psionic11

That's the one, kbomb. Rush mixtape, ftw!

QUOTE (kbomb106 @ Oct 18 2010, 08:10 AM)

Just the other day, my friend posted on my FB wall that he thought the lyrics to Tom Sawyer were "and the Space Invader gets by on you," and was surprised when he looked up the lyrics and found out he was wrong.

Great post!! Every other Rush song has a great, great catchy intro. Think about it... how few songs do they have that DON'T have a great intro? They're in the minority, aren't they?

 

Great intros, great choruses. Great verses, great solos. Great bridges, great extended instrumental sections. And many a great outro.

 

Superb songsmiths, they are.

 

Anywho, here's a few more unmentioned great intros:

 

Fly By Night

 

Cygnus X1

La Villa Strangiato

 

Red Barchetta

YYZ

New World Man

 

Distant Early Warning

Body Electric

 

Manhattan Project

Big Money

Grand Designs

Territories

 

Turn the Page

Open Secrets

Time Stand Still

Tai Shan

 

Show Don't Tell

Dreamline

Cold Fire

Alien Shore

 

Caravan

 

No One at the Bridge is a high song, it's highest being F# (desperation). Most of the parts vary from B to E tho.

 

Cygnus' highest note is a shredded Bb (torn apart). There are also other sections where he's hitting high G's and A's, above that Bridge F#. It also dwells mostly higher than Bridge, varying from C to F.

 

That half step makes a big difference when you're already in legendary Banshee land. Not to mention he's playing the bass hard as well. At least with Bridge he could concentrate on just singing.

 

There must be some decent vocal processor, some FX, Geddy could use nowadays. Like, sing an octave lower but the processor only ltes the audience hear his voice an octave higher. Sounding like a Banshee, and not a chipmunk...

QUOTE (1-0-0-1-0-0-1 @ Jun 8 2010, 08:59 PM)

QUOTE (trenken @ Jun 8 2010, 09:41 PM) QUOTE (Gerxt @ Jun 8 2010, 06:46 PM) Surely it doesn't take too much perception or imagination to work out why I mentioned whether you can imagine Jacob Moon playing these songs? When you take a song back to its basics and you have nothing but the melody you know how good it is. The songs simply don't have the melodic strength to match the playing skills. Can you imagine if Geddy was a mediocre bass player as opposed to what he actually can do. The songs wouldn't be the same. Good vocals for me are as important as the playing. Agreed for the most part, except I personally think the vocal melodies are the most important part of a song, more important than the playing. There are many bands that arent great players, but have some great songs. Look at U2, their rhythm section is awful, but they do have some damn good songs because Bono is fantastic at writing melodies.   Good playing underneath is a nice bonus to me, but its not essential, to me the vocals are.   Look at some of Rush's simpler songs musically. Dreamline is very simple musically, any amateur bassist could play that. If you have fingers, you can play Dreamline on bass, but Geddy's vocal melodies are strong in that song, so the song sounds great, most Rush fans seem to love it. I think what most Rush fans like about the band is that they can do melodic and "simple" rock songs like "Dreamline" AND heavy and weird and complex songs like "Caravan." Then there are fans who prefer the melodic numbers, and fans who prefer the complex ones.   That level of diversity is probably a big reason why this band has endured for decades. But that's the point. Beyond good vocal melodies that the average singsong popsumer can digest, there is the diversity that Rush has not only created but inherited. What?   Well, they're not the Beatles or Oasis where you're looking for a great sing-along melody. Nor are the King Crimson or Dream Theater where you're looking to be wowed by musical technicality.   They're somewhere in-between, and elusive as a snake dodging an arrow. Geddy has proved he can write melodically catchy vocal hooks.   For me, I see them as straddling a pop sensibility while delivering cutting-edge boudary breaking. All within the confines of an old school power trio. Sure, there are heavier melodic bands, catchier pop-indie outfits, more adventurous prog rock experiments.   The great think about Rush is how many genres they can drive-by 'touch and grace'.

These are still sounding good to my ears. Even the production or sound quality is growing on me. Tight.

 

Caravan:

That little vocal bit from 2:30 to 2:50 is definitely out there, harsh, avant-garde even. Gonna be a bitch for Geddy to sing and play live. Glad they limited this "stretching the limits" to 20 seconds, then went right back to melodic stuff.

 

Geddy bass rocks in this tune, esp during the instrumental section.

 

BU2B:

More catchy, definitely. Hardcore beginning, with the fake audience/crowd roars.

 

Best $2 I ever spent.

 

Territories is over 190 bpm.

 

How many genres *ever* are that fast? Drum and bass is chaotic, but somehow Rush maintains smoothness over the urgency (grace under pressure?)...

 

Think about it. From the frigid north, Rush has almost always been quite fast. That's what's a bit of a letdown with T4E and S&A.... they're too slow...

 

The many moments in Territories alone are thanks not only to musicianship, and productions, but also a quick tempo....

 

...just sayin'...

I sadly don't have my DW8000 anymore, miss it more than my Juno 106. I did several Rush songs on it:

 

Tom Sawyer

La Villa Strangiato

YYZ

Subdivisions

2112 intro (band never performed whole song live tho)

Countdown

The Weapon

The Camera Eye

 

For The Camera Eye, I assigned the data slider to waveform, and just manually jiggled it to reproduce the sample and hold part, but with more "color"...

 

QUOTE (invisibleairwaves @ Dec 16 2009, 04:07 AM)

This finally showed up today http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f141/invisibleairwaves/micron_angle_blue_lg.jpg Alesis Micron analog modelling synth. It's got a Tom Sawyer sweep preset...it isn't very good though

Well, that's pretty damn close for the basic overall sound. Very nice.

 

We'll have to work on getting you a bit closer.

 

For starters, on the straight-8th-notes part that kicks in later (Db and C part), I think you should make the attack quite a bit sharper or shorter... it's too mushy as it is.

 

Hmm, no sample and hold. What to do? Thinking...

 

Do you have aftertouch? If so, then use a square wave for the LFO, maybe at 16th notes, and use aftertouch to vary the ENV AMT to the filter, along with the resonance, esp for the 2nd time it occurs at 2:19. It would help to have 2 separate sounds for this, of course, as the S&H part carries on while a new sound starts...

 

If no aftertouch, then maybe you can use an expression pedal or assignable slider or even the mod wheel (joystick on a Roland?) to vary the depth of LFO modifying the filter cutoff freq/resonance...

 

EDIT: on 2nd listen, I think you should crank up the resonance a bit more. Maybe even assign velocity to resonance amount; notice on the original how notes 3 and 6 are a bit louder and squelchier... nit-picking, I know, but just so's in case you wanna...

Turn the Page has lots of those moments for me.

 

 

Alex's guitar response when Geddy sings "truth is after all so poorly lit." The visual I get is of someone covering their gaping mouth in disbelief.

 

Alex's pinched harmonics during his excellent solo.

 

The whole crazy energy during the final chorus repeats. Geddy's vocal lines running over each other, the drum buildup, the synth washes, the final crash-ahhh...

 

The haunting background sounds in the intro and first verses of Cygnus, Bringer of Balance...

 

Alex's solo in Cold Fire (2:34-2:54). Almost sounds like the self-mutterings after an argument

Wow, it's been awhile, but songs I played were...

 

Working Man

 

Fly By Night (plus can play on guitar, except the solo)

 

A Passage to Bangkok

 

Xanadu (+guitar, keys)

Closer to the Heart (+guitar, synth drone notes)

 

The Trees (+guitar and keys)

La Villa Strangiato (including keys, guitar)

 

The Spirit of Radio (+guitar, -solo)

Freewill (fun fun fun) (+guitar, -solo)

 

Tom Sawyer (including keys)

Red Barchetta (also fun, on guitar too)

YYZ (including keys)

Limelight

 

Subdivisions (mostly keys)

The Weapon (mostly keys)

New World Man

Countdown (mostly keys)

 

Distant Early Warning

 

The Big Money (+ keys, great bassline)

Grand Designs

Territories

 

Time Stand Still

Turn the Page (including keys, workout song)

 

Show Don't Tell (also guitar)

Chain Lightning

The Pass

Scars (altho it's mainly one riff whole song)

Superconductor (7!)

 

Dreamline

Bravado

Roll the Bones (have to admit we did the rap too)

Where's My Thing (mostly keys)

Ghost of a Chance

 

========= end of cover band career

 

Stick it Out

Cut to the Chase

Alien Shore (groovy, Flea-like)

Cold Fire

 

The Larger Bowl (4 chord snoozer)

Malignant Narcissism

 

===============

 

Since I first learned acoustic guitar with a Rush Bible, I know a few more songs on guitar as well --

 

Rivendell

Panacea

2112: Oracle: The Dream, Soliloquy

Tears

Hemispheres

Different Strings

Hope

 

For synth, I still play Manhattan Project and Losing It a lot.

 

I miss playing in a band.

 

 

 

 

 

After scales and chords and other technical chops, remember PHRASING.

 

On a brass or wind instrument, if they played every note the same --- da da da dada da da -- it sounds mechanical and immature. But once they open up to phrasing, using slurs and staccatos, accents and ghost notes, the phrasing becomes miles more expressive -- mm-bop beedoo daDIT Doodidi mm da da mm da BOP. (something like that)

 

On a guitar, you could take a straight melodic line, jazz it up with all kinds of accents, hammer-ons, vibrato here, gliss-fall there, and suddenly the line comes alive with your personal message.

 

Think about this perspective and re-listen to some Lerxst solos and Geddy basslines or solos.

Doh, sorry about that. How could I forget a name like this:

 

2112design.com

Then check this site out. Converts Drum tab text files, like from the site above, into sheet music, and eventually into MIDI files.

 

Great way to learn some Peart, and to program the drum parts into a sequencer as well.

Check this site out. Has loads of tabs, and a few hundred TABs just for Rush alone!!

 

http://www.mxtabs.net/search/artist/drums-tabs/10732/rush/

To make it easier to read, Ill leave off the /8 part, so that 5 means 5/8, and 6 means 6/8.

 

INTRO, VERSES

(5, 5, 5, 5) (5, 5) (5, 5, 5, 5)

0:46 ==> (5, 5, 5)

0:50 ==> (8, 8, 8, 8) (5, 5)

 

(repeat top portion again, except for extra 5/8 riff just before Chorus)

1:46 ==> (5, 5, 5)

1:50 ==> (8, 8, 8, 8) (5, 5) +5

 

CHORUS

2:01 ==> normal 4/4 time

 

The SOLO section breaks down like this:

2:46 ==> 5, 5

2:48 ==> (6, 5, 6, 5) x 12

3:47 ==> (6, 5, 6, 5) x 2

 

BRIDGE

3:56 ==> (6, 6, 6, 6) x 2

4:07 ==> (5, 5, 5) (5, 5, 5)

 

CHORUS

4:14 ==> normal 4/4 time, fade out

Rush on the Colbert Report

 

And what was that new fangled top synth Geddy used for Tom

Sawyer?

 

A Moog Little Phatty Stage 2.. at least it looked like this one pictured from Sweetwater...

 

http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/PhattyStage2/

Finally got my UX2, loving it. Sam Ash didn't have it, local Guitar Center didn't have it, even Sweetwater had it on back order until July. Finally found the last one at Guitar Center in the next city over. $139 plus tax. It's serving multiple critical functions:

 

1) USB soundcard for my PC... sounds great going thru my Alesis M1 Mk2 studio monitors... loud and clear

 

2) audio interface -- instruments into PC DAW (Ableton Live 6)

 

3) mixer -- bouncing between 2 stereo keyboards, or guitar & vocals, plus computer sound at the same time

 

4) oh yeah, a guitar/bass/vocals FX processor... I knew there was a reason I got this.

 

 

The presets are decent. Found a quick way to scroll thru them to audition them by using the down or up arrow on the keyboard.

 

Have any of you Line 6 users checked out the guitarport online? Are there ready-made Alex patches to download? And how is the selection and quality of the play-along tunes?

Wow, very pretty fretless. Thanks a lot for adding to my G.A.S. Guess I better get a 2nd job to buy all these instruments I suddenly seem to be acquiring for my long overdue studio.

 

Bass soloing, how I approach it --

 

1) Play in "open" keys, so that you can sustain the E, A, D, and solo up high with the G string. Sweet sounding.

 

2) I find Flea's Pretty Little Ditty never gets old. Singing along to Under the Bridge or Soul to Squeeze or several others. (pea?)

 

3) Playing a nice funky blue kinda groove, with the bottom root notes on the beat, lots of space, and filling in the rest of the measure with your top note soloing. Good with a basic drumbeat going behind you.

 

4) Have a nice chord progression going on in the background, either from synths or mp3s or CDs. Solo up high and sweet on the bass.

 

5) Fool around with new techniques -- another funky pop/slp riff, new bass chords, strumming and grooves.

 

6) Jam with a drum machine and make new grooves.

 

7) Distortion and other FX

QUOTE (kazzman @ Jun 1 2008, 09:04 PM)

QUOTE (psionic11 @ Jun 1 2008, 12:01 AM) Nobody's mentioned the Alesis USBpro drumkit.  Yeah, yeah, the DM5pro is sucky and cheap-feeling, and its drum module isn't the greatest. QUOTE Alesis   That's why nobody has mentioned it.   The only thing I would consider buying from Alesis is the Trigger iO (the module on the USB Pro kit) because it's a cheap module that could be used for triggering an acoustic kit.   Even if I did trigger my drums (and I'm about as anti-triggering as it gets), I'd most likely go with at least a Roland TD-12 module; but that's another discussion entirely. Well, I wasn't impressed at all with the DM5 kit...very beginner.   But at NAMM 2008 a couple months ago, they released the new USB drumkit. Mesh pads, dual zone, choke-able cymbals with real brass... And if you've checked out BFD's drums, you know that bigger is better. Their sampleset is several GIGA bytes. Real drum sounds in a professional studio space. And if you want electronic, then you have several options there as well.   Yesteryear, I'd say yeah, Alesis drums weren't that special. But now in 2008, it's a different story. But hey, if you'd rather spend a few grand rather than a few hundred, that's certainly your prerogative   As for the noisy bass drum pedal problem, there are a few electronic foot pedals, some even doubling as continuous hihat controllers, that don't have the beater-against-a-drumhead problem:   http://www.sweetwater.com/cs--Electronic_Drum_Pedals   The KAT FAT percussion pedal is one... there are others, but I'm sure you're gonna already knock down that option as it seems you're not really looking for a solution, rather just wishing for what you cannot have.

Nobody's mentioned the Alesis USBpro drumkit. Yeah, yeah, the DM5pro is sucky and cheap-feeling, and its drum module isn't the greatest.

 

But you don't have to spend thousands of dollars to get some really responsive acoustic-sounding drums. The Alesis USBpro doesn't have a drum module per se, like all the big boys, but instead has a Trigger IO that translates your drumming into MIDI directly into your PC. There it triggers BFD lite drum software. The drums are as real sounding as you can get it, and you can even dial in different room mics. And it comes with grooves and the ability to make your own.

 

The cost for this next generation electronic drumset, whose sounds are only limited by your software? $699

I'm assuming that you can't play any midi files (the problem is not just this Limelight midi)... make sure MIDI isn't muted and volume's up in your soundcard's mini applet... check to see under Control Panel/Sounds & Audio devices that you have a midi device selected. Try closing all other music programs and just right-clicking and choosing another device to play the midi file with (like maybe WinAmp). Or even try just dragging the midi file onto your browser, and see if that plays it.

Just skimming posts before I go to bed... will get more into this later... but for now glad to hear things are better, and that making music had a healthy hand in making things better