
Aphex Twin Speaks to Tatsuya Takahashi (2017) - zengid
http://item.warp.net/interview/aphex-twin-speaks-to-tatsuya-takahashi/
======
jdietrich
This isn't just any old ex-Korg engineer; Tatsuya Takahashi is arguably the
most influential living synth designer.

[https://www.npr.org/sections/therecord/2017/12/22/569092364/...](https://www.npr.org/sections/therecord/2017/12/22/569092364/analog-
for-the-people-synth-master-tatsuya-takahashi-on-engineering-fun)

~~~
zengid
I didn't realize how big Takahashi was. Thanks for the article!

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GorgeRonde
RDJ drops a link at the end of the article.

If you've ever studied phonetics, you need to check this out:

[https://dood.al/pinktrombone/](https://dood.al/pinktrombone/)

~~~
dwaltrip
That is super cool!

With some clever keyboard controls perhaps one could learn to actually "talk"
with it?

~~~
whenchamenia
Google the 'Voder'. A speech synthisis keyboard from 1939 using the concept
you describe. There are some great demo videos of it.

~~~
andai
Voder (1939)

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TsdOej_nC1M](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TsdOej_nC1M)

IBM 7094 singing Daisy Bell (1961)

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=41U78QP8nBk](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=41U78QP8nBk)

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8f2ab37a-ed6c
I'm obviously a few decades late to the party, but I've been obsessed with
analog hardware synths for a few years now.

There's something magical about messing around with a sequencer/arpeggiator,
mixing together a couple of VCOs, changing their wave type, detuning them,
modulating filters, amplitudes, rhythms. The sonic options are staggering, you
can sit there all day turning knobs and stumbling upon interesting and quirky
ideas.

Part of me thinks that "it's all been done before", yet there's joy to you
doing this yourself from scratch, even if you're not the pioneer.

~~~
FiddlyPack
Take heart! All culture, and especially music, is about retracing steps.
“Pioneering” in music is about capturing the Zeitgeist in just the right
manner and with extraordinary expertise to be undeniable, which then creates a
new normal. That’s not exactly pioneering, it’s standard setting. The
perfection of a musical meme is retroactively confirmed by virtue of its
proliferation. It’s genius, while undeniable, as a strong relationship with
luck.

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zengid
I'm stoked to see that others are interested in the article!

The important bit for me is Richard D. James's interest in promoting
microtonal music, and that Tatsuya and Korg were cool enough to implement it
in a relatively cheap synth.

Microtonal music is a vast landscape that I feel has so much left to uncover.
I hope that tools like Korg's *logue line of synths will get new folks
interested in breaking out of the limits of 12 tone equal temperament.

~~~
Mediterraneo10
It is sad how pop music on a Western model with its 12-tone equal temperament
(or an East Asian model with pentatonic equal temperament) has, in the course
of invading the whole world, gradually marginalized many local traditions that
are microtonal. If those local traditions cannot manage to recover on their
own, maybe some openness to microtones among Western pop music would help non-
Western microtonal musics get more of the limelight.

Unfortunately, as with the highly complex rhythms that RDJ employed in some of
his work (e.g. the "drill-and-bass" style), microtones are likely to entertain
only a relatively small demographic of anoraks while striking the mainstream
as too “weird”.

~~~
cageface
One of my biggest disappointments traveling around Asia is that Western pop
music is totally ubiquitous here and contemporary Asian pop music sounds just
like it. There’s something profoundly depressing about hearing Maroon 5
playing in a little bar in Cambodia.

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glitcher
I thought I had seen this article before. The discussion is much more lively
this time around, but for reference here is a previous HN post from 2017:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14771533](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14771533)

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8bitsrule
Takahashi at the Granular Convolver Lecture (Berlin 2018).Discusses
convolution & SuperCollider.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMXpJY2ilIs](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMXpJY2ilIs)

Article with more info: [https://daily.redbullmusicacademy.com/2018/09/the-
granular-c...](https://daily.redbullmusicacademy.com/2018/09/the-granular-
convolver)

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flycaliguy
Great read, although I feel Like RDJ is being funny and intentionally sounding
like an infomercial.

I guess he did work on it enough to want to see some units move.

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moretai
I've heard a few of Aphex's stuff. How is he live? Perhaps I'm not musically
apt to fully get it, but I would like to.

~~~
dnos
To be honest, I think he is more of a musician’s musician and a bit hard to
“get”.

Outside the artistic creativity itself, I find his music more enjoyable by
recognizing the craftsmanship and musicianship required to create his unique
sounds and rhythms. Once you realize it’s not just random noises, perhaps some
of the songs may speak to you like I found.

If you have ever tried creating electronic music with drum machines,
synthesizers, midi loopers, etc, it would be a lot easier to appreciate his
music I think.

Maybe similar to say, free jazz? If you don’t appreciate or understand the
nuances, I doubt you’d enjoy listening to it.

I’m on mobile or I’d research, but I’m sure there are some great videos on
YouTube explaining some of his or similar techniques?

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king_panic
I'm not a musician, but I love `Selected Ambient Works 85–92`. It sounds way
ahead of its time.

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mruts
Best EDM album ever, I’d say.

~~~
dkdbejwi383
EDM isn’t a catch all term for all electronic music

~~~
shams93
Yeah he's IDM not EDM, IDM is a older term from the 90s they called it
"intelligent dance music" because it uses the tools of dance music but just
like you could dance to Duke Ellington but nobody danced to Charlie Parker you
can't exactly dance to music as complex as his but it enjoyable listening for
sure.

~~~
avinium
> Yeah he's IDM not EDM, IDM is a older term from the 90s they called it
> "intelligent dance music"

AKA "beard stroking music" in the D&B world.

It's music that doesn't energize people and get them on the dance floor. Go
see a IDM/"experimental/"beard stroking" DJ live, all you see are a bunch of
young male hipsters standing around stroking their beards, commenting on the
uniqueness of the "interplay".

~~~
glitcher
Sounds very similar to the reasoning behind the "shoegaze" genre name. All of
the above of which I'm a big fan! Guess I like heady music, more recently have
seen IDM described as braindance as well.

~~~
avinium
The etymology seems to be the same, but I've also heard people classify
Deftones as "shoegaze", which makes zero sense to me.

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dreamgt
Anyone know what keyboard he’s talking about here? An omnichord? That’s all I
can think of, but it doesn’t have an actual string...

“RDJ: I’ve got one Japanese keyboard, Suzuki, which has got some Japanese
tunings built in and a little string on one end that you can plucK”

~~~
chillingeffect
[https://www.matrixsynth.com/2018/07/suzuki-waraku-iii-
super-...](https://www.matrixsynth.com/2018/07/suzuki-waraku-iii-super-
japanese-koto.html)

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sarosh
For more information on microtuning and MIDI

[https://en.xen.wiki/w/List_of_Microtonal_Software_Plugins](https://en.xen.wiki/w/List_of_Microtonal_Software_Plugins)

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tquinn
If anyone is looking for an accessible Aphex Twin track, I would give “Alberto
Balsalm” a try. One of my favourites on my University radio show. (That no one
listened to back in the early 2000s. :)

~~~
Theodores
They use the very early Aphex Twin works on TV as background/intro music.
Millions get 'ambiently' subjected to what started out as far from
'accessible', i.e. 1000 white label pressings on his original label Rabbit
Recordings.

I am impressed that Warp are still going, there is and was something magical
about seeing that logo majestically spin round at 33 rpm. In the days before
the Internet you only found Warp records in independent record shops, the High
Street majors were hiding the good stuff from you. Plus the BBC banned dance
music back then. You had to be a true 'raver' and into the music to hear Aphex
Twin, it slotted in to the 'chill out' part of the scene.

This is why I find it so funny when I hear a little bit of Aphex Twin,
Autechre or other Warp stablemates such as Sabres of Paradise as the backing
track to a BBC documentary about serious stuff.

Imaginably anything is 'accessible' given enough time. The audience are always
playing catch up with an innovative artist.

~~~
bgeeek
"In the days before the Internet you only found Warp records in independent
record shops" ? Are you sure about that? That's not really true in the UK,
both HMV and Virgin stocked early Aphex, and I think my Selected Ambient Works
came from Our Price of all places on week of release. You couldn't get more
mainstream where I lived.

I wouldn't say the Beeb banned dance music, either. I first heard LFO's LFO on
radio one, which is synonymous with WARP.

As for Sabres - Screamadelica won the Mercury music prize with Weatherall in
charge. It's not like they were off the radar or anything.

Autechre started out quite normal, but have morphed into probably the most
complex out of everything that you've mentioned. They're well-known, but their
music is anything but mainstream today - it's a running joke that they used to
make music :)

~~~
Graham24
Indeed The John Peel Show was awash with the stuff in the early 90s, certainly
where I heard LFO, Aphex Twin (etc) for first time.

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aasasd
Noob here. If anyone could translate as to what technique they're talking
about for circumventing the lack of velocity on Volca fm, it'd be super nice.

~~~
aasasd
So apparently, “motion sequence” is Korg's term for automation—i.e. you fiddle
the velocity slider while playing back a loop instead of putting the velocity
in when playing the keys initially.

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zandorg
Seen him live in Leeds in 1998. Sat in the cubicle he vacated when he left the
place at a Rephlex gig he didn't play at in 2001 (At the Leeds Brudenell
Social Club). And I played live at the same venue as a previous Rephlex gig in
Edinburgh (the University) in 2001.

