The gear list for Aphex Twin’s forthcoming album Syro has been revealed. But should we trust it?
Users of Muffwiggler and Reddit have spent the last few days analysing and decoding a graphic created by The Designers Republic as part of the package for Aphex Twin’s forthcoming Syro LP. The result is this spreadsheet of all the equipment apparently used on the album, cross-referenced by track. The locations listed are also assumed to be the studios in which each track was recorded.
It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that the tracks with ‘circlon’ in the title might refer to the Sequentix Cirklon sequencer, or that ‘s950tx16wasr10’ makes use of an Akai S950, Yamaha TX16W and Ensoniq ASR10, but how about the rare Rocky Mountain Instruments Harmonic Synthesizer, the Yamaha EX-42 organ or the modified DX100?
But wait. Hold on a minute. Before we get carried away nerding out over the kit list for a load of music we haven’t even heard yet, can we take a moment to question why an artist who’s made a hobby of misleading people and bending the truth when discussing his production methods would suddenly decide to reveal the details of his creative process? Maybe we should take this one with a pinch of salt?
The clues are already out there. According to Creative Review’s blog post on TDR’s artwork for Syro, the gear list is described as a ‘disinfographic’. Given James’s predilection for disinformation in the past, there seems to be a pretty good chance we’re all being taken for a ride again this time around.
This is, after all, the same man who once claimed that he made all his music in the nude and recently told an interviewer that his studio setup consisted of the obscure 1970s computer music system UPIC, a bunch of lame 90s synths such as the Quasimidi Rave-O-Lution 309, plus “all the Behringer effects that copy other things“.
Check out the full gear list below, but don’t come crying to us if it turns out to be another piece of RDJ misdirection.
A Designs Reddi
A Designs Pacifica
ADT Toolkit x4
Akai S950HXC
AKG Contact Mics
Alice Mixer
Allen Heath Mix Wizard
Allen Organ Spring Reverb
AMS RM16
API 3124+
API 550A
API 550A orig
API 550B API 560
API 8200A
ARP 2500
Atari 1040 + Midi Expansions + HXC
Avedis E27
Bode Vocoder
Boss BX16
Boss BX8
Boss GE7
Buzz Audio Arc1.1
Calrec Minimixer
Calrec RQP3200
Casio FZ10 + FZ20M + NXC
Chandler Delay Black
Chandler Delay Cream
Chandler Zoner Limiter
Cirklon Sequencer
Court Acoustics Graphic
Crumar Bit01 White
Cwejman RES4 x3
Cwejman VC06
Disklavier MKIV Pro Custom
DPA 4052
Drawner Stereo Gate Dytronics FS1
Elysia Mpressor
EML 101. modded
EMS 2000 Vocoder
EMT 140 Plate/Stereo/Tube
EMT 240 Gold Foil
EMT 252 FX
EMT 258 x4 Filters
Ensoniq ASR10 Eventide DSP4000
Eventide H3000 DSE
Eventide H949 x4
Focusrite ISA110 Orig x8
Focusrite ISA430
Fulltone Tape Echo
Harrison 32EQ GR500
HAT Mechanical Drums
Helios x2
Intellijel Rubicon
JH ARP Quadra Phaser
JH Storm Tide FLanger x2
JH Tau Phaser
Jomox Sunsyn V1 x2
Kawai K5000R
Klark Teknik DN780
Korg DS8
Korg Minipops7 Midi. sepouts
Korg PS3200
Korg PS3300 x3
Lexicon 480L
Lexicon PCM70
LPG
Lynx Aurora 16
Make Noise DPO
Marion PROSynth x2
Meinl Water UDU
Micmix Dynaflanger
Micmix Masteroom 2
Midas Venice Desk
Midimoogs x2
Modular Systems/Eurorack
Moog Memory Lintronics
MIT Ensemble
Mum & Dad Vocals
Musicmaid Claptrap x4
Nagra IV-S
Neotek Elite 64 Channel Custom
Neumann V473 x2
Oberheim OBX, racked
Oberheim Modular SEMs, racked
Orla DSE24
Pearl SC40
Pearl Syncussion, racked/midi/mod x4
Plugins, various
Pultec EQP-1A3
Quad Eight 248 x2
Quantec Room Simulator
Retro Instruments Powerstrip
Rhodes Chroma
RME Fireface800
RMI Harmonic Synth
Roland 101s, modded
Roland CE1
Roland D550
Roland MK550
Roland MK570
Roland R8/ROM(?)
Roland TR606 / 666?, modded
Roland TR808
Sci Prophet VS
Sci Prophet5, racked/keyboard
Sennheiser VSM201
Serge Modular 9-panel
Shure Auxpander
Siemens V78 x2
Simmons SD53(??)
SM Pro PEQ505
Songbird Tri Chorus x2
Sound Devices 772
Soundcraft Ghost
Soundworkshop 262
SPL TD4
SSL 4000 Channel Strips x5
SSL X desk
Studio Electronics Code8 Full
Synthoma Elkorus
Synton Syntovox 221 x2
Tantek Flanger/Delay
TC1210
Tongue Drums
TR727
TR9090
Valley People Gain Brains
Valley People Kepex x10
Wildlife
Yamaha CS80
Yamaha D5000
Yamaha DX100, modded
Yamaha DX11
Yamaha EX42
Yamaha FS1R
Yamaha RX11
Yamaha TX16W x2
Zither AFX-scale
05.26 PM
Whole album is blatantly made in Fruity Loops. Nice try, Aphex, but you can’t trick me that easily.
06.27 PM
what’s wrong with FL Studio?
03.06 AM
The Atari 1040 makes me think this list is for real.
12.47 PM
I’m assuming it’s a collection of equipment that he has used over the 13 years the Aphex Twin moniker was on the shelf. It doesn’t necessarily mean that he owns it all…he’s probably a Logic user recycling his own samples that he has collected over the years nowadays…
03.35 PM
well the new song, minipops, definitely has a korg minipops on the intro, mangled and layered with other drums, but it’s definitely there.
07.12 PM
Maybe Resident Advisor can get a “Machine Love” with RDJ..
10.14 PM
This is the real gear list. People are always trying to ‘out-clever’ aphex twin and they always fail in doing so. The theme of the album is transparency, which why he also lists the marketing budget and the BPM for each track.
07.02 AM
for years i completely swallowed the TWIN BROTHER hoax whole and as much as this gear list is FASCINATING it looks to me like a list of things he’s used before and is having fun….transparency as in “we can see right through this hoax” or transparency the way our Governments are Transparent? Only the “remaining Twin” could have this much fun. It only makes him more interesting. This list as as Transparent and Obvious as this Album. Hardly! nothing he does is As It Is Stated. for all i know he did the whole album on a Tascam 38 and a Single Sampler and Roland Modular100