Aphex Twin

In an article of Future Music Magazine, written in April 1993, the author claims that Aphex Twin used the Casio FZ10 sampler on 80% of his tracks.

Key portions of this interview have been reprinted by MusicRadar here for easier search/reading... enjoy!

The FZ-10 and FZ-20M are also listed in the Syro gear list and Richard is still talking up the Casio FZ line more than a quarter century after his first FZ tracks in this archived 2014 interview.

'The SH-101 didn't survive the surgeon's screwdriver: "It doesn't look like a 101 anymore – I use the sliders, but for different things."'

"I don't want to use pre-programmed drum sounds. I've used modified [Roland TR-]808 sounds on Ambient Works, but that's because the tracks are around four to five years old. And the Polygon Window tracks use updated 808 sounds because the original recording quality is so abysmal."

In the comments, Aphex Twin wrote about Drukqs: "mostly written in Playerpro for the mac, my fave tracker, wish it would be brought back, had some amazing features and i helped code a bunch of top dsp fx for it"

This is also shown in a Vimeo video, where it is one of the DAWs that plays a beatless version of Vordhosbn from Drukqs: https://vimeo.com/223378825

In this photo, Aphex Twin looms over his equipment, including the MPC60 towards the upper-right-hand corner. The drum pads and MPC60 logo can be spotted beneath other equipment, all adorned with Aphex Twin stickers.

In this photo, the MS-20 is the keyboard in the upper right above the MPC60. This was used in some live performances and in the studio. The positions of the knobs are indicative of the MS-20.

In this Facebook post from Elektron Music Machines, they write:

"Aphex Twin recently got interviewed by Rolling Stone. 'Q: Do you have instruments with you at the hotel right now? A: Yeah, I've got this brand spanking new Swedish digital-analog hybrid drum machine-sampler-synthesizer. It's fucking good.'"

Aphex Twin is listed on U&I Software's site as a user of MetaSynth. "Richard James' use of MetaSynth on his classic Window Licker helped put MetaSynth on the map."

17:41 mins into the video you can very clearly see him using ableton 8 as a sequencer / mixer

Part of this 1993 interview says that his gear includes a Roland TB303, a Yamaha DX7, an old Korg analogue sequencer, an ST and monitor, CD player, DAT machine and loads of his own creations.

The official and extensive Syro gear list mentions "Roland R8/R8M", which stands for two pieces: The Roland R-8 Human Composer and the Roland R-8M Total Percussion Sound Module, respectively.

The official and extensive Syro gear list mentions "Roland R8/R8M", which stands for two pieces: The Roland R-8 Human Composer and the Roland R-8M Total Percussion Sound Module, respectively.

On this 1993 interview, Aphex reveals: "I used to write my own sequencing programs on the [Sinclair] Spectrum, believe it or not."

On this link, down on the comment section there's a conversaton between Richard David James (user18081971) and other SoundCloud user. They talk about the usage of microtuning on the Korg Monologue. The comment that confirms Richard's usage of the product is the following: "yeah thankfully that was implemented at the last minute, ive only tested it a few times myself so far but yes it fucking works, nice1, that machine now rules, if they put pattern chaining to have longer than 16 notes, it would be boss. But you can switch prgrams manually or externally as a workaround."

Aphex twin's Cheetah EP got its name from the Cheetah MS800, and 2 tracks are named after it as well

Aphex Twin Tweets about the MTS-ESP Suite he developed in collaboration with ODDSOUND:

Dynamic microtuning system for DAWs.

In an interview with Future Music Magazine in 1993, Aphex Twin used a TB-303 in his London studio.

Used on the track: 4x Atlantis take1

From an interview with Clash Music:

CLASH MUSIC: You say you often change your set-up and the way you do things, what did you change and get into for the Analord series?

APHEX TWIN: Most of it was sequenced on an MC4 and other analogue sequencers.

Aphex Twin lists the Cirklon Sequencer amongst the gear used in the recording of his 2014 album Syro.

On Richard David James's SoundCloud account named "user18081971", he mentions the use of NI's Traktor on the comments: "also loads of you interested in the setup..running a few progs, Traktor/msp and eurorack modular..dont often use Traktor but its ok but pisses me off it doesn’t do multiple bpms per track, come on NI get with the ‘programme’ will put a modular grid config up to shut you all up :)"

In these archived screenshots from the comments section of Aphex Twin's Warp/Bleep storefront, you can see Richard James (aka Aphex Twin and like 10 other aliases) discussing the merits of PlayerPro Tracker vs. Renoise. This storefront went live July 21st, 2017, and these conversation screenshots were posted 2 days later on the 23rd. In the discussion, James (using the alias "daddy1") details his criticisms of Renoise and mentions feature-requests he's made to the Renoise development team.

"I've tried in vain to make the Renoise coders listen [to my feature requests], help!"

"[In PlayerPro Tracker] You could print plugin effects directly & destructively onto the sample, hence freeing up CPU, but you could hear the effect first before you printed it. I've really pecked several people to do this and it did finally get done in Renoise."

Those doubting that "daddy1" is Richard James can also take a look at this interview from German magazine SPEX, October 2014 issue:

My five-year-old son has now made six tracks using the Renoise software, and I think it’s better than my own tracks. When he made his first track, I thought it was incredible, but then he produced five more and I was like oh shit"

This is Richard's son using Renoise, not him, of course, but the odds that a 5 year old was allowed to research, install, and purchase a DAW without parental intervention/influence seem pretty low. I'm sure the Richard James household hosts many DAWs, but Renoise is the one with the most supporting evidence.

Per this press release and video, dated April 14, 2019, Richard James worked with Novation developers to craft a firmware update for the Bass Station II. The firmware includes an "AFX Mode" which allows for per-key parameter locks and a range of other things the artist had always wanted to see implemented on a commercial synth.

James is cited as a user of the instrument in the web copy:

The latest firmware update for Bass Station II adds five powerful and innovative new features to Novation’s hugely popular monosynth, all of them developed in response to user feedback and requests, one of those users being particularly noteworthy…

AFX Mode

Electronic music legend Richard James, aka Aphex Twin, has already played an instrumental part in the Bass Station II story, having provided guidance for the implementation of the micro-tuning added with Firmware v2.5. His conceptual contribution to v4.14 is even more profound, however.

On this 2014 interview, Richard mentions using this kind of headphones to make some tracks off the Syro album.

In the comments, Aphex Twin said: "someone in the messages been asking me about headphones, gotta reccomend the Audeze LCD-x 's best headphones i ever heard, almost as good as listening to these barefoots im currently sat inbetween"

On this page, it is possible to see some of Richard David James's comments on his own SoundCloud account. On one of them, he says: "listening to this reminds me I should release all the patches I made in Supercollider to make a lot of the sounds in this, It was Supercollider 1 though, old school."

Used in studio and some live performances. In the picture, it's on the right side below the MPC60.

This is likely the Synthi A and not the AKS model, as this photo does not show the keyboard found on the AKS model.

Aphex Twin is listed as an artist who uses Tone2 ElectraX on the official website.

Another item that is hinted to be used by Richard David James himself is the Roland MKS-50. On a reply that he left about micro/MIDI tuning methods, he mentions: "yeah also with that hpi box you can tune things like mks50 i recently discovered as its got midi mode 4, which was meant for use with guitar players but it enables me to retune it, works a treat!"

Another device mentioned by Richard David James on his SoundCloud account page is the Yamaha Reface DX FM Synth,as well as other methods of inputting data: "I always hook up several input devices simultaneously, including special shaped microtonal keyboards, wind input devices, pads, mini keys, big weighted keys, loads of things, then just pick which one you want for whatever your working on, then you find each keyboard has its use..Learn how to use minikeys, it gives you a different way to input stuff. one of my fave keyboards ever is the reface FM, love it, shame the synth doesn't have MT though.."