Aphex Twin's Old Synth
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- Опубліковано 6 чер 2024
- A brief look at an early Theis Modular Synthesizer (TMSS) from around 2002. This particular unit was originally owned by Richard D James / Aphex Twin.
0:00 Intro
0:23 Aphex Twin
1:09 What is the Theis Synthesizer?
2:06 Raw Demo Sequence
3:52 Summary
4:28 Contextual Demo
Other gear used in this video:
Roland System 100m
Roland System 500
Ryk 185 Sequencer
Roland Juno-6
Roland TR-707
Roland TR-606
Roland CR-8000 (samples)
Korg KR-55B
Yamaha DX7
Simmons SDS-3
Pollard Syndrum Twin
Fairlight CMI Drum Samples
Ibanez RM-80 Mixer
Social:
/ alexballmusic
/ alexballmusic
Thanks for the kind comments, I've stuck that end track up on bandcamp.
alexball.bandcamp.com/track/theis-modular-jam
Cheers
Imagine being so talented that you just shit out a track that puts half of Richards catalog to shame.
(Not that Aphex Twin makes bad music, but he makes a lot of music, and not all of it is good)
As always you killed it again! Also what did aphex say when you got a hold of him???
digital love Imagine you’re so talented that you just invent a style many people trying to get close to but never really nail it like you do.
Still really like the track no offense 🙃
@@GuyGamer1 what is your good music i musty havs it
Really like this track, would love to hear a whole album in this vein
I love how richard has legend status around electronic music. To the point where a previously owned synth seems like holy relic.
Yes.... Yes it is
It makes me think that Jesus Christ might have been someone having a laugh.
I'm printing those labels for all the gear I want to sell.
We worship Dick
@@greenie2600 yeah I get what you mean, elevating a artist to god like status seems a bit fan girly or occult
Real banger at the end there!!
The man himself.
Glad you enjoyed it. Many thanks for dropping by.
Dude seriously, is that available for download somewhere?
@@evanbarnes9984 Yes. alexball.bandcamp.com/track/theis-modular-jam
Ancient Juan!
Agreed, that was dope!
When he said 20 years ago I was thinking 1985-1990.............2002, oh well then.
Haha. Sorry to be the one to break it to you...
Right? Time flies
That feeling when you're getting older and realising life is... what it is.
I acknowledge the standard psychological time deviation encountered by all through natural aging, but there is something else going on. I don't know if it is merely the internet and its inherent ability to create time consensus ripples and pockets, naturally occurring time (our consciousness exists in a half of a single dimension, the unidirectional experience of a single dimension of time) echos propagating in the other half of the single dimension of time we experience, the echos of a near future event of profound magnitude reflecting back at us from that near future event, possibly 7 years away, or potentially the worst scenario, man's artificial manipulation of time in other potential dimensions or axes, off of the unidirectional single dimension of time we traditionally experienced in the past. Any of these can lead to very strange outcomes, and may explain some of our more outstanding misperceptions, or difficultly, perceptions of time that some of us are experiencing.
Food for thought. Drink Orange Fanta, very cold and undiluted by melting ice. I recommend a stainless steel, double walled container and a ratio of ice to Orange Fanta of 3:1. Oh, also only Orange Fanta from a 2 liter plastic container, no cans or bottles.
@@alphanumeric1529 Terrance McKenna talked about the phenomena of time speeding up in his last interview. It's available on UA-cam, very interesting stuff.
Obviously the phone call would’ve gone like
You: Richard
Aphex Twin: Yeah?
Pretty much.
Holy fuck how does he do those fucking snare rolllssssssss
@@gribo.9543 One way is by getting a digital delay to self oscillate with a fast delay time so you get a stuttered, glitchy sample. I show the principle at 6:20 in this video and then do it with a TR-606 at about 7:00.
ua-cam.com/video/mnOCDnx5Bdc/v-deo.html
@@gribo.9543 This is also a pretty wicked machine: ua-cam.com/video/kQFIdMmrYQ0/v-deo.html
Lol
The ending track is so sick. Would love to see it on streaming
Yes! Alex a lot of your tracks are great, you should post them on UA-cam
Thanks. I'll stick it on Bandcamp when I get a moment.
@@AlexBallMusic That's great man.
Done: alexball.bandcamp.com/track/theis-modular-jam
@@AlexBallMusicSpotify too please :((
Great track
Don’t rub eyes after touching that.
Or do...
Is it acid dipped like a buchla?
Aphex Twin in the title is what lured me in, but what you create is very creative and amazing on its own merits. Playing with that Synth seems like a ton of fun
Thank you. Glad it wasn't a disappointment. :)
Amazing how flawlessly replicated his sound, not an easy thing to do at all. Great work mate
PLEASE release the track and preferably a whole album in this style!
I met Richard a couple of years ago. A true gentleman
A Man of Honor.
A national treasure.
An absolute window licker
The holy grail of gratitude and good greetings upon arrival & exit
a splendid astral entity
You did amazing in the contextual demo, and the video as a whole was extremely enjoyable aswell !
Thanks very much!
I'm surprised you can still play cause this thing must have cost you an arm and a leg at the very least
It's borrowed. ;)
@@AlexBallMusic Damn you lucky :)..theres something about these modular synths...like classic cars
@@NirSharma1 So if this is something like an old sporty compact, what would Emerson's wall of moog be ;)
@@AlexBallMusic I have mentioned more than once to people who get trusted to demonstrate gear that could or would never own that if they have people that want them to exercise things andor see them demo'd a lot then they should get together with their other assumed investor buddies (because who can afford such things) and get curators set up with tone museums where we can have a living custodianship of events in musical history, as well as the significance of other art related things/tools.
I mean, imagine how inspiring it would be, for a painter, to paint with picasso's actual brush? How inspiring would it be to merely *see* that on the internet, for other painters who for whatever reasons didn't have access and believed they probably never, ever would?
@@russellzauner Look Mum no Computer has a video od such a place, head to his channel, is a must watch
That tune at the end sounds like something straight out of the Analord series.
Cheers
Fantastic man! Any Aphex lore is phenomenal! I love the contextual use of it, you know Aphex’s music well!
Thanks mate. Yeah, he keeps things very private, so any little glimpses like this are very interesting.
Great outro track 👏👏
Yeah, it was outstanding! Good job, Alex!
Thanks very much!
+1 to that!
uhhh niiiiiice!!!
I like how your jam had a polyrhythmic aspect to it that felt like a weird time signature but really only had a five-beat measure feel in the middle of it and was actually just 4/4 with funny "phrasing." Cool.
Thanks, yes all in 4/4 but I sampled the Juno chords and then moved them around into something unexpected so it has a falling-forward kind of vibe.
that track at the end is amazing
Cheers
I totally agree ! 👏
Thanks for another interesting and well put together vid Alex. Enjoyed the demo, the history and another great outtro.
Another winner, as always. A big fan of aphex twin, so your demo track particularly ticked my boxes, you nailed his style of sound very well indeed. Respect Mr Ball :)
Cheers Bobby, glad it was passable.
I love this video dude, and you totally nailed it with the song at the end
This was wonderful to see, quite fascinating! Thank you!
Cheers
Love your videos. Closing track is really great Alex 👌🏻
Thank you
Every time I go into one of your videos I just expect history, but I'm always pleasantly reminded that you're quite the composer/keyboardist too. Great stuff!
Thanks Zack, much appreciated.
I love all of your jams, but god damn did you nail this one!
Cheers. :)
That sounded lovely, -the synth and your jam in the end
Nice one ! And definitly my favorite of your musical demo !
the song you wrote at the end is such an amazing creative piece that could go down in music history if it were ever fair. well done
that is a really nice track Alex !! keep the good vibe lucky you!
That outro song will truly lovely. Thank you for that :)
Cheers
Another great video Alex. And a lovely tune! Sure channels some of Aphex Twin's spirit. Well done.
Thanks for giving the world another great Aphex Twin tune. Well done on those classic hooks.
Richard dropping by here to check his old gear. I'd be happy to see that robot still making tunes.
That music at the end must have been super satisfying to make. Good job man.
It was. Thanks
Really enjoyed your test sequence. That was proper.
best (whilst somehow also cheekiest) gear vids on utube. love it
😉
Great Aphex Twin homage! 💖💖💖 Wicked!
My Aphex spin. ;)
I love this video! A video on how you approach programming the kind of drums that you created for the full song would be very cool, I think
Incredible, that is a beautiful machine. Thank you for sharing it with us!
Cool video and even better song! Really enjoyed the Aphex/Squarepusher vibe!!
Cheers Ned. :)
lovely made as allways. Thank you for that
Another great Alex Bell Synth video!
Great tune Alex!
This is the best synth demo I’ve seen this year, if only a deeper dive into every part of it, maybe one sleazing bored day we can indulge your wizardry to go long form min 30 minutes on each part of this creature cheers!!
Thanks. I find the shorter and tighter the videos, the more views and interaction they get.
As much it is fun deep diving a synth.
@@AlexBallMusic yeah that's fair and true, but I really would appreciate a longer video as well if you're ever up for it haha
That song at the end is gorgeous. The type of stuff I'd just listen to as a major electronic release. Amazing work!
The bassline to the end track is so good its like jazz I loved it
The track you made rules. And, I think it gets overlooked by people watching UA-cam sometimes, the way you massaged the colors on the video to match the tone of the track and synth is rad too. Awesome!
Thanks!
As usual an awesome track from someone totally dedicated to the craft. Some of those edits must take forever. You must be bored! Last track = pure gold.
Cheers Kevin. :)
Fantastic video. Fascinating subject!
I see you finally grabbed the RM80 ... very cool unit, cool looking at as well. Great work!
Sweet video man!!
Would really love to see you break down Boards of Canada's production techniques
That would be cool. I'll be honest I've only listened to a handful of their tracks so I'd have to do a lot of research.
@@AlexBallMusic Well worth getting into if only to nerd out about their techniques. Geogaddi is a masterpiece. Would be great to do similar with Autechre's synths.
@Alex Ball there's plenty to enjoy, Music Has The Right To Children is timeless. The pre-MHTRTC unreleased stuff is worth tracking down to see where they were coming from, the so-called "Old Tunes" and "Tape for Marcus' Uncle" stuff is easy to find - at times its like a 1990s Vaporwave. DJ Food did a mix a while ago as a tribute to their early style, starts with the O is for Orange and Aquarius samples that were used in Aquarius off MHTRTC, then with bits of BOC and other random stuff chucked in for fun...
DJ Food mix: vimeo.com/69721622
...the bass and voice sample in Aquarius:
ua-cam.com/video/nxByyoMynZA/v-deo.html
a couple of worthy mentions...
Left Side Drive
ua-cam.com/video/8ot4pIzb7Vc/v-deo.html
Nlogax
ua-cam.com/video/WmZaMmGxSVo/v-deo.html
For me MHTRTC was the highpoint though, full of gems:
Open The Light
ua-cam.com/video/643nXJGHH7E/v-deo.html
Anyway pardon the fanboy transmission and thanks for another great video. Met and had an odd conversation with Mr Twin once, quite a character.
@@grahamphillips3099 Never heard the DJ Food mix, but this is mint, thanks!
@@AlexBallMusic tracking down their gear list....just go to a local carboot and look for Casio''s :P
Ooooh, that ontextual demo was very aphexy twiny but also kinda alexy bally. Thanks for the treat!!!
Such a great piece of music at the end, especially those cool chordal accents.
This is pretty awesome man. That track really has that AFX touch, bravo !
wow what a gem and a great piece of history.
The contextual demo is just beautiful :-)
Thanks
That was so awesome man.
Nice,that is one lush track! great work
Love that atmospheric sound the DX7 does in the end track. It sounds warm with that reverb on it.
holy shit the outro track is the best music I've seen in a video like this
The demo at the end is sick !!
That song you made was truly off the shelf. Damn.
Contextual demo - amazing, great theme & arrangement
Love the outro song, good work!
Cheers
Big Aphex Twin fan for year's, I loved this! cheers from California!
Thanks very much
Brilliant mate!!
Alex Ball + Aphex Twin = Infinite bliss
Thanks. 🙂
The piece at the end sounds just like something Richard James would have done. And the video really was good as well. Excellent!
Nice track! Glad I stuck to the end.
Thanks!
What a rarity you have there, probably have a interesting history too, good music as always!
PS:
The screaming zombie has a heavy distorted LFO, VCF and White Noise, LOL!
Definitely no VCF on that zombie. Full spectrum.
😉
Dude... Thank You. Amazing video
Thanks for watching
this Track is a Killer Alex, love it !!
Great video thanks Alex
Thank you
Holy damn. I've been a fan of AFX for years and it feels so refreshing to see a new video about him in the middle of a pandemic. So fucking cool.
Cool synth. I could imagine David Sylvian singing over the outro!
Damn dude. I would listen to your Aphex Twin styled IDM album. That was sick.
Cheers
same
Cheers Alex, most excellent. :)
Many thanks once more. :)
the outro demo was excellent. make more please
Great vidéo !
I love all part of it, it make me laugh, make me feel the music, and the historic of the instrument !
You made it sing Alex, what a beautifully wonky and warped lump of primitive modular madness. Great tone and depth, sure Richard mangled some melodies with this.
cool , how interesting to have come from him. Nice vid !
Yeah, quite surprising!
That "Contextual demo" is better than anything I've ever done with my life. Damn!! 🔥 👏
same except for me its the "Raw Demo Sequence"
Oh yeah! Dope track at the end!
Thanks Danny.
Cool tune !!!!
Enjoyed this little Vid!!!
Cheers Kevin
I did not expect you to be this good at Aphex Twin-ing, holy heck.
Thanks Aaron. :)
This video needs to be ennough to have earned you this synth. You got the vibe and the attitude. I accept you as you are.
Great video love apex twin sound & there music videos takes me back in the day watching MTV after a night out 😉 Alex you are very talented sounded awesome 👏
Yeah, was one hell of an experience watching those videos!
That Aphex style track at the end is amazing
Feels more like his Tuss and syro projects combined
Awesome job man! I'm glad UA-cam's algorithm got me here!
Thanks for clicking the click.
"I... WANT YOUR SYYYYNTH"
It's not actually a modular synth, it's a Holy Relic. Although I'm a little surprised you didn't get a contact high from tweaking the knobs. Very creditable Aphex pastiche, too, you should have just put it out on Soundcloud under a weird name and watched the WATMM crowd go nanas (are they still a thing? Is WATMM still alive? Was it ever?).
Maybe I am Aphex Twin? I mean, have you ever seen the two of us in a room at the same time?
@@AlexBallMusic I used to know J Majik and his Mum told me that Richard often came over to their house so pretty sure he's not you!
Did you read that article about the guy who was fixing an old synth and then an hour after getting his hands in there started tripping balls on acid 😂 like damn who had this thing
WATMM is still alive
@@natbvm1880 it was an original Buchla that had been in storage at a university for decades. He found the red panel 🙃. Unwittingly he's one of the few people on the planet to experience 60's era San Francisco acid. There's a news interview with him out there somewhere.
Lovely tune at the end, even though it's really hard to tell what sounds the TMSS was in charge of. Amazed to see that one of these ended up in the possession of AT but then again, there was the occasional TMSS popping up in some auction.
I have known Horst for almost 30 years, witnessed his very first attempts at building a (modular) synthesiser based around Curtis ICs salvaged from a broken Sequential Sixtrak, and -- of course -- he was a member of the infamous commune at Ruhrorter Strasse 59 in Duisburg, together with Klaus "Cosmic" Hoffmann-Hoock (the man behind the Memotron) and the unforgettable Herbert Schmidt, of course.
BAH!
Listening the last track, you really deserve the synth. Nice job
Thanks
I only can dream of sounding like this. Awesome.
Hi Alex, I immediatey recognised this synth after watching another fine video of yours. I have owned a four cabinet Theis Modular Synthesizer System for eleven years. I had it custom made in 2009 (the front was available in two build qualities) and picked it up at Horst Theis' place in Duisburg. His business was managed by a friend (Tronique on UA-cam). He has no website. I was particularly keen on having this system for its voltage controllable envelope generators and interesting lfo waveshapes. The price was, let's say, competitive. The original vco's used CEM 3340 chips. Mine has discrete components because when I bought it, Theis had run out of these chips, so he had to design his own vco, which according to Theis, sounds much better. If you want to see a picture of my system, read through my musical biography in English on my website, where I posted one, and if you want to hear the music I made with it, buy any cd of mine from "Sense of Urgency" to the latest, called "Deadlock". Website is www.akikaze.nl I use the TMSS, as any modular system, with few exceptions, for sound effects that can not be made with my hardwired synths. Yes, some shameless promotion of my music in return for this background information.
Hi Pepijn, thanks for dropping by and giving me the backstory. It seems quite a niche club of people who have owned and used these synthesizers and there isn't much info online (no website as you mention) so this is very interesting.
I'll have a listen through your tracks and try to look out for it in action.
Have you sold it now then?
@@AlexBallMusicThanks for your reply! Ask me anything you want to know and I'll try to answer your questions. No, I will never sell it if I don't have to though I was asked once to sell it by the artist Cosmic Force.
the demo is sick
Thank you for your work, always great, it’s so amazing and complex! Really better than the digital download programs! 🇧🇪🙏
Thanks. Yes, hardware is always more inspiring if you're able to get at it.
Really nice jam...amazing instrument!
Damn you nailed that closing track.