Boards of Canada is a personal favorite of mine, and I have studied their music to learn how they achieved their distinctive sound.
Here is what I think I have learned so far (I will continue to add to this page as I learn more).
Last updated: 25-March-2026
I talk a lot about replicating their music, but it is not that I want to replicate it and sell it (or even make it exactly the same way), but more so I can understand it. My aim here is not to make a BoC do-it-yourself guide, but because I like their music, I want to understand how they thought about it before they made it and what they did to make it. I would like to then take these gems of knowledge with me into my own music so I can have a flavor of theirs within mine while keeping mine unique. This is my goal.
Click here for a great article about Boards of Canada that someone wrote.
Interviews / Technique
I compiled a list of interview quotes:
On the second tab of the spreadsheet (download it above), I started mapping out potential effects/instruments you could use and the routings combined with the interview quotes to back these concepts. It’s really quite basic when you think about it, and I like that. It shows just how simple you can have as a setup and yet create such stunning music as they did. Here below is a map I started. You can see it larger by either just clicking on it or right-clicking and “view in new tab/window.” Or download the spreadsheet.
Also, some notable Interview Quotes are here: https://bocpages.org/wiki/Notable_Interview_Quotes#Musical_Process
I’ve read that they listen to their own music and sounds over and over again to get the feel of a tune before continuing with it. It has to hook them before they continue making a full song out of it.
I also read that they are from the Pentland Hills, south of Edinburgh, Scotland in the UK. They mentioned that for Tomorrow’s Harvest they sketched out some of the tunes in New Zealand. Their studio in the UK is called Hexagon Sun and is rumored to be somewhere in the Pentland hills.
Tomorrow’s Harvest:
Here are some important clues from an interview with Mike Sandison for the Tomorrow’s Harvest release:
“It’s different with every track. We often jam something down quickly and you tend to find those things are the ones with a great instant melody.
The challenge with this record was crafting the tunes into a specific style and time period we want to reference. In fact it’s not just the time period – we analyse the specific medium we’re going for too. In this case there’s a deliberate VHS video-nasty element throughout the record and to get there it wasn’t just a case of processing sounds through old media, which is a given with us anyway, but we even went to the extent of timing changes in the music and the composition of the pieces, in really specific ways to give an impression of something familiar from soundtrack work that was around 30 years ago.
For example, I guess the timing of the whole intro section to the album, the neutral tension in the high strings hanging right at the start of the record, or that short glimmer of hope that takes over in New Seeds near the end of the track.
Those things hopefully imply a visual element. Some tracks deliberately finish earlier than you want them to, like actual cues in older soundtracks where they’ve been ripped out of much longer original masters that nobody ever gets to hear.“ (origin: https://www.theguardian.com/music/2013/jun/06/boards-of-canada-become-more-nihilistic)
I’ve read that they place memory triggers in their music that evokes a feeling or mood. Some of these can be the old recordings or sounds they frequently sprinkle and interweave into their songs.
They say they are not recreating a mood of “what was” but rather creating a fictitious history that brings out feelings. They incorporate sounds of what is influencing them at the time also.
They were asked, “What Warp record had the biggest influence on you?” They answered, “Polygon Window (Aphex Twin) – Surfing On Sine Waves. I first heard it at a bonfire in the hills – friends used to make us tapes before we knew what it was. We were Warp pirates – we probably did them out a lot of money before we started making money for them. “ source
You can hear a lot of sounds that are similar to Boards of Canada on the Polygon Window “Surfing on Sinewaves” tracks. Less so on the “Quoth” EP, but still the similarity is there.
Sandison comments on influences in an interview for their Tomorrow’s Harvest release:
“There are quite a few influences on this record. (John) Carpenter is kind of an easy reference point for most people though I’d say the main ones would be Fabio Frizzi, John Harrison and Mark Isham.
We’re very much into grim 70’s and 80’s movie soundtracks so there are maybe nods to composers such as Stefano Mainetti, Riz Ortolani, Paul Giovanni, Wendy Carlos, even Michael Nyman.” (origin: https://www.theguardian.com/music/2013/jun/06/boards-of-canada-become-more-nihilistic)
They have said that they subtract a lot from their music. I think this means they start with something complex and then remove items to make it simpler. But, I could be wrong. I have found in trying to replicate their music that I first start with something complex but I always end with something very simple. For example, I may think there are more notes than there actually are and in subtracting some from my composition, I can come closer to replicating theirs. Or, I often start with a very complex synth setting but find later that I have subtracted almost all of the complexity out of it to get their sound.
Geodaddi had complex messages and symbolism in the music. Campfire Headphase was a guitar-based album. Tomorrow’s Harvest has been described as a palindrome because the songs can be reversed and sound good as well as having an up-down type of palindromic progressions in them.
Their song “Music is Math” may be spot-on according to a recent study: “Happy lyrics, a fast tempo of 150 beats per minute (the average pop song has a tempo of 116 beats per minute), and a major third musical key all help create music we perceive as brimming with positive emotion.” Their symbolism as previously mentioned may run to music as well.
“Math” in Gaelic Scottish means “good.” So, their song title “Music is Math” could translate in part to “Music is Good.”
The Equipment, Settings, and Process of Boards of Canada
Coming Soon…
Sound
Details of how they get their sound from an interview near time of release of The Campfire Headphase (source:https://bocpages.org/wiki/Emotional_Abuse):
In keeping with the in-and-out-of-consciousness, dreamlike quality of their music, Sandison and Eoin don’t write and record in any sort of linear fashion. Rather, at any given time, they have various song ideas gestating in their two primary studios. With three kits, Sandison’s studio is set up for drums, and Eoin’s live area caters to piano and vocals. Whether they’re working separately or together, getting ideas down is generally a result of recording extended jams to tape on anything from a Tascam MSR-16 reel-to-reel to an old Revox recorder to a Grundig machine to an ordinary cassette.
“We love these low-quality tape machines,” Eoin says. “The great thing with machines such as the Grundig is that it’s tragically bad. Whatever you record into it just doesn’t come out unscathed. There’s a ‘magic eye’ valve display on it, and when you hit the tape deck with the right volume, enough to fill out the magic eye, it’s at that exact sweet spot that it is saturating the tape. So if you then sample back the playback, it’s got a thousand years’ grain on it.”
“There’s a track called ‘’84 Pontiac Dream,’ which has this totally schmaltzy ’80s hotel vibe, all gold door handles and sports-car-commercial glitz, until it snaps out of the dream at the end and breaks down to a raw guitar weave in the rain,” Sandison says. “I’ve always been into the way that TV and film-score music from that era was pretty heavily synthesized yet still employed traditional instrumentation. You listen to it now, and it’s never perfect, because the tapes that exist now have been played so many times, they have become warped and distorted with age. So for us a lot of the time, we’re not trying to capture how perfect something might have been at its inception, but more how it would sound now after years of use. Of course, you can’t instantly make a song into something chronologically aged, so that’s where a lot of our work goes, into finding ways of artificially imprinting an aged, nostalgic feel.”
“One thing I particularly like to use is amplitude modulation combined with microtuned pitches,” Eoin reveals. “There are a lot of ways to do this — using compressors and filters and pitch modulators — but we do it differently every time. We even resample parts using cheap ghettoblasters or cassette decks with internal microphones. Sometimes, I might employ a series of ring modulators with very slow frequencies and modulate those frequencies with an LFO so that layers of the sound overlap each other randomly. Sometimes, I’ll hit a sound with way too much compression — when you get that fine line where it’s just kicking in, but it’s right on the threshold of the sound so that the compressor ends up spreading what I call ‘powder’ over the part so it sounds like it’s crumbling.”
Interestingly, the Eventide H3000 Factory plugin stands out as a potential modern source (Boards of Canada would have used the hardware version if the did at all) for this amplitude modulation and microtuned pitches because it allows you to combine multiple effect blocks, including amplitude modulation and pitch shifting. This means you can set up a signal chain where your audio is first pitch-shifted (even by micro-intervals) and then amplitude-modulated, or vice versa. So if Marcus Eoin of Boards of Canada is stating that “One thing I particularly like to use is amplitude modulation combined with microtuned pitches,” then it could mean he used a hardware version of the Eventide H3000. The fact that you can get drums to sound exactly like those on Whitewater by using the Eventide H3000 Band Delays plugin leads me to believe the H3000 hardware (which has what both of these plugins have) was part of their gear, although I cannot prove it.
But you can also do the echoing part with a Roland Space Echo or equivalent plugin.
I discovered I can get that “powder” they speak of by overdriving a compressor, just as they describe. You can get this via saturation plugins if you are careful and get the signal level right to the edge of crumbling, so to speak. I tried it with saturation in the video below. Skip down further to see how Cableguys brilliantly did it with compression on drums.
Good creative compression on drums in a compressor like this example below from Cableguys really makes the drums sound like Boards of Canada’s drums!
Although traditional effects aren’t generally in the formula — Boards of Canada does employ homemade items such as Eoin’s DIY Leslie effect, created by mounting a mic inside a rotating ice-cream tub — they do occasionally have their place.
“One of the things we’re often aiming at is an anechoic sound that gives the impression of being outdoors, so we use little or no reflection effects unless it’s for something specific,” Sandison says. “So if you want an outdoorsy but echoey sound, you should just make the low frequencies echo; that way, it resembles real outdoor environments.”
“We like to create full-sounding parts that appear to be from another record,” Sandison says. “So, sometimes, we go to great lengths working on complete pieces of vintage-sounding music with the sole intention of ripping a two-second chunk out of it to give the impression of it being a sample of something old. It takes ages, but it’s a good trick. So we sample them as though they really are someone else’s old record — we abuse the sound to make it really rough, maybe sampling it in at 8-bit, 22kHz or whatever. If it sounds like samples from old sources, it means we’re doing our job properly, because that’s the whole point.”
(source: https://bocpages.org/wiki/Emotional_Abuse )
“Whether they’re working separately or together, getting ideas down is generally a result of recording extended jams to tape on anything from a Tascam MSR-16 reel-to-reel to an old Revox recorder to a Grundig machine to an ordinary cassette. “ (source: Remix interview 2005)
Their sound is similar to old films by the National Film Board of Canada. Pete Standing Alone is the name of one of the films and the name of one of Boards of Canada’s songs. Link: https://www.nfb.ca/playlists/pete-standing-alone-trilogy/viewing/standing_alone/
Reversed Sounds and Tracks
Another technique that they use is to reverse parts or sometimes whole tracks. Geogaddi seems to work well playing the whole album backward. Maybe this is a whole overlooked aspect of their music. If you are trying to replicate the sound, but the sound is backward, you will naturally have a difficult time unless you also work with backward sounds.
Some examples:
Here’s an easy way to do it in your own music production:
I’ve reversed simple melodies on piano, slowed them, pitch-shifted them, all in Serato Sample, and been able to play some pretty convincing Boards of Canada -like music.
Simplicity
Along with the use of reverse samples, I had a bit of a revelation about the absolute simplicity of their music while it also having quite a bit of perceived depth.
I think it is simpler than what we think and contrary to everything on this page that may or may not be true, it is probably just these guys making sounds, sampling them with their favorite sampler (S1000 among five or six others, so they say), and creating memorable melodies out of them. I mean the drums and all are vocals on the track An Eagle In Your Mind, so if that’s not creative, what?
I was reading this board discussion and it dawned on me that all the music really is made of simple synths or recorded sounds, some of them mangled and some played backward, in nice creative melodies. That’s all.
It became more apparent to me when I learned of the mix tape tracks Marcus made. This music wasn’t electronic music but was more folk-like. And they’ve said they like that kind of music. Look at the Wxaxrxpx anniversary live broadcast too. It had a lot of obscure music on it. These likes they have are where they’ve sampled from, probably.
If you go to their roots which would be their earliest music, it is all sampled or played with simple instruments such as guitar or keys (FM, etc.). That’s telling too. It points to sampling as a backbone, probably, of what they made. It’s genius in it’s simplicity.
Analog Synth to Tape
I think if I’ve missed one thing here it is the fact that the synths they used were analog with their own detuned variations in pitch, then they were recorded to tape and that tape has effects like wow and flutter on top of that original variation coming from the analog synth.
So, in the DAW, it makes more sense to use an analog synth fed into a tape effect.
Here in the video below I’m using Diva (digital, but analog-sounding synth), followed by Denise Bad Tape to get this analog-to-tape sound. I first show you the complete effect, then turn off the tape, then show where the trimmers are in Diva (detune amount and voice drift) and their effect. Then I play around with it after.
TBReelbus works very well at this also – see below:
Influences / Inspiration
Alan Clavier’s music is similar. Maybe he was an inspiration to Boards of Canada’s music style. Or maybe it is just that his music was a predecessor.
It is used in many of the old Parks Canada commercials:
One of their songs, “Buckie High,” refers to the intoxicating “high” gotten from a wine called “Buckfast” that is high in alcohol content. See an article here: https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/buckfast-scotland and the video below:
Hexagons are prevalent in their titles and images.
Samples
Boards of Canada sampled a lot of sounds to add layers and backgrounds to their music.
In interviews they said that they do things to their samples to age them artificially. They record on tapes and samplers, so maybe they do this multiple times to age them artificially.
Numbers stations are rumored to have been sampled but maybe these are faked by them to sound like numbers stations. The real ones are on a YouTube playlist below.
It has been said that a lot of their musical samples are not from synths but are snippets of sounds recorded on their portable recorders. They may be found sounds and not instruments at all.
Old film and television clips can be heard sporadically in their songs creating an atmosphere. In many cases, this atmospheric sound is not just a track in the background but is attached to every note played as you can hear the background repeating with the successive notes. This is done by using a sampler and I verified that by using a sampler and it sounds the same. They said they spend a lot of time sampling sounds of music they play and other noises by using samplers. One of their favorite samplers is the Akai S1000 samplers (as they said in an interview).
Here below is my collection of Boards of Canada related videos:
PBS shows such as Sesame Street are sampled. Also, samples from old TV commercials can sometimes be heard.
1969‘s lead? From the 1958 movie, Vertigo? This hotel scene in the movie seems to have the same sound:
Vertigo, 1958, the hotel scene
Who Sampled has a listing of samples with links to YouTube videos of the sampled: https://www.whosampled.com/Boards-of-Canada/
Song Structure
Main riffs and tunes are simple and are usually only 5-7 notes (at most) repeated over and over. They use simple chord progressions in groups of 5 instead of the usual 4 found in pop music, and melodies backed with lush sounds of ambient noise or more chords from vintage synths.
Also, they sometimes use a pattern of keys that are in a 4-3-1 structure. First note, then the second a half step down, then the third note two steps down (four half steps) from that.
I’ve also found they use passing notes on some songs, most-notably on Olson and Nothing is Real, where the beginnings of some of the notes are other, adjacent notes played briefly. This is a jazz technique.
An added fourth is noted, among other valuable insights, by this YouTube post:
Other insightful YouTube videos:
Dyads
Dyads feature prominently in BoC music. These are only two notes played at the same time and not full chords in the traditional sense. I find that when I play a perfect fifth or fourth interval, I can get the same type of sound from a synth as BoC did.
Suspended Chords, Perfect Fourths and Fifths
This post on Reddit has good insight into their music and mirrors exactly what I have experienced (I have bolded particular items that coincide with what I have found myself):
Boards of Canada from a music theory perspective
“I’ve been thinking a lot lately about why listening to BOC gives me the feeling that it does. Their sound totally changed my perspective on what music could be, and they’ve had a bigger impact on my musical taste than any other artist. It’s hard to pin down what it is they do exactly that’s so special–they aren’t the first to use analog recording equipment or old samples or a Roland SH-101, but somehow they manage to create these songs that hit you in this weird, unworldly way. After listening to them for a long time I am starting to understand why from a music theory perspective.
Let’s compare a top 40 hit or a typical techno song to a song like Alpha and Omega. Your typical pop song’s goal is to coddle you and give you what you want. It usually follows a diatonic chord structure (think the chords along any major scale), each section of the song is split up into satisfying, predictable chunks that follow a four bar phrase, and all of it leads up to a chorus and a catchy melody that’s supposed to make you feel good. All the chords of the song are centered around a “home”, the dominant chord in whatever key it is. In a very primal way this makes you feel safe. You know where the song is going and you know where its roots are planted. It’s music as comfort food.
Now let’s look Alpha and Omega. If we cut away all the effects, samples, drums, and backmasking, what your left with is a series of arpeggiated chords: G# sus4, G sus4, G minor 7, f# sus4, G# minor 7, (repeats).
The first thing you’ll notice is there are a lot of suspended chords. This means there’s missing pieces to the chord, and this drives your brain crazy. Normally these chords get resolved in pop music, but not as much in BoC. The effect is disorienting. The chords all run into each other with no real defined beginning or end (ironic) and there is no key center either. Add this to the fact that the chords are laid out in sets of 5 instead of 4, like you’re used to, and you start to feel even more lost. There’s no way to get your bearings.
This type of thing shows up a lot in BoC’s music. Pete Standing Alone uses alternating perfect 5ths that don’t resolve into a defined chord structure until the very end of the song. Twoism features warbly intervals of 5ths and 6ths with no key center. Palace Posy gives you the luxury of a bassline, but the supporting parts just highlight more 4ths and 5ths. Everything is left empty and aching for a resolve that usually doesn’t come until the end of the song, if at all.
BoC also uses a ton of tritones in their music. A tritone is the exact halfway point of an octave between a perfect 4th and a perfect 5th, an interval of 6 semitones. Think C to F#. When you play a tritone it makes you feel uneasy, especially when compared to the stability of a perfect 4th or 5th. A good example of this is the first chord in Happy Cycling. You can also hear a tritone in the chord structure of The Devil is in the Details, which is interesting since tritones used to be called diabolus in musica or “the devil in music”. An Eagle in Your Mind also uses tritones in its chord progressions. It makes your skin crawl when you hear it.
All of these elements together, combined with their style of production, make BoC’s music a little jarring. There’s something almost inhuman about it, like the music is completely impartial to your need for familiarity. Obviously BoC cares about their listeners, but I think the feeling they are trying to evoke is one similar to what you feel when you’re waaaay out in nature: that the universe is way bigger than you, and it doesn’t care. Sometimes it’s beautiful, sometimes it’s harsh. But it just is. While everyone else in music seems to be trying to make themselves or their audience feel better about life or make some sense of everything, BoC leans into the feeling of being a small animal in a huge world. Their music reminds me of inanimate objects and landscapes. Like being around large buildings, or in the middle of the forest, or on a snowy mountain at sundown. It captures a feeling of loneliness and mystery that no other music can touch, and in that way, it reminds you of what it is we actually are down here on planet earth.“
Summarizing, play the P5 (7 semitones) and P4 (5 semitones) intervals, tritones of (6 semitones) (also known as a P5 diminished or a P4 augmented). Use suspended chords, meaning that there is a portion either replaced by a major second (sus 2) or perfect fourth (sus 4).
Chord Theory of Boards of Canada
There are two really great articles on Reverb Machine that detail the chord theory (and melody) really well:
https://reverbmachine.com/blog/boards-of-canada-chord-theory-part-one/
https://reverbmachine.com/blog/boards-of-canada-chord-theory-part-two/
Suspended Chords
Some suspended chord examples:
- Try playing Fsus4 chord in C by playing these notes: C-F-A#.
An F chord would be C-F-A where A is the third (3 (or 4) semitones from the root is the third in any chord), so by changing that A to A# (a perfect 4th), you get an Fsus4 chord. - Now try the Csus4 chord in C by playing these notes: C-F-G, or semitones (half-steps) of 0-5-7. C-E-G would be a C chord, with E being the third, so making it a perfect fourth (F) instead, you get the Csus4. If you wanted a Csus2, you would make that E a second interval which would be two semitones from the root C, and that would be D, so C-D-G is a Csus2 chord.
Below is a demonstration of three suspended chords played one after the other: Fsus4, Dsus4, and Esus4. They have the sound of “Cold Earth” by Boards of Canada. (JenPadAmbDr2-F-D-E-ch1-4-7keyC)
Added Chords
Added chords are also used and sometimes played as separate notes to give that “something’s off” or “suspenseful” feeling.
- In “Ready Let’s Go” from Geogaddi, the main melody are the notes of a C major chord (C-E-G) played with an added fourth (C-E-F-G).
Sixth Chords
Some sixth chord examples:
- Try a sixth chord by playing a major chord and adding a key 9 half-steps from the root:
C-E-G (C major) + add A (9 half steps up from C) = C-E-G-A = C6.
You can also try playing an interval or dyad (2 note chord) of a perfect fifth or perfect fourth. I also hear sometimes a diminished seventh or major sixth (9 semitones) in their music as a counterpoint to the normal fifths, and I hear this more than I do the tritone mentioned earlier.
In the video below is another 6th chord example using C6, D6, then A6 in a progression.
Interestingly, these ideas are replicated in Aphex Twin’s music also. Take, for example, “Stone in Focus” that consists of a B-flat sus 2 chord played one note at a time. If you want to try playing it then play C, then F above it, then B-flat below. With an appropriate-sounding synth, it is spot on, but even without (like a piano) it still sounds right.
See the video below that is played with the actual sample from Stone in Focus. I sampled the original and then applied it to the correct keyboard positions for each note in order to understand the song structure.
Musictheory.net has a good lesson on intervals also.
Other Chords From Their Music and Techniques for Understanding
Another good way I’ve found that works to understand their music is by studying the chords. If you know the chords, then you have a way of knowing the music on a deeper level. Here I took their song, Left Side Drive, and played along with the chords of my own. Chordify has a good method that can help you figure out the chords in songs, and I recommend that site for anyone looking to learn chords.
In every case, though, it is the simple melody repeated over and over with some chords or other melodies thrown in, that really captures the essence of their sound.
Reverb and Delay
I think it is important to remember what they said about reverb and delay:
“One of the things we’re often aiming at is an anechoic sound that gives the impression of being outdoors, so we use little or no reflection effects unless it’s for something specific,” Sandison says. “So if you want an outdoorsy but echoey sound, you should just make the low frequencies echo; that way, it resembles real outdoor environments.” (source: https://bocpages.org/wiki/Emotional_Abuse)
So this would imply
- echo on low frequencies
- not a lot of reverb
I think a lot of their reverb or delay (echo) comes from within their instruments and are not applied afterward. Still, there seems to be an Alesis Midiverb or Quadraverb feel to their music. But, maybe these come from the instruments they use like the CZ-101 which has the distinctive phase modulation sound to it.
In fact, they may not use reverb at all, as they said in their interview, but it is curious that the CZ-101 uses phase distortion, which creates what can be described as “metallic” or “bright” sounds, and the Alesis reverbs (Midiverb and Quadraverb) also sound “metallic” or “bright” to me. Could it be that the CZ-101 is the synth sound that is causing this metallic sound and no reverb is used at all?
But, the fact remains that the reverb from BoC seem to be similar to other Warp artists of the era that use the Alesis reverbs, “MIDIVerb-II” and “Quadraverb.”
Alesis Midiverb-II was released in 1988 while the Alesis Quadraverb was released in 1989. These dates may be off, but we can say they were out sometime in the 1980’s and these things defined the sounds of the 1990’s.
What I find works best for simulating the Alesis reverbs are these:
- Goodhertz Megaverb – this one is the Alesis reverbs near exact. Put this on a synth and you can get a good Aphex Twin, Squarepusher, and Boards of Canada type of sound. Experimenting you can find a lot of the Warp sound.
- ValhallaDSP Vintage Verb – I can get a really close approximation of the Alesis reverbs with this one. It has such good quality to it that it is hard to pass up. The only thing for me is that it has so much control that when I am experimenting, it slows me down a bit, but later I can really dial it in with his reverb. I just need to practice with it more.
- Audiority Xenoverb – this one is close to the Alesis reverbs also. The Flow algorithm works best but also the Formant is interesting. A great reverb for experimentation.
Pitch / Tuning
Old synthesizers were often a bit out of tune. This is what chorus is anyway – the slight detuning of instruments played in parallel. This out-of-tune effect is prevalent in Boards of Canada’s music.
When re-making Olson, I found that the tuning was quite low. I adjusted Diva’s tuning downward until I achieved the same sound.
Synthesizers with detuning and micro-tuning capabilities such as U-he’s Diva synth are well-suited to making the BoC sound. In addition to knobs for detuning, Diva has a micro-tuning capability and I’ve found this adds a nice variation to any music. The micro-tuning .tun files can be found inside Diva or elsewhere on the internet. It really sets apart the Diva synthesizer from many others and is a part of what allows Diva to surpass the others such as Sylenth1.
Music Is Math, for example, is tuned down to A=432 Hz:
Tape and Samplers
They use tape, for sure – they said so.
We drop a lot of our music down onto a Tascam 4-track that has a great saturating effect on the sound. Remix, 2002
Whether they’re working separately or together, getting ideas down is generally a result of recording extended jams to tape on anything from a Tascam MSR-16 reel-to-reel to an old Revox recorder to a Grundig machine to an ordinary cassette. Remix, 2005
“We love these low-quality tape machines,” Eoin says. “The great thing with machines such as the Grundig is that it’s tragically bad. Whatever you record into it just doesn’t come out unscathed. There’s a ‘magic eye’ valve display on it, and when you hit the tape deck with the right volume, enough to fill out the magic eye, it’s at that exact sweet spot that it is saturating the tape. So if you then sample back the playback, it’s got a thousand years’ grain on it.” (source: Remix interview 2005)
Also, they use samplers.
We have five or six samplers, but my favorite by far is still the Akai S1000. It’s an old tank now, and the screen has faded so that I almost can’t read it, but I know it inside out. It’s the most spontaneous thing for making up little tunes. It adds something to the sound — maybe the lower bit depth has something to do with that. – Remix, 2002
Beats / Drums
Beats per minute range from 70’s to low 100’s.
- 83.96 bpm = Dayvan Cowboy.
- 74.00 bpm = Left Side Drive.
- 104.17 bpm = Satellite Anthem Icarus.
- 74.63 bpm = 1969.
Drums
They say “As for our percussion, it’s never just a drum machine or a sample, we put a lot of real live drumming or percussion in there, woven into the rhythm tracks, and it brings a bit of chaos into the sound that you just can’t achieve any other way.”
Drums are crunchy but not EDM-type. They have a great groove feel. I sliced the drums out of some of their songs and replicated in my own style using Nerve. BoC uses real drums for a variability that they believe cannot be replicated with machines.
But, synthetic drums to sound a lot like the BoC drums also. A Synare 3 sounds a bit like their drums.
It is probably the pattern of the drums that make them interesting also. In addition to the groove that is obtainable only by a drummer or simulated using a drum machine with swing, like Nerve’s. I used one of the lazy drummer types of presets in Nerve’s “swing” setting and about a quarter turn.
They may be samples taken from other recordings. Check whosampled.com for a listing.
I do not hear a lot of layering on the drums. Not drums on top of drums. Rather I hear the drums ran through the Akai samplers (S1000 or S3200) they are reportedly using. They also supposedly may use a Roland VP9000 sampler, but it, like most other information, cannot be confirmed.
These samplers impart a noise and saturation. The drums seem to be samples of real drums. They are resampled into the Akai. I hear some clipping from the Akai. Also, I hear some desk distortion like from a Mackie console desk mixer. There is a warmth that the desk distortion gives it. It is from the 80’s or 90’s like the samplers.
The highs are warm in their music and this is likely a product of the normal analog equipment they undoubtedly used. You could use a saturation plugin on the high portion only. This could be Fabfilter Saturn or an equivalent that allows per-band saturation.
Possibly they also use tape for distortion, but the desk distortion and the Akai sampler distortion come through more. I used DAC on the various sampler settings, but in particular, the S1000 worked well.
Desk distortion can be had with the SoundToys Decapitator plugin. The “E” profile in Decapitator is modeled on a desk or console-type distortion. This does not impart much, though.
Here is what the drum pattern on this one looks like:
Definitely, the pattern makes some sense and has the BoC vibe to it, but I tried other patterns and the drums still sound like BoC very well. So it is not the pattern that holds all of the magic. The drumkit itself has the right sounds.
I think the main point here is that these are real drum sounds and not from a drum machine. I believe most of what BoC does with drums is from real drums or sounds, and not programmed.
I used Microtonic and an Eventide H3000 to get some delayed drum sounds like Whitewater. Some tweaking could make them closer to the real thing, but here is a start (see video):
Synthesizers
For a list of synthesizers that can make you sound like Boards of Canada, visit my other post that lists them all: Synth VST Plugins That Sound Like Boards of Canada
Boards of Canada’s synthesizers sound like vintage synths such as CZ-101, VFX, etc. They mention a “secret weapon” but it is unknown. They have a CZ-101 synth also and maybe they used this in some of their tracks. It does have a lot of presets that sound close. So does the Ensoniq VFX.
Interviewer: What kind of special equipment do you use? I understand some of your machines are quite big. And you have something what you call ‘the SecretWeapon’.
BoC: “If I told you what the secret weapon is, it wouldn’t be a secret anymore. We have more than one really. We use a mixture of old and new equipment. We don’t have lots of synths, we use hi-fi gear and other tricks to achieve our sound.” Source
In the Societas x Tape, at one point there is a commercial segment for a Casiotone 202. Could this be one of the mysterious secret weapon synths?
If I look at a timeline, it helps to understand what synths they may have used and when they may have used them. The “secret weapon” synth could be in there somewhere:
But, this “secret weapon” may not be a synth at all. It could be a reverb or some other equipment.
Casio CZ-101
This synth is visible in a photo. So this is confirmed as one they used. Although in the photo, it is only used as a MIDI controller, it could have been used as a synthesizer. Why would they have it and not use it? This was discovered by Werkstatt Matlak, and he pointed it out to me in a 2023 conversation I had with him on Instagram. You can also see his submission on Equipboard.
https://equipboard.com/submissions/452574?src=submission
The Arturia CZ V is a great emulation of the CZ line of Casio synths.
This image of an old magazine ad directly below is super fake – I included it for a laugh:
There’s a Panasonic AG-7350 S-VHS in this picture above, according to a 2023 conversation I had with Werkstatt Matlak on Instagram.
There’s a Panasonic NV-HS860 S-VHS in this picture above, according to a 2023 conversation I had with Werkstatt Matlak on Instagram.
Roland SH-101
Roland SH-101 is probably not used. I believe the synth pictured is a Crumar synth (likely a Crumar Performer). Still, the SH-101 comes very close to replicating the sounds.
Click here to download the owners manual for the SH-101: rolandsh-101ownersmanual
A Roland SH-101.
Yamaha AN-1X
An AN-1X synth was observed. It was blue. It was only used to trigger samples in their live performance, but it could have been used in any of their music.
An obviously fake old magazine ad:
Yamaha CS-70M
The Yamaha CS-70M was said to be used on their Tomorrow’s Harvest release and was said by their label to be their “trademark” synth. KX PolyM CSE is an emulation of the CS-70M. It has 6 voices of polyphony – same as the Crumar Trilogy mentioned below. With two oscillators it has 12 VCOs total – also the same as the Crumar (see below). The CS-80 was an improved synth that came later and a good emulation can be the ME-80 plugin.
The CS-70m is mentioned by their music publisher. Click to enlarge. It was quickly taken down soon after this screenshot was taken.
The CS-70M definitely sounds like BoC also, and they had it written on the Warp site for Tomorrow’s Harvest promotion.
I hear auto panning on many tunes (very prevalent on Whitewater) and this leads me to believe it could be a synth with this auto panning available onboard.
It is also of a size that could be taken on a bus or bought on a bus and the price is too high at $8000 new or $4000 used. Size is 44x7x20 and 65 lbs. Source
They probably used this on tracks for Tomorrow’s Harvest.
Click here to download the Yamaha CS-70M Owners Manual.
Crumar DS-2 or Performer?
Although it is only rumored to be used, a Crumar synth was identified as the synth they used in a concert by one guy who said their logo covered the Crumar logo. This synth was reportedly misidentified as a Yamaha CS-80 when in fact it may have been a Crumar. But what if this was the CS-70m?
“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.” (source)
” When I saw them live they were playing most of their pads on what looked like a Crumar DS-2. I am 99% sure thats what it was but all the logos were covered up with BOC logos instead so it is possible I am mistaken.” (source)
But, this could have been wrong. Here below is a Crumar and below that is a CS-70m and they look very similar. So the synth seen was likely a CS70m because they are verified to have had it.
Ensoniq VFX/SD-1/SQ-80
A synth like the Ensoniq VFX has been discovered to likely be used on earlier tracks (link).
This could easily be the predecessor of the VFX – the SQ-80 or even the predecessor of that, the ESQ-1.
To emulate this synth in software, there are several to choose from, but the most accessible and, to me, realistic-sounding is the Arturia SQ-80.
A history of the Ensoniq synths:
The Early Years: Democratizing Sampling (1984–1985)
Before Ensoniq released its first true synthesizer, it launched a product that fundamentally changed the music industry by making advanced technology accessible:
Ensoniq Mirage
Launch Date: 1984
Last Made Date: c. 1988
Key Features: The Mirage was Ensoniq’s debut instrument and the first truly affordable digital sampler, initially priced at $1,695, significantly less than competitors like the Fairlight CMI. It featured 8-bit sampling and 8-voice polyphony. Crucially, it combined its digital sound source with analog resonant Curtis CEM3328 low-pass filters per voice, giving it a distinctive, gritty, and warm sound that is highly sought after today. It was also one of the first consumer products to use the 3.5-inch floppy disk format for storage.
The Hybrid Workstation Era: ESQ-1 and SQ-80 (1986–1990)
The success of the Mirage led directly to Ensoniq’s first major synthesizer line, which established the company’s reputation for combining digital sound generation with analog filtering and powerful sequencing capabilities.
Ensoniq ESQ-1
Launch Date: 1986
Last Made Date: c. 1988
Key Features: Marketed as a “digital wave synthesizer,” the ESQ-1 was an early music workstation. It featured a hybrid synthesis engine with three digital oscillators per voice (using the ES5503 Digital Oscillator Chip, or DOC) and analog resonant low-pass filters per voice. It offered 8-voice polyphony, 9-part multitimbral operation, and a robust 8-track sequencer. The ESQ-1 was known for its large, easy-to-read vacuum fluorescent display (VFD) and its ability to produce both classic analog-style sounds and complex digital textures.
Ensoniq SQ-80 (Cross Wave Synthesizer)
Launch Date: 1988
Last Made Date: c. 1990
Key Features: The SQ-80 was a direct and significant upgrade to the ESQ-1. It retained the hybrid architecture but expanded the waveform ROM with 43 additional waveforms (totaling 75), allowing for more complex and realistic sounds. Its most notable feature was the inclusion of a 61-key keyboard with true polyphonic aftertouch, a rare and highly expressive feature that allowed musicians to modulate individual notes after they were pressed. It also added a built-in 3.5-inch floppy disk drive for storing patches and sequences, and doubled the sequencer capacity.
The Transwave and Workstation Powerhouse Era (1989–1995)
In the late 1980s, Ensoniq moved away from analog filters and introduced its proprietary Transwave Synthesis, a form of advanced wavetable synthesis where the waveform itself could be swept or morphed over time, creating dynamic, evolving textures.
Ensoniq VFX (Transwave Synthesizer)
Launch Date: 1989
Last Made Date: c. 1990
Key Features: The VFX was the first instrument to feature Ensoniq’s new all-digital architecture, including the powerful Transwave Synthesis. It offered 21-voice polyphony and introduced the Ensoniq Signal Processing (ESP) chip for high-quality, 24-bit on-board effects. It was primarily a performance synthesizer, focusing on sound design and layering.
Ensoniq VFX-SD (Transwave Synthesizer)
Launch Date: 1989
Last Made Date: c. 1991
Key Features: The VFX-SD transformed the VFX into a full-fledged music workstation. It added a 24-track sequencer, a 3.5-inch floppy drive, and expanded outputs (four total). Later revisions of the VFX-SD (and the subsequent SD-1) increased the polyphony to 32 voices, making it a formidable competitor to the Korg M1 and Roland D-50.
Ensoniq SD-1 (Transwave Synthesizer)
Launch Date: 1990–1991
Last Made Date: c. 1995
Key Features: The SD-1 was the final and most refined iteration of the VFX line. It featured 32-voice polyphony, a massive 168-wave ROM, and retained the expressive polyphonic aftertouch keyboard. It boasted a powerful 24-bit dual-effects processor and a highly capable 24-track sequencer (expandable to over 75,000 notes). The SD-1 cemented Ensoniq’s reputation for creating all-in-one production workstations.
Ensoniq TS-10 / TS-12 (Transwave and Hyperwave Synthesizer)
Launch Date: 1993
Last Made Date: c. 1995
Key Features: The TS series represented the pinnacle of Ensoniq’s workstation development. It featured the most advanced sound engine, incorporating Trans-Wave and Hyper-Wave vector synthesis (allowing up to 16 waves to be swept). The TS-10 had a 61-key polyphonic aftertouch keyboard, while the TS-12 offered 76 weighted keys with channel aftertouch. Both models had 32-note polyphony, a powerful 24-bit effects engine, and the ability to read samples directly from Ensoniq’s ASR sampler line.
The Final Chapter: Fizmo (1998–2002)
As Ensoniq faced financial difficulties and was acquired by Creative Technology, its final major instrument was a return to pure, experimental synthesis, rather than a traditional workstation.
Ensoniq Fizmo
Launch Date: 1998
Last Made Date: c. 2002 (until the brand was dissolved)
Key Features: The Fizmo was a unique and polarizing instrument, often considered Ensoniq’s last true synthesizer. It was built around an advanced form of Transwave Synthesis that allowed for complex, morphing, and evolving sounds. It featured 48-voice polyphony (a significant jump) and a distinctive front panel with four colored knobs that provided real-time control over the Transwave parameters, making it highly expressive and popular among sound designers.
The Ensoniq line, from the groundbreaking Mirage to the experimental Fizmo, consistently pushed the boundaries of affordability and feature integration, leaving a lasting impact on electronic music production.
This Ensoniq magazine ad directly below is super fake – thought I’d include it for a laugh:
Structure
Intro, 2 bars, no drums. Lead synth melody and then the main melody 2+ bars with drums. Lead, drums, main melody, plus bass line follows. Some higher-pitched instruments added in sporadically. Usually about 4 main instruments at the most.
Simple melodies with few notes. Repeat often.
Deconstructing some of their songs, I find
- Major
- Aquarius – F, Major, 84 bpm
- Dayvan Cowboy – E, Major, 83.96 bpm
- Fly in the Pool – G, Major, 70 bpm
- Oirectine – A-flat, Major, 109 bpm
- Sixtyniner – F, Major, 90 bpm
- Skyliner – A-flat, Major, 97 bpm
- The Devil Is In The Details – D-flat, Major, 105 bpm
- Minor
- 1969 – C-sharp, Minor, 74.63 bpm5-9-78 – B-flat, Minor, 105 bpmAlpha and Omega – G-Sharp, Minor, 98 bpmAn Eagle In Your Mind – F-sharp, Minor, 98 bpmCold Earth – A, Minor, 67 bpmCome to Dust – D-sharp, Minor, 60 bpmCorsair – B-flat, Minor, 94 bpmHappy Cycling – E, Minor, 100 bpmHey Saturday Sun – C-sharp, Minor, 124 bpmIn A Beautiful Place Out In The Country – A, Minor, 98 bpmMusic is Math – F-sharp, Minor, 101 bpm
- New Seeds – B-flat, Minor, 112 bpm
- Nothing Is Real – C, Minor, 90 bpm
- Mixolydian
- Julie and Candy – F, Mixolydian, 72 bpm
- Roygbiv – A, Mixolydian, 84 bpm
- Locrian
- Everything You Do Is A Balloon – A, Locrian, 91 bpm
- Lydian
- Beware the Friendly Stranger – G-flat, Lydian, 157 bpm
- Olson – E, Lydian, 108.6 bpm
- Dorian
- Sixtyniner – D, Dorian, 90 bpm
- Unknown Mode (for now) – Estimations below. Most-likely correct at the top:
- Left Side Drive – B, Minor?, 75 bpm
- Buckie High – F sharp, unknown, 71 bpm
- Satellite Anthem Icarus – D, unknown, 104.17 bpm
- Amo Bishop Rodan – E, unknown, 143 bpm
- Whitewater – C, unknown, 97 bpm
Their songs average 92 beats per minute (bpm). This is a region of the syncopation timescale that gives a groovy feel.
As far as the song structure, I am not sure what each song follows, but I would say it is more of an AAA, AABA, but each with a C or D on the end as the outro. The outros are generally way different in many cases. In some, there is just fading off of the main tune, but in most, there is a completely different tune at the very end of each song.
I have found that a pattern pervades a lot of their early work and that is a 4-3-1 pattern: The fourth, then third, then root. Or, the fourth, then a half step down, then a third down (4 halves (semitones)). Or, on a keyboard, start at F, then a half-step would be one note down, E, then four down from that, C. Red Moss has a pattern of this kind. (The song Red Moss may be named after the raised bog on the edge of the Pentland Hills.
To get the exact notes and tones of many Boards of Canada songs, I have found a technique that works very well:
Getting the BoC Tones and Making Synth Presets:
- I get a synth sound that is close to the tone of the song I am trying to replicate. This usually means using the U-he Diva synth that is so versatile at replicating the Boards of Canada sounds. Others I use are the TAL-U-NO-LX, TAL-Bassline-101, and TAL-MOD.
- I play the BoC track in Edison (FL Studio) and loop in on a specific note. I can usually find this note on my MIDI keyboard so I play it and then tune the synth (usually Diva) to match it exactly. To get an exact match, I often have to de-tune the synth until I get the resonance with the tone of the song.
- I save the presets so I can come back to them later for more tuning, use, or to give away.
Getting the BoC Notes
- Once I have a tone that is close (see above), I pull the song piece into Edison and dump it to the piano roll as notes. This usually gives a mess, but from this, you can get an idea of the correct notes.
- I play those notes and see if I can get close while looping the BoC song in Edison to compare.
- Also, I put an instance of the Fabfilter Pro-Q EQ after Edison and play the BoC song into the EQ. This EQ has a piano icon on the bottom left that replaces the frequency scale across the bottom with a piano and notes. I watch where the peaks are during the notes playing by BoC, and take note of them. Then I try playing those on the MIDI keyboard to compare.
Doing these things over and over and over, I can eventually come to something that is nearly exactly what Boards of Canada were playing in their music.
Music
Most of Boards of Canada’s music is released in a conventional way and you can find it on Spotify, Amazon, or wherever. However, some are not as easy to find. These are the more difficult ones to find and links where you can download them:
A Few Old Tunes
Available here: https://www.rareboc.org/ These are mp3 files separated by song titles.
Old Tunes (Vol 2)
Available here: https://www.rareboc.org/ These are mp3 files separated by song titles.
35 Random Tracks
Available here: https://www.rareboc.org/ These are mp3 files separated by song titles.
BoC Maxima
Available here: https://www.rareboc.org/ These are flac format and separated by song titles.
Miscellaneous Tracks
Available here: https://www.rareboc.org/ These are mp3 files separated by song titles.
Popularity
Here is what Last.fm shows as the most popular songs:
Here is what Reddit shows are most popular:
Similar Artists
Bibio (Stephen Wilkinson):
Works with guitar and other stringed instruments in a similar style to BoC. Thanked Marcus Eoin in the liner notes for Fi album. Reportedly he consulted Marcus for techniques of production. Fi preceded The Campfire Headphase, which also uses stringed instruments.
Cialyn – Turjan Aylan (Alain Pachins) and Aylahn (a separate project):
From Lille France. He uses Korg Volca Keys, Korg Volca Bass, Korg Minilogue, Korg MS-20, Korg M50, Korg VolcaBeats. It proves the Korg products can sound a lot like Boards of Canada. Also the Oberheim SEM is a favorite. ARP Odyssey, Waldorf-Streichfett. Technics M6 Stereo Cassette Deck is also used. Uses Phonec2 and sometimes my presets.
Cravagoide – a duo from Europe
Casino vs. Japan – from Wisconsin, USA
Faex Optim (Wesley MacDonald):
From Edinburgh, Scotland, UK. Used Massive awhile ago for the one synth album with Kahvi, but majority of use is of samples. Soft synth Pigments is used sometimes. Sh01a and Poly D. (source: email with the artist)
Freesha – a duo from California, USA
Synima – from Florida (USA)
4T Thieves (Nik Racine):
From the UK. Runs the Kahvi Collective. He uses the BT Phobos software synth by Spitfire Audio and also the Clavia Nord Lead A1 hardware synthesizer. Also uses the “Roland JD800 and the amazing Nord Lead A1.” (source: https://www.cyclicdefrost.com/2019/01/nik-kahvi-collective-kahvi-and-idm-in-general-has-always-and-will-always-be-a-niche-label-and-genre-interview-by-paranoid/ ) Uses Pigments, Drum Computer, and Phonec.
PBS’73 (Elijah Franks):
From Austin, TX, USA. Uses Roland SH-01.
Lone (Matt Cutler):
From Nottingham, England, UK. Lemurian is exemplary of the BoC sound. Runs Magicwire Records on Bandcamp.
christ. (Christopher Horne):
From Edinburgh, Scotland, UK. He was once a member of Boards of Canada.
Com Truise – Airwaves (Seth Haley):
Tycho (Scott Hansen):
Boreal Network (Nicole Johnson):
From Minnesota originally and moved to Seattle at some point. Uses the NI FM7 synth extensively.
“My go-to synth is Native Instruments’ fm7. It took me years to get to this point, but I can take apart the whole synthesis process on that synth, and filter it and distort it, and then filter the distortion. It’s a process of just kicking layers of effects over and over. And at some point I listen to it and I think, man, that is destroyed, that just sounds like nothing like it did in the beginning. Perfect.” (source: “In Living Memory,” The Wire, Bites, May 2016 Issue 387, pg. 14)
Cities of Earth (Michael David King)
Wonderphase
Clocolan (Emlyn Ellis Addison):
Curious Inversions (now Abdicant):
Boston, USA
Uses U-He Bazille.
Bocuma (Martin Millar):
From Ireland.
References
Go check these for more:
The genius of Boards Of Canada in 10 essential tracks
Boards of Canada reveal studio processes behind Tomorrow’s Harvest, hint at collection of early material
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2013/jun/06/boards-of-canada-become-more-nihilistic
Archive Piece: Boards Of Canada
Boards Of Canada Mystery Deepens
https://theknow.denverpost.com/2013/06/11/boards-of-canada-everything-you-need-to-know/70469/
Music Has the Right to Children
Archive Piece: Boards Of Canada
https://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=6635418
http://bocpages.org/wiki/Equipment
http://www.vintagesynth.com/roland/sh101.php
http://www.vintagesynth.com/yamaha/an1x.php
https://web.archive.org/web/20061208052517/http://fredd-e.narfum.org/boc/discog/#warp10
INTERVIEWS LISTED BY ALBUM
I’ve found these interviews with Boards of Canada to be interesting with respect to their music-making techniques and processes:
Music Has The Rights To Children
In A Beautiful Place Out In The Country
Geogaddi
The Campfire Headphase
Tomorrow’s Harvest
