The Secret Weapon

Synthestesia · Post by **Synthestesia** » Sat Jul 16, 2011 2:20 am

Although I like boc's sound, I'm just going to stick with being creative and striving to do my own thing.
But fuck, I'm pretty curious.

polar sky · Post by **polar sky** » Sat Jul 16, 2011 2:44 am

The secret weapon is in their pants. Why did I just say that? I'm blaming it on the Rum. Yeah, the rum.

mechanismj · Post by **mechanismj** » Sat Jul 16, 2011 4:21 am

polar sky wrote:The secret weapon is in their pants. Why did I just say that? I'm blaming it on the Rum. Yeah, the rum.

The secret weapon is the rum!

Elephant Face · Post by **Elephant Face** » Sat Jul 16, 2011 7:38 am

mechanismj wrote:
polar sky wrote:The secret weapon is in their pants. Why did I just say that? I'm blaming it on the Rum. Yeah, the rum.
The secret weapon is the rum!

The proof is in the.......... Rum?

neverthemachine · Post by **neverthemachine** » Mon Jan 02, 2012 9:33 am

Continuing from In Technicolor's locked thread: I can agree that the SH-101 is probable, due to the sheer number of them and their bass-y oscillators, but I disagree in ruling out the Crumar DS-2.

I'm familiar with this instrument, and for one who is not so, it could easily be mistaken for a CS-80. It has a shocking range of sound, and I don't doubt many sounds could be at least emulated on that. The DS-2 is similar in form to the CS-80, but not in size. An easy mistake, for one really doesn't understand how big a CS-80 is until they see it. Pardon me, but you've looked over jbible's account of seeing what may be the secret weapon - and the DS-2 has a large, bumper-sticker sized, solid metal Crumar emblem on the back. I doubt you can remove the emblem, it's built like a tank (they're mounted inside flight cases), and covering it seems like the only option.

As for being picked up for $100, I'm not surprised. The DS-2 I know of was acquired for $300 recently, with the state of the analogue market as it is. $100 20-30 years ago is entirely likely. Frequently comes in disrepair, and could also explain why such a low price. BoC has also said they enjoy playing with electrons, and fixing this beast and knowing it inside and out is very common.

Finally, the user mosca may be mosc of electro-music.com fame.

Dissolved · Post by **Dissolved** » Mon Jan 02, 2012 10:08 pm

The speculation about a specific synth is fun of course but it's safe to say that a few posters already rightly put this to bed earlier in the thread. Of course it's most definitely down to their specific recording techniques and a mixture of different hardware and other things.

I think too that the whole 'magic 100 pound purchase' thing that people are discussing is entirely misleading. Just because something was a hundred quid, doesn't mean it wasn't a bargain. Bootsales, second hand shops, a cheap broken purchase, people selling something way under what it's worth because they don't realise its value. I've picked up some nice synths over the years at great prices (e.g, my Korg MS10 I found at a car bootsale in Glasgow, 1 broken key and a couple of loose jack inputs and needing a proper scrub down, 40 quid.) The point is that even if one were to find the exact synth they used (on whatever track), its still not going to sound like them raw. Years of sound experimentation, tape deck tampering, practice and solid musicianship doesn't come in a synth patch.

sevenELIXIR · Post by **sevenELIXIR** » Tue Jan 03, 2012 8:59 pm

there is a prominent synth that boc uses that, in my opinion is the definitive 'trademark' sound. the only other artist I've herad use this synth is bibio, in a remix track. whatever it is, it is incredible.

Treefingers · Post by **Treefingers** » Tue Jan 03, 2012 9:42 pm

The secret weapon is the Black Materia.

7113(18|3) · Post by **7113(18|3)** » Tue Jan 03, 2012 10:55 pm

12345

706010 · Post by **706010** » Fri Jan 06, 2012 11:01 pm

their secret weapon is the 3 oak trees that are outside their studio. every single day they go outside, rest in the grass, pray to the almighty hexagon, then go to the trees, get their sunshine recorder made out of pure sunshine, and record what the trees say. the vocal samples come from the snow outside their doorstep, they find the snow littered with tape cassettes, usually three per day.

it's definitely the roland SH101.

breadmaker · Post by **breadmaker** » Sat Jan 07, 2012 5:57 pm

sevenELIXIR wrote:there is a prominent synth that boc uses that, in my opinion is the definitive 'trademark' sound. the only other artist I've herad use this synth is bibio, in a remix track. whatever it is, it is incredible.

are you referring to bibio's epic 45 remix? that's probably the most b.o.c. thing he's ever done (also one of the best.)

wwbjd · Post by **wwbjd** » Fri Jun 07, 2013 4:40 pm

I know this probably doesn't mean anything.. and I know there has been speculation in the past about the specific synth mentioned below, but it's the first time that I know of, that a certain synth has been mentioned anywhere relating to BoC, from a "trusted source" (if you want to call Bleep a trusted source).

Anyway, from the album description on Bleep.com:

"Boards Of Canada return with their highly anticipated new album on Warp. Falling somewhere between the enigmatic sprawl of 'Music Has The Right To Children' and the otherworldly 'Geogaddi', "Sick Times" layers their trademark Yamaha CS-70s over an intricate beat, while the swirling hi-hats of "Collapse" are made dark and eerie. First single "Reach For The Dead" is transcendent, a song of rich and stirring emotion. 'Tomorrow's Harvest' is an accomplished album, worth every minute of its seven year wait."

Sorry if this has been posted somewhere else, but none of the other thread titles looked appropriate.

justin · Post by **justin** » Fri Jun 07, 2013 5:23 pm

The Secret Weapon is very real .

The thought that the "secret weapon" is a synth as in a synth used as an instrument is a red herring.

Im positive it's a filter/effect generated either by a synth like the SH-101 like the noise generator
unique to that model or perhaps another filter standalone or not like the Drawmer 1961 .

Why ?

Reach For The Dead's choirs are A Roland VP330 detuned but they have noise that seems organically mixed into it as well as an echo reverb thats very unique ( likely recorded in a garage or a pool ) the reverb might be midiverb - quadraverb echo maybe lexicon reverb though im still having issues getting the reverb right .

I own a lot of there confirmed gear and and i can't get the noise pattern via tracking back to tascam 4 track over and over nor can i get it with my magic eye Grundig tk5 . So it's not noise from tape saturation .

The best way to reverse Engineer BOC is to look to their back catalog Old Tunes & BOC Maximas Secrets are abundant ! So much easier to get a handle on what they are doing . Or reverse engineer My Bloody Valentine first, a lot of BOC's production workflow was prototyped off of them .

Anyone here have an idea what generates the noise on the Reach For The Dead Choirs ? The Vp330 cannot do it by its self .

BunnyRabbit · Post by **BunnyRabbit** » Fri Jun 07, 2013 10:21 pm

wwbjd wrote:I know this probably doesn't mean anything.. and I know there has been speculation in the past about the specific synth mentioned below, but it's the first time that I know of, that a certain synth has been mentioned anywhere relating to BoC, from a "trusted source" (if you want to call Bleep a trusted source).

Anyway, from the album description on Bleep.com:

"Boards Of Canada return with their highly anticipated new album on Warp. Falling somewhere between the enigmatic sprawl of 'Music Has The Right To Children' and the otherworldly 'Geogaddi', "Sick Times" layers their trademark Yamaha CS-70s over an intricate beat, while the swirling hi-hats of "Collapse" are made dark and eerie. First single "Reach For The Dead" is transcendent, a song of rich and stirring emotion. 'Tomorrow's Harvest' is an accomplished album, worth every minute of its seven year wait."
Sorry if this has been posted somewhere else, but none of the other thread titles looked appropriate.

Boom! This synth was ID'd years ago and always seemed the best guess at their polysynth.

I have the Arturia CS80v, which is very close, and there's a definite ring to its' sound and BOCs sound.
It's never been clear if the secret weapon is a synth though IIRC.

WeHadNormality · Post by **WeHadNormality** » Fri Jun 07, 2013 10:28 pm

mechanismj wrote:
polar sky wrote:The secret weapon is in their pants. Why did I just say that? I'm blaming it on the Rum. Yeah, the rum.
The secret weapon is the rum!

The weacret sepon is Rum! *hic*

Keeoaddi · Post by **Keeoaddi** » Fri Jun 07, 2013 10:39 pm

maybe it's actually a weapon, like a laser gun, could be wrong but i don't think this has been considered

Cupz · Post by **Cupz** » Fri Jun 07, 2013 10:41 pm

Keeoaddi wrote:maybe it's actually a weapon, like a laser gun, could be wrong but i don't think this has been considered

WeHadNormality · Post by **WeHadNormality** » Fri Jun 07, 2013 10:42 pm

Keeoaddi wrote:maybe it's actually a weapon, like a laser gun, could be wrong but i don't think this has been considered

This

WeHadNormality · Post by **WeHadNormality** » Fri Jun 07, 2013 10:45 pm

softfokus · Post by **softfokus** » Fri Jun 07, 2013 10:45 pm

it's definitely an orgone accumulator.