I don’t recall where I read it (may have been Sound on Sound…?), but I remember several years ago reading a list of equipment they used in an interview and they definitely listed an Analogue Systems eurorack system there. and it was a massive one. like the better part of $20k type of thing.
anyway, if anything, eurorack gives you a ton of options in a small space. so I don’t get the size comment. and weight…? why are you concerned about weight if you (basically) never tour, and are well known for basic laptop-type setups live anyway? very weird.
maybe his comment just means “we tried this and it got massively out of hand level huge and heavy when we did. not again.” (like half of all eurorack users)
That’s the thing, I can’t tell you how many times I’ll see someone call a Machinedrum or Monomachine “Autechre in a box”, when anyone who’s owned one will tell you, it’s really not that simple.
They really do have a unique sound and style that’s imparted on everything they do no matter what equipment they use.
If you have played with their Sysex…it really isn’t that crazy. They just have skills.
I always thought my MD and MNM might be broken cuz I couldn’t get anything good out of em. Then I put the Ae sys in there…and the boxes came to life. Leading me to discover…
But it’s also a numbers game. They put in a full days work at the studio every day. They said they had over 750 hours of jams. You are going to hit gold eventually with those numbers.
If you listen to their live shows which are all essentially the same tracks…some of them aren’t great.
Heh…I do about 2000 tracks/loops a year on average. I’ve Been cataloguing the whole mess since I started in 98. Not one track/loop in there that I like, to date.
I know! I was almost disappointed when I loaded them up, nothing crazy, some basic modulation, occasionally linked tracks, the most wild thing was kicks starting on the 3. Otherwise it was just good programming and sounds.
For me, I think that’s the toughest part. I have an absolutely SHITE sound palette. I tend to live in mud land. I TRY to deviate from what I pick and I find it hard.
When I listened to single tracks of the Ae sys and some of those sounds on their own I could never imagine going with. But within the mix…they are sick!
I have no clue how to find a way to climb out of the mud.
I’ve mentioned this on another thread .
As I load up tracks into traktor to do mixes it’s amazing how much simple derivative dull music is getting released .
Makes me think I shouldn’t be so hard on the stuff I write.
The act of finishing and releasing is a step forward , based on A LOT of tracks I go through recently we should all plough on and get stuff out there.
Just my opinion , not directed at autechre , hopefully more of an encouraging post to everyone to post their music.
Genuinely well regarded albums have many tracks that I’m tagging ‘crap’ so that I can easily delete it.
5 minutes of a 4/4 bass drum with slowly opening filter on a fart noise. DELETE
To go off of what @re5et said, just because you don’t like it doesn’t mean others won’t. I mean, Ae themselves don’t seem particularly impressed with their own work.
Rip it up and start again. Forget everything you normally do. Try something completely different and more importantly share it with us. Let us be the judges. I get the feeling you hold on to everything but it’s only when we share stuff that we learn by putting our necks on the line and taking on suggestions. (I know you’re going to say it’s not good enough for public consumption blah blah )
for some reason my first thought goes to my bike racer friends: “dude… if I didn’t have to work, I could so go pro…”
this. and if you’re not liking the sounds you design (what it kinda sounds like with your “mud” comment), use samples or presets or more basic machines*** that have more “established” sounds which fit into a mix better. it may sound cheesy or like a shortcut, but it could also lead you to where you know what sounds you’re after and you can design them yourself in the future. more importantly, it may get you on a creative path and a better place with it mentally.
*** what I mean by this is that it’s easy to make the Machinedrum sound bad (adore it, though I do). as mentioned above, Autechre know it, sound design, and what they want all well enough to not do that. if your sound design skills are making it (or whatever), sound bad, use something simpler with a wider sweet spot. like have you ever played a Juno 106 or SH-101? ALL sweet spot. hard to make 'em sound bad. don’t like your drums? try a TR-8S. etc…
they’re OLD werk, they said it was too simple. BUT…in old live footage their heads are bobbing. so they dug it at one point in time.
sure you outgrow your old shit…especially if you play it 40 times live…and for a couple years till those tracks get phased out of your set.
and by the standards of what they do today, though I think with the patch they have created makes an easier path to making tunes…that yes their old stuff is simpler than todays.
but I’ve NEVER bobbed my head to my own shit, and to ME…that is the ultimate test.
ive never wanted to make tunes for public. I just wanna make tunes I like. or make tunes I like with my bud, and share it with a couple of other buds. that’s it. no aspiration to make a record, play live…I just wanna make cool tunes [in the vein I like]
unfortunately…the bar being Ae, MBM, AFX, BoC…crushes my soul ha ha ha…
seeing that sysex inspired the fuck outta me…cuz I could understand what was going on.
and I THANK Ae for sharing, that was super cool of them. but, in the end…I still do what I do.
and I do CARE what they say [Ae]…this is still super sick…
teach me how to get a kick to be punch and give that impression of pushing air…and i’ll be happy.
I’m not a particularly intelligent person, me. I’m diligent, I’m pretty hardworking, but I’m not that clever. I ain’t got any qualifications, I just pick up stuff that I think is interesting at the time. And is our music abstract and weird? To us or our mates it’s not!
And there was some quote where - and I’m paraphrasing obviously - everyone thinks their music is complicated by it actually isn’t.
Anyway I’m a staunch believer that one’s worst critic is themself and can’t be trusted.
Recordto tape
Overload the bass drum
Just have highs and bass.
Push pads to left / right with stereo balance plugin
Gnarly .
That Lego feet track is nice. It didn’t need max/random/… just quite straight forward programming
If my stuff does go glitchy random and noise I also think ‘it sounds a bit like autechre and they’re already doing it … much better, don’t bother’
Same reason I don’t do pads slightly out of tune with lots of reverb and children samples .
agree…but I can’t help but notice my benchmark candidates “rock out” to their music.
MBM totally get into it. cant say much for BoC…one I don’t think i’ll ever get to see live.
BOOTH The issue for me has always been that I can feel it. So I wonder sometimes whether our emotions are too subtle for people to pick up on. You can’t think that we’re not feeling it. I mean, what would be the point in doing music if you weren’t feeling it?
They always make a point of saying that they don’t both live in the same city anymore, and rarely make music in the same room (if at all) anymore. The nature of making everything in software means that they can basically just pass small files back and forth, possibly even via github or other version control platforms.
And then being able to take those same files out live means that they can make the exact same sounds onstage as they do in their studios… all on a laptop. I don’t think it matters how often they tour, bringing a $20k eurorack setup to Australia (for example ) vs. taking a couple of laptops in carryon luggage makes a huge difference.
Shit, the more I write about it, the more it seems appealing might have to get back into Max…
Obviously they’re at liberty to try whatever system they want. And maybe one laptop beats a whole rack of gear for them 
(hahaha I fuckin suck)
might have to get back into Max…