Follow-Ups to Answer from Expert Richard D. James

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kris wrote at 2006-07-19 12:16:32
to add to the previous answer.



i myself am an avid fan of aphex twin and followed him for many many years now.



i know for a fact that he has used korg ms20 hardware synthesiser and used he external signal processor to mess up the sound of his voice.



im pretty sure myself that he also uses algorhytm processors to make some of his beats which cut up and slice the beats in real time.although most of his work is pure programming if you listen to it.



in the early 90's at raves and gigs he used hardware to play his music out and sometimes would have a pc on show but im firmly sure that this was just for show.



with the introduction of computer music he and his friends scowered the net for software programmes and other software for producing music. he is also known to write his own software.



if your looking to make music depends what sort of style your going for. if your going for the sound of the old analord sound then id suggest u invest in some proper analogue synths or emulation software if your budget doesnt allow.also invest in a hardware sequencer.i use the korg sq10 sequencer hooked with the korg ms20 and u can get some really cool sounds.also try to get some vst emulations of the tb303 bassline synth and start sequencing with that.use some tr808 drum samples as these are very analogue sounding and were used by aphex in the hardware equivalant of the roland modules



if your looking for the heavily processed modern sound get some decent software like ableton live or possibly somwething like reason.ableton is very good for signal processing and audio warping.reason is packed full of samples, soft synths and sounds.try to get a algorhytm vst that works in real time.it can really be good for juggling beats and slicing up samples.and also saves a lot of time.





hope this has helped

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Aphex Fan wrote at 2007-05-06 05:36:03
A list of Aphex Twin's equipment has finally been published.



You can see the list here:



http://streetelectronics.com/?page_id=16



Its not an ad site or retail site- just a site written by a very dedicated fan who performed the analysis.

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Portal 13 wrote at 2007-08-05 20:43:36
Well, he'll use a few things. But he's stated to use "Protools" for sequencing, along with his "own" software which he doesn't follow up in detail.



Studying electronics at a young age, it was said he made and modified synthesizers. So I'm sure its close to impossible to emulate most of the sounds you'll hear from him.

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chuck wrote at 2008-10-27 03:00:15
As written above suggests, he uses a multitude of different methods. But at the core of his work, it is VERY apparent that he has made a collection of several thousands of samples during his many year writing, some most likely of his own gear. A good starting point would be to collect some vintage drum machine samples (512, dr220, kr55, univox, sequential circuits, 808, 909, etc etc etc...) and real drum samples. It is apparent he uses a blend of both together in his music, along with a multitude of effects (reverbs, delays, flanges - sometimes set to one frequency, phaser, distortion, compression). Then, if you can find some decent analog modeling synths to incorporate with that, you'll have some of the basic building blocks. After that, it's just experimentation with different effects, tweaking, beat-slicers, eq settings, etc. in combination with a pattern generation. A program like Reason or Fruity Loops in combination with maxMSP programming, synth plug-ins and some other sample-based software running in a DAW like Sonar works very well for the music that I do (although it sounds nothing like aphex really). The bottom line is, taking the time and making your own samples of instruments and other various sounds will further push you away from the massively overused sounds found on commercial sample packs and whatnot.

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