Another BoC secret weapon : Roland VP9000

[Negamuse]

Haven't seen this posted yet but it's done the rounds in the Reddit. Someone has posted a video of them repairing a Roland VP9000, supposedly owned by Boards.



Now, how interesting the whole video is to you more or less depends on if you like seeing old electronics being fault-finded (which having worked tech in an electronics factory, I do!)

But the real gem of it is when he gets it up and running and plays through some of the samples stored on the CF drive of the unit which are identifiable samples used by Boards. FASCINATING to hear them coming out of the actual hardware.

Now I'd never really looked at this bit of kit before but watching some other videos of it being demonstrated, (like for example), you can really hear how this might be something they've used before on tracks like Blood In The Labyrinth and Telepath for two really obvious examples.

[deadfly]

Yeah I saw that yesterday and I'm surprised there aren't more people freaking out about it, unless they're assuming it's not real? There are definitely some familiar samples on there including the one at 20:22 which used to be on the old website years ago

[Quadrivium]

Cool to hear the webloop come up!

[Wildfire]

This is basically porn for me. I'd go as far as to say I get more of a kick trying to work out what kit they use than I do trying to work out hidden meaning in their tracks. As said in another thread, I love how all their kit is turning out to be digital, after everyone chasing that 'vintage analog' sound (and not to mention Marcus bleating on about how their studio is "full of wooden things covered with red LEDs").

So is it a chick or egg thing here, are those Boards samples in the memory or have they used factory samples for their tunes?

[deadfly]

Yes, I've always thought that a lot of their sounds come from degraded samples rather than analog synths, and they've mentioned using samplers in interviews. Pretty sure none of those are factory samples, they sound quite noisy like they could have been recorded from crappy tape recordings or something

[Negamuse]

Yeah these are the files that were on the card in the card reader. I'm guessing by the file name they date from 1993, right? Wild that they'd leave that in the reader before sending it to be fixed by a Youtuber but hey

[Wildfire]

Yeah these are the files that were on the card in the card reader. I'm guessing by the file name they date from 1993, right? Wild that they'd leave that in the reader before sending it to be fixed by a Youtuber but hey

He says right at the start that the unit belongs to a friend of his. I guess him and Mike must be buddies!

[Wildfire]

Is that very first patch from Skimming Stones? This is wildly exciting.

[Wildfire]

Check this out -

There's your Father & Son sampling techniques right there.

[Negamuse]

Yeah now I've heard what it can do isolated from the music my mind keeps pinging with things I could've heard it in. It really stands out on the vocals but I bet they made use of it in making pads as well. Interesting bit of kit!

[TorrentialTrain]

Check this out -

There's your Father & Son sampling techniques right there.

This video feels intentional, like they purposefully wanted this to be seen.

There's also this funny little video on the channel which feels like it may have had their involvement in the backing track...

[Redd Panderson]

Sooooooo

Whatever new Boards of Canada happens is going to be the opposite of Inferno? EG, rather than loud and relatively sudden, it'll be gradual esoteric drips of sound from 33-year-old memory cards? Lol!

[keyoflife222]

I saw this video today too! How amazing is it to see this. I'm don't understand the tech bit on repairing but I was fascinated watching him fix it and then play the samples after. I wonder if this was indeed intentional? Either way I loved it.

Also, that youtube video with the Roland VP9000 and the time distorted vocals is 100% Father and Son vibes. I love stuff like this ^_^ I wonder how many more little things like this are sprinkled about?!!

[Wildfire]

Check this out -

There's your Father & Son sampling techniques right there.

This video feels intentional, like they purposefully wanted this to be seen.

There's also this funny little video on the channel which feels like it may have had their involvement in the backing track...

Haha, amazing. Definitely on brand with the humour.

[happy]

Wow, what a gem, didn’t realise it was legit their unit at first. The VP-9000 looks like it played a heavy part in their sound

[astral deeps]

Gonna be that guy, but I've been saying it on here since Inferno's release! I used to own a VP-9000, and I immediately recognized it. I didn't know it was already suspected to be used by them on previous records, but it really started to make sense, ESPECIALLY on TH actually. There is novel way to create a shortwave radio sound on the VP, it is 100 percent that sound all over TH and even on Inferno.

Coincidentally, I saw this come up on my feed last weekend and I was doing the Leo pointing meme, because a few months ago I'd discovered a faulty SCSI cable was the reasoning for all these major faults with my MPC60. I never thought to try a different cable, of course, and neither did my tech. Just like he said, SCSI hell is real, and that's actually why I have an external ZuluSCSI for my S1000. Fun fact, the VP-9000 can read S1000 files, so it's likely they may have even switched from the S1000 in earlier work to the VP-9000 fully at a certain point, and that they just encoded them for VP use.

Just because I really like to sample hunt, the MAQAT93 samples seem to be sampling some traditional folk music of some kind. I found this album: which seems right up their alley (Iraqi oud music), and it sounded a LOT like some of those samples, but I just skimmed through and didn't compare. I also don't think there are any flutes on this album so, really not sure.

Lastly, if you REALLY want to hear an example of extreme Father and Son level guttural stretching/formant shifting, I present you with this:

[astral deeps]

Gonna be that guy, but I've been saying it on here since Inferno's release! I used to own a VP-9000, and I immediately recognized it. I didn't know it was already suspected to be used by them on previous records, but it really started to make sense, ESPECIALLY on TH actually. There is novel way to create a shortwave radio sound on the VP, it is 100 percent that sound all over TH and even on Inferno.

Coincidentally, I saw this come up on my feed last weekend and I was doing the Leo pointing meme, because a few months ago I'd discovered a faulty SCSI cable was the reasoning for all these major faults with my MPC60. I never thought to try a different cable, of course, and neither did my tech. Just like he said, SCSI hell is real, and that's actually why I have an external ZuluSCSI for my S1000. Fun fact, the VP-9000 can read S1000 files, so it's likely they may have even switched from the S1000 in earlier work to the VP-9000 fully at a certain point, and that they just encoded them for VP use.

Just because I really like to sample hunt, the MAQAT93 samples seem to be sampling some traditional folk music of some kind. I found this album: which seems right up their alley (Iraqi oud music), and it sounded a LOT like some of those samples, but I just skimmed through and didn't compare. I also don't think there are any flutes on this album so, really not sure.

Lastly, if you REALLY want to hear an example of extreme Father and Son level guttural stretching/formant shifting, I present you with this:

welp, it's "WAQAT93" and not MAQAT93... my bad.

[happy]

https://youtu.be/y-IEVLNLY_k?is=rvLdatSOG08FmQ_0

Watching this guy play around with the controls around the 6 minute mark, reminds me of those accelerating spinning sounds on Geogaddi’s Diving Station, wonder if the VP-9000 was used here?

[Redd Panderson]

Hearing how this thing can dynamically stretch samples is making my brain bristle with possibilities. It sounds like they used this for more than just vocals in their work. I can't point to any specific examples, but the way this thing can modulate time and harmonics is really powerful!

[Wildfire]

https://youtu.be/y-IEVLNLY_k?is=rvLdatSOG08FmQ_0

Watching this guy play around with the controls around the 6 minute mark, reminds me of those accelerating spinning sounds on Geogaddi’s Diving Station, wonder if the VP-9000 was used here?

I'm fairly sure with diving station it's a tremolo effect where the rate setting can go incredibly fast, which eventually creates a whole new sound (much in the same way an oscillator works). You'll notice on the VP9000 it doesn't slow down in the same way where you hear the actual gain modulating like a tremolo does. It does produce a very similar sound to the VP9000 though.