That incredible work from @digiphex electronics on the Polyend Tracker: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/h7ydetGFzN-5c4U.html Trevor Wishart's Audible Design PDF (we hugged Trevor's server to death, I'll upload a backup somewhere if I get permission to redistribute 😬): www.trevorwishart.co.uk/AUDIBLE_DESIGN.pdf A video of me making linear drum/glitchiness on an old workstation: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/oc13gpuU3aymZps.html Okay, big list of things to check out that were more or less ambiguously used. Not for the faint of heart. Please dive in! Old hard/software: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OctaMED www.muzines.co.uk/articles/digidesign-turbosynth/2295 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAM_Music_Machine en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZX_Spectrum www.muzines.co.uk/articles/dr-ts-tiger-cub/451 www.muzines.co.uk/articles/c-lab-notator-logic/5491 www.vintagesynth.com/casio/FZ20M (for timestretches) sourceforge.net/projects/playerpro/ en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atari_ST en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UPIC Stuff we cannot find much about in 2024: PDS Soundview (mentioned here www.jstor.org/stable/3680904 ) Stuff you can easily run today: www.fon.hum.uva.nl/praat/ www.composersdesktop.com/ www.ircam.fr/ supercollider.github.io/ uisoftware.com/metasynth/ www.iannix.org/en/ inagrm.com/en

Brian Eno once said: "A way of doing something original is by trying something so painstaking that nobody else has ever bothered with it.."

Ah the Aphex Twins, great band

"...and I realized I can indeed do whatever I want..." I was in a metal band some 25 years ago. We weren't huge, but had some dedicated fans. To the point at least when we needed to replace our 2nd guitarist we found someone who already knew how to play the songs on the demo. Our drummer wrote all the music. One day he picked me up and he was listening to us in his car. "Isn't it weird listening to your own band?" "No. I made the songs I want to listen to. If anyone else wants to listen, that's cool." I realized then that making music to appeal to a certain group of people, be it club kids, or metalheads, hardcore kids, doesn't work. You've already set a limit for yourself, creatively speaking. Play what you want to hear, and the chances are there are other people who want to hear it also.

I grew up in Cornwall near Richard in the same era. It was a weird, dark, damp, grey place for much of the year. I get where his inspiration comes from. Love that some of the samples are just things like his mum moving a chair. Brings back evocative memories of youth. It's great to see someone from there inspiring with a global reach.

"my soul was violated" she understands the goal of these sounds

7:35 Bucephalus was the name of Alexander the Great’s horse, who in the stories was wild and untamable, until Alexander came along and was able to tame him. I always interpreted the title to be “the taming of the bouncing ball”, in that he breaks down the sound of a bouncing ball and uses it to make a million other sounds to create music.

I love your point about "something WE'VE lost" and it being patience. Recently, having last listened to a record nearly 40 years ago, I decided to capitalize on my 17yo son's sudden interest in vinyl and repaired my old Phillips turntable. Together we've started picking up the occasional new and old vinyl. The experience of sitting down and listening to an entire album from beginning to end was something neither of us had done in a long time and it was great. It's also a nice experience to just sit down with my son and enjoy something together in silence as we just listen.

You, Venetian Snares, and Aphex Twin were bangers on Stepmania Online back when I was playing it. Props.

*IT'S TIME FOR THE PERCOLATOR*

Working in a music equipment shop in London around 2001, Richard D James walks in..... We have a brief and direct conversation about ADAT PCMCIA cards for his Sony Vaio laptop, as he wanted to output 8 channels of audio from it. I reccomend a certain product, and manage to slip in I had been learning how to play Avril 14th on piano which had just been released. Not sure what happened next, maybe because I recognised him, but he said quite frankly. "That's impossible" I said why? I was figuring it out, and... "because it's played on multiple pianos" and left. I was somewhat heartbroken, but in the years since, reflected on it as a musical hero giving a little insight to the complexity of his craft. It isn't as straightforward as I had assumed, though in that moment he made me want to give up entirely. He came across at the time, like his music, purposefully difficult..

THANK YOU! I have been searching for the name of Upic for way over a decade. It was just mentioned in a newspaper article but I have never found that article again so i could not search the software by the people mentioned in the article. I am so relieved!

Thanks so much for doing this video! You really touched on so many things! I miss the days of old of making the Journey and to tracking down the latest from the Master and fully experiencing it over and over again after bringing it home and sharing it with friends! You're absolutely right that people have lost a lot over the years when it comes to patience. I've been an avid listener and experiencer of Mr. James since around 1997 and have had the pleasure of seeing and hearing him live. He truly is out of this World! Thanks again and keep doing what you do!

I’m more of a programmer who loves music and I’m building a new, extremely experimental, daw thing. Sometimes it’s hard to imagine anyone using it especially if when you show people, they’ll say “just use Ableton.” It’s disheartening, but videos like this showing that some people care, keep me going.

17:54 „I had the pleasure of chatting with Richard for quite a bit“ 🤯🤯🤯

i like the sense and moderate intensity of your humor. also, as an audio software developer, I really enjoyed the video. you're absolutely right about the way we've lost our focus while listening to music. thanks!

Love the video, always cool to see a new way to appreciate mad genius. The mention of speed racer talking about house music made me dig up that old Alpha Team record I haven't listened to in years, so thank you for that as well.

I cant believe I'm alive today to experience the confluence of two of the most important musical figures I had growing up. I dont play music, or even listen to very much of it. When I was growing up, my best friend Dylan exposed me to Aphex Twin. It was so unique, and helped me feel like I was connected to a wavelength not seen in my daily life. Inevitably i stumbled onto The Flashbulb, which I basically exclusively listened to for my entire late teens and early 20's. I even reached out to you by email back in 2004 and you were so polite and actually responded. Years later I discover you are doing KZfaq and making the exact type of content I love, and then go on to make this beautiful dive into Aphex. Thank you for this, and thank you to Richard D James for spawning this vein of reality that so many individuals are allowed to reside in.

Bro, I didnd't realize you're The Flashbulb. I saw you open for Dillinger Escape Plan at a show in Maryland many years ago where I believe we were in Virgin store and there was an escalator not far from the stage. Greg breathed fire and was fined heavily. I was pleasantly surprised by your set because I had no idea what to expect from you, but I was very familiar with Aphex-Twin, Squarepusher, Venetian Snares, and Kid-606, and our local boy Cex. Your performance was excellent. The entire night was one I'll literally never forget.

I had no idea that "The Flashbulb: of my childhood has an active KZfaq Channel. I am incredibly happy to see you break down Aphex Twin and I'm so thankful for the music that you and Richard provided. I'm glad you braved the waters of sharing your work. My love of Electronica heavily features you and Richard's work throughout my life. Thank you. I'm not at all surprised that you're well-spoken and obsessive. Now I'm going to go listen to Undiscovered Colors for the umpteenth time.

Excellent work here. Enjoyed this immensely, thank you for expounding on the software and the background history involved.

The first time I heard Aphex Twin I was around 12 years old living on a small reservation in Montana, half watching an interview with Johnny Depp on MTV and he mentioned he liked Aphex Twin. They then showed a 5 second clip of the Come to daddy video, my ears and head perked up. I had my Dad drive me 45 minutes to the nearest CD store and got the album. It was my introduction to electronic music and almost 30 years later Aphex Twin is still my favorite artist. Thank you for this video Benn. These are questions I have been wondering about the majority of my life.

Over and over, across all the different interests I have, when I look at the geniuses and pioneers and ask, "how did they do that?" the answer is always the same: they did it the hard way.

I’m a big fan of your music from years ago (and aphex too)! Really cool to see you making videos like this

This is exciting stuff and it made me fall in love with Ben Jordan’s channel again. I’ve been on and off with the channel for a while. The Obscure, nerdy and accessible stuff is what a lot of us long for. Many thanks to Ben

The Flashbulb doing a video essay on Aphex Twin brings me such joy

"You've got so many machines, Richard!"

This video was awesome! Thanks a lot for this Benn. I've been subscribed to you for a while because I know every time I watch I learn something either really fun, useful or even both.

Thank you! Brilliantly put together and presented.

Being a command line program means that you can script it. You can have it generate hundreds of thousands of random permutations by writing a script to do this for you

Aphex Twin and Squarepusher were the 2 artists that really captivated me in the late 90s. I think Aphex Twin is an artist that has a timeless quality. Back then I thought it was future music, but I think it just defied convention. I love when jazz musicians cover his work, and I'd love for his work to be part of the jazz canon. Cool video. Thank you.

What a gem, this video answers questions I've had since the early 2000's. Thank you so much for sharing this amazing information about such a singular mind like Richard's, and for free!

Been a fan of your music for a while and never knew that you are also a talented youtuber! The programs you show in the video really give some great insight into RDJ's creative process. Really shows how ahead of his time he was and still is.

Vordhosbn is a damn masterpiece. My friends and I primarily grew up on Metal but Vordhosbn was on all of our Mix CDs and Party playlists. Unreal composition.

at 20:37 you can see three things I sold to Richard. A quad controller and the 2 touchpads that were made by Josef Mundigl for his EMS Synth AKS in the 70's.

Man, I can't tell you enough how this video really resonated with me. I was an avid tracker head between early 90's up to about 2010. Really like your style and your music. Thanks for a great vid with such amazing vibes

Amazing video.. Thanks for all your hard work putting this together. I will always come back to this video for reference in the years to come.

They Live "cheesy film score"??? You watch your tongue, boy!

"PRAAT" simply means "talk" in Dutch and is also pronounced the way Dutch people would. It was developed by two guys at the university of Amsterdam. Great video on these various pieces of software!

I just watched this all the way through because I have been a fan of Aphex Twin since I was probably 15 and then realized that you made Opus at the end of everything lmao your music is great! Will definitely be tuning in for more episodes :)

Love the video! I particularly dug your bit about patience. I remember feeling that way when streaming was first taking over. His newer album Syro brought things back to form for me oddly enough. I bought the CD, put it in a proper disc player, got the lonnnnng headphone jack for my headphones, and sat on the porch soaking that entire album in one sitting. It feels contrived to do these days but I think it’s really worth it for a lot of albums.

I was in Greece in 1999 when the full length music video for Windowlicker came on. I ran to the store the next day and hunted down the EP. It just blew my mind.

awww ye, Come to Daddy. on a peripherally related note - I'd love to hear you take a look at/talk about Venetian Snares' workflow too, very unique approach and software.

Thank you for this Benn! Quality

loved this video ! you should make one about Venetian Snares and/or Squarepusher !!!

7:50 a little more about Bucephalus Bouncing Ball is that it was a response track to Autechre's Drane (and after Bucephalus, Autechre made Drane2), where Autechre first used that exponentional delay thingy but in the synth of that song and not with a percussive sample (in Drane2 it was applied to a lot of percussion tho)

Thank you for making this video! I don’t produce music, but I’m a software developer and Aphex Twin introduced me to electronic music many many years ago and I love learning about the software and tools he used in the 90s.

Really glad I found your channel! I clicked on this video because Aphex twin is one of my favorite artists, but I’m pleasantly surprised to find that it was made by another one of my favorite artists (well, Arboreal is only album I’ve ever listened to from you, but that’s a REALLY good album.)

Most lowkey flex ever... "I toured with Dillinger Escape Plan..." Wow. Calculating Infinity is one of my all-time favorite records of any genre, and Chris Pennie is a GOD. The drumming on track 4 " *#.. " sounds to me like he was trying to get that Aphex Twin (or Flashbulb apparently?!?! so cool dude) drum feel using delay and his monster chops. GREAT video Benn.

Hey Benn, I went to one of yours and Richard's shows at the Abbey Pub way back in '03 or '04. It was great! Your mom was running your merch table and she was seriously so cool! It was really clear how much she supports you and she was so happy to hype you and your music up! I bought the latest Flashbulb CD from her. I can't remember the name of the album but it was great! I'm so happy that you're making these videos in modern day, pulling back a little bit of the curtain behind the magic of the music. My friends and I would always speculate about how you all achieved such unique sounds and we all tried to recreate them in in pirated copies of Reason and FLStudio. Ha! You're the man

This video is so well done! Extremely well-researched and presented in a sure-footed, engaging way.

Wow, i literally just listened to music of yours for the first time today. And now I'm watching a video from you? Crazy!

As an old Octamed (and it's earlier 4 track version) composer, I didn't know I was doing a lot of linear drum programming. Because half the channels were hard panned left and the other right I did occasionally layer drums to improve the stereo depth, but this would mean slipping a drum sound in between an instrument sound on another track. It also had quite excellent midi control and was the first thing I used to sequence outboard gear, using my Amiga as a sampler until I got an emu box. Even after I'd changed to a "more professional" sequencer I used the Amiga if I wanted that really crunchy sample sound and the kind of ideas that come from having 4 or 8 lanes of audio... Which I suppose is why I've always enjoyed Aphex, and why trackers in hardware form are on the rebound

Aphex Twin is a modern day Wendy Carlos. On the bleeding edge of stitching technology and music together.

Thank you for making this. Aphex Twin has been my favorite artist for quite some time. In any capacity. Movies, Books, etc.

This was a brilliant watch Benn! I started in the 90s with years put into FastTrakker2 and took a similar path of softwares as you described here, which was arcane black magic to everyone else I knew at the time. This was a great trip down memory lane!

@BennJordan I was controlling external midi instruments from OctaMED (tracker) on Amiga and then Windows from ~1990. it absolutely could have done all of RDJ album, including we worked out how to do 14-bit sound on the 8-bit Amiga audio (by modulating the 6-bit channel volume I'm realtime over the 8-bit samples = 14-bit)... it also was one of the first (first?) trackers to introduce channel mixing, giving 8 channels 14-bit full stereo panning from Amiga's 4 channel 8-bit hard L+R pan, together with detailed external midi instrument control.

Back in sophomore year of high school around 2004-2005 I was listening to The Flashbulb, Aphex Twin, Squarepusher, Authecre, Kid606, Cardopusher, Enduser, Sabrepluse, Maladroit & Venetian Snares learning about experimental electronic and breakcore stuff at that time was just epic! Thanks Benn!!!

Amazing video! Thanks for showing us what software Richard could have or used. I think it’s fascinating to see how some of that stuff was made.

Yo thanks for this absolutely packed video! Super interesting and it’ll definitely inform my sound design workflow soon enough

13:59 Speaking of trackers and linear drumming, there's a producer by the name of Ophidian who produced a song on Renoise (a modern tracker software) using only a single track for the entire thing. It's called "Only One".

Thank you for another interesting, and informative video. As a remark (14:25), trackers in 1995 were quite capable of using 16 bit samples, either through software mixing (with various interpolation techniques) or using hardware like the Gravis Ultrasound. (Both FastTracker 2 and Impulse Tracker were out already)

Beautifully done! I learned a LOT! Thank you.

Thank you. I learned a ton more from this video than I did from my room mate in 1999 who introduced me to aphex twin and computer assisted audio production

not only is this video absolutely incredible but im overjoyed to see it spread SO much SO fast. just... wow. thank you so much for putting together this incredible resource/ love letter

Oh yes. Richard D James. I picked up my very first Aphex Twin album in I think 1993, Selected Ambient Works 85-92. Blew my fkn mind, then all his other stuff came, MUCH more chaotic and difficult to listen to, but ultimately a huge part of my university years, along with others like FSOL, just mind blowing and weirdly beautiful. Fascinating video, thanks! Syro did indeed feel very different, but I agree it's probably because the world has changed so much.

Thank you for doing this. Best thing I’ve seen in a long time.

Great work, great topics. I used to work with Recycle heavily, still remember blue loading icon. No words about RDJ that werent said before.

this is such a great video, i've struggled for years to effectively find VST's and tools for experimental sound design.

Fantastic video, Thank you Benn and Richard

Awesome video, thank you so much for this!

As a huge Aphex fan this is fucking awesome. God damn. Please keep em coming Benn. I often talk about bats to people ever since I watched that video you made about them. ❤

That was a glorious 24 minute exposé of my life long obsession; I've daily'd RDJ since I bought the remix single of "On" back in '93 (Warp Records, WAP 39 CDR). I still can't make music like him for toffee (been trying since my first listen to that CD), his mindset, his creativity and his absolute disregard of creative limitation will likely never be replicated.

RDJ and Chris Cunningham both blew my mind in the 90s. Excellent video.

Been a big fan since I discovered the Lawn Wake songs on stepmania, so glad to see a KZfaq channel!

Great breakdown! Covered not just the technical aspects but the cultural ones as well which, in my eyes, is the perfect video, especially as someone who has listened to some of aphex twin's work but hasn't yet done a deep dive. This inspired me to do so

No one else would make the videos you make. Thank you for this!

My favourite Aphex Twin song is 54 cymru beats. I don't know why I needed to share that, but now you know.

Wow Benn. Amazing work as always. This was a super deep dive and you nailed it. Kudos mate!

you were absolutely right about falling into a creative rabbithole, lol! you should consider doing a video on how to use the soundshaper software, id love to figure out how to use it in some of my stuff! GREAT video!!

As someone who grew up in the 80’s using cheap microphones, cassette players, borrowed stomp boxes, patch bays, sequencers, drum machines, monophonic Casio keyboards, Roland and AKAI samplers, along with the occasional shortwave radio… I approve this video. I’m also unabashedly thankful for Arturia and Sound Toys.

ALSO check out Aphex Twin's Samplebrain - it's a sample mashing software that can make some wild ass sounds, designed by aphex twin himself

Had no idea you have a youtube channel and that you're so wholesome! Great video, and you're right, Aphex is an inspiration to all of us who make electronic music.

I've been a big fan of Aphex Twin since his I Care Because You Do album came out, and I never really thought about what software he was using, thanks a lot for this video, cool stuff

Ventolin (Video Edit) was my first Aphex Twin track from a random batch of songs I found when downloading stuff way back. I immediately went out and bought Drukqs (Avril 14th makes me cry every time I hear it and I can't do anything but focus on Vordhosbn when it's on) and ... I Care Because You Do and fell head over heels for electronic music and experimental.

Benn, I’ve waiting my whole life for this video. I’m sure we all have. Thank you!

Great video, thanks Benn. I've been listening to Aphex twin since the 90s, and could never visualise how you can produce such complex and mashed up sounds. I knew you couldn't paint-by-numbers that stuff with a mouse and a sequencer, nor could you play it on a keyboard, so I couldn't imagine how you could achieve it. So, thanks for giving me the first real glimpse I've had of how it's done. It's a shame I now have a thousand times more questions than answers, now I have a glimpse of the actual process!

I used to play bass guitar growing up and have no idea how electronic music works/is created. I am a huge fan of Aphex Twin and was always curious as to how he created his music. Thanks 4 taking the time to show how Richard created some of his songs. This was really cool to see some of the old software that was used.

Man, am I anxious to see this one !

I heard Digeridoo back at an illegal outdoor rave back in 92 and was hooked from then on. Genius doesn’t sum him up enough

Awesome! Thanks for doing this 🤘🏻

Thanks for making this video! Great job!

I blown away for such of amazing information on electronic music, mixing-creating exploring! , i just don't have the right words express how greatful I'm for coming across this video and the impact that this has made, thank you so much. Impressive! so impressive!

I kinda want to challenge the notion that Aphex Twin was inaccessible. I loved the whole "Come To Daddy" EP on first listen and it's not just because I'm a weirdo. It got heavy play on MTV. A lot of his stuff was strange, but equally a lot was popular.

thank you, this vid (while not proving to me the genius of aphex twin as i already knew he's out of this world) kept me with wide open eyes like a kid watching new toys through a shop window glass,only instead it's just a 20ish guy going nuts about some old software my sound tech teacher showed me to analyze spectrums and previously didn't care for. Thank u!!!!

Wow, great vid good delivery. Learn many things. Will check out more of your vids.

I love your channel. Excellent work, as usual.

he's my favorite artist One thing he does so well is owning his own style his analord series really inspired me to stop pursuing a certain sound and rather just have fun without overthinking. That's where I found my own style comes through the most.

Was waiting for the SuperCollider mention! Very good video, honestly I wouldn't mind to see another video like this but focusing on some more of those "algorithmic composition" methods and languages such as SuperCollider, Csound, FAUST, etc

Hey Benn, I'm currently listening to the Qbit CDR that was in your catalogue dump to your Patreon members a couple of months back. It's sooooooo good, I'd never heard it before and it really reminds me of Aphex at times but still definitely your style. Just wanna say thanks, it'll be residing on my ipod from now on that's for sure! ❤😎