BOC Gear - Old Tunes/Early Era

[Kyla]

Also to end the debate...
Music Has The Right To Children is least 95 percent made with the Roland SH-101. It's not a Crumar or any other wacky Russian synth !

Here's my go at Roygbiv.

[Aerial Boundaries]

If you mean just in terms of synths I can buy that kyla.

But the way that was phrased made it sound like you were talking overall, in which case they make much heavier use of samplers than anything else IMO.

[Wildfire]

Also to end the debate...
Music Has The Right To Children is least 95 percent made with the Roland SH-101. It's not a Crumar or any other wacky Russian synth !

Here's my go at Roygbiv.

That's the closes I've ever heard anyone come to the ROYGBIV noise, very good. Would love it if you could post a photo of the patch though.

[Peacock Tail]

Ok, thanks Kyla. I guess there's a multitude of synths that can replicate that drum sound then...!

Out of interest, do you know how to get the synth sound that plays the lead melody in 'She Is P', (the tone with the stereo delay?)

Cheers

P

[Wildfire]

Ok, thanks Kyla. I guess there's a multitude of synths that can replicate that drum sound then...!

Out of interest, do you know how to get the synth sound that plays the lead melody in 'She Is P', (the tone with the stereo delay?)

Cheers

P

That's an SH-101 again.

[DBN44]

Also to end the debate...
Music Has The Right To Children is least 95 percent made with the Roland SH-101. It's not a Crumar or any other wacky Russian synth !

Here's my go at Roygbiv.

That is one of the best Roygbiv covers I have ever heard.

[DBN44]

Okay! As for the CS1X maybe it was just speculation . But they do own one, it can be seen on the photo taken at the lighthouse gig in 2000. No doubt it is used as a midi master keyboard for controlling other gear on stage

The 'CS' in CS1X stands for 'Control Synthesizer' - so it's not at all surprising that they probably used it as just a MIDI controller for that gig. Honestly, the sounds are pretty bad on the CS1X and even when tweaked, the presets don't come close to touching BOC sounds.

[DBN44]

May I ask you both which machine you think makes up the drum tracks for Chinook (ending) and XYZ then?

If you read my post it says nothing about presets. I said DRUMS!

I used arpegiatted drum patterns from the CS1X in my own tracks and using the 'distortion' effect on the CS1X does make the drums sound a little like the ones in Chinook, but certainly not spot on. I highly doubt they have ever used the drum patterns from the CS1X.

As someone else already said; Chinook was made prior to the release of the CS1X.

[Peacock Tail]

Has anybody here tried the latest Roland Aira System with the SH-101plug-out?

[IanRedpoint]

Is it possible that the blue synth we all think is a CS1x is really an AN1x? I've owned both over the years. The CS1x was pretty terrible as a synth and you couldn't program it in a conventional way/ The AN1x is a proper VA subtractive synth (modelled loosely on the Prophet 5 apparently) and can sound far closer to the BoC sound of the time. I think the AN1x came out in 1997.

My theory on those early recordings is that it was mostly SH-101 and any other synths they could pick up cheaply at the time. Even the polyphonic stuff could be the 101 sampled into the S1000.

[Torn n Frayed]

Has anybody here tried the latest Roland Aira System with the SH-101plug-out?

Avoid it like the plague! Tacky neon appointments just kill it for me! But, it does sound great...

[ShaneAnthony]

live instruments, mics, amps, synths, samplers, drum machines, computers and tape

[ShaneAnthony]

And a ton of dope effects!

[ShaneAnthony]

Wasn't trying to be a smart ass, I just think they layered so much from multiple sources to make their own sound that it's too hard to pick any one synth, etc.

[Mr?]

I think youre probably right i don't think half of the stuff that isn't obviously a synth is a synth.
sampled instruments made in to synth sounds

[ShaneAnthony]

[arvy]

Great topic, I would love to hear more about their TH gear

[Kyla]

Great topic, I would love to hear more about their TH gear

From what I can tell it's the same old beloved gear, same production process etc and few new synths that I have not herd before.

Reach For The Dead's Arp - Sh-101

Reach For The Dead Choir - Roland Vp330

Palace Posy's vocals - Run through either the Vp330's vocoder or the standalone SVC-350 with a likely roland synth used as the carrier signal for additional filtering

Palace Posy's base/drums - They seem to be run through a Drawmer compressor, that's hard to confirm though without testing.

Semena Mertvykh - Detuned/Pitched down Arp Solina

Nothing Is Real lead - Layered Sh-101 with the elusive Piano sample ran hot into Cassette tape @7.5ips or 3.5ips

[Kyla]

Ok, thanks Kyla. I guess there's a multitude of synths that can replicate that drum sound then...!

Out of interest, do you know how to get the synth sound that plays the lead melody in 'She Is P', (the tone with the stereo delay?)

Cheers

P

Yeah. When I get the time I'll upload a recreation, I've replicated a Lot of Old Tunes. Currently working on Poppy Seed Reprise though.

[Kyla]

I think youre probably right i don't think half of the stuff that isn't obviously a synth is a synth.
sampled instruments made in to synth sounds

I know they have said in interviews that instruments we think are synths are flutes and that might be true for the flutes on a album like Geogaddi, as we now know they are sampled.



Though for albums like CFHP and specifically "Hey Saturday Sun" it's the opposite. In "Hey Saturday Sun" it's saturated cheesy E piano backwards. Pretty sure it's the DX7 preset but it could also be a E piano preset on another Yamaha synth like the CSx1 ( 2000's now remember ) or the Akai S1000 that originated from a DX7. Might be slightly different than the stock DX7 due to colouring from onboard bit crushing and compression algorithms.

As for layering and making their own instruments, they do it but I don't think they go anywhere near to the extremes people think they do. It's a time consuming and arduous enough process making just one of their albums, I can't imagine them making an album that way totally organically. Good example of Layering is for the lead to "Nothing Is Real" and a great example of some more complex organic instrumentation would be for their pad sounds where the technique of Microtonal pitching is used in conjunction with bloom effects.

Most of the Boards Of Canada's sound in my opinion is process, not any one synth. The mention of "The Secret Weapon" I think was really a joke, though if you were to ask me if they really did have one, I'd say it's the whole effects chain and process. They put everything through it, on every single song, on every single album.

They have a playbook, that's their secret weapon.