Clean mixing/recording

I was listening back to Autechre's Exai, and it struck me that the mixing and the recording was extremely clean. But unlike, say, RATM's s/t, Daft Punk's RAM, or Aphex Twin's CCAI pt2, it's not really a recording of a live band; it's Autechre, it's electronic music, analog, and shit like that. But it SOUNDS like it was recorded with very good mics or something. I assume they didn't just take drum machines and simply DI them, it just sounds too good. Or is that the case? Maybe they have really good compressors and other hardware equipment? Anyone have any ideas on how to make electronic music sound crisp and clean as though it was recorded in a nice room with great microphones? I assume that's not what they actually did.

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>it's electronic music, analog, and shit like that.
exai is digital not analog

they just used good equipment
incunabula sounds amazing even today and that's from 1993

Wait, shit, really?
Huh.

I feel like Exai is somewhat cleaner than Incunabula, but that might just be me.

The question is, when you say "good equipment", what does that mean? Just because you buy the same synths and drum machines they use doesn't mean your end result is gonna sound clean as theirs. Sure, good equipment is one thing, but I feel like there's more to it. Unless there are some specific compressors that they're using that makes them super clean or something.

it's called reverb m8

It also helps that your album is mastered by this guy
youtube.com/watch?v=YQ-52KjTjqQ

>Wait, shit, really?
yes they used MAX/MSP which they have been using for a while now. that's how they have all those new live sets and elseq being so long, cause nowadays they basically make shit in real time using max and just altering processes they set up

I don't compress anything digital. If you need it you're programming wrong.

that's retarded advice

AFAIK there's no "recording" in Exai, it's all just synthesized on their computers.

Yeah, except the crispness sounds like a great recording instead of just typing notes in on Ableton.

That's probably part of it, I'm sure. I wonder what reverb they use.

OP it's from even before production

They make heavy use of subtle modulation to make it sound alive and like it was made using some weird instruments instead of electronic

There isn't a single plain-old ADSR sound without some sort of strangeness to it, and this strangeness makes it sound alive

More evidence that it's not about post-production mastering is that it sounds this way even in their live shows, which isn't recordings but instead is dynamically generated in real-time based on their input to their max/msp patches. AE_LIVE isn't mastered I believe but sounds the same as Exai in crispness

Have you even listened to Exai ? There is a lot of compression (and weird gating) on it, they just used it a bit more creatively than most producers.

The "special magic" is that they write a lot of their own synthesizer software using C and MAX/MSP.

i don't understand the hype around exai it sounds so muddy and flat compared to their other stuff

its my favorite from, i get a totally different feel from it

listen to jatevee c and t ess xi again

some of the tracks definitely sound "grey-ish" but i think this is sorta intentional. what with the compression, side-chains, gating, etc it really appears to be their homage to a more obvious hip-hop production style - parts of it seem overtly informed by gritty/grimey 90s hip-hop. but then you have these super bright and effervescent moments sprinkled throughout - apart from the tracks mentioned, a track like nodezsh has a sound palette that is almost giallo-esque. synaesthetically it's filled with greens and reds and oranges but obv it all comes to do individual perception.

What do you mean by "muddy"?

muddy in the way the production is muddy on undertow by tool

I...really don't get that at all.

how do you determine the colors of a song?

>synaesthetically
It means his senses are wired in a weird way because his brain is weird and spits out visual information with auditory inputs

Not everyone has that. I don't, for one. But it seems nice.

Sup synesthesia bro, Simmm is the goldest track ever written

How do you guys "see" this? Does it like, overlay over what you're seeing, or do the sounds just make you think of colors?

Also, do you see patterns, shapes, etc?

I can sort of understand it even if I disagree. Sean and Rob intentionally use a lot of compression and reverb for artistic purposes and that might end up reading as "muddy" to some people. Personally I like the aesthetic, though imo they are even more successful with it on AE_LIVE.

They use serious stereo tricks. I have a Zoom H1 stereo microphone and when I listen back to my recordings on headphones it achieves the sound your thinking of. The crazy thing is though, is that autechre replicate this with Max MSP and I haven't the slightest clue how to do it.

>nodezsh
Very good track man! My favorite off Exai.
Caught my attention when I was listening to the album, after I was done, I had to go back and listen to it again. It feels so strange that those synths are made on Max/MSP and not analog.

I always think I don't like that track because the first minute or so is kinda awkward and annoying, but it becomes more engrossing the longer it goes on. Similar thing with Pule.

>RATM's s/t, Daft Punk's RAM
funny how both of these albums completely suck ass

You might not like them, but they are extremely well produced. Specifically RATM's self-titled is used as an example to test audio equipment, because it is recorded so well and the sound is so clean.

The gating is partly how it sounds so clean. Lesa competition and frequency overlap.

Also, they cut reverb tails super short.

yes but the actual music is awful

RATM is fedora cringe tier and RAM is basic tier trash. at least Daft Punk's previous albums were somewhat innovative

>yes but the actual music is awful
What;s awful about it?
>at least Daft Punk's previous albums were somewhat innovative
What was innovative about it?

>Specifically RATM's self-titled is used as an example to test audio equipment, because it is recorded so well and the sound is so clean.
[citation needed]

>at least Daft Punk's previous albums were somewhat innovative
lol no

>What;s awful about it?
the cringe tier lyrics. the shitty rap vocals, boring riffs. tom morello is hailed as a guitar genius but just covers up his boring playing with effects. the production sucks energy out of it.

it's insanely overrated

>What was innovative about it?
take Human After All for example. It was one of the innovators of the electro genre

What on earth is innovative about Human After All? Electro has been around since the very early eighies and I can't think of anything that album added to it.

What's cringe about it? What's shitty about it? What's boring about it? How do you measure energy?
>It was one of the innovators of the electro genre
What was innovative about it?

do you need to be explained how to breathe too? fuck off

>I'm out of arguments
>what should i say now?

>can't understand basic musical descriptors
>hurr damage control

If you think HAA is innovative then you're a complete pleb, sorry.

>>can't understand basic musical descriptors
"Cringe" and "sounds like shit" is not a basic musical descriptor. Try again.

Also when you say something is "innovative" you need top back it up, especially when it's just basic electro that is not innovative.

>it's an Autechre thread
>they talk about Daft Punk and Rage Against the Machine

Why.

well have u ever seen zach de la rocha and sean booth in the same room? checkmate atheists

Daft Punk are the more influential better duo. Deal.

lls

Excuse me?

daft punk is more influential but autechre is a whole nother musical animal.

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