On Mon, 20 Jul 1998 nevileb@towers.com wrote:
quoted 3 lines Is there a good reason for their secrecy, or can I> >> Is there a good reason for their secrecy, or can I
> >> assume that it's simply sonic-insecurity?
> >
I don't think they care one way or another actually, if you
check the archives I and others posted the gear list for their last
swing through the US. Everything they do could be made on that
equipment, modulo a few extra studio gizmos. I don't even remember
what it was I posted, because it doesn't really matter.
What I hear in their stuff is a few basic analogue sounds that don't
have any distinct character to suggest a specific synth, and a lot
of creative sample mangling. Things like cutting single cycles out
of other samples and looping them, recording found sounds, and repeating
signal processing functions on a sample until it gets weird.
You could do autechre-like music on a very minimal setup, perhaps even
a PC with Sound Forge, or a Mac with Sound Edit 16. The actual gear isn't
that important.
quoted 2 lines Having said that, my question remains - why the secrecy?> Having said that, my question remains - why the secrecy?
>
Again it ISN'T a secret, it's just not that important.
quoted 1 line Perhaps electronic music still has a long way to mature.> Perhaps electronic music still has a long way to mature.
Well I think it's more like Electronic Musicians need to mature.
Electronic Music has been around for a long time, and there are plenty
of fully realized, mature works out there.
quoted 5 lines It seems to me that the equipment secrecy is nothing but> It seems to me that the equipment secrecy is nothing but
> selfishness and insecurity. It would be ridiculous for
> Chick Corea to not tell anyone what synths he used on his
> last album, or for him to not talk about his creative process
> at all.
It would be ridiculous to listen to anything he's produced since
about 1973, in my opinion -- your mileage may vary.
quoted 3 lines So what don't they want us to know?>
> So what don't they want us to know?
>
If you're as famous as Autechre (which isn't very famous actually),
then you are going to have to deal with many more people that want a
piece of your time than you can possibly satisfy. Trainspotters
wanting to know which distortion pedal they use are just a subgenus
of all those people. It's primarily a waste of time for them to even
bother; and in the interviews I've seen it seemed like they didn't really
feel like it was worth spending any time on.