The UPIC System

This tool/instrument is one of the key factors of the Aphex Twin sound.

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UPIC is a computerized musical composition tool, devised by the composer Iannis Xenakis. It was developed at the Centre d'Etudes de Mathématique et Automatique Musicales (CEMAMu) in Paris, and was completed in 1977. The name is an acronym of Unité Polyagogique Informatique du CEMAMu. Xenakis used it on his subsequent piece Mycènes Alpha (1978), and it has been used by composers such as Jean-Claude Risset (on Saxatile (1992)), Takehito Shimazu (Illusions in Desolate Fields (1994)), and Curtis Roads.

Physically, the UPIC is a digitising tablet linked to a computer, which has a vector display. Its functionality is similar to that of the later Fairlight CMI, in that the user draws waveforms and volume envelopes on the tablet, which are rendered by the computer. Once the waveforms have been stored, the user can compose with them by drawing "compositions" on the tablet, with the X-axis representing cumulative duration, and the Y-axis representing pitch. The compositions can be stretched in duration from a few seconds to an hour. They can also be transposed, reversed, inverted, and subject to a number of algorithmic transformations. The system allows for real time performance by moving the stylus across the tablet.

The UPIC system has subsequently been expanded to allow for digitally sampled waveforms as source material, rather than purely synthesized tones. In 2005, Mode Records of New York released a 2-CD compilation of works composed with the UPIC, entitled Xenakis, UPIC, Continuum, [1] which provides an overview of the machine's sonic possibilities.

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Notes on Composing with the UPIC System: The Tools (Equipment) of Iannis Xenakis (PDF)

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The UPIC System

The UPIC is a configuration of a computer linked to a large-size digitizer table (75 by 60 cm) on which the user designs his music using an electromagnetic pencil. At the other end of the UPIC system, the digits are converted into sound through the loudspeakers. Two screens allow the permanent dialogue between man and machine.

You can use the UPIC system in 4 steps: 1. draw waves; 2. draw envelops; 3. compose a page; 4. mixage.

Take the pen, select DRAW on the function menu. Enter the bank of timbres. Draw your desired waveform and then the control screen will show the waveform: you store the waveform in the temporary memory of the computer. Then, select "HEAR" with your pen. Look for a pitch in the drawing area, you hear the sound immediately. Point on another square and after drawing the sound, you will hear a new timbre. About one hundred of timbres can be stored.

Touch "DRAW ", select an envelop in the ENV- bank. Draw the variation in the sound dynamic in relation to time: the farther your pencil goes from the horizontal line, the louder the sound. Instantly, the envelope is displayed on the control screen; if you aren't satisfied, just draw it again.

At this point, you are able to draw a PAGE of music, you compose just like a traditional composer but without training or limitation of tuning, conventional orchestral sounds or rhythms. The pitch (low notes, high, up) will be represented on theY- axis in relation to the X- axis on which you read the time read from left to right. At any time you may erase, correct, delete the drawing of a page to listen to a timbre, or to draw a new envelope.

Each new line defines a "sound arc" at which you have allocated a timbre, an envelope and an intensity. Over about 2000 sound arcs are allowed to make. To hear the musical result, you have first to determine the duration of the page (from 1/4 of a second to 1 hour) by pressing on CALCULATE PAGE. In the same way, it's possible to modify the range of your page by AMBITUS: from a semi-tone up to 10 octaves (= Y- axis). Up to 100 different sound waves can be stored.

Selecting "DRAW MIXING SCHEMES" you can mix these sound waves in horizontal or vertical direction, defining the architecture of your piece. The global score will be displayed on the control screen (SHOW WAVE). You can even EXTRACT a new timbre or envelope from that global sound wave.

The UPIC system is controlled by a special set of computer programs which help the user to facilitate his musical choice, without the experience of programming or instrumental skills. The user controls all components of his composing process, from the inner sound structure to the outside architecture of the composition. The program allows to make complex timbres or envelope forms that would be impossible to obtain by freehand drawing.

Click and see the full picture of String Glissandi bars 309-314 of Metastasis (1954)

You can RECORD one or more external samples by converting them in your UPIC system. You can assign a global envelope to your page, make graphic or algorithmic transformations (rotations, symmetries, etc) . Once you have stored the set-up, the UPIC system includes also the modus of REAL TIME playback: when you move, accelerate, or stop your pencil , you can control the interpretation of the score manually. Just like a traditional instrumentalist or conductor.

However, the UPIC-user is able to check and modify the musical result instantly, just like a sculptor. At any moment the UPIC-user can control his composing process. If the gesture is naive, the music will be naive. If the use is elaborated , the UPIC converts the appropriated gesture or manipulation. The composer is also the performer.

This UPIC-page from Mycènes Alpha (1978) will extend over one minute.

The original idea for developing the UPIC, belongs to the Greek composer Iannis XENAKIS (1922-2001) who wanted to convert the graphical drawings on his composition METASTASIS (1953) to notes for traditional performers. Xenakis imagined a machine to perform graphical music immediately and to produce the allocated sound waves. Living in Paris, Xenakis worked 12 years as an engineer with the architect Le Corbusier. About 25 years later, the Centre d'Etudes de Mathématique et Automatique Musicales (CEMAMu) in Paris has realized the first version of the UPIC (Unité Polyagogique Informatique du CEMAMu). With this tool Xenakis created in 1978 "Mykenae Alpha".

Xenakis didn't want to exclude anybody to "compose" on UPIC, he introduced many groups of dancers, kids, computer minded people, non-musicians ànd composers to the UPIC tool.

Les Ateliers UPIC

"Les Ateliers UPIC" is founded in 1985 as a center for musical creation authorized by the French Ministry of Culture. In the beginning, "Les Ateliers UPIC " has promoted the research at the CEMAMu, especially the UPIC System. Later, the association enlarged its field of activities. Today, "Les Ateliers UPIC" supports the initiation, research, production, musical creativity, workshops, courses, concerts, etc. Since its foundation "Les Ateliers UPIC" has a large number of collaboration with composers, musicians, instrumental ensembles, vocal ensembles, teachers, universities, producers , theaters, opera houses and festivals from all over the world.

Les Ateliers UPIC
18, rue Marcelin-Berthelot
94140 Alfortville
FRANCE

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Example

Iannis Xenakis: Mycenae Alpha

Aphex Twin Interview (August 1997)

Future Sounds

Aphex Twin and Luke Vibert make music the old-fashioned way--but with computers instead of guitars.

Like the Internet, electronic music is often spoken of in futuristic terms, as if the mere fact that technology is involved implies a steely postmodernism. Yet to Richard D. James and Luke Vibert, two young men raised in England's southwestern Cornwall region, computers aren't so much passageways to the new millennium as convenient instruments with which to express themselves musically.
James, who records mostly as Aphex Twin, and Vibert, who goes by his own name as well as Wagon Christ and Plug, often create songs that could be described as organic-sounding if it weren't for the absence of traditional instrumentation.

"It's futuristic in so much as I try to do something new," James says of his music from a tour stop in Toronto. "I do use computers all the time, so I suppose it's a normal connection to make."

Listeners might call the songs on the latest Aphex Twin release, Richard D. James (Sire), something beyond contemporary. The shifting sonic textures, clipped breakbeats and synthesized blips form an ambient techno at times so coldly mechanical that it could be the soundtrack to a science-fiction film. But James isn't completely estranged from traditional
songwriting. His "Girl/Boy Song," written for his girlfriend at the time, is as compelling as non-vocal music gets, with synthesized strings, a skittering beat and low-end bass sounds enfolding into a graceful and fluid melody. James says he's taken up singing as well, and that most of the tracks on his forthcoming Come to Daddy EP feature vocals.

James' evolution has been surprisingly natural, nearly devoid of contact with other musicians and even music itself. He began experimenting with electronic sounds in Cornwall, where he went on to DJ and perform in small clubs before moving to London in the early '90s. With several acclaimed albums under his belt, including the landmark Selected Ambient Works '85-'92, James became a sought-after remix artist as well. He says he owes it all to his rural upbringing.

"I don't reckon I'd be doing what I'm doing unless I'd grown up in the country," he says. "I love the city now that I'm really busy, but I wouldn't have liked to grow up in the city; it would have been too hectic. Growing up in the country was wicked for me. You're left to your own devices, basically. You have to make your own entertainment."

Another person who benefited from James' isolation was Vibert, raised five miles from the man who would become Aphex Twin. "I met him just before he released his first record, when he was DJing in a Cornwall dance club," Vibert says. "That was the first time I ever heard techno-type music, because before that I was into live music, or just generally pop. I was into Prince, and a bit of hip-hop and punk."

Vibert followed James first to the electronic genre, then to London, then to international recognition. Though he's playing a low-key role on the current Aphex Twin tour, spinning records between acts, Vibert has many people in the record industry thinking he's a futuristic commodity. He's now signed to three different labels under three names--for contractual reasons--and leaning in divergent stylistic directions: As Plug, he will soon release two drum 'n' bass collections on Nothing/Interscope; as Wagon Christ, his next ambient record is due out soon on Virgin; and as Luke Vibert, he's releasing Big Soup, an album of electronic dance music composed primarily from samples, on Mo' Wax.

If electronic music does share a definitive trait with the Internet, it's the information avalanche that has resulted from technological developments. Vibert is living proof. He has agreed to do dozens of remixes, has turned some down, and works at a feverish pace. The 25-year-old musician seems confused by it all.

Asked how his approach to his own material differs from remixing other artists' songs, Vibert tries to explain: "When I'm doing my own stuff, I have to build it all up from nothing, and I never know how it's going to go. When it's a remix, you've got loads of stuff to use, so you immediately have a lot more to work from. I sometimes get into remixes more than my own stuff because the hardest bit for me is the first part of ma king tracks and it could be anything. I never think, 'Oh, I really want to do a drum 'n' bass track today,' I always just feel like making music generally. I never know what's going to come out. But then that's fun, too, because I'm never sure what's going to happen."

Written by: Richard Martin
Source: Willamette Week
Date: Aug 1997

Aphex Twin Gear (partial)

Aphex Twin Interview in Future Music

There's a typically baffling/silly interview with Aphex Twin in this month's Future Music magazine. When asked for a kit list, he says: "Sure. Raveolution 309, the Raven Max, MC-909 limited edition, Quasimidi Van Helden, MAM Freebass 383, Roland DJ-70, E-15, SP-808, Akai S3200, Behringer MX602A and all the Behringer effects that copy other things." When he's asked which software he uses, he says "UPIC by Xenakis puts almost everything else to shame. It's under 1mb and it shits on everyone." UPIC was a '70s experimental French system developed by Greek composer Iannis Xenakis, which is based on drawing on a graphics tablet. It's somehow connected with CCMIX, where they talk about it running on a Windows 98 system. UPIC seems to have developed into Iannix, which you can download from this page. He also talks about liking Ableton Live, but preferring LiveSlice for beat editing/stretching. He uses Etymotic Research headphones. My favourite Aphex Twin track ever is the demo version of Windowlicker, where you can hear that the whole track is put together with samples of him singing. Posted by Tom Whitwell.

Reason: Making Bowel Shaking Bass Lines With An 808 Bass Drum in Propelerheads Reason

Who doesn't love that bowel shaking tone of the classic sub bass kick sound of the Roland TR 808. If you don't love it I would most assuredly place you in a category with other certifiable nut cases. But I digress for I am not here to diagnose you according to your musical taste right now.

I am here to inform you, inspire you and perhaps broaden your mind.

Today we are going to talk about the amazing tonality of the 808 Bass Drum, i.e. BD0010, and its incredible versatility in conjunction with the Redrum in Reason.But first let's get a little history under our belts regarding this instrument and its tone shall we? We are going to go to our best friend for information on the web, Wikipedia that is, for some info.

History:

Wikipedia TR-808

Popular Media

In the mid-to-late 1980s, years after the TR-808 was discontinued, its sound again became popular, in part due to its kick drum sound, which could produce a very deep sub-bass. By the end of the 1980s, the TR-808 was popular within electronic music and hip-hop genres. As with many analogue electronic musical instruments, a great deal of effort has been put into sampling the sounds of the TR-808 for use in modern devices; however, due to the nature of analog circuitry, the result is often considered unsatisfactory and can sound unduly static and digital. Demand for the real 808 sound is so great that street prices for a used TR-808 are actually higher than the cost of a new TR-808 was upon its initial release in 1980.
The sounds of the TR-808 were and still are very often used in drum and bass, hip-hop, R&B, house, electro and many forms of electronic dance music, albeit often unrecognizable after extensive processing. One method is to lower the pitch of the kick drum to near sub-harmonic levels.
The popularity of the TR-808 has led to many artists referring to the machine in their lyrics,^[1] and the group 808 State even named itself after the venerable machine, although Graham Massey recently admitted that up until the late 1980s he and the other members of 808 State thought the Roland TR-808 was "severely uncool."
On 8th August 2008 (08.08.08) a party was held in London to celebrate the TR-808. It featured 808 State, Arthur Baker, DMX Krew and I-f, artists associated with the machine. The party was organised by the electro label Citinite.
Kanye West's fourth studio album entitled 808s & Heartbreak apparently refers to the TR-808 in the album title because Kanye insisted that every track use TR-808 generated drum beats for a more 'tribal drum' feel and to get away from 'typical Hip-hop beats'.

Clones

The popularity of the TR-808 is such that many companies have seen fit to cater to a significant market of musicians who want the sound of the TR-808 but are not able to pay for one. This has led to a rise in clones—devices designed to emulate the TR-808 for a much cheaper price.
Popular clones include the following:

• Audiobits 8-Tron VSTi
• Elektron MachineDrum SPS-1 - the TRX machine synthesis algorithms are directly inspired by the Roland TR series
• Jomox AirBase 99 and XBase 09 - emulates the Roland CR-78, TR-808, and TR-909
• Novation DrumStation - an analogue emulation drum module that imitates the waveforms created by the original TR-808 and TR-909
• Propellerhead Software ReBirth RB-338 - one of the first software synthesizers that included accurate emulations of the Roland TB-303, TR-909, and TR-808.
• Native Instruments Battery 3 drum sampling software (the kit is named "Ate Oh Wait Kit.") Another copy of this sample is included in Kontakt 3 as the "808 Kit."
• The Zoom company's MRT-3B drum machine also features many 808-style sounds.
• D16 Group's Nepheton - A VST instrument that emulates the TR-808. The D16 team indicated they carefully studied each waveform coming out of the 808's transistors and made its software emulate it.
• AudioRealism.se's ADM DrumMachine - A VST instrument carefully modeled after the classics' analog circuits.

User's:

Below I have compiled a list of notable artists that have been associated with using this indubitably majestic tone.

• Aphex Twin
• Beastie Boys
• Daft Punk
• Dan the Automator
• Dr. Dre
• DJ Muggs of Cypress Hill
• Eric B & Rakim
• Kanye West
• Marvin Gaye
• Nine Inch Nails
• Public Enemy
• The Chemical Brothers
• Timbaland

A Few Examples:

SeeqPod - Playable Search

The Lesson:

First, we will need a couple things:

1) Propellerheads Reason (any version will do)

2) Roland TR - 808 BD0010 sound

If you do not have this in your sound library you can get it here:

BD0010

by sander303

Played 1368 times

Made with the Splice online sequencer. splicemusic.com

Do not fret this is a very safe site.

Remember to store it with the rest of your sound library for Reason so you can reuse it in the future.

Now that you have your necessary tools we can begin.

1. Open Reason

2. All you will need is the Redrum drum machine for this exercise, so just create a mixing board and Redrum

3. Open up the file browser on channel one of your Redrum and find the 808 BD0010 sound and load it.

4. Do the same with channels two through four on the Redrum
















5. Now for sake of realism and variety throw your pans off center. It doesn't matter where they are just as long as they are not set to zero.
















6. Now to give our drums some melodic tones

I have figured out the tones so we can now use an 808 kick for a bassline

Pitch Number:

Negative Pitches	Positive Pitches
0: G (a little sharp)	0: G (a little sharp)
-6: F#	+4: G#
-12: F	+10: A
-18: E	+20: B
-22: Eb	+24: C
-28: D	+30: C#
-34: C#	+36: D
-38: C	+40: Eb
-44: B	+46: E
-50: Bb	+52: F
-58: A	+56: F#
-60: G#	+63: G
-64: G (a little sharp)

7. Tuning our drums

Now that we have figured out the possible tones lets choose some notes to use.












Drum 1: Leave Pitch at 0, for G

Drum 2: Tune Pitch to - 12, for F

Drum 3: Tune Pitch to + 10, for A

Drum 4: Tune Pitch to +24, for C

8. Writing a bass line

1. Pattern for Drum 1: G












Steps 1 - 16
- Illuminate steps 1 & 5




Steps 17 -32
- Illuminate step 9






2. Pattern for Drum 2: F












Steps 1 - 16
- Illuminate steps 7 & 9





3. Pattern for Drum 3: A












Steps 1 - 16
- Illuminate step 13






4. Pattern for Drum 4: C












Steps 17 - 32
- Illuminate steps 1 & 5






Now you should have an idea as to how to make a bassline using an 808 kick drum sound. I hope that this was useful to you and that you pursue your musical endeavors with much joy and passion. Enjoy.

~ Ky