bigman208 Posted January 25, 2007 Share Posted January 25, 2007 Hello everyone, I'm a big fan of the classic Moog Taurus bass pedals used by various bands in the past like Genesis, The Police, U2, Styx, Yes, and of course those famous Canucks RUSH!!!!!! The huge, deep bass sound created by these monsters is IMO, untouched by any other instrument, and I was wondering does anyone own a set of these beasts?? If you do, feel free to post pics, I'd love to see them!!!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deadwing2112 Posted January 25, 2007 Share Posted January 25, 2007 Moogs are so awesome. And no I don't have one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rushfanNlv Posted January 25, 2007 Share Posted January 25, 2007 (edited) There was a thread by........can't remember.........(one of the dudes here who is lucky enough to be in a Rush tribute band me thinks) that talked about him actually finding one of these Moog Taurus Bass pedals in a store and getting to play with it for a good hour or so. To his supprise, he was unable to find or replicate the sounds that Geddy and Alex were getting form these pedals. It was later explained that one of the Rush techs had essentially created MIDI before it even existed by rigging these pedals up such that they would trigger the synths that Geddy was using. The synth is where the sound you like so much came from and not the Taurus pedals. They were simply a trigger. If anyone knows of the thread I am talking about, please link it here. Edited January 25, 2007 by rushfanNlv Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. Ludwig Posted January 26, 2007 Share Posted January 26, 2007 (edited) Well, the bass sounds that you heard that are synthesized were most likely the Taurus pedals, but yes, back in the day they did use them to trigger other synths as well. There's an excellent VSTi plugin that emulates the pedals's sound quite accurately: Antti's Site... I can call up most of the synth bass sounds by Rush with either the presets Taurus or Bass. Earth-shattering sound, really. I can't get enough! Oh yeah, I used the Taurus plugin on a song that I slapped together to try out the PPG Wave plugin, if you check out my MySpace page you can hear it. Just click on the song called "The Enemy Within Unmixed"... Warning though, no real drums! Just MIDI ones lol. The sampled China cymbal sounds nothing like the Wuhan on my kit. Oh well. Edited January 26, 2007 by Mr. Ludwig Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PW_Guitarist Posted January 26, 2007 Share Posted January 26, 2007 QUOTE (rushfanNlv @ Jan 25 2007, 02:51 PM) There was a thread by........can't remember.........(one of the dudes here who is lucky enough to be in a Rush tribute band me thinks) that talked about him actually finding one of these Moog Taurus Bass pedals in a store and getting to play with it for a good hour or so. To his supprise, he was unable to find or replicate the sounds that Geddy and Alex were getting form these pedals. It was later explained that one of the Rush techs had essentially created MIDI before it even existed by rigging these pedals up such that they would trigger the synths that Geddy was using. The synth is where the sound you like so much came from and not the Taurus pedals. They were simply a trigger. If anyone knows of the thread I am talking about, please link it here. That was me - here is the thread: http://www.therushforum.com/index.php?showtopic=17802 The bass sound that comes out of those things is amazing - deep, gut-churning analog bass that sounds like it will cause you to suddenly evacuate you bowels . However, as for the rest, the sounds were not too exciting. You would probably get more mileage out of a set of MIDI pedals with a good sound module, though none will likely give you deep bass like that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Posted January 27, 2007 Share Posted January 27, 2007 I know someone who has a set of Taurus 1 pedals. As he was using them in a Genesis tribute, they were ideal for that, since Mike Rutherford wasn't trying to do what Alex or Geddy were doing with them by the 80s. I used a set of Roland PK-5 pedals hooked up to a Roland Fantom XR. Sometimes I played patches on the Fantom, sometimes samples. My Taurus patches actually consisted of a Taurus sample combined with an almost subsonic bass patch - just to give it a depth that seemed to be missing from the sample. I noticed the price mentioned in that other thread was considered high, but recent ebay sales of Moog Taurus pedals have actually been at higher amounts. At these kind of prices, I'll stick with my (extremely reliable) PK5 and Fantom. Far more versatile and dependable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
the masked drummer Posted January 29, 2007 Share Posted January 29, 2007 We had them in our cover band in the 80's and I know there was a Rush Tribute band called "Alias Axis" that used them, also. I haven't seen any local bands since then that had actual Moog Taurus pedals. MIDI would be the way to do that in recent years. Those Moog pedals were analog (not compatible with midi). It was just a pedal board with a mic-type stand you screw into the top and the synth was mounted ontop of the mic stand. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LeChuck Posted July 18, 2010 Share Posted July 18, 2010 Late coming to this thread, but I've got a set of Taurus (I) pedals. There is a preset called 'Taurus' that is the main sound used in Rush - great floor-shaking bass, with slightly detuned / beating oscillators to give that swirling effect. There is also a foot slider to adjust the filter cutoff frequency .. so you can turn it down to a pretty clean and pure bass sound. There is a 'Variable' section too with some limited synth programming options - range (low/med/high), resonance/emphasis, filter sweeping, etc. The 'high' range goes pretty high, considering that these are meant to be bass pedals. You can hear Geddy using the 'Variable' section on a handful of tunes until he started triggering the Oberheims circa Permanent Waves. Hard to describe the difference in sound between the Taurus and Oberheims, but some examples are Xanadu (e.g. during the cowbell/guitar break), Cygnus X-1 (both books), and Cinderella Man. LeChuck Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jdouglas Posted July 18, 2010 Share Posted July 18, 2010 MOOG TAURUS 1 Analog Bass Pedal Synthesizer Demo on UTube I have the Soundcity/JEN analog bass pedals, they are nice but you pretty much just get the one good bass sound, not all the Taurusy stuff. I just hook a small digitech MFX to it if I want crazy effects with it. http://www.retrosound.de/slm-basspedal.jpg Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
the masked drummer Posted July 19, 2010 Share Posted July 19, 2010 My old bassist had these back in the 80's, but they were the cheaper taurus 2 ones. They are a pretty cool invention imho. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. Krinkle Posted July 19, 2010 Share Posted July 19, 2010 Here's mine. 9/11/79. Serial # T 2615. http://i289.photobucket.com/albums/ll215/TPesch2112/79MoogTaurus.jpg Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
the masked drummer Posted July 19, 2010 Share Posted July 19, 2010 QUOTE (Mr. Krinkle @ Jul 18 2010, 08:45 PM) Here's mine. 9/11/79. Serial # T 2615. http://i289.photobucket.com/albums/ll215/TPesch2112/79MoogTaurus.jpg U rock! That's too kewl, man. (bowing as i type) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
the masked drummer Posted July 19, 2010 Share Posted July 19, 2010 QUOTE (the masked drummer @ Jul 18 2010, 07:13 PM) My old bassist had these back in the 80's, but they were the cheaper taurus 2 ones. They are a pretty cool invention imho. oops, i didn't realize i already posted a while back. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonfiredaman02 Posted July 20, 2010 Share Posted July 20, 2010 QUOTE (Mr. Krinkle @ Jul 18 2010, 08:45 PM) Here's mine. 9/11/79. Serial # T 2615. http://i289.photobucket.com/albums/ll215/TPesch2112/79MoogTaurus.jpg I HATE YOU SO MUCH RIGHT NOW By the way, those are beautiful. How did you manage to come by them? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. Krinkle Posted July 20, 2010 Share Posted July 20, 2010 (edited) QUOTE (jonfiredaman02 @ Jul 19 2010, 10:41 PM) QUOTE (Mr. Krinkle @ Jul 18 2010, 08:45 PM) Here's mine. 9/11/79. Serial # T 2615. http://i289.photobucket.com/albums/ll215/TPesch2112/79MoogTaurus.jpg I HATE YOU SO MUCH RIGHT NOW By the way, those are beautiful. How did you manage to come by them? I called all over the U.S. back around 1992 or so looking for them. I got lucky when a person at a musical instrument store somewhere around the Chicago area (where I'm from) told me that he knew someone in Bollingbrook, IL that had a set and might want to part with them. He gave me his number, the guy said he'd be willing to sell them and the next day I had them in my hands for................... $400.00. A friggin' STEAL! I couldn't run away from that house any faster. They are as mint as the day thy were made. 100% perfect working order. Edited July 20, 2010 by Mr. Krinkle Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonfiredaman02 Posted July 20, 2010 Share Posted July 20, 2010 QUOTE (Mr. Krinkle @ Jul 19 2010, 10:51 PM) I called all over the U.S. back around 1992 or so looking for them. I got lucky when a person at a musical instrument store somewhere around the Chicago area (where I'm from) told me that he knew someone in Bollingbrook, IL that had a set and might want to part with them. He gave me his number, the guy said he'd be willing to sell them and the next day I had them in my hands for................... $400.00. A friggin' STEAL! I couldn't run away from that house any faster. They are as mint as the day thy were made. 100% perfect working order. I thought I hated you before, but now it's just this burning rage of destruction. Damn, $400? That guy was insane! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Distant Signals Posted July 20, 2010 Share Posted July 20, 2010 I just scored a Roland PK-5 pedal set. Can't wait to get it and play around with it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Test4Eggo Posted July 21, 2010 Share Posted July 21, 2010 Man. I've been wanting a Rickenbacker, but these things are awesome, not as much as a Ric, but awesome still!! Anyone getting a Moog Taurus 3???? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LeChuck Posted July 24, 2010 Share Posted July 24, 2010 I love my Taurus I pedals, but the contacts are terrible. Besides being made from a metal (silver?) that tarnishes quickly, they are completely exposed on the underside (allowing grime to easily get in). And since it's monophonic, one bad contact can kill all the pedals above it. LeChuck Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. Krinkle Posted July 24, 2010 Share Posted July 24, 2010 (edited) Edited July 24, 2010 by Mr. Krinkle Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LeChuck Posted July 24, 2010 Share Posted July 24, 2010 QUOTE It's a delicate job. I know. I just cleaned mine last week. It took me an hour and a half. (inbetween sips of iced tea) Yep, I usually use a combination of Tarn-X (for detarnishing) and isopropyl alcohol. I'll have to give the sandpaper strips a try, getting under the buss bars is the hard part. I usually use that fat floss that's meant for people wearing braces/retainers; it can soak up the alcohol good for scrubbing, and the stiff floss ends make it easy to thread under the bars. One of these days I'll get around to replacing the contact/bars with something more reliable. It's really the only downside to the Taurus I design in my opinion. LeChuck Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. Krinkle Posted July 25, 2010 Share Posted July 25, 2010 (edited) http://cgi.ebay.com/Moog-Taurus-1-Bass-Ped...=item45f2ffc8a1 http://cgi.ebay.com/Moog-Taurus-1-Vintage-...=item1c143dac34 Get em' while the're hot. Edited July 25, 2010 by Mr. Krinkle Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
papaheavypsy Posted July 27, 2010 Share Posted July 27, 2010 Two sets of Taurus pedals and a Ric, oh my! http://i209.photobucket.com/albums/bb69/cyberdudeproductions/MPtourgeddy.jpg Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LeChuck Posted July 27, 2010 Share Posted July 27, 2010 Two questions I've had lately are .. - How did he start/stop the sequencer parts? - How did they switch between having the Taurus pedals function normally vs acting as triggers to the Oberheim? There's a couple panels with buttons/switches on them in that pic (two on the Taurus pedals, two on the right side of the stand), I'm guessing those had something to do with it. Anyone know? LeChuck Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. Krinkle Posted July 27, 2010 Share Posted July 27, 2010 You got me there. But to do those things back in 1979-80 was pretty high-tech, you gotta' admit. RUSH. Way ahead of their time. 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