MC202 or SH101

[Kinski]

kaini industries and bocuma are made on internally sequenced MC202, which is a desktop version of sh101. it has a very detailed and relatively easy to use sequencer. everyone always talks about more popular sh101 but there’s nothing on bocs albums that makes me think they ever used it.

my main argument is - they sequence it using slides. you can't easily make a slide over cv/gate (in early 90s, you can now of course), and sh101 has no built in slide equipped sequencer. but the mc202 has.

also, mc202 is a little box with sliders, i can see it being bouth with 100 quid in the back of a bus (i i remember the lore correctly).

i wanted to put this on bocpages but though i’d hivemind it here first.

THOUGHTS

[Soul_Slip]

Well, maybe. They have, however, directly mentioned the SH101 by name in an interview or two, so imho, if they have used the desktop version it would be in conjunction with. Some of the lush key tones and smooth sub bass can easily be made on the actual keyboard unit. They also talk about using rare and unique instruments so who knows.. maybe one day they will post a pic of their preferred set up.... can only dream

[drhumr]

The 101 (got one over here) is well capable of doing slides, labelled legato on the synth, on an internally programmed sequence – you just have to manually put them in.

In that scenario, you'd only really need the gate input, or maybe even just the external clock in.

In my personal experience with the synth, there's nothing you'd specifically need the 202 for with those two songs.

[Geogandhi]

They would have played the bass on Roybiv on the 101 for sure. So they probably had both.

[Juggle]

Wasn't it once claimed they bought a synth off a friend on a bus? I remember seeing people speculate as to what synth that could have been, and the SH-101 sound is so ubiquitous in their music that it's not such a bad theory. MC-202 is also pretty small compared to the SH-101.

[Geogandhi]

It could be anything. 101's and 202's are/were common as muck, nothing special at all and they alluded to it being a secret weapon so they'd be playing those pieces up a fair bit in that interview if it is either of those. Their synths sounds are nothing special, all very generic subtractive analogue and can be recreated on most synths (to a degree) They have what looks like a Yamaha AN1x they used onstage, which even as a VA is a beautiful sounding synth and sounds very analogue. I would not be surprised if this is used all over their recordings, it's certainly plenty (and more) capable of doing what they need. The An1x was new in the late 90's so maybe not the piece in question as you wouldn't buy a brand new piece of gear of a bus.
All that said and going slightly off topic but when people talk about replicating the BoC sound on a synth, they can never do it because only the initial sound is the synth, so much character in the sound we here is from processing that synth sound not the raw synth. Anyway, that secret bus weapon could be a R2R, a mixer, a synth, an effects unit, some dynamic fx unit like an old compressor. An early Akai sampler etc etc.

[Soul_Slip]

I agree with a lot of this ^^
I truly believe the secret weapon instrument from that bus experience was actually a tube r2r of some sort, because in that interview how they describe it... sounds like a grundig tube recorder.... of all of the pieces of equipment i have read about them using, this is what I believe fits that. A lot of the special color their music has, is a lot of times simply the grundig, or a similar tube recorder. I have one as well, and can say that for sampling... it is my absolute favorite for color and drive.....
i have been researching why certain tape recorders sound better in terms of color and distortion and it seems to be the older, lower end models with limited frequency response range which actually removes audio information... as well as the models that give higher w/f and harmonic distortion... Tandberg are also a brand that is notorious for it’s lo-fi warmth...

[Wildfire]

Having bought a Casiotone 202 (the advert for which featured in the Societas X Tape) and played it through all manner of tape emulation and pitch bend LFO plugins, I wonder whether it's more likely that it was that that they were referring to. The reason I think this is because it's the only one out of all of them that was relatively affordable at the time. That said it does weigh a ton!

[ParticleGhost]

Having bought a Casiotone 202 (the advert for which featured in the Societas X Tape) and played it through all manner of tape emulation and pitch bend LFO plugins, I wonder whether it's more likely that it was that that they were referring to. The reason I think this is because it's the only one out of all of them that was relatively affordable at the time. That said it does weigh a ton!

i doubt it honestly. While they might actually own one, it was probably include just for laughs haha

[Geogandhi]

If they have one they would use it seriously, with processing any cheap shit can sound amazing. But yeah, I highly doubt this is the piece in question. It would be something they were really stoked about and something that has contributed massively to their signature sound at the time of the interview.
I bet they have a few toys that they used alot. I do too and every now and again you are messing and you get to a sound and think "oooh, that's well BoC" ha.
I always do when messing with the SK5 through pedals.