Windowlicker harshness

Windowlicker sounds pretty harsh to my ears, whereas RDJA and Come to Daddy sound a lot softer and need to be at a much higher volume to hurt my ears. It's like the track is being heard through a load of bad sounding distortion or something, like Californication.

I never really see this mentioned here but to me it sounds like it got fucked up by whoever mastered it or whatever happened after RDJ gave it to Warp. That or it's just a style of production I don't like, but I'd love to hear a mix of Windowlicker that sounds as good as Fingerbib or IZ-US. It just really stands out to me because Aphex stuff is usually really well produced.

I always thought it sounded fine.  Equation in particular I thought was well mixed, I'd find it pretty hard to avoid clipping using the long, overlapping delays on the kicks like he did.  It does have some pretty abrasive frequencies but I assumed that was the intention.

I've always found RDJA to be super abrasive (in a way I really like), whereas Windowlicker sounds quite clean by comparison.  The squashy compression on the drums is kind of weird, but softens the sound rather than sharpens it.  I wonder what's different about your listening experience from my own.  Interesting.  The production on CTD is right on point for me though.  Perfect balance... aside from the title track which I think could be way punchier considering the style of track it is.

I agree about Pappy Mix needing to be punchier, the drums just don't hit hard enough.

I just can never listen to Windowlicker without remarking on how there's this bad finish on it, like he had it perfect but some other part of the process ruined the recording.

I've always assumed that was a mixing decision. It's all around slightly distort-y. It's an interesting characteristic. It's also never bothered me in the slightest.

Formula also has that same thing. I like it.

Actually, I was thinking a bit. I like how the mixing is in these two tracks (and really the whole ep since Nannou is similar as well) but I would probably not like it if everything was mixed like this. It WOULD get on my nerves then, or if a lot of people mixed this way continuously. Or of a lot of tracks of his were mixed this way instead of just a few here and there.

Yeah I've always found the mixing on Windowlicker, RDJ Album and HAB to be a little harsh.

Come to Daddy (the whole EP) is perfect though. Def the best 'sounding' thing from that era.

The snarerush mix of Girl/boy (from the EP) is horrible mixed - way too much treble!!!

  Caribou said:

Aphex stuff is usually really well produced.

Wait, what?!? Nowadays it's ok, older stuff is all over the place... Composition is great, mixing levels, eq and overall sound isn't really that hi-fi... Lot's of cracks and usually unintended distortion that you usually would like to avoid when recording (and I mean on the recording - not the sounds themselves) - but it's all part of the "sound" I guess..."On" and "AB4" sounds nice, "Ventolin" sounds as if everything was done through a dist pedal. First track on "SAW II" would have been nicer without the the distortion too.

True, but it doesn't bother me in any other track. The only other production flaw that really bothers me is that bit of distortion (or whatever it is, the short little grainy bit) near the end of Next Heap With. The little imperfections in Aphex tracks generally sound quite nice to me.

I think Windowlicker sounds a lot better on a speaker rather than headphones. You don't notice the treble-y bits as much. Still a brilliant, brilliant track despite all this!

I always thought Windowlicker was the best mastered track I've ever heard by Richard - so much depth to the sounds...

Well it was meant to be a 'sort of' pop/chart record wasn't it?

I would love to hear a Windowlicker remaster with this sound quality :

It's probably what ever hardware your using or it might be yourself. I've never really noticed any issues with Windowlicker and it being "harsh"