Wildlife Analysis(literally)

The Lounge General Discussion
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Yes its Boards of Canada time again ladies and gentlemen.
The first track on their glorious Music has the Right to Children.
According to the BOC pages its a track from Sesame Street slowed down 16 semitones(last 4 seconds) and played back throughout the track. I mean is this witchcraft or alchemy? How hard is this to mix and master i can only wonder. I’ve never seen this done before. But wow what a first track and it sums up the boys nicely. Ingenious or party trick? Whats your thoughts on this technique?

Wildlife Analysis - bocpages

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Stick it in the BoC thread.

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Id like to keep it seperate from the other thread i started on BoC, as it starts to become very messy very quickly.

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Pretty standard fair if you ask me, Sampling & re pitching is the bread & butter of BOC

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No. Obviously they have layered a synth melody over the top, possibly a SH101 with some delay on it.

Not hard at all. Sound is sound, Mixing is mixing.

Its not that special. Chopping up sound and repitching it isnt new, and not unique to BOC.
Artists were doing it with tape decades before BOC came along. Look up Delia Derbyshire et al.

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It’s the mood that’s unique, not the technique. And if the technique is unique but the mood unremarkable…

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Ooo, cool! you lead me to this:

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Delia only got recognized after 50 years by the BBC and put her name on the credits of Doctor Who. She later became a self confessed alcoholic. Sisters with transistors was a great documentary.

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I dont know if it is that easy. Must give it a try myself to find out.

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Does the technique create the mood. Lydian scale minor chords etc etc

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I’m not sure there’s all that much to discuss regarding technique, as @Microtribe already pointed out. Pitching a sample down and looping it isn’t hard, then playing something over the top isn’t hard (though there needs to be musicality in anything you play over the top of something else, of course). In terms of mixing and mastering, just use filters and compression until it sounds right to you. The best ideas are usually not hard to pull off in terms of technique, but it’s having those ideas in the first place and knowing what to do with them that counts. Which all comes down to willingness to try things out and the taste/aesthetic to know when you have something good on your hands.

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Ive often found the best performers make things look easy.

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That comes with tons of practice and usually from creating your own style from things that feel natural for you.

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Yes i agree. They had stumbled around for many years trying to nail that feel we know. Then wham.

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I love that tune. I didn’t realize it was a Sesame Street sample. Perhaps explains some of the “nostalgia” associated with this album.

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Does it help her art and underappreciated legacy to repeat this in every thread that mentions her?

Her genius should’ve been recognized earlier, I agree!

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Its important to realize the damage done to women in the industry by men. Maybe its not her legacy but i look at the humanistic element of creativity. The side that is often overlooked.

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Absolutely. Genius.

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I pitched up / down from this link here Wildlife Analysis - bocpages

Sesamestreet -15 semitones (okay a bit of reverb on top … forgot to turn it off for rendering it out)

Wildlife Analysis +15 semitones

What I wanted to say: The way you describe it … sounds like they just did a bit of this and that … no they didn’t :smiley: Go ahead and redo what they did – I wouldn’t know where to start. In my eyes they are music wizards.

edit: Oh… misread the semitones …8 for a 2 – must be 16 semitones rather than 15… so my test is absolutely inaccurate :sweat_smile:

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Exactly. Its not that simple as people are saying. Thanks for helping the Analysis.

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