fit in compilation, it would get axed or shelved for some other project.

We managed to keep it really open, really solid, and versatile at the same time. We felt free to go a bit mad and do all sorts of things that you wouldn’t normally commit yourself to do, because we knew we could undo it, or we could add to it, or infuse more ideas in there. We still had the framework that was alive, it was still intact and active throughout its entire shelf life. Obviously, there are certain tracks that didn’t follow the common thread. They just served to bolster the narrative curve that we saw. At the same time, we weren’t committing certain tracks to certain positions in an album. We still kept the mentality of keeping it open until the compilation at the end. But we allowed the character of every single track to suggest new characters that were missing that we could induce into a new track. Therefore, we could fill in the blanks in a narrative scope. We could almost perceive how the album was going to be earlier on than in the past. It used to be that we had loads of tracks on a shelf, and were really happy with a lot of them. Some of them we couldn’t get into, or they were waiting for their special moment to shine in a certain context. But it was a superstitious thing in the past to count the number of tracks you had in case you didn’t have enough. The counting was a psychological blow to us. This time, it was a lot more positive as a result of having the freedom to know you could do anything you wanted, pursue more intense ideas without all the drawbacks of the past, if you will."

- Rob for Tiny Mix Tapes

  On 12/25/2014 at 7:48 AM, PhylumZunami said:

This x 1000000

imo 9Zm2 fQDg 5XgK Lc8R LLbx LjD2 fn2A c5mt fy44 9N2v is a v good album with well considered flo

totally sheath, so muchos flo per favo

yes chron u kno

In typical Autechre fan polarization, nearly everything they've produced has shown up in this thread at least once.