Aphex Twin: Computer Controlled Acoustic Instruments pt2 EP

Listened again this morning on a run. It was a lot of fun although barn dance wasn't really motivational.

Afterwards, I hoped that, in the same sense that Analord was strict in regime (analogue only), it would be followed by something of a mixture like Tuss. I hoped for the beats and background of CCAI and something like the synths of Alberto Basalm on top.

this is highly compatible with THC !!!

Barn Dance's atmosphere reminds me a lot of Ambient works 2. That kind of simple melody that really gets into your head. I love this EP.

physical copy still didn't arrive...

My only criticism with this EP is the lack of progression. Don't get me wrong, the tracks sound great as they are, but I wish there was a bit more variation. Just look at Syro, no two bars were the same on that album (excluding 180db and Aisatsana of course). It was a constantly-shapeshifting beast, whereas CCAI finds something that sounds good and just sticks with it. Imagine the absolute melodyfest that could have been bashed out on this equipment.

Also, I'm a little disappointed with how a lot of the bars are looped, as opposed to actually being played numerous times by the instruments. It sounds pretty blatant too. The samples are cut a bit short so inevitably they're not flowing into each other. Also also, what's with the noise cutting in, instead of fading in? I'm guessing this is all probably intentional, especially when you take the abrupt track endings into account. Being the perfectionist he is, it's unlikely stuff like this would slip past him. It just isn't boding too well with my OCD when I listen to it haha

But yeah, I actually dig this release. A lot. It would be awesome if we got a visual companion at some point.

  On 1/24/2015 at 11:21 PM, valleyinaire said:

My only criticism with this EP is the lack of progression. Don't get me wrong, the tracks sound great as they are, but I wish there was a bit more variation. Just look at Syro, no two bars were the same on that album (excluding 180db and Aisatsana of course). It was a constantly-shapeshifting beast, whereas CCAI finds something that sounds good and just sticks with it. Imagine the absolute melodyfest that could have been bashed out on this equipment.

 

Also, I'm a little disappointed with how a lot of the bars are looped, as opposed to actually being played numerous times by the instruments. It sounds pretty blatant too. The samples are cut a bit short so inevitably they're not flowing into each other. Also also, what's with the noise cutting in, instead of fading in? I'm guessing this is all probably intentional, especially when you take the abrupt track endings into account. Being the perfectionist he is, it's unlikely stuff like this would slip past him. It just isn't boding too well with my OCD when I listen to it haha

 

But yeah, I actually dig this release. A lot. It would be awesome if we got a visual companion at some point.

He addressed this and said he isn't looping samples, it's all played live

And omg got mine in mail today

CD is 33 rpm right?

I've ripped WAV from the CD in foobar2000, imported to audacity, converted from 33 to 45rpm in audacity, then exported from audacity to 320mp3

Any problems with this?

  On 1/25/2015 at 1:13 AM, Zeffolia said:

 

  On 1/24/2015 at 11:21 PM, valleyinaire said:

My only criticism with this EP is the lack of progression. Don't get me wrong, the tracks sound great as they are, but I wish there was a bit more variation. Just look at Syro, no two bars were the same on that album (excluding 180db and Aisatsana of course). It was a constantly-shapeshifting beast, whereas CCAI finds something that sounds good and just sticks with it. Imagine the absolute melodyfest that could have been bashed out on this equipment.

 

Also, I'm a little disappointed with how a lot of the bars are looped, as opposed to actually being played numerous times by the instruments. It sounds pretty blatant too. The samples are cut a bit short so inevitably they're not flowing into each other. Also also, what's with the noise cutting in, instead of fading in? I'm guessing this is all probably intentional, especially when you take the abrupt track endings into account. Being the perfectionist he is, it's unlikely stuff like this would slip past him. It just isn't boding too well with my OCD when I listen to it haha

 

But yeah, I actually dig this release. A lot. It would be awesome if we got a visual companion at some point.

He addressed this and said he isn't looping samples, it's all played live

 

And omg got mine in mail today

 

CD is 33 rpm right?

 

I've ripped WAV from the CD in foobar2000, imported to audacity, converted from 33 to 45rpm in audacity, then exported from audacity to 320mp3

 

Any problems with this?

 

flac would be better than mp3. in audacity when you hit export, go to options in the bottom right and you can set the highest quality for the flac, and it will be lossless. i like crispness of flacs, which even 320kbps mp3s lack.

and there are programs that can do speed changes better than audacity, but i'm not knowledgable on that. i just use audacity. i think amazing slow downer is supposed to be good but it's not free.

https://soundcloud.com/t0m-2/disk-hat-prep-un1-001

  On 1/25/2015 at 1:13 AM, Zeffolia said:

 

He addressed this and said he isn't looping samples, it's all played live

 

I refuse to believe that. The piano in diskhat1 is clearly looped.

Yeah the loops and edits are super obvious, where did he say it was all live?

I really think aphex has gone a bit nuts in the 'editing or mixing on a computer is evil' department - using only traktor, carefully programming sysex patch switches to coincide with hardware eq reroutes so he can get it all in one take w/ no computer, etc.

I suspect the loops are purposefully plain and not crossfaded or anything because he didn't want to cover them up. This is guy who put a huge 'edit' in the MARCHROM title like it was an embarassing failure to edit together multiple takes.

  On 1/25/2015 at 4:34 AM, cult fiction said:

Yeah the loops and edits are super obvious, where did he say it was all live?

 

I really think aphex has gone a bit nuts in the 'editing or mixing on a computer is evil' department - using only traktor, carefully programming sysex patch switches to coincide with hardware eq reroutes so he can get it all in one take w/ no computer, etc.

 

I suspect the loops are purposefully plain and not crossfaded or anything because he didn't want to cover them up. This is guy who put a huge 'edit' in the MARCHROM title like it was an embarassing failure to edit together multiple takes.

If is using traktor IS using computer

  On 1/25/2015 at 4:47 AM, HexagonSun said:

 

  On 1/25/2015 at 4:34 AM, cult fiction said:

Yeah the loops and edits are super obvious, where did he say it was all live?

 

I really think aphex has gone a bit nuts in the 'editing or mixing on a computer is evil' department - using only traktor, carefully programming sysex patch switches to coincide with hardware eq reroutes so he can get it all in one take w/ no computer, etc.

 

I suspect the loops are purposefully plain and not crossfaded or anything because he didn't want to cover them up. This is guy who put a huge 'edit' in the MARCHROM title like it was an embarassing failure to edit together multiple takes.

 

If is using traktor IS using computer

 

I'm sure he cries about that betrayal every night, but using traktor is one of the most minimal computer setups you can have for recording and organizing your shit ton of hardware mixed and sequenced tunes

i dont think he said there wasnt edits. he just said it wasnt samples being triggered. i imagine hed record a few bars of a thing at a time. i doubt you could mic all the stuff and record it at time same time without pickin up unwanted sounds in different mics. just my guess theres a lot of way to record stuff.

great ep tho

  On 1/24/2015 at 2:08 PM, fenton said:

has anyone sampled the breaks from lossless yet ? if so pm me :)

INCOMPLETE WITHOUT SURFACE NOISE

  On 1/25/2015 at 4:34 AM, cult fiction said:

Yeah the loops and edits are super obvious, where did he say it was all live?

It was one of the first (if not the actual first) comments he made on Soundcloud to CloudKicker which has since been deleted. I'm not convinced about the looping and editing personally - what would be the point? The piano has a damping pedal and the snare you can probably dampen too by triggering one of the beaters to softly contact the skin just after one of the other beaters hit it hard. There are ways you could probably make it sound like it's been looped but actually it's just the midi that's repeating a pattern. If it was me doing this I wouldn't bother recording bits and reconstructing a tune when I could get more variety of tone throughout the whole track by writing midi information and letting the robots play the piece in one go. The whole point of getting these instruments built was so he didn't have to do micro editing on samples to make each hit slightly different so his brain didn't get bored, right? Sampling loops of these robots doesn't make sense.

Also:

haha talking to rich!

looooooooooooool

Fucking awesome i love that track! Better version of it here

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZdOQBq20UAI

mmm... tasty aphex acid

  On 1/25/2015 at 11:55 AM, Chris Toffer said:

 

haha talking to rich!

lol about a track of yours :-)?

  On 1/25/2015 at 12:52 PM, indulin said:

 

  On 1/25/2015 at 11:55 AM, Chris Toffer said:

 

haha talking to rich!

 

lol about a track of yours :-)?

 

Nah I wish! It was on a dubstep track that the kid who was hating on his accoustic track made haha

  On 1/25/2015 at 12:59 PM, Chris Toffer said:

 

  On 1/25/2015 at 12:52 PM, indulin said:

 

  On 1/25/2015 at 11:55 AM, Chris Toffer said:

 

haha talking to rich!

 

lol about a track of yours :-)?

 

Nah I wish! It was on a dubstep track that the kid who was hating on his accoustic track made haha

 

he's showing the hater some love haha

Sooooo....next EP/LP of richie full with aphex acid and dancey stuff?

*wets pants*

  On 1/25/2015 at 1:35 PM, goDel said:

Sooooo....next EP/LP of richie full with aphex acid and dancey stuff?

 

*wets pants*

That's what I really want.

  On 1/25/2015 at 1:35 PM, goDel said:

Sooooo....next EP/LP of richie full with aphex acid and dancey stuff?

 

*wets pants*