Beyond 440

July 16, 2017 4:43 AM

Richard D. James (aka Aphex Twin) speaks with ex-Korg engineer Tatsuya Takahasi on their collaboration on the monologue, microtuning, geometry and dreams. Plus new Aphex Twin track 'Korg Funk 5' using exclusively Korg synths. Double plus: 'AI Synths'
posted by fearfulsymmetry (11 comments total)

This is a great article thanks, I dabble in making music but only understand a fraction of the references and theories they're referring to. Nevertheless, the deep levels of technical geekery they go into is fascinating to read. It's especially cool to see how deep RDJ's historical knowledge of music goes.
posted by jeremias at 6:30 AM on July 16, 2017

I saw this the other day and it's a great conversation. I really liked the tuning samples he gave.
posted by Catblack at 6:37 AM on July 16, 2017

Did anyone laugh themselves silly playing with the voice synth in link Richard gives at the very end?
posted by Barry David at 7:11 AM on July 16, 2017 [3 favorites]

This was neat. The speakers in Takahashi's workroom are Taguchi Cube-130s.
posted by zamboni at 7:40 AM on July 16, 2017 [4 favorites]

Barry David, Pink Trombone previously.

I'm sure RDJ and Robert Schneider (Elephant 6, lo-fi circuit bender, math prof and experimenter in Non-Pythagorean scales) would get on like a house on fire.
posted by scruss at 7:40 AM on July 16, 2017 [1 favorite]

Thanks for this! Big brother of sol was (is) a musician and in high school had a Yamaha SY77. Far too much synth for a seventeen year old. It came with a setting for alternate timings beyond even tempered and we spent several afternoons playing through things with alternate settings and listening for differences.

Zamboni I also wanted to know about those speakers and spent quite a bit of time pinch-to-zooming in on the pictures of that workshop to see all the toys. Two soldering stations! My guess is one for fat tip and one for skinny.
posted by sol at 9:58 AM on July 16, 2017 [1 favorite]

Having his scope (an Iwatsu ss-5706 I think) stored on the floor like that makes me cringe. It's just waiting to have a knob kicked off.
posted by Dr. Twist at 1:20 PM on July 16, 2017

I can't quite believe RDJ having an actual conversation like an actual human! He really has mellowed with age.
posted by selfish at 7:05 PM on July 16, 2017 [2 favorites]

The Cube-130's are absolutely gorgeous, which led me to start looking for how to order some, which led me to wondering if I could just build some, which led me to watching Jambox teardown videos, and learning that the trickery involved in getting bass response is actually quite involved...
posted by kaibutsu at 8:48 PM on July 16, 2017

I was wondering what the speakers at the Downtown LA Blue Bottle were... and now I know. THANKS, OP! (Now to buy 'em... hmm)
posted by raihan_ at 8:51 PM on July 16, 2017

aaaahhhhh ohhhhh my goooodnesssss

this is BLISS

so last summer I got properly obsessed with a) temperament and tuning systems and b) the idea of building a synth (and c) Herbert Howells but that's niche). Obviously I wanted to combine all of the above and had read loads about how I might theoretically achieve this. So this article is fantastic and perfect as a rich lovely reminder and source of interesting things, especially as it's still a future project for me - slow burner cos I've never welded or wired a thing in my life.

Very very very happy reading.
posted by lokta at 3:38 AM on July 17, 2017