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Happy 40th Birthday - Signals


Maverick
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I recall quite vividly actually buying the t-shirt before buying the album not least because I was impressed by the font!

 

As for the album - well actually it was one of the first CDs I bought back in the 1982/3 rather than opting for the LP. On first playing I was quite shocked at the sudden shift in its musical anthem choosing to move towards more mainstream contemporary sounds that most other bands were experimenting with back in the early 80s.

 

As a consequence I found the album rather find much love for to begin with, along with some soulless digital output from the CD itself. (I still don't rate CDs above LPs when it comes to the audio experience, especially through headphones).

 

But like most things, time is a great healer, and by the end of the 80s I began to warm to Signals (especially "Losing It", "The Weapon" and "Subdivisions"); GuP and PW - all of which placed heavy emphasis on synthesisers & keyboards at the expense of traditional instruments.

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It was the first Album of Rush I ever purchased.  A friend had the cassette and we played it every day on my "boombox" during a week at Myrtle Beach. I had just turned 16. That must have been the summer of '83. Loved it so much i bought the CD not long after returning home. 

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On 12/27/2022 at 5:59 AM, Sonatine said:

As a consequence I found the album rather find much love for to begin with, along with some soulless digital output from the CD itself. (I still don't rate CDs above LPs when it comes to the audio experience, especially through headphones).

 

The original CD release of Signals sounded dreadful, muddy and quiet. Getting the remaster years later was like hearing a whole new album.

 

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On 1/1/2023 at 12:23 PM, ytserush said:

The Mobile Fidelity CD release is my favorite. I think it sounds great, very resonate and warm like the LP

Facts. All the Mobile Fidelity Rush discs are fantastic with Signals being the best of the 4 MoFi releases. 

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Signals is far and away my favorite of the four Mobile Fidelity releases (Really warm analog sound on it.) Moving Pictures and Permanent Waves are decent but the originals or the Magee 2015's are just as good if not slightly better. I think 2112 is the worst of that lot. It's OK, but it should have been a lot better given how many other good CD versions of 2112 are out there.

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Don't forget that the new R40 bass part for Losing It was the last new music Rush collaborated on. In rehearsals, on that tour. 

 

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On 1/6/2023 at 9:58 PM, ytserush said:

Signals is far and away my favorite of the four Mobile Fidelity releases (Really warm analog sound on it.) Moving Pictures and Permanent Waves are decent but the originals or the Magee 2015's are just as good if not slightly better. I think 2112 is the worst of that lot. It's OK, but it should have been a lot better given how many other good CD versions of 2112 are out there.

So I am doing my annual playthrough front to back of every single studio and official live release.

 

I chose all my Atomic Germany CD’s for 

 

Rush thru Hold Your Fire.

 

I own all the MoFi stuff and I would rank those:

 

Signals

Moving Pictures

Permanent Waves

2112

 

IMO all 4 are outstanding. Warm, spaced…large soundstage and not compressed at all. Just a joy.

 

The Sectors Box Set is also quite good.

 

The Mercury German Atomic releases (all my first CD’s of my Rush collection I purchased back in 1987 when I switched

to CD as my preferred media from Vinyl) sound excellent as well. Warm and true to the original master tapes.

 

I still have all my Rush Vinyl as well. And Permanent Waves Mofi 180G limited vinyl is by far my favorite from them.

Anyway I am enjoying my playthrough.

 

We listened to the Debut today….criminally underrated album in Rush circles.

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Being a Keyboardist, this was the first album I ever purchased by Rush because of Subdivisions, and the Love just grew and grew. like most Rush fans I started looking backwards, buying Moving Pictures, Permanent Waves and by the time I got to Hemispheres I was a full fledged RUSH Fan. Hemispheres just blew me away! Anyway I saw Rush in concert for the 1st time during the Signals tour and loved every moment, Specially Countdown! However, I and was very disappointed they didn't play Losing It which would become my favorite Rush Song of all time! Time went by,  then Grace Under Pressure came out and I can say I pretty much learned every song off that album which had keyboards the rest is history. I'm very happy I finally Got to see Losing It played live at least in Video. God I miss these guys! 

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SIG was my first new Rush album after I got into the band just after MP came out. 

Until the end I got every new album on release day..SIG was the first. We hung out in front of the record store that day until the shipment came in.

Subdivisions, Analog, Countdown, Losing It.  My top 4 from the record. 

Edited by grep
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Over time, the unremastered Canadian Anthem CDs have gradually disappeared from my preferred master list as better masters pop up.  Right now, they're my choice for only a half dozen of the albums:

 

Rush - Canadian Anthem (haven't paid a whole lot of attention to this one)

FBN - Needledrop of the Gilbert Kong vinyl master (absolutely definitive and sadly will never be beaten since the master tape is lost)

CoS - Canadian Anthem (absolutely definitive, sounds amazing)

2112 - Canadian Anthem (haven't paid much attention to this one in years, there might be a better master out there)

AFTK - Canadian Anthem (definitive; all other unremastered discs are just level-shifted versions of the Canadian master)

Hemi - Audio Fidelity SACD

PeW - 2015 Magee (adds some much-needed bottom end oomph that I find lacking on the regular issue discs)

MP - West German/US Atomic (actually don't have a copy of this one myself, but it unambiguously won a blind listening test over at the Hoffman forums - if anyone has a rip that they'd like to share, please let me know...)

Signals - MFSL (absolutely definitive, a fantastic master - alternate mixdown that's missing some vocals in The Weapon, but seems to be better quality with noticeably less tape hiss)

p/g - Canadian Anthem (no strong opinion about this one)

PoW - 2015 Magee (definitive; Magee knocked it out of the park on this one, it explodes out of the speakers)

HYF - Any unremastered version (no really great options here, they all sound kind of blurry and muddy, it's just not a great mix)

Presto - My personal EQ adjusted version of the Audio Fidelity gold disc (added some low end and cut the upper mids)

RTB - Ditto.

CP - Audio Fidelity SACD

T4E - 2015 Magee

VT - A declipped and EQ adjusted version of the original master made by myself, MitA and SG2112 a decade and a half ago

S&A - 2015 Magee, in spite of it using inferior source material with some multichannel fold-downs for some songs that have audible phase issues (tells you how bad the original master was...)

CA - Whatever.  It sounds like ass no matter how you master it.

Edited by Rush Didact
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On 2/5/2023 at 12:42 PM, Rush Didact said:

Over time, the unremastered Canadian Anthem CDs have gradually disappeared from my preferred master list as better masters pop up.  Right now, they're my choice for only a half dozen of the albums:

 

Rush - Canadian Anthem (haven't paid a whole lot of attention to this one)

FBN - Needledrop of the Gilbert Kong vinyl master (absolutely definitive and sadly will never be beaten since the master tape is lost)

CoS - Canadian Anthem (absolutely definitive, sounds amazing)

2112 - Canadian Anthem (haven't paid much attention to this one in years, there might be a better master out there)

AFTK - Canadian Anthem (definitive; all other unremastered discs are just level-shifted versions of the Canadian master)

Hemi - Audio Fidelity SACD

PeW - 2015 Magee (adds some much-needed bottom end oomph that I find lacking on the regular issue discs)

MP - West German/US Atomic (actually don't have a copy of this one myself, but it unambiguously won a blind listening test over at the Hoffman forums - if anyone has a rip that they'd like to share, please let me know...)

Signals - MFSL (absolutely definitive, a fantastic master - alternate mixdown that's missing some vocals in The Weapon, but seems to be better quality with noticeably less tape hiss)

p/g - Canadian Anthem (no strong opinion about this one)

PoW - 2015 Magee (definitive; Magee knocked it out of the park on this one, it explodes out of the speakers)

HYF - Any unremastered version (no really great options here, they all sound kind of blurry and muddy, it's just not a great mix)

Presto - My personal EQ adjusted version of the Audio Fidelity gold disc (added some low end and cut the upper mids)

RTB - Ditto.

CP - Audio Fidelity SACD

T4E - 2015 Magee

VT - A declipped and EQ adjusted version of the original master made by myself, MitA and SG2112 a decade and a half ago

S&A - 2015 Magee, in spite of it using inferior source material with some multichannel fold-downs for some songs that have audible phase issues (tells you how bad the original master was...)

CA - Whatever.  It sounds like ass no matter how you master it.

Wow, thank you Rush Didact - I will cut and paste this for further reference. That is a lot of research!

 

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On 9/9/2022 at 4:09 PM, Maverick said:

 

I'd go one album further and say Grace Under Pressure.  There is an amazing cohesion to that album.

Grace Under Pressure was the first album that took a little time to warm up to.  Signals was the last one I bought on the day of release and loved immediately.

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10 hours ago, Rick N. Backer said:

Grace Under Pressure was the first album that took a little time to warm up to.  Signals was the last one I bought on the day of release and loved immediately.

It had its high points for sure, but especially Digital Man and Chemistry drag a bit.  The worst thing about its predecessor was the length of the intro to The Camera Eye.   I was pretty disappointed when I heard it for the first time.

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