America’s Boy by Broadcast is one of my favorite songs. I’ve always wondered how they achieved the distorted, swelling, drone-like sound that occurs throughout the song. Initially I thought this sound was made with a guitar and a bunch of pedals, but a YouTube video of them playing the song live leads me to believe it was made with a synth and a chain of effects pedals. Does anyone have any idea how this sound was achieved?
The sound I’m referring to appears at 0:05 and reoccurs throughout. There’s an arpeggiated synth and guitar part that overlaps with this sound.
This is the live video I was referring to. One of the performers can be seen playing the sound I’m talking on their synth around 8:41.
It sounds like it could be a reverse reverb before or after reverb? I’ve not played with a reverse reverb so I’m not sure, but sounds like it could be that or a reverse delay. Classic shoegaze thing, doesnt usually sound like that
They used an ms-20, Korg delta, Reaktor, quadrasid (abandoned software), one of those little Italian synths with the synthi type knobs, SIDStation, some modern moog (for live at least) and some others. That might be the string section of a Korg Delta into a distortion or fuzz into a fully wet reverb and lo pass filter. Could be a guitar into a similar chain. They ripped spring reverbs out of amps and if I recall correctly, had a plate of some sort. For the live performances I think they used samples or played the key melodies on whatever instruments they had. The sp404 they used also has the reverse effect, which could be used, and they also often used tape so it could be that
That keyboard looks like a midi controller so likely just playing back samples in that video but the sound sounds like a voice or a vocal patch on a synth running through something that lowers the sample rate like a sample and hold being run at audio rates. There’s a lot of similar effects all over that album like here…
Sounds to me like a monosynth or a string synth through reverb, then overdrive or an amp with high gain. Maybe a wah pedal in there somewhere too, but it sounds distinctively like reverb -> drive to me.
Yeah I remember reading they used some sort of in the box SID-chip emulator for a lot of this album and the synth you’re referring to is I believe the Jen SX-1000. Many MS-20 & SX-1000s must have been floating around England at the time because every mid-to-late 90s UK “indie” band gone synth seem to have had them in their arsenal.
Anyway one of my favorite bands for a loooong time, really wonderful stuff and sorely and sadly missed.
This song inspired me to play around to get close to that synth sound some years ago. I figured it could be the old SID plugin they used but really don’t know.
The key was playing with a narrow pulse oscillator through a bit crusher for sample rate reduction, making monophonic synth lines, but occasionally layering another note for the more garbled/distorted sounds (so, two monophonic sequences that sometimes overlap going into the same bit crusher). Playing around with pulse width and sample rate reduction got me very close. I used Monomachine and OTO Biscuit but any narrow pulse oscillator through sample rate reduction should get in the ballpark.
None of my business, but because they’re one of my favorite groups, i know they used their DAW and VSTs for a lot of Tender Buttons because Trish’s father was terminally ill in the hospital, and she was busy taking care of him… theres some lyrics on Tears In The Typing Pool related to this… and I think there were some related tensions between her and James Cargill during this period, all of which led to a pretty stripped back setup and sound. Quadrasid and an abandonware tape delay emulation (cant remember the company) is used a lot if i recall correctly.
Thank you all for replying, I was worried this thread would get lost in the shuffle. Glad to see how many people also love Broadcast. I’ll have to try some of these theories out to see if I can replicate something in the ball park of this sound.
