Hey everyone!!

Ok so currently im at SAE Institute studying audio engineering and we’ve been given a written assignment task.
I’m looking to create a patch that resembles some what, but not entirely takes from Aphex Twin and the type of patches that he may employ.

This is purely for educational purposes, so im not looking to rip off or copy cat what he has done in the past. I’m only using this artist as a reference point to have an objective nature to decided what type of patch to create.

Here are two examples to show what im exactly inquiring about
1.

2.

I’m a beginner on these matters, but it seems (to me at least) that he might be using a lot of Phase vocoding & FFT timestretching and then employing a lot of midi-stuttering auto-drum roll type triggering.

it also seems like on the ‘Crappy’ track that he uses some time of ‘generative’ music midi patch, to give it this type of reigned in ‘random’ feel to me.

This is all just preliminary guess work.
But if any of you feel like you could contribute some knowledge of at least point me in the right direction. I would be eternally grateful!!

Cheers
headphuq

come on guys, any help with this would be really helpful!!

Couldn't it be that the music of richard d. james is the product of a sound knowledge of his craft (knowing how to program drum machines, how to use different effects, recordings, synths... and knowing which sound they will produce when placed in specific orders) combined with an urge of creativity, thereby letting loose of al the previously gathered knowledge and for instance combining his effects in unusual orders which might result in - for him - new and undiscovered sounds which can help him to channel and express his creative urges?

I suggest you try taking the same path: first become adept at programming in pd, trying to make for instance your own samplers, drum machines (sample based, synthesis,...), learning about delay lines and tables to store and playback audio with their different possibilities. I'm sure that during this learning period you will often be inspired by the - maybe unexpected - results of your programming. Phase vocoding and FFT are very well introduced in the help section of pd. It seems to me that you already have a fairly decent idea about all of the possibilities which could be used to generate music as 'cool' as the music of afx, so what's left is that you learn how to make your own devices.

A great source of work that has been done in pd can be found in the patches section of this forum (e.g. lots of patches about algorithmic composition). I suggest that you browse that section, download what seems interesting and use those patches as a starting point to become a creative master in pd yourself, maybe even more creative than afx himself

Good luck in your search and feel free to ask as many questions as you want on this forum.

D.

domein thank you very much for the message!

im already well provisioned in the craft of programming analogue drum machines, step-sequencers and the composition of these fields of hardware composition.

My problem is that i often find that my DAW of choice can limit or dictate my creative process and guide me into areas, where my initial idea doesn't exist.

There for i wanted to create things like a phase vocoder which i can then turn into a AU plugin to use within my session projects within Logic 9.

But i havent yet found much information on converting patches into AU

im working like a slave to learn PD and watching numerous tutorials and reading as much as i can, to have a solid knowledge. before i embark on my quest for 'world patch domination'!

@ domein

did you by any chance have time to listen to the youtube links i put in the original post? If you do have time i would really appreciate your analysis so i can narrow down what areas i need to fully concentrate on.

After i have obtained a good level of programming knowledge

thanks

Well, if you're ultimately looking to use pd as a plugin for a daw, you're in for a bumpy ride. For windows VST's there's pdvst but it's quite a hassle to make it work in any daw, but it can be done. I don't know if the same exists for AU.

Knowing afx's skills there's quite certainly some fft going. Have a look at the fft~ objects and the tutorials in the pd help browser (pure data/3.audio examples/Ixx). There also seems to be a lot of distortion and filtering. For distortion i use hard clipping ([clip~]) soft-clipping ([atan~]) and waveshapping (search the forum). For filtering pd contains a lot of options ([hip~], [lop~] and [bp~] the most basic ones, then there's also [vcf~] and [moog~] and the buildingblocks are all present to start building your own filters).

For stuttering, retriggering and slicing you can do a lot with delaylines ([delwrite~], [delread~] and [vd~]) and tables ([tabwrite~], [tabread4~],...). And then there are so many other objects available.

Looking forward to you world domination patch and thanks for posting windowlicker, that always makes me laugh.

d.

btw he uses a lot of homemade custom/circuitbent electronics, he programmed his own sampler, and he has a LOT of synths and processing hardware. Just so you know, you probably won't be able to get the same sounds with only software easily.
also look into metasynth, he was almost definitely using it for the windowlicker ep. you may be able to get similar effects with spear or something similar (http://www.oli4.ch/laoe/home.html) if you're looking for free versions

although I know for repeating sounds he has been known to use ableton's beatrepeat, rjlib https://github.com/rjdj/rjlib has a beatrepeat and I have one as well (see github page in my signature, the object is called repeater), though I'll be changing it soon due to some limitations, and you'd also need the library to use it, which is quite large. The upside is that attacks are crudely semi-preserved with miller's switch + ramp (whereas rjlib uses fades and ableton's might), and it has a audio control in for pitch shifting. Mine is probably more cpu intensive too, though also is more flexible because it uses a table and you can't clear the built-in delay lines in pd.

oh, and there's katjav's sos looper which could be modified for a beatrepeat: http://puredata.hurleur.com/sujet-5021-sound-sound-looper-clear-option

sebfumaster!!

cheers for this gonna have a look into it now

just quickly going back to the patch/AU conversion, as you guys say its nigh impossible

what are my options if i wanted to make a phase vocoder patch, would i have to load audio into the patch that way, theres no way i can bus out of Logic 9 into Pure Data, is there?

because if so this is a real stress on workflow and fluidity

are there any other programmer softwares that have better AU conversion?

i was maybe thinking MAX/MSP or Max For Live?
but it seems of a bit of a kick in the teeth, to pay that money just for a nicer GUI

they used to have pluggo which allowed max/msp to run as a plugin but no more... dare I say supercollider used to have the ability to be run as an au and I think people are starting to do that again, but then you have to learn Supercollider. Not a problem if you're familiar with Smalltalk but I find it much more confusing than c, max/msp, or pd.

the only/best thing I can think of would be to do it in integra live http://www.integralive.org which allows pure data patches to run as plugins (modules) with the proper setup, but its not really a daw
edit: Integra live actually comes with a phase vocoder in it (implemented as a pd patch)

I have no experience with it, but isn't there something like JACK which runs fine on OSX? It enables you to route audio between applications.

Look into the subtle use of multi fx units on every sound, too. Those sort of units that have a chain of fx all selectable, like compressor->enhancer->gate->chorus-->eq->reverb

That sort of thing.

And that doesn't just go for aphex of course. Liam from the prodigy also admits to having used the boss se70 on pretty much everything. Look that unit up. That sort of signal chain will turn a basic stutter into a lovely crisp series of flashes when used properly.

Look up old fx units, and then realize that people able to get money for gigs will probably put more of that money into the gear they dig. I know of one unit that afx uses and he has a lot more than just one. Just go to forums and see what old units people rave about. A lot of them are cheap, even, so you can find one one auctions and then reverse engineer. But even without that, you cajust find the manual and reverse engineer. Right now i'm doing that to the eventide stuff.

So, big chains of stuff. Pd is free, so you don't have to worry about price. You can assemble your own sequencers and multi fx as far as your cpu will let you.

Once you do that, you'll find that the actual sequencing is kind of simple. It all sounds good when you send it through a chain.

yeah i hear what your saying about the multi fx signal chain!

in terms of gear i have a lot of the old stuff sat here in front of me!
and i pretty much know what Aphex has gear wise

my only thing is that i wanted to use patches to breathe some new life into the machines.

i take it you can set PD MIDI settings to use external hardware? no?