Ableton Forum

Hi again.

I know this is a bit general, but does anyone have any suggestions as to what kind of sounds Boards of Canada uses on this track:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_fAGC9ODl2Y (Bocuma)

I'm mostly reffering to that flute-like sound that carries the melody. Not the jittering one.
Help is much appreciated, since I want the sound for a riff on one of my songs.

a good old analogue synth. Later in the song it's doubled by another synth sound an octave or two higher.

Yeah, maybe what makes it magical is the mixing.

But can anyone be a bit more specific?

Thanks.

portamento
lowpass filtering
legato playing
sounds like a simple single-oscillator sawtooth patch, really. There's no magic there, it's just a great, classic sound.

that fat sound, sounds like a minimoog, the classic sound.

and I am hearing tape.

love this track.

So much love for boards of canada. I wonder why they are such recluses because Id love to see them put on a show.

Thanks everyone! I've played around with your suggestions and I've gotten a sound I quite like. Other than what is mentioned above, pitchbend really nails the sound.

Thanks, you guys are the best!

Great question! I personally turn to emulating oscillator drift to get this sound. More often than not, this involves assigning a slow LFO with a very small "amount" to pitch. I will often assign another LFO to modulate the LFO that is modulating pitch. So it's LFO1 -> LFO2 -> Pitch. This creates more chaos and less predictability in the pitch drift, making it sound more "analog" and less like an LFO on pitch. Additionally, I use keyscaling to slightly increase the LFO speed as you get higher on the keyboard.

I've spent a LOT of time thinking about the Boards of Canada sound. Those drifty synths may just be the best thing I've ever heard as far as synth music besides Vangelis' Blade Runner work.

- Nick

there's a pc plugin called "wow and flutter" which, when set to slow, really nails the sound.

This is for all Reaktor Users:

I wrote a Fx Ensemble called "Vintape" which emulates the distortion and flutter caused by old tape recorders. Just use the search function in the user library. I also did some snapshot banks for several user library synth which are very "boardish", as i'm a huuuuge fan of the duo. Just use the "more by the author" function. Have fun...!

i found a sound very similar, you have to use minimoog v, and in the preset go to leads>CD_signs, change the range of each oscilator whatever octave you like, and also change the cutoff frecuency, also put a delay efect in the minimoog, and if you wish to sound more like a tape record, download the wow and fluter vst (you can find in KVR page) and use the slow flange preset.

Sorry for the thread jack, but Esky, Vintape is awesome!

funny i was going to recommend "wow n flutter". its such an awesome plug

RonC