Sound Isolation in various BoC songs.

Yellow Records · Post by **Yellow Records** » Mon May 13, 2013 10:57 pm

I've tempered with 1986 Summer Fire a bit recently and have discovered a few things. There are so many layers! There are low, medium, and high pitched piano keys. There's also the obvious main synth melody. But above all (the part that is the hardest to isolate with equalization) is the high pitched strings that kick in around 50 seconds.

Here is an MP3 of the background sections isolated and amplified (makes 1986 more enjoyable to listen to when it's louder in my opinion.):

http://www.mediafire.com/?8000tnwba3ffz4b

Enjoy. And above all, offer more opinions and your own personal experiments with this song and others that you've discovered!

I'll be posting more in the future. And I know I'll temper more with 1986 Summer Fire...

Amo Bishop Roden · Post by **Amo Bishop Roden** » Mon May 13, 2013 11:40 pm

Thank you!

This just goes to show how much goes in to every boards song, even the simplest and earliest songs. If anything, the BoC patented "secret weapon" is the incomprehensible depth put into every track.

chronical · Post by **chronical** » Mon May 13, 2013 11:50 pm

Thanks for this

noby · Post by **noby** » Mon May 13, 2013 11:52 pm

One interesting thing to do is also the "Remove vocals" effect on Audacity, which essentially cancels out the mono signal in the audio its applied to...

Here's Roygbiv, makes the underlying piano much more apparent

. You can also notice that they used some reverb on the bass as well.

Yellow Records · Post by **Yellow Records** » Tue May 14, 2013 12:26 am

noby wrote:One interesting thing to do is also the "Remove vocals" effect on Audacity, which essentially cancels out the mono signal in the audio its applied to...

Here's Roygbiv, makes the underlying piano much more apparent . You can also notice that they used some reverb on the bass as well.

That's awesome!!!

noby · Post by **noby** » Tue May 14, 2013 12:44 am

'smore! (Some that I find interesting)

Turqoise Hexagon Sun:
- Speech samples more clear, sound like moaning and panting a bit, and you can notice the use of echo there. Also there's another kickdrum there reminiscent of some 90s NY hiphop that I never noticed before.

Triangles & Rhombuses:
- Now with (almost) no melody! Ps. you can most likely get all of the melody out by adjusting the panning a bit.

A Beautiful Place Out In The Country:
- Nothing too special here, but if you ever wanted to hear this sans drums, well...

Dandylion:
- Some additional "melody"/"sonic debris" can be heard in the loop.

In The Annexe: (this is also reversed)
- Can be heard on the original as well, but I never noticed the children here singing before.

Sunshine Recorder:
- Speech and other samples used isolated, much more clear.

A Is To B As B Is To C:
- Well, that worked nicely.

Diving Station:
- Piano almost gone, again by adjusting the panning you should be able to get rid of it completely.

Negamuse · Post by **Negamuse** » Tue May 14, 2013 12:50 am

noby wrote: A Beautiful Place Out In The Country:
- Nothing too special here, but if you ever wanted to hear this sans drums, well...

Fuuuuuuuuck!

Yellow Records · Post by **Yellow Records** » Tue May 14, 2013 12:50 am

noby wrote: In The Annexe: (this is also reversed)
- Can be heard on the original as well, but I never noticed the children here singing before.

SENT CHILLS DOWN MY SPINE. I've never noticed the children singing before! I'm gonna try and isolate them...

Keeoaddi · Post by **Keeoaddi** » Tue May 14, 2013 12:59 am

noby wrote: A Is To B As B Is To C:
- Well, that worked nicely.

i was just trying this, it works so well, almost like it was intended

rainier · Post by **rainier** » Tue May 14, 2013 1:05 am

I never noticed how much Turquoise Hexagon Sun sounds like a heartbeat

Yellow Records · Post by **Yellow Records** » Tue May 14, 2013 1:17 am

Some craziness i discovered at the end of IABPOITC...Shit son. There's this echoing voice at the beginning of the clip and you can just hear heavy breathing and shit throughout:

http://www.mediafire.com/?ge716h5n5y4e223

Fuck I'm gonna have dreams tonight!

bearhead · Post by **bearhead** » Tue May 14, 2013 3:20 am

This might be an extremely amateur question to ask, but are these layers just sitting really low in the mix to the point of near-inaudibility? If so, I'm plenty sure there are plenty of other artists that do it. I do it in some of my songs to sort of "fill the gap". I don't really think it's a secret weapon, but I do think it's creative how they do it. Considering this is actually how they're doing it.

Yellow Records · Post by **Yellow Records** » Tue May 14, 2013 3:29 am

bearhead wrote:This might be an extremely amateur question to ask, but are these layers just sitting really low in the mix to the point of near-inaudibility? If so, I'm plenty sure there are plenty of other artists that do it. I do it in some of my songs to sort of "fill the gap". I don't really think it's a secret weapon, but I do think it's creative how they do it. Considering this is actually how they're doing it.

It must be how they do it. Sometimes you can find things that are so compressed under and unaudible (like Farewell Fire, or even the Medium-Low piano parts in 1986 Summer Fire)

I feel like BoC intentionally dub hidden things in their music like In The Annexe, those girls singing...

I've never heard that before. They have said before that subliminal messaging has interested them, if I am correct...

AND NOT TO MENTION THE FAMOUS "GOD WITH HORNS" from You Could Feel the Sky. The "S" sound in "Horns" is actually a woman screaming. I'll Edit a copy soon...

bearhead · Post by **bearhead** » Tue May 14, 2013 3:37 am

Yellow Records wrote: AND NOT TO MENTION THE FAMOUS "GOD WITH HORNS" from You Could Feel the Sky. The "S" sound in "Horns" is actually a woman screaming. I'll Edit a copy soon...

A friend of mine told me about that a while back, but I never actually heard it. But yeah, definitely post that up when you can.

But in response to the first bit, I think having a lot of really subtle background layers in music really fills the empty space in music. Instead of flooding it down with the wall of sound technique, I think there's a certain magic in doing things like this. Your brain still gets all the sounds, even though your ears don't notice.

OverTheHorizonRadar · Post by **OverTheHorizonRadar** » Tue May 14, 2013 4:48 am

bearhead wrote:
Yellow Records wrote: AND NOT TO MENTION THE FAMOUS "GOD WITH HORNS" from You Could Feel the Sky. The "S" sound in "Horns" is actually a woman screaming. I'll Edit a copy soon...
A friend of mine told me about that a while back, but I never actually heard it. But yeah, definitely post that up when you can.

Yellow Records · Post by **Yellow Records** » Tue May 14, 2013 4:51 am

bearhead wrote: A friend of mine told me about that a while back, but I never actually heard it. But yeah, definitely post that up when you can.

This is the process I went about to retrieve these samples:
1 - Reverse You Could Feel the Sky
2 - Cut out the section of "God With Horns."
3 - Slow down time -30% twice
4 - Lowered pitch a bunch of times idk how many.

(you hear the first scream at 0:07 and the second at 0:13)
http://www.mediafire.com/?rrixwo11s4nhjxc

AND HERE is the screams isolated from the rest of the audio (best I could do):
http://www.mediafire.com/?pakk4bp1ryc615b

I know in the past I've slowed down the entire song just like this and it just creates this evil, droning atmosphere...and the screams just top it off!

euue · Post by **euue** » Tue May 14, 2013 6:38 am

OverTheHorizonRadar wrote:
bearhead wrote:
Yellow Records wrote: AND NOT TO MENTION THE FAMOUS "GOD WITH HORNS" from You Could Feel the Sky. The "S" sound in "Horns" is actually a woman screaming. I'll Edit a copy soon...
A friend of mine told me about that a while back, but I never actually heard it. But yeah, definitely post that up when you can.

i don't buy it. it's a whistley "S" sound, and when you slow it down it still sounds like air passing through teeth.

euue · Post by **euue** » Tue May 14, 2013 6:42 am

bearhead wrote:This might be an extremely amateur question to ask, but are these layers just sitting really low in the mix to the point of near-inaudibility? If so, I'm plenty sure there are plenty of other artists that do it. I do it in some of my songs to sort of "fill the gap". I don't really think it's a secret weapon, but I do think it's creative how they do it. Considering this is actually how they're doing it.