____twoism

Left side of below is what they (Boards of Canada) do in hardware and analog methods. Right side is what I would do in a modern DAW and with plugins instead of hardware to replicate what they do. I could be wrong on some or all of this.







Find more info here :
https://larslentzaudio.wordpress.com/20 ... and-music/

Tape machines. I tried many emulation plugins and none of those came close to the real thing.

In short, use the same gear and do only what was possible at the time the source music you're trying to replicate.

No other way to get there.

Oh, and use lots of gates.
while BoC's music is heavily affected by numerous trips around the analogue block, it's not bringing general noise with it. The production is still clean.

Ok, so as I predicted, MHTRTC is by far the hardest to replicate, not so much material wise, because it's all fairly simple and low key stuff but getting that colour with such an open mix is really hard.
The reason they have so much space on this record is, I imagine, it's all sampled into their akai after they have coloured the hell out each element with gear. The small sample sizes mean that they lose all the noise either side of the sample making each element really clean. Then we have to deal with the overall timbre. Unless we know their mixer, any pre's they use, their desired way of capturing the mixes, which of course will be governed by the gear pre and of the era

As the albums progress they get more hifi in overall timbre but they still put lots of effort into making the sounds BoClike as they always have. Geogaddi has loads more going on so you can't hear the timbre of what's not there like in MHTRTC, if that makes any sense? and Daws were more frequent too so Geo is easier to replicate as far as an overall mix is concerned. The problem with Geo is going extra lengths with content. TH would be the easiest to replicate as it's most certainly the most modern and they'll be using equipment for the final stages in the same way most of us do.
BoC are most likely affected by gear lust like many of us so they'll be moving with the times with each album but also getting more and more obscure pieces to keep and build on their standard aesthetic.

Past few days I had a couple of hours here and there on the track I am making as a MHTRTC out take and in the final stages, it's getting harder, It's now arranged and in the computer so now it's just getting the overall picture to sound like it fits on the album. Although, It might be an idea to try and imagine what it would sound like pre mastering in the album context, because that will have given the whole album that certain sheen, but it has to be real close, nigh on perfect otherwise it's a fail.

Oh! I like it!

I feel that we should print it and mail it to The Bros.
This tutorial might speed up the recording process.

That is a well thought out process guide. Good techniques in there. Good understanding.
I know this isn't what you were trying to say when you posted this, but for those who read this and think "I can now make music like BoC", don't forget that it's still missing a lot of things to get similar results.

That is: Gifted talent with a lot of different instruments, vision with making the music more than sounds without stories behind them, solid melody writing, a learned ability to sculpt sound to fit what's in your mind's ear, respectable artistic integrity and lastly to not have much desire to be assigned glory in fame. That way you wont care much about critic reviews. You know where you stand with the music and don't want to adjust according to where the money might flow better.

Work on the art, not the business. Good ideas without worry or manipulation in regards to how they are accepted. The art should speak for itself.

in short you really can't. However you should still apply boc's process to your own process of making songs. Layering samples, deteriorating things and collecting old recordings yourself. Old home videos, news clips, stuff like that. But make it more about your own experiences than anything. A lot of BoC's music is personal to them. Make your music personal to you. Think about the time you grew up in. Was it the 90s, 00s, something different from the brothers? Apply your own time and make it nostalgic for you.

One thing that always confused me was the sampling of jam sessions , they said they would sample small pieces of whole songs .

Are they sampling one note into the sampler and then spread it across the keyboard and then play it from there , this would make scene because you can then play melodies and chords , but I get lost if their sampling more rhythmic and chordal stuff because you can't play that back on a sampler with out it getting real muddy , unless your doing some complex time-stretching , which I don't think they did or I I'm just way off , what do you think ?