HEATH MICROFINDER (MHTRTC OUTTAKE) W + P EXP

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Sherbet Head
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Boards of Canada writing and production experiment.

So, I mentioned a few times how I was going try and make a track that could fit the BoC sound to the point where it could be convincing enough to sit within the catalogue as an unused outtake. I chose MHTRTC as I feel as an overall tone, it would be the hardest to copy, due to age and unknown technology. Below is what I came up with.

Of course, I failed, no question. I have been vocal about how I feel it would be nigh on impossible to do it and I still feel that way. You simply cannot assume the audio routing processes enough to get close the the overall sound of BoC. You can get close, but for a track to fit seamlessly on an already existing album like MHTRTC? I dunno.

I did lots of work on this and i'm happy to leave it as it is. I honestly think I could spend more time and get closer, carving the EQ on each element to get them better but, I was actually sick of hearing the thing.
It became apparent that my chops were not in the BoC mood so I settled with these pieces, and I did listen to MHTRTC quite a bit and when you break each track down, you realise that there is no such thing as a BoC sound... Every track is individual, no sound is repeated, each track has vastly different approaches to melody sources and sounds, it's the overall timbre that covers the album that is the BoC sound. So, with that said I tried to avoid copying an already used sound and tried to imagine them creating different sounds but treating them in the same way, resulting in a very different track but one that is only as different as the existing tracks are from each other.
Like I said, I did fail and i'm happy with that, it was what I expected, a fun piece of experimentation and a window in to the effort they go to to get the sound they want and possibly why things take so long haha.

I'm completely happy for you to rip it to shreds, analyse it, scrutiny, whatever, it's why I have done it, I enjoy talking about Gear and processes and when it comes to BoC, they kind of inspire my ethos in how I go about making my own music.
Enjoy, or not ;)

This is not a personal promotion, it's about boards of canada and their writing and production processes so I feel it should be in the BoC section, but if mods feel otherwise, do what you will.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ExCcigH2Rbk&t=264s
You could feel the bullshit

Eagle Minded
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Not a bad little tune!

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Dayvan Cowboy
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Nice tune, trippy !
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Sherbet Head
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Ok, so I listened to this again since I posted it. I was really sick of hearing it. A few things come to light. The verb on the bassline and some synths especially, didn't handle the tempo change on the master. The track was written a tad slow and felt sluggish so I needed to speed it up by 7 or 8 bpm and some elements didn't cope with the pitch change it seems. Artifacts and modulation weirdness in the verb took the bass away from a perfect sounding boc bassline sound. The Original tempo sounded better timbre wise.
Loads of things i'd do differently, maybe I was wrong to try and find new sounds for the melodies to stay in theme with the album and I should have copied already existing sounds more closely for it to feel more BoCish overall.
I did purposely leave it feeling unfinished, like certain beats felt untidy and less streamlined than other MHTRTC tracks making it feel like it was definitely abandoned at 90% because it was evident it wasn't going to make the cut, and that's a good excuse for it not to completely fit timbre wise as it was never mastered with the album tracks. That's what i'm sticking to anyway.
Was a fun experiment and not a complete waste of time, I learned some new tricks I can use moving forward with my own stuff.
You could feel the bullshit

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