When we think of Aphex Twin tinkering away in his studio, the image that comes to mind is a man surrounded by a towering array of synths, sequencers, samplers and drum machines. But Richard D. James isn't just a hardware obsessive – he's also known to have used some wild, obscure and seriously powerful software.
One such piece of software is Composers' Desktop Project, a vast collection of free and open-source audio processing tools that's been in development since 1986 and is rumoured to have been used on Aphex Twin's 2001 album Drukqs.
CDP was brought to our attention by YouTuber, podcaster and electronic musician Mylar Melodies, who recently shared a video (embedded above) that explores some of the more mind-boggling things that the software can do, when used in tandem with another piece of software (also free) called SoundThread.
The brainchild of composer and software developer Jonathan Higgins, SoundThread is essentially a user interface for CDP that makes it easier to process audio using its suite of sound manipulation tools. It's a kind of modular audio processing playground that lets you create custom patches made up of multiple tools from CDP's library, hook these up in different configurations and use them to manipulate sounds.
And when we say "manipulate sounds", we don't just mean tweaking a little EQ or adding some reverb (though CDP can do that) – we mean deep, transformative and experimental sound design that produces some utterly unrecognizable results.
Once you've installed CDP and SoundThread (it's a tad trickier than your average installation, but there are instructions) and opened up the software, you'll be presented with a blank canvas populated only by Input and Output modules.
To get started, load up an audio file in the Input module, hit ⌘+E and browse the available sound processors, which are divided into various categories. Once you've chosen a module, simply drag wires from the white squares on each side to your Input and Output modules, then hit Run Thread in the Output module to generate a processed audio file.
In the video, Mylar goes into a little more detail on how SoundThread works and showcases a few of CDP's processors, including Drunk, which takes you on a "random stumbling walk" through a sound, and Distort: Average, a processor that transforms Mylar's drum break into a cacophony of chaotic, Aphex-esque glitches.
CDP can do things DAW users will be familiar with, like pitch-shifting and reversing audio, but it can also do much, much more: there's a smorgasbord of sound-mangling tools in here that spans spectral, granular, dynamic and time-domain processing, some venturing into experimental territory that we're not even going to pretend we fully understand.
But that's the fantastic thing about SoundThread – you don't need a degree-level grasp of DSP to get some useful, interesting results out of it. Just load up a few sounds, mess around with some of its processors, and you'll end up with a bank of fresh samples that could well spark an idea for your next track.
Mylar calls CDP one of "the most powerful software sound design tools on earth", and he's not wrong – it's a little bit nuts that this is free. If you find the software useful, please consider supporting CDP and Jonathan Higgins with a donation.
Click here to download SoundThread and here to download CDP.
Subscribe to Mylar Melodies on YouTube or support him on Patreon.
