jnoble Posted January 17, 2020 Share Posted January 17, 2020 I'm referring to those songs that didn't live up to their potential simply because of the style of recording/production. First song that comes to my mind is Face Up. Imagine this song with a much beefier guitar sound or held over to the Counterparts sessions.... That dinky tinny guitar tone Alex used and Neil's tupperware sounding drums. Damn you Rupert Hine.... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anchorman Posted January 17, 2020 Share Posted January 17, 2020 (edited) Great topic. RTB is one of their worst produced releases. I'd put Presto in there as well - which is a travesty. Thin and tinny is a good way to describe it. Neither one of those albums had any meat on its bones and no matter how much bass I add to the equalizer, they just don't sound full. There are a few songs I would change - 1. Spindrift (The verse at the 2:47 mark where Geddy sings "A little closer to you" doesn't sound like it belongs in the tune and completely changes its mood). 2. Territories (Great song but I would have preferred Alex's guitar provide texture instead of the keyboards. Specifically where the keyboards enter at the 3 second mark. Geddy's keyboard sounds like an organ from an old horror movie. 3. Caravan from CA also sounds like it could benefit from a redo or different arrangement. It has a lot of great parts and Neil's drumming sounds terrific but the song is all over the place. Take a listen to how cool this section at the 1:27 mark sounds without the vocals: I'd also replace Geddy's flamenco strumming during one of the jam sections with a more traditional playing style too (Think FreeWill jam section). Are these the sort of things a Producer would suggest in terms of feedback? Edited January 17, 2020 by anchorman Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zappafrank Posted January 17, 2020 Share Posted January 17, 2020 The entire Roll the Bones album Just soft sounding all around. Caress of Steel needs to be mastered louder. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chemistry1973 Posted January 17, 2020 Share Posted January 17, 2020 AFTK. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wil1972 Posted January 18, 2020 Share Posted January 18, 2020 I'm referring to those songs that didn't live up to their potential simply because of the style of recording/production. First song that comes to my mind is Face Up. Imagine this song with a much beefier guitar sound or held over to the Counterparts sessions.... That dinky tinny guitar tone Alex used and Neil's tupperware sounding drums. Damn you Rupert Hine.... Holy crap my wife and I were making just this comment about Face Up yesterday! We love the song but hate the production. I told her it should've been produced by Peter Collins and was a dry run for Stick it Out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jnoble Posted January 18, 2020 Author Share Posted January 18, 2020 RTB is far and away Alex's worst guitar studio album. Even more so than Presto or HYF or Power Windows. And not for his playing which was always great, for his thin tinny chimey no balls or grit whatsoever pushed too far back in the mix sound. And like I mentioned, I blame Hine and who ever approved the final mix for that. Alex himself said something along the lines of "It sounded great in the studio but something got lost during mixing" about Bones Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jnoble Posted January 18, 2020 Author Share Posted January 18, 2020 Songs like Face Up and Neurotica sound in parts like Alex forgot to turn his amp on and they just recorded his raw strumming with no effects or anything lol 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jnoble Posted January 18, 2020 Author Share Posted January 18, 2020 Presto's thin sound doesn't bother me nearly as much as Bones does. In fact I kind of like it once my ear gets used to it. Its not as overblown by comparison Hold Your Fire which was on purpose to thin out their sound with less synths & keyboards. But RTB....Ugh, that paper thin sound just grates on me past 4 songs 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mithrandir Posted January 18, 2020 Share Posted January 18, 2020 Great topic. RTB is one of their worst produced releases. I'd put Presto in there as well - which is a travesty. Thin and tinny is a good way to describe it. Neither one of those albums had any meat on its bones and no matter how much bass I add to the equalizer, they just don't sound full. There are a few songs I would change - 1. Spindrift (The verse at the 2:47 mark where Geddy sings "A little closer to you" doesn't sound like it belongs in the tune and completely changes its mood). 2. Territories (Great song but I would have preferred Alex's guitar provide texture instead of the keyboards. Specifically where the keyboards enter at the 3 second mark. Geddy's keyboard sounds like an organ from an old horror movie. 3. Caravan from CA also sounds like it could benefit from a redo or different arrangement. It has a lot of great parts and Neil's drumming sounds terrific but the song is all over the place. Take a listen to how cool this section at the 1:27 mark sounds without the vocals: I'd also replace Geddy's flamenco strumming during one of the jam sections with a more traditional playing style too (Think FreeWill jam section). Are these the sort of things a Producer would suggest in terms of feedback?That's my favorite part of the song. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anchorman Posted January 18, 2020 Share Posted January 18, 2020 Great topic. RTB is one of their worst produced releases. I'd put Presto in there as well - which is a travesty. Thin and tinny is a good way to describe it. Neither one of those albums had any meat on its bones and no matter how much bass I add to the equalizer, they just don't sound full. There are a few songs I would change - 1. Spindrift (The verse at the 2:47 mark where Geddy sings "A little closer to you" doesn't sound like it belongs in the tune and completely changes its mood). 2. Territories (Great song but I would have preferred Alex's guitar provide texture instead of the keyboards. Specifically where the keyboards enter at the 3 second mark. Geddy's keyboard sounds like an organ from an old horror movie. 3. Caravan from CA also sounds like it could benefit from a redo or different arrangement. It has a lot of great parts and Neil's drumming sounds terrific but the song is all over the place. Take a listen to how cool this section at the 1:27 mark sounds without the vocals: I'd also replace Geddy's flamenco strumming during one of the jam sections with a more traditional playing style too (Think FreeWill jam section). Are these the sort of things a Producer would suggest in terms of feedback?That's my favorite part of the song. That's the sort of thing that makes Rush's music so great. HYF is probably my least favorite Rush release and yet it attracted a whole new legion of die-hard fans. Whatever magic attracted me in the previous releases to HYF still existed for new fans. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deckiller Posted January 19, 2020 Share Posted January 19, 2020 I'd like to see Steven Wilson try his hand at remixing Presto and Roll the Bones; in particular, I'd love to see him give those albums a majestic sheen like Power Windows or Hold Your Fire. Peter Collins was great. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ytserush Posted January 19, 2020 Share Posted January 19, 2020 Limelight is a good candidate for this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jnoble Posted January 20, 2020 Author Share Posted January 20, 2020 Remixing songs like Face Up won't change the dinky guitar tone at all. Alex used a thin single coil pickup sound throughout most of Bones to its detriment. It would need to be re recorded and that ain't happening now or ever for obvious reasons Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TexMike Posted January 21, 2020 Share Posted January 21, 2020 The whole Clockwork Angels album......by Terry Brown. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jnoble Posted January 22, 2020 Author Share Posted January 22, 2020 I'd enjoy the title track to Clockwork more if it was a couple minutes shorter and that weird middle part with Geddy saying God knows what through a filter effect was removed Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
taurus Posted January 22, 2020 Share Posted January 22, 2020 Coincidentally I was thinking something similar today. A bit more than re-mixing but way back in 1974 - leave the first album as a small independent Canadian release, record the best tracks with Neil, combine those tracks witht he best of the FBN tracks and that is their first album with Neil, then rejig CoS with an altered track list that drops ITIGB and Lakeside Park but ads FBN. I think the imbalnce in duration of Side 1 and Side 2 of CoS ruined that album for the 8 track and cassette format. Leave Lakeside Park as a song played live and appears on ATWAS So first international album is: Finding My WayIn the MoodWhat You're DoingWorking Man AnthemBest I canBB&BBy-tor and second record Bastille DayFBNThe Necromancer TFOL kick ass records :D sorry, with Neil's passing, I've been geeking out on Rush non-stop Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ST3V Posted May 3, 2020 Share Posted May 3, 2020 Snider Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
78jazz Posted May 3, 2020 Share Posted May 3, 2020 Coincidentally I was thinking something similar today. A bit more than re-mixing but way back in 1974 - leave the first album as a small independent Canadian release, record the best tracks with Neil, combine those tracks witht he best of the FBN tracks and that is their first album with Neil, then rejig CoS with an altered track list that drops ITIGB and Lakeside Park but ads FBN. I think the imbalnce in duration of Side 1 and Side 2 of CoS ruined that album for the 8 track and cassette format. Leave Lakeside Park as a song played live and appears on ATWAS So first international album is: Finding My WayIn the MoodWhat You're DoingWorking Man AnthemBest I canBB&BBy-tor and second record Bastille DayFBNThe Necromancer TFOL kick ass records :D sorry, with Neil's passing, I've been geeking out on Rush non-stop Your first album tracklist here is sweet! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Three Eyes Posted May 3, 2020 Share Posted May 3, 2020 Every non-Broon album needed to be redone with Broon at the helm. Broon was Rush's daddy in the studio. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Weatherman Posted May 5, 2020 Share Posted May 5, 2020 Honestly, most of PW, HYF, and RTB could be rerecorded. My ears didn't like Power Windows eve when I discovered it in the 1990s.Now that I've been listening to huge, dynamic, immaculate recordings by electronic artists, it would sound even worse.Still, if you put a gun to my head and said name one tune to fix the recording, I'd say Bravado, because it's such a GREAT great great song.I would want to start by rescuing the ones worth saving the most.(Especially Neil's drumming on that third chorus. Whew. It still blows my hair back.) 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Three Eyes Posted May 5, 2020 Share Posted May 5, 2020 ^^^ I think Bravado is great too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jnoble Posted May 7, 2020 Author Share Posted May 7, 2020 RTB, original VT and Clockwork are the three Rush albums I simply can't sit through start to finish largely because of the sound: RTB for being so thin weak early 90s dated and gutless and VT/CWA for being distorted brickwalled layers & layers of guitars Geddy choir overload Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Three Eyes Posted May 15, 2020 Share Posted May 15, 2020 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now