BoC Organ Sounds

[SonicDimension]

I listened to "From One Source All Things Depend" for the first time yesterday and I was surprised to hear what sounded like a relatively unprocessed electronic organ. That got me thinking about some of the weird sounds in other BoC songs and now I am wondering if this organ (if it is in fact an organ) is used on several other tracks, particularly on Geogaddi. What do you think?

[noby]

I think it's just one of their trademark synths, though relatively unprocessed yes. One of the most beautiful melodies they have made in that track too for me.

[Pantheon]

Yeah definately seems like a classic home organ.
Im thinking something like this:



They can be picked up for free or dirt cheap at the moment. My dad salvaged one that was being thrown out and got it working again, it can sound almost the exact same as FOSATD.

It wouldnt surprise me if lots of their sounds come from this organ.

[Cryabetes]

it's a Crumar Toccata. the BoC 'secret weapon', i believe.
one popped up on my local craigslist and the seller pulled one of those 'first person to get here with cash gets it' things

I was an hour late. I was crushed.

[Fearless Flounder]

Lovely sound isn't it? I always thought that the Outro from the 'Last walk around mirror lake' remix they did at around the 4:00 mark sounded quite similar to that organ sound on 'From one source all things depend'.

Maybe not similar sounding but I suppose 'Echus' has a nice organ sound also. I'm sure there are a few more. Maybe the outro on 'Satellite anthem icarus' or '1986 summer fire'? I've no idea what's used.

[OverTheHorizonRadar]

Cryabetes, you should check again. This thread inspired me to see if I could find any cheap organs on craigslist, so I checked and found several listings that were like forty bucks, and two for free, so I just picked up one of the free ones. Moving it was a bitch though. Anyways, I hope one comes up in your area soon.

[Pantheon]

Cryabetes, you should check again. This thread inspired me to see if I could find any cheap organs on craigslist, so I checked and found several listings that were like forty bucks, and two for free, so I just picked up one of the free ones. Moving it was a bitch though. Anyways, I hope one comes up in your area soon.

Cool that was quick.
Did you get one of the ones with a drum machine build in?
What stuff does it have?

[SonicDimension]

it's a Crumar Toccata. the BoC 'secret weapon', i believe.

Interesting theory. According to bocpages, there was a guy who saw BoC perform live at ATP who said,

The synth used by BOC often mistaken for a CS80 is a Crumar with a BOC emblem covering the name of the synth on the back.

Maybe it's a Crumar organ, as you suggest. It would actually make a lot of sense because BoC like to use simple, raw sound sources and then get a unique sound by processing with samplers, tape, etc. Just listen to the intro on 'Sunshine Recorder.' Could it be the organ with some saturation or overdrive?

[OverTheHorizonRadar]

Cryabetes, you should check again. This thread inspired me to see if I could find any cheap organs on craigslist, so I checked and found several listings that were like forty bucks, and two for free, so I just picked up one of the free ones. Moving it was a bitch though. Anyways, I hope one comes up in your area soon.

Cool that was quick.
Did you get one of the ones with a drum machine build in?
What stuff does it have?

This is pretty much the one I got:

http://www.interschola.com/template/ite ... g_8871.jpg

It has the drum machine with some different rhythms, drawbars for both sets of keys if you wish, foot pedals. It has a Leslie speaker, but it doesn't have a speed control, maybe one day I'll install one if I'm feeling ambitious

[Pantheon]

Wowza that looks great.
Very simmilar to mine, but I dont have drawbars on mine.
The rythem section on mine is just push buttons also, it doesnt have any sequencer.

A cool mod you could make to the organ (if it doesnt alread have it) is putting in an external input to the leslie speaker. I bet it could make some great tones for you. I plan to do this with my organ at some point. Speed control could become a little more tricky to implement (mine doesnt have any either) since the motor is probably driven directly from the mains supply.

[OverTheHorizonRadar]

Oh yeah, I just love the Leslie sound, that's a pretty good idea. I figure for speed control I'd probably use a foot pedal and hope the power to the motor is easy to spot.

I bet you could get some pretty cool sounds if you could use the organ in conjunction with some vcfs, I wouldn't be surprised if boc did something like that themselves to get some of their tones.

[Yellow Records]

Seven Forty Seven.

[Cryabetes]

Cryabetes, you should check again. This thread inspired me to see if I could find any cheap organs on craigslist, so I checked and found several listings that were like forty bucks, and two for free, so I just picked up one of the free ones. Moving it was a bitch though. Anyways, I hope one comes up in your area soon.

oh no my local CL is garbage but I meant a Crumar Tocatta popped up by me - it's not a full blown console, but an italian made organ synth that's roughly the size of a cheapie casio 61 key keyboard and weighs about 80 lbs.

also as a general rule, I don't pick up equipment I can't gig with or move with my sedan alone. otherwise I would have all the organs.

[OverTheHorizonRadar]

Oh whoops, I really need to start reading more carefully. In that case I wish you the best of luck in finding one, it sounds like a pretty sweet lil instrument

[polar sky]

it's a Crumar Toccata. the BoC 'secret weapon', i believe.
one popped up on my local craigslist and the seller pulled one of those 'first person to get here with cash gets it' things

I was an hour late. I was crushed.

I had one for years, $200 at local pawn.

[Cryabetes]

color me envious then man. you still have it?

[polar sky]

color me envious then man. you still have it?

No I sold it on Ebay 2 years ago or so for a Juno60. I wish I had kept it. There was something weird about it. There are no draw bars for it. It's a pre-set Organ. You can not edit on it or save anything to an existing pre-set. It's VERY limited but sounds very warm and gritty! I sold it cause the band broke up. And never really used it after that. Like I said it's very limited. Plus there is no sustain.

Curious, where did you find out BoC might have used one??

[polar sky]

it's a Crumar Toccata. the BoC 'secret weapon', i believe.

Interesting theory. According to bocpages, there was a guy who saw BoC perform live at ATP who said,

The synth used by BOC often mistaken for a CS80 is a Crumar with a BOC emblem covering the name of the synth on the back.

Maybe it's a Crumar organ, as you suggest. It would actually make a lot of sense because BoC like to use simple, raw sound sources and then get a unique sound by processing with samplers, tape, etc. Just listen to the intro on 'Sunshine Recorder.' Could it be the organ with some saturation or overdrive?

I don't know. The Crumar Toccata is way smaller than a CS80! Weighs 150 pounds less too. There are other Crumars from the same time as the Tocatta that look the same:

We also had this in our band too:

It's a Crumar Performer String Synth came out same year as the Toccata. If they saw a Crumar at the show, I would suggest it would be this. Having played both the Performer and the Toccata for a few years I would suggest the BoC sound coming from the Crumar Performer... if in fact they used it any Crumars that is.

Also if they covered up the Crumar Logo it would have to be one big ass sticker! Cause the 1979 Crumar logo is pretty damn BIG.

[nsputnik]

Does anyone know what droney synth Bibio is using at the beginning of "Plastic Jewel," throughout "Im' Rewinding it" and in "The Garden Shelter"? It sounds more like an organ (with many presets) than a synth to me. It sounds similar to to the drone hear in this track: http://soundcloud.com/magneticring/howl which I am told by the musician is a Moog Opus 3 using the string and organ sound. I know Bibio has a Yamaha CS-10 and DX-7 but I don't think these are what he is using on these tunes.

I am pretty sure the Plastic Jewel intro was inspired by BBC logotones/idents since he has a similar one at the beginning of the Top Soil video probably possibly Radiophonic style (real sounds, sound-on-sound, tape splicing, etc).

[SonicDimension]

I don't know. The Crumar Toccata is way smaller than a CS80! Weighs 150 pounds less too. There are other Crumars from the same time as the Tocatta that look the same...

If they saw a Crumar at the show, I would suggest it would be this. Having played both the Performer and the Toccata for a few years I would suggest the BoC sound coming from the Crumar Performer... if in fact they used it any Crumars that is.

Also if they covered up the Crumar Logo it would have to be one big ass sticker! Cause the 1979 Crumar logo is pretty damn BIG.

Good points. I guess it's not very important whether it was a Crumar Toccata or any sort of Crumar for that matter. I'm just intrigued by the possibility that some of those polyphonic synthy sounds might be coming from an old organ rather than a vintage subtractive synth.