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 Intro Electronics Sound and Tone Music Theory
  Alpha Project   Schematics   Phaser Effect   Aphex Style  
  Images     Vocorder Effect    

APHEX TWIN PAGE

Aphex Twin has a distinct style that is quite hard to imagine replicating. One would think he uses a massive studio of vintage equipment and samplers. The sound has that maximum analog bass tone and filters with ring modulation make one imagine some modular synth action in there on releases like "Come to Daddy" but interviews suggest he just uses a mac and a mixer or so. He did say one place that there are certain things you can only do with electronic circuits. I've read a lot about him modifying and making equipment in his early days, even vacuum tubes were mentioned, but no details come up. Apparently he keeps it secret to some extent but did mention that some things are just noisemakers that don't plug into controllers. Aphex Twin is not in "retirement" and does have a new record called Drunqs or something.
   God forbid anyone imitate anyone else ever and that being said understanding the sounds of a good artist can help you make your own sounds more in tune with the way you want them.
The track "Phx" is used here to illustrate some of the Aphex sounds and is examined below. It mimics a few common sounds and also the tune below, as well as a DJ shadow and a Tool organ riff. Left click and "save target as"!

Phx Mp3


   Like I said Aphex doesn't use analog synthesizers for most of the sounds you probably thought were analog, at least on the Richard James album and those after it. Well actually, truth be told nobody knows what he does. He's made a reputation for himself using food mixers and sandpaper, DJing, or just having a laptop on stage. Strangely enough you can still get many of his sounds with analog synthesis. In "Phx", which is kind of an Aphex spoof, all the tones are made with one DSP virtual analog synthesizer keyboard. Any sound in Phx can be made with a good analog synth except the vocals and a few of the effects. The various parts are layered on top of eachother with a cakewalk program.  The first sound you hear in the recording is a frequency modulation ring modulation combination. The organ sounds can be emulated if you have enough analog oscillators set to sine wave. The buzzing and ugliness is just more modulation but it's sequenced and also made using a sample and hold and adjusted as it's played.
  The bass on Phx is a sine wave and a high pitched square wave on top. The drums are just analog drum modeling with sine waves and ring modulation for the snare, they are no where near as thick or sharp as those on most of Aphex's tracks. The pads, which don't really hit Aphex's either, are pulse width modulated and filtered and they eco. You can get pads more like his with better analog filters and good eq adjustments as well as having more oscillators tuned close together. The faster drums are frequency modulated and ring modulated and the doubling eco can be done with analog drums if you have 2 note polyphony. Most squeaky sounds are ring modulated and one oscillator swept up and down. Often Aphex does this in a "breakbeat" rhythm combined with a sweeping filter, you'll have to hear it. His ring modulated sounds sound like many layers in one ring modulator which isn't done well in Phx. On come to daddy there are a lot of child voice sounds. I've gotten this king of waveform with a digital synth and also with an analog sequencer that uses an oscillator as a clock. Just hook the output to the audio in of something and set the controls kind of randomly. Using a filter on the voice can make it more expressive and modulating it with a little random sample and hold will make it talk.  Machine sounds like those heard here in some parts of Phx come from modulation with fast LFOs. Aphex's machine sounds are often percussion samples sped up I think. A lot of those soothing soft pure tones are just square waves with filtering and reverb. Many of the effects that are used on the samples seem to be similar to ones on. native instrument's reactor.
    Putting pieces like this together can be good practice, I often avoided copying styles or structures until I found that it made a good learning experience. Aphex often builds his songs around a pair of samples like in windowlicker, milkman, and a few on come to daddy. The heavy beat is not usually straight like a club beat or like Phx. It's kind of an improv sound. Here's some help on getting the snare "rush" and the computer program "Fruity Loops" sent in by Squeekbox.

1. the main instroment that i would recomend for achievieing maximum sequencer.
2. Im sure uve noticed all the crazy snair rushes and quick transitions and whatnot tcomplexity would be a sequenceing software called 'Fruity loops'. the name doesnt realy do honor to this programs capabilities. Most the stuff ill be telling has to do with programing on this particular hat make up the whole aphex sound. in fruity loops i always set the bpm to about 600 and the pattern length to about 32 notes to give me space to work with such a speedy bpm. once all these settings are achieved, rush away. here are some tips on rushing
-first of all to get a good rush, snare or otherwise, all you need to do once the bpm is set to about 600 is place a bunch of snares side by side, they flow quite nastily.
-a snare rush sounds tight if you add some flange to it-thats how rich gets those robotic sounding rushes, or maybe some updown type flangeing, its all good =)
-practice rushing at different speeds, velocities, fooling with the osc and res. in fruity loops. this is easily achived with pull down menues to adjust osc and velo of each individual note.
-Usualy aphex will have a break beat going, then it will just stop, and a one snare rush will bust in, then it will go back to the beat, varying the rushes is key.
3. You will learn alot more as you experiment with fruity, i recomend ver 3.0

-squeekbox
My music. its at  -   acidplanet

 

 

 

 

 


In theory
there is music?


  
 
  If you are attempting to create music, whether you compose, improvise, or whatever, you probably don't want it to sound exactly like something else. If you wanted to write a song exactly like stairway to heaven you'd have a hard time because "write" in this case suggests compose, and when it already exists you can't use the exact lyrics and melody and refer to it as composing. What follows is for those who wish to compose something that is not exactly like their favorite song, although it may have similarities in music theory. Much of it is applicable to any style and any instrument. infinityanalog.com has a form for questions or comments.

  Supposing you are familiar with pitch and rhythm and other music fundamentals you should also understand what a scale is. It is no more than a group of notes in the 12 semitone octave, usually 5 to 8. These notes repeat every octave because the same note in different octaves is considered equal. If you read something about harmonics this may make more sense. Something to keep in mind is that the scale is determined by what is left out rather than what is in the scale, and to understand this simply compose a riff using all 12 notes. Then remove 5 notes from the scale one by one. The leaving things out  method applies to timing as well and even tone and expression. A string bass as well as scores of other instruments will show you that you can play semi-semitones (called quartertones?) and fractions of those as well. The semitones are the temperament. Those are left out, except momentarily when you use a slide, bend, or similar technique, in most likely everything you've ever played. There are classical pieces composed with them, some vocal ones for example, as well as the lesser known indian and arabian scales. If you do experiment with this you may find you don't like these less distinct notes at all and they sound out of tune. If you've ever liked anything you used to hate remember that this is definitely an acquired taste. An even worse sounding temperament is to use every other key on a keyboard making it an even or whole tone "scale". This says something about the nature of sound, things that predictably ascend in pitch are just less musical, and even the major and minor scales get predictable to some degree.
  To get the finer gradations is pitch you will have to be clever. Some digital keyboards will do it easily just by setting keyboard tracking to pitch and tuning it halfway higher. An analog modular can do it but be careful if you adjust the tuning calibration on an oscillator because it may not be accurate without testing equipment. If you sing do try singing with the keyboard while playing these more delicate notes. 

  Often more important than pitch is timing. Rhythm is also an art of leaving things out. If you have a drum machine programmer try playing a simple steady bass drum every sixteenth note with nothing else. It's pretty annoying, but it doesn't grab your attention or make you want to dance. If you can, remove a few notes randomly from the looping drumbeat. Instantly it should have more character. Hip Hop style rhythm has a pretty familiar loop, but it's not the same kind of predictability as a club beat, the difference is what is left out, or you may just call it timing.

  As a tune progresses it usually has a system, but if it's too systematic you'll be surprised to find it is easier to get tired of it. Entertainment relies on variety but the "it's what you leave out" factor comes into play too. If you always used all the normal frills of repeating choruses and long solos in every piece and made every second full of intense numbers of layers you might find you lose interest in something the complexity. It can lack the "hook", the part of a song that sticks with you because it is memorable and provokes emotion. If you've listened to thousands of hours of songs in many styles you'll see that there are some repeating patterns of intro, verse, chorus, bridge, and so on that techno, dance, country, or classical music can have in common. To some degree it doesn't matter what the structure is as long as the content and style are in the right place or however you want them to be. If you're working on electronic music and you make some loops you like and different parts that you don't know how to connect it all together it might be best to just make a "verse chorus verse" out of them as an experiment to get a feel for what structure and progression is all about. 


Musical expression has a limited number of basic tools like the chord, the arpeggio, and the trill. It's not usually these tools that make a style of music because they are fairly universal. Patterns like chorus and verse are more a part of style but even these obviously infest many musical worlds.
  Should you find yourself trying to compose something with a particular style, in a genre, or similar to another piece remember that it doesn't have to have a similar structure. What makes something a "style" is it's characteristics of structure tone timing and many others and even then you can usually just skip one of these and still stick to the style. Let's say you wanted to try some 50s rock and roll with a synthesizer. You can still use the same synth tones, you just have to copy the guitar and bass timing and licks or make up some similar timing and licks. You could study the music textbooks to find out what characterizes this style but if you're in the business of creating original music, and a whole original style, you need practice, so you should do it by ear. Listening to diverse kinds of music and then trying to emulate the characteristics is great practice. Hopefully you will find a new level of musicianship that you didn't know existed when you listen closely to some 50s guitar, some modern bluegrass, or anything that you're not accustomed to listening to.
  TECHNO BOLOGNA
  The synthesizer originally sparked interest with people who played traditional types of music, jazz, classical, rock and roll and the like. When it came to sequencers and effects however it seems to have quickly turned into a dance craze. You may not like the idea of dance music but it is widespread through many mediums and works on the principals everything else does. Techno music as a style is non acoustical and high speed. Often it can still be put in musical notation, which means it still has 12 semitones in an octave and keeps a predictable rhythm. Commonly it is in the major/minor scale and the different loops stay in key. The loops usually seem to change over time but this can be some audio effect with a low frequency oscillator controlling it. Techno can be completely analog.
  To get the long sets of notes that have the feeling of a chord, which is called an arpeggio, digital arpeggiators are used. They are built into most digital synths or found in rare midi processors. It can of course be done through a computer as well and this method can give you a large amount of flexibility. A lot of hopping between two octaves or using fifths makes that really focused funk or rock sound like a slap bass. 
  Techno can easily have verse and chorus and there are many recordings with vocals but the standard is to stick with a morphing style. The song starts with a few layers and builds up bursting into a climactic chorus that lasts till the outro of the piece. Another part that comes along once in a while is a rest from the rhythm where some pads and samples keep the timing and focus on the melodies.
  TRANCE PANTS
  Trance music sticks to slicker less harmonic tones than techno and is often slower. Another factor is it's connection to rhythm and blues or soul which often appear as samples tuned to the music. This may even use a pentatonic blues scale. To get the kind of drum timing they use you have to look really closely at each note's placing, often the beats come in twos (beat beat -beat - beatbeat -beat beat). Trance that uses analog is probably rare.
  Drum and Bass HYPNOSIS
  D&B sticks to some basics and often thrives on complete repetition. One wonders if it is intentionally so in order to produce a more trance like state. 45  to 72 beats per minute are said to produce this, and evens a shaman said something around 60 bpm was used for lucid dreaming. This of course applies to trance music too but often  it doesn't keep up the repetitive beat. Despite it's name drum and bass it has many layers on top of the smooth bass line. Drum and bass can use the same types of things as techno but also has more pad or string sounds using drawn out notes in the background.
  INDUSTRIAL FUSS
  Industrial music has a real history spanning america and europe. Early industrial had hard treble sounds and a more minimalistic approach. Now it's gotten faster and more like the machines that the name suggests. Often the loose rules of harmony are broken and it will employ scaleless riffs and toneless noises. There are also moments of harmony and standard musical notation, especially if guitars are involved. Industrial often has many formats often breaking into songs with vocals and those more instrumental  with samples. Those with vocals often follow a rock and roll format of verse and chorus but there are many deviations that can be implemented in this. Theoretically industrial could be done all analog. 
     DJin
  If you're an electronic music fan you've heard some dj remixes or compilations. DJin has a variety of styles associated with it like garage, dub, house, breakbeat etc. It would be interesting to try to make a DJ styled album but use acoustic instruments, synthesizers, and your own voice. To get a mix like DJ Shadow put down some drums like those heard in slower rap records and use some slow riffs. Combining major and minor chords will get that kind of ballad piano or organ sound. Fat Boy Slim is more breakbeat or dance oriented with some simple funk melodies. The records that are made for DJs, rather than those by them, often have just some minimalist loops but these can have really unique sounds, especially those designed for specially for bass speakers.  Trip Hop is sort of like hip hop with a club DJ.
    FUNK
  Analog synthesizers made a mark in the funk world and fueled all things "phunkadellic". They were used for the octave slapping bass lines, the funny wah wah riffs and even the vocordered vocals.

   There are obviously as many styles as people care to make names for but it's good practice to learn about the basic popular kinds. Hopefully this list can be added to and expanded to fit most of them. In the end when it comes to genres and music theory you should practice just like you practice playing. Once you're good at scales practice composing with chords, once you're good at techno practice composing a blues solo. Many of these skills are universal.
 
 

 

 

 

I Just found these quarter tone symbols at http://www.dolmetsch.com/musictheory7.htm#quarter      !!!
The eighth-tone is measured at 24-25 cents (or, for example, in Turkish music a Pythagorean comma).

Quartertone Accidental Signs
3/4 tone flat 
1/4 tone flat
1/4 tone sharp
3/4 tone sharp

While experimenting with his violin in 1895, Julian Carrillo discovered sixteenths of a tone, i.e., sixteen clearly different sounds between the pitches of G and A emitted by the fourth violin string. Because there are six whole tones in conventional tuning to the next octave, a musical scale made with sixteenths of each tone has 96 different notes or pitches. In contrast to this, the scale made with half-tones has only 12