Ae, DAWs and mastering...?

Hey guys,

do we have any knowledge if Bran and Mr. Hobbs are DIY mastering engineers or if they let 3rd parties master their stuff? Just curious.

We always just hear about Max/msp, but seriously, I think they also use vst plugins and DAW workflows (I read they use Logic) just like anyone else. Max patches are good marketing.

Anything we know?

https://www.discogs.com/artist/335173-Noel-Summerville?query=autechre

https://www.discogs.com/artist/339601-Frank-Arkwright?query=autechre

https://thevinylfactory.com/features/how-to-master-a-record-noel-summerville-vinyl-dubplates-the-clash/

No indications that the digitals for AE_LIVE, elseq, or NTS were touched by anyone except R&S. I don't think I've seen any interviews where they mention mastering any of it themselves specifically, tho my memory is shit.

  On 10/28/2018 at 7:33 PM, auxien said:

No indications that the digitals for AE_LIVE, elseq, or NTS were touched by anyone except R&S. I don't think I've seen any interviews where they mention mastering any of it themselves specifically, tho my memory is shit.

If you look here: https://www.discogs.com/de/artist/335173-Noel-Summerville?query=autechre, you see that Noel Summerville has NTS on his list on bandcamp. Didn't know that either

^tho of course that could only be for the vinyls

  On 10/28/2018 at 7:39 PM, darreichungsform said:

 

  On 10/28/2018 at 7:33 PM, auxien said:

No indications that the digitals for AE_LIVE, elseq, or NTS were touched by anyone except R&S. I don't think I've seen any interviews where they mention mastering any of it themselves specifically, tho my memory is shit.

If you look here: https://www.discogs.com/de/artist/335173-Noel-Summerville?query=autechre, you see that Noel Summerville has NTS on his list on bandcamp. Didn't know that either

...on Bandcamp?

I said digitals specifically because of exactly all that. The fact that NTS physicals were mastered but digitals weren't was brought up in the NTS thread, don't think anyone except me really cared though tbh lol

  On 10/28/2018 at 8:00 PM, auxien said:

 

  On 10/28/2018 at 7:39 PM, darreichungsform said:

 

  On 10/28/2018 at 7:33 PM, auxien said:

No indications that the digitals for AE_LIVE, elseq, or NTS were touched by anyone except R&S. I don't think I've seen any interviews where they mention mastering any of it themselves specifically, tho my memory is shit.

If you look here: https://www.discogs.com/de/artist/335173-Noel-Summerville?query=autechre, you see that Noel Summerville has NTS on his list on bandcamp. Didn't know that either

...on Bandcamp?

 

I said digitals specifically because of exactly all that. The fact that NTS physicals were mastered but digitals weren't was brought up in the NTS thread, don't think anyone except me really cared though tbh lol

 

I meant discogs of course, lol.

Hmm, I guess it's a technical obligation in case of vinyl to have some audio engineer check if the audio is playable without the needle jumping (which I read happens when there is tons of treble or tons of bass). So I guess he tried to fix these technical issues that might come with the original audio while trying to change the sound as little as possible. I don't think that in case of NTS the mastering engineer tried to change/better the sound other than for that purpose (unlike in most cases where mastering includes colouring the sound and changing its character). The fact that only the vinyl versions are mastered suggest that. Or are there any significant differences in sound when comparing the vinyl version of NTS and the digital version? Just speculation of course. I don't really know a lot about this stuff

Think they talked about mastering a fair bit in AAA. Said they like Noel Summerville cos he didn't fuck with their music, just made it good to work on vinyl. So makes sense for NTS.

nts digitals sound mastered to me

Re: DAWs - they claimed recently (I think AAA) to have no use for them.

I'm sure they use a DAW for final editing, I reckon not much else though

Who knows, they might not even use one for that.

I reckon they master everything of their post-2010 output on dubturbo

  On 10/28/2018 at 7:08 PM, Wurstwasser said:

Hey guys,

 

do we have any knowledge if Bran and Mr. Hobbs are DIY mastering engineers or if they let 3rd parties master their stuff? Just curious.

 

We always just hear about Max/msp, but seriously, I think they also use vst plugins and DAW workflows (I read they use Logic) just like anyone else. Max patches are good marketing.

 

Anything we know?

Summerville has a list of hardware and software on his website btw

IIRC they master to 44.1, and Quaristice was actually a "final product" in .flac form. It's neat that the most mind-blowing and adventurous producers of electronic music are really straightforward when it comes to mastering and production. 

In fact ironically some of the most expensive and overwrought post-production mastering and mixing seems to be more typical or pop music, whereas the most progressive music in terms of actual music making seems to be mastered in a very down to earth no frills manner.

Yeah cos it's not trying to compete to be the loudest turd on the radio. Same with classical and jazz, all dynamics left in.

  On 10/29/2018 at 5:31 PM, EXTRASUPER81 said:

Yeah cos it's not trying to compete to be the loudest turd on the radio. Same with classical and jazz, all dynamics left in.

  On 10/28/2018 at 7:08 PM, Wurstwasser said:

We always just hear about Max/msp, but seriously, I think they also use vst plugins and DAW workflows (I read they use Logic) just like anyone else. Max patches are good marketing.
 

Not sure if I totally understand what you mean, but I feel like their sound is really influenced by the use of patches (at least Elseq and NTS)

  On 10/28/2018 at 7:08 PM, Wurstwasser said:

Hey guys,

 

do we have any knowledge if Bran and Mr. Hobbs are DIY mastering engineers or if they let 3rd parties master their stuff? Just curious.

 

We always just hear about Max/msp, but seriously, I think they also use vst plugins and DAW workflows (I read they use Logic) just like anyone else. Max patches are good marketing.

 

Anything we know?

er.. i think it's silly to think ae give a fuck about talking themselves up for marketing by naming complicated solftware or whatever. if you read the AAA they clearly state they've used everything at different times.  someone asked them about the midi plugins in Logic as something new that can be scripted for midi control and the reply was something like "oh cool will check it out whenever i'm back to using DAWs"

and there's a bunch of questions about "What were you using when..."  and the reply was always something like "it's max.. everything since ________ is max"

re: oversteps "it was us using a bunch of our FM synths"  which to me meant "our synths" or synths they made in Max but they're pretty open in the AAA and mention NI FM7 and making patches on other things. 

they've been using max since forever in one way or another to build sequencers and synths and FX and whatever.. so they for sure know it inside out and can do it all in max if they want. 

i don't htink it's anything to get hung up about. whatever they use they are going to make it do autechre stuff. 

regarding mastering it seems everything for a long while is that summerville guy who is pretty fantastic imo. 

I think they use Max primarily for sequencing. In terms of sounds it's purely down to taste/what they like whether its samples, software, hardware whatever. They probably enjoy being able to hide what they do behind 'It's Max' in interviews. 

  On 11/1/2018 at 12:20 AM, Alan Ord said:

I think they use Max primarily for sequencing. In terms of sounds it's purely down to taste/what they like whether its samples, software, hardware whatever. They probably enjoy being able to hide what they do behind 'It's Max' in interviews. 

they've talked about how in max the sound and the sequence are the same thing. the synthesis is part of the sequencer.  i downloaded that patch that was allegedly an ae max patch from ep7 era and it's just a block w/sliders for control but when you open the patch it's everything connected to everything and all working at audio rate. changing the sequence via the sliders changes the sound. 

so, even if it isn't their patch i'm guessing their patches work in a simlar way though probably way different now as ep7 was long time ago. fuck. oldness hits.  and the ae live stuff from 2015 is a whole set of that kind of thing which is pretty incredible since it means whatever synthesis underneath is nest to all their conditional stuff and sounds in there are able to be accessed via a preset type architecture as a 'starting place' for the sequence to do its thing. not even to mention all the fx and mixing side of it. i don't know.. for me... trying to guess from this perspective is like looking at the moon in the daytime

but yeah.. as for interviews i'm guessing after a while answering the same questions about process can be tiresome though they seemed quite friendly and happy to reveal stuff in the AAA which is nice to have to be able to refer to when curiosity nags for answers 

they also spoke of "the song machine" in recent interview about where certain tracks came from and how multiple tracks came from 'the song machine' which i assume is a max patch able to do many different things based on interaction. 

in the end i just sit back and listen in joyful amazement. 

anyway.. here's the alleged ae max patch which who knows..

Re: VSTs - they definitely have given Microtonic a good rinse or two, especially on Exai. I wouldn't be surprised if it was on NTS. Even the Teenage Engineering PO-32's factory patches have nice dank whiff of that sound. 

FM7/8 seems plausible on more recent stuff but I think it's more likely custom Max stuff, especially since they seem to have mutated some wacky hybrid physical modeling / FM stuff as of late. 

  On 11/1/2018 at 2:44 AM, sweepstakes said:

Re: VSTs - they definitely have given Microtonic a good rinse or two, especially on Exai.

exai? wasnt it move of ten?

back when they released those screenshots in SOS they had some dense Digital Performer stuff going on. That must’ve been around the Draft days iirc