Links for August 14, 2017

Aphex Twin Speaks To Ex. Korg Engineer Tatsuya Takahashi

TT: Talking of standards, the sample rate of 48 kHz is another one for sampling and signal processing, but the volca sample uses a weird one at 31.25 kHz. Purely because of technical constraints, but I was thinking that might be part of the reason you liked it so much, because the different sample rate gives it a unique sound.

RDJ: Haha, yes, it was pretty much the first thing I noticed. Yeah, I thought the 48 kHz, was based on the Nyquist Theorem. I think it’s double what humans can apparently hear or something, which is another weird one. I don’t know how anybody worked out humans only hear to 20 kHz. I mean even if you can’t hear above 20 kHz, it doesn’t mean that your body doesn’t feel it. You don’t just experience sound through your eardrums. A good example of this is listening to a recording of your own voice. To almost everyone apart from maybe the most narcissistic, it always sounds weird/thinner/smaller, as you don’t feel the vibration of your chest and body. There are other reasons of course but that’s one for sure. Anyway, I’m into the extremes of the audio spectrum, ultra clarity ’n’ all but I probably prefer fucked-muffled/lo-bit/’70s sound more, ha!

TT: Oh, and when something defies the standard – I just remembered the first time I played a Yamaha SK-10, the faders were all upside down, like max was downwards, even on the volume. I didn’t know what was going on and it threw me off at first, but it’s actually a bit fun like that and you soon realise it all comes from organ drawbars.


Christina Kubisch: Discovering new sounds


Juana Molina - In the Lassa