Aphex Twin

Pro Tools can be seen on RDJ's computer in this picture.

In the 2014 Syrobonkers part1 interview, Richard D James / Aphex Twin mentions using the RAM Electronics Music Machine again.

I did use a RAM music machine for the spectrum before the FZ which is just totally dope, ive bought a load of them recently and started using them again, love the sound qual its 9khz sampling rate , 8-bit and you could get just over a second in memory, so i used to speed sounds up on tape then sample them into that and slow them down, so even more gritty! heres something i did when i was around 15/16 on on one.

Listed in the Syro "gear list", and used entirely in the japanese bonus track of the album "MARCHROMT30A edit 2b 96 [104.98]"

On this link, there are (what's left of) Richard David James's comments/replies to some of his fans. In response to the user @kinbotte, Richard not only confirms that he owns the Elektron Analogue Rytm, but also a bunch of other gear: "ive never found one i really liked. i would love to design my own with someone who could build it for me, I dont really want to spend my time building instruments. Elektron RYTM is prob fave right now, although it doesn't sample which is a shame, dsi tempest, RSF SD140, Pearl fightman[needs mods], Pearl sc40,doepfer a112, Dynacord Add one,loads good plugins these days, sds3, Klone dual perc synth. For synth drum sounds, always best to make your own on a modular+imagination, can make more complex and original sounds than any of the above really, just more of a pain to conjure up."

"I bought a Roland 100M monosynth when I was 13 – it's like a [SH-]101 – but I got really pissed off with it."

Richard David James seems to enjoy the usage of this piece of gear, as he mentions the Yamaha RS7000 quite a lot. Notably on his SoundCloud page, with comments like "oh , u gotta check it, the midi feedback, you can do stuff like press one key and get a whole load of cascading notes ascending or descending and u can even have the repeitions increase or decrease, lilke bouncing ball or inverse, sounds a bit like a pitchshifter, top 4 a bloody rs7000" and "yo eod, RS7000 has some cool tricks though, i like the user LFO's and the midi feedback parameters!" (these comments can be found on user18081971's [i.e Richard's SoundCloud page] track called "Love 7"), as well as his own appeal to Yamaha on his now-archived-extremely-lenghty Syro interview: "used fz's on many things ,like the kik & snare drum on isopropophlex! Which got used in some yamaha gear like the rs7000! i was so chuffed when i heard it, i was like yeah yamaha got one of me sounds! they even have a description of it in the manual, rs7000's are dope btw yamaha please release the source code for that ffs you bastards!"

In this photo of Aphex Twin performing live at Bestival 2008, he can be seen wearing Sony MDR-CD1700 Headphones. The dual headband and the writing on the side of the headphones are consistent with that of the MDR-CD1700. Photo taken by Jane Hoskyn on Flickr.

The official gear list included in the packaging of Aphex Twin's album Syro mentions the "Sci Prophet 5 racked/keyboard," suggesting Richard D. James owns both the traditional Prophet-5 synthesizer and a racked version. Although the list is somewhat ambiguous, it indicates his use of the Prophet-5 in some form. Known for extensively modifying his equipment since 1993, James could have customized a Prophet-5 himself or had someone else do it. Regardless, the core sound remains consistent across variations, aligning with his collection of rare vintage gear.

Richard James put a TR-909 through it's paces to open his set at the Manchester Warehouse Project, Sept 09, 2019, as seen in this video of the performance at 4:26. You can clearly see Richard rocking the TR-909 in the upper right camera.

Surely, Richard James has used a TR-909 for many songs, over many eras, but here, finally, we have irrefutable evidence.

On Richard David James's SoundCloud account named "user18081971", he mentions the use of MSP 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 :)"

On Description of 'Korg funk 5' , Minilogue is Mentioned.

Despite being considered a little innacurate by Richard himself on the 2014 Syrobonkers interview by Dave Noyze (https://web.archive.org/web/20141103131334/http://noyzelab.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/syrobonkers-part1.html), the list on the Syro album packaging confirms the BOSS GE7 as being of the devices using during the recording of it.

Another item that Richard mentions using on his SoundCloud's comment page is the Midas 160: "forgot to say how the modular bit is working, have 10 outputs from the modular into the Midas 160 and 7 outputs from the midas160 into the modular. Midas is really good for this as, I use the group out sliders and the aux out sliders, which are really nice and fast to set on the fly, can play them as opposed to turning a knob which is a slower to do in live situ. Do a little bit of patching on the go but automate a few different routings with the WMDmatrix, I used to use the Alyseum matrix for that but ran out of room, need a bigger case..as always…still its great trying to work with a limited set of modules, wish there was a eurorack matrix module with built in attenuverters per routing like the totally awesome Buchla 210e."

On this link, there are (what's left of) Richard David James's comments/replies on his SoundCloud account (user487464530) that got deleted with the respective SoundCloud tracks. In response to the user @howtodefinetime, on the track "medievil rave Mk2 [pre plague mix]", Richard says: "yeah i filmed that in the bank, i sold those speakers and ex42 to Gordon Reid!" The EX42 is the Yamaha Electone EX-42 Organ Synthesizer.

Besides being confirmed on Richard David James's SoundCloud page, it also appears on the Syro gear list. "soz not all the drums, sampled loads of sounds in the fz20m, forgot".

To the right of him is clearly an Atari Mega ST 2 or 4 with Atari monitor taken from a performance in Paris circa: 1993. Likely he was sequencing with it, but it's unclear what software he might have used as the monitor is turned off.

On the Syro gear list, the Yamaha DX100 is mentioned. It is important to note that it is not a regular DX100, but a modded one.

Aphex Twin lists the ARP 2500 modular synthesizer amongst the gear used on his 2014 album Syro.

Listed on the Syro album packaging as being one of the pieces of gear used sometime during the recording of it. The list is not 100% according to Richard (https://web.archive.org/web/20141103131334/http://noyzelab.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/syrobonkers-part1.html) on the 2014 Syrobonkers interview, and many do not believe what he says during interviews due to his reputation of compulsive liar, which is only one of the mysteries that surround the artist.

On this link, there are Richard David James's comments/replies to some of his fans (back when the account had a different name: "user487363530"). In response to the user @kinbotte, Richard not only confirms that he owns the Elektron Analogue Rytm, but also a bunch of other gear: "ive never found one i really liked. i would love to design my own with someone who could build it for me, I dont really want to spend my time building instruments. Elektron RYTM is prob fave right now, although it doesn't sample which is a shame, dsi tempest, RSF SD140, Pearl fightman[needs mods], Pearl sc40,doepfer a112, Dynacord Add one,loads good plugins these days, sds3, Klone dual perc synth. For synth drum sounds, always best to make your own on a modular+imagination, can make more complex and original sounds than any of the above really, just more of a pain to conjure up."

On the official Syro album packaging, there is a gear list which shows WHERE, WHAT gear was used in EACH song. One of the entries reads "Musicaid Claptrap x4", which indicates that Richard owns four instances of the very first Clap Trap. The first one was produced by Musicaid and has distinctive knobs, the second one was produced by Simmons, has three distinctive grey keys and is a follow-up to the original. The third and final one is the Digital Clap Trap.

The cover artwork for Aphex Twin's Syro album, designed by The Designers Republic, lists the Intellijel Rubicon VCO as being used in the production of the album.

This is one of the tracks where it is confirmed the TX16W was used. The TX16W was also used on a Syro track, "S950tx16wasr10" [the title is made up of equipment used]. Aphex Twin confirmed usage of the TX16W in the description of this SoundCloud track.

On this link, there are Richard David James's comments/replies to some of his fans (back when the account had a different name: "user487363530"). In response to the user @kinbotte, Richard not only confirms that he owns the Elektron Analogue Rytm, but also a bunch of other gear: "ive never found one i really liked. i would love to design my own with someone who could build it for me, I dont really want to spend my time building instruments. Elektron RYTM is prob fave right now, although it doesn't sample which is a shame, dsi tempest, RSF SD140, Pearl fightman[needs mods], Pearl sc40,doepfer a112, Dynacord Add one,loads good plugins these days, sds3, Klone dual perc synth. For synth drum sounds, always best to make your own on a modular+imagination, can make more complex and original sounds than any of the above really, just more of a pain to conjure up."

Yet another item that Richard mentions using on his SoundCloud's comment page is the Alyseum MS-Matrix: "forgot to say how the modular bit is working, have 10 outputs from the modular into the Midas 160 and 7 outputs from the midas160 into the modular. Midas is really good for this as, I use the group out sliders and the aux out sliders, which are really nice and fast to set on the fly, can play them as opposed to turning a knob which is a slower to do in live situ. Do a little bit of patching on the go but automate a few different routings with the WMDmatrix, I used to use the Alyseum matrix for that but ran out of room, need a bigger case..as always…still its great trying to work with a limited set of modules, wish there was a eurorack matrix module with built in attenuverters per routing like the totally awesome Buchla 210e."

Listed on the Syro album packaging as being one of the pieces of gear used on the recording of it. It is important to note that the list is not 100% accurate, as it is confirmed by Richard on the 2014 Syrobonkers interview by Dave Noyze. Also, not everyone believes what Richard says on interviews since he has been accused of lying excessively on many of them.

Aphex Twin ended up selling a CS-5 with the sleeve notes of Selected Ambient Works, Volume II written on the bottom of it.

On Richard David James's SoundCloud account, it is possible to read the various comments he left on some pages. One of them shows that he owns a Technos Acxel Resynthesizer: "yeah equipment online is theoretically a top idea..better than gathering dust. would like to put my technos axcel online"

Richard David James appears to be an extensive collector of expensive rare gear. On the Syro album packaging, the gear list shows us that he owns not one, but three instances of the Korg PS-3300 Polyphonic Synthesizer. It is important to note that this is not an ordinary synth: Sources claim that only 20 to 50 units have been produced. This synthesizer is not only the biggest, but one of the most expensive pieces of rare analog gear ever. Of course, to some people, this list can be somewhat of a fraud, based on the various rumours that surround the Aphex Twin's history. The rumours that he owns a tank, a submarine, has a bank converted to a house, at the age of 11 made a Sinclair ZX Spectrum produce sound after tweaking it and many others has led many to believe that the artist is a compulsive liar. Especially in some interviews. Some of these were confirmed, some weren't. The Analord series itself has its own mythology of what was used to produce it. But after all, this is for each one to decide. Despite having a few mistakes according to Richard himself on a 2014 interview with Dave Noyze, the Syro album packaging is an official product, and it is one's choice to decide wether he/she believes what is written there.

Quoted on the official product page.

"Perc is amazing, beaters are really easy to set up! Had them working in a very short amount of time on various drums. It's really well made, about time someone made something like this!."