'La Villa' by 1-0-0-1 and Cyg

[1-0-0-1-0-0-1]

I tell ya, if I were doing this strictly for the fanfare I'd be a little disappointed about some of the comments in this thread. I mean really, have you ever seen a cover song thread with this many posts and this much "controversy" over the guitar part?

 

Luckily for me my relative lack of ego keeps me firmly planted in reality. This was my first ever "serious" recording project, and I went into this knowing I wasn't going to come out of it sounding like Alex, either in guitar tone and playing ability. I'm just not at that level, though my bandmate on this song certainly is. In the end I think we payed this song the proper respect, but I still feel like Cyg is carrying me. And that's okay -- he has tons more experience at recording and performing than I do. And yeah, as jdouglas hinted at, if Pete did the guitar part it'd be a slamdunk, and I'll be the first to admit that.

 

I think my playing and gear has improved a lot since I recorded this -- most of this was done three years ago -- and I would love another crack at it. But this song is a snapshot of where me and Cyg were at the time, and it came out good enough to know that we can do other projects. And we will. And like with this song, we'll do it for ourselves -- for the sake of doing it. If other people happen to like it, then that'll be a bonus.

 

Of course, there have been plenty of nice comments said as well, and those are much appreciated.

[jdouglas]

nah, I think it's 3 pages of very positive comments for both of you, and only one page of I don't know what.

 

For the record, this is the closest / most accurate La Villa cover...tone, notes, it's all there...I'd always swear my CD player is on when I hear this...

 

[1-0-0-1-0-0-1]

QUOTE (jdouglas @ Jun 2 2010, 04:10 PM)

nah, I think it's 3 pages of very positive comments for both of you, and only one page of I don't know what. For the record, this is the closest / most accurate La Villa cover...tone, notes, it's all there...I'd always swear my CD player is on when I hear this... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqCVTFEk6_M

That was indeed EPIC.

[_pete_]

QUOTE (1-0-0-1-0-0-1 @ Jun 2 2010, 08:05 AM)

There are several songs where Alex plays the same solo every show, and it's the same solo he recorded on the original studio track. "Tom Sawyer" is one such track. So is "Between The Wheels." Those are trademark solos, and plays them as written every night. "La Villa" is not one of those songs. He follows an outline each time he plays those two solos, but improvises inside of that. As Fridge said, listening to various live versions of this song that have been recorded over the years will illustrate that. With both solos in that song, they have similarities from one show to the next, but they're never exactly the same.

You can add Bastille Day, ByTor, and Working Man to the "not always the same" list also.

Dreamline's solo changes up a bit too.

 

[_pete_]

QUOTE (jdouglas @ Jun 2 2010, 03:10 PM)

nah, I think it's 3 pages of very positive comments for both of you, and only one page of I don't know what. For the record, this is the closest / most accurate La Villa cover...tone, notes, it's all there...I'd always swear my CD player is on when I hear this... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqCVTFEk6_M

Wow.

I almost made it a full minute.

[ChroniclesOfRush]

QUOTE (jdouglas @ May 27 2010, 06:03 PM)

QUOTE (ChroniclesOfRush @ May 27 2010, 02:33 PM) To jdouglas: Just spare me the whole "man great job errereeeer" crap. If it sucks say it. Honesty is always the best thing in my book. I did listen to a live version you guys did of Bytor a few months back. I thought it was an enjoyable listen, the guitar tone was a bit "triple rectifier" sounding for my taste, but that's just what I prefer..good for the Foo Fighters, not for Lifeson; but I know how those live recording devices all suck so I pretty much chalked it up to that. 1001 tone had the highs rolled off much smoother, which I prefer, that's what I meant by "creamy" overdrive, but his was also studio work, not live so it's not apples/apples comparison.   The bytor solo was good, not note for note by the record, but I wouldn't expect it to be, that's another song were as long as you hit the key phases and you have fun ripping it's good by me. You took some liberties with the wah that I thought we kinda cool, gotta go with the flow, I understand that.   You know, going back and listening to the old bootlegs from the 70s even Lifeson doesn't sound like the record (which are all at least triple layered), so I'm not one for being a snob or fanboy about such things. Even when I played in a tribute band I didn't take it as seriously as most of you folks do; I was just in it for the fun (cause the money sucked). My then live-in girlfriend had a strict "no crapload of gear" policy, so I played direct to the house PA from a MFX. but I didn't really care at the time, It was just some fun on a saturday night for me. Now I own almost every authentic piece of his gear from his 1980 rig (less the CE1) and I've never even put it all together to see "how much I could sound like Lifeson" go figure.   You might be booked for the rest of the year, I just went off the gigs listed on your website. Good luck with those gigs.   Thanks for listening! My tone has always been up people's collective asses since I started this band back in '05. Early RUSH to me is pure metal. My tone and approach to early RUSH is that of 'if Alex had some real gear at his disposal what would his metal sound like'? I like my metal tone like my woman: loud and screechy and it always sounds the same to me regardless - wah wah wah.   Later stuff tone sounds like this:   http://chroniclesofrush.com/media/index.cf...m=Freewill_LIVE   A little more "creamy" I guess?   Getting to the faithful reproduction of RUSH:   Not to get off on a rant but I have seen RUSH 30+ times in my life. Almost EVERY show I have left with some disapointment. By biggest bitch is NOT playing the older stuff which we all grew up learning and loving. A two minute medley is bullshit in my book. By-Tor for instance we come up 2 seconds short of the studio version. Not unlike Eggo it is a blend of live performances and the studio. The funeral durge always makes me bubble up inside so much so that when it comes time for the solo and that drum crescendo I am ready to explode. Our fans appreciate that more than anything. No medlies. Not ever.   As far as the site being updated we've taken a bit of a mini-break to regroup. I am a web developer by trade so it took me a bit of time to whip up a script that automagically updates shows and times. Go the the events tab and you'll see everything we have booked moving forward from here. We have about 5 that are tentative and just waiting for some contracts to come through the fax machine to be signed.   If you can ever come and see this live and in action you might have a greater appreciation for what I'm trying to do. It sound balls-to-the-wall live and in person. Besides it would be great to talk to a brother-in-arms about RUSH guitar and all things involved.   Be good,   RCD

[Dweezil]

Well done!

 

And to f**k with the guy that dissed the second solo thingamabob.

I enjoyed it.

[BassLik]

QUOTE (CygnusX-1Bk2 @ May 20 2010, 04:24 AM)

Well, some of you may have known, but many did not, that sometime after R30 (Yes, that long ago... Rush has toured twice since then) us two Jims, 1-0-0-1 and myself, decided to do a coast to coast recording project, as a trial for fun. This was before the TRF Musicians album was proposed. When that came to light we decided to keep our project on the down low because we were attempting to tackle a monster... La Villa. I did the drum tracks so long ago that I have upgraded my recording rig twice since! Jim and I met in Vegas for the first leg S&A show and I came equipped with DVDs full of drum, bass, and keyboard tracks as well as my session data and handed them off to Jim in the LV airport as we departed Sin City for our respective home states. We were both rather busy and time just kept going by. I would occasionally get PMs stating that someone was close to recording rhythm guitars. Then I got them months later. Same thing for the solos. I think I finally got the final solo delivery about 7 months to a year ago. Maybe a bit more. Then it was time to mix. I had to do this between delivering a couple of different game projects then I delayed further as I was having new edit suites built at my office and I wanted to mix in that environment. That proved a challenge in itself, getting the room and gear tuned. Because I work in Sound Effects my work needs are different than if I made music all the time, and that showed a bit in the mix. We had intended from the outset to ask launch to help out with mastering the track, because that is one of the things he does, and well I might add. We got that from him a couple months ago. But Mr. Digits and I were hearing things, or not hearing things in some respects. Then after thinking and listening, and thinking too much it became clear that when listening to other commercially produced material we decided that what we weren't hearing was the warmth of the analog realm. No matter how good we thought the track was, it was still very digital sounding. So I broke out my old 4 track tape machine and ran the mastered track through the analog process; recording the digital track to analog tape then digitizing the result. And voila.... Here we are today (or tonight, or this morning depending where you are). It is our version, not necessarily the Hemispheres version, nor the ESL, nor any other. It is far from perfect. Just me and Jim having some fun. I played drums, bass, and keys. The bass was recorded into a Millennia preamp straight into ProTools back in my old office at Activision. The drums were done at my old place and the keys were done at a couple places. Jim did the guitars at his place in NY and launch did his bit in Az. You can download the file here to listen: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=I8ERFN88 It is a Windows Media Audio file so it should be player friendly. I tried to put it up at TRF but that was unavailable. We hope you like it.

That's one fantastic version of La Villa ((( WOW))), great job BRATHAS:

 

We did a version of our own last Sept. and never was happy with the synth patch I used, so I finally was a able to find a flutish type of snyth patch that's closer to the record. bare in mind this recording was the first time old friends for one day and tried stumbling through the song, and boy you can hear it (LOL), but it was great to get together after twenty years and try to play one our favorites tunes when we were teenagers. Well here's the the tune, and with a new intro flute type of snyth patch, yes I'm laughing with ya all, but we had fun for a day after twenty years not seeing each other.

 

http://www.myspace.com/basslik/music/playlists

[English Muffin]

1-0-0-1, could you please,please, PLEASE tab out the small section in the second solo that alex does on ESL???

 

 

 

And very good, the fact that its only 2 of you just makes it better

[1-0-0-1-0-0-1]

[English Muffin]

QUOTE (1-0-0-1-0-0-1 @ Jun 23 2010, 08:17 PM)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v318/1001001/guitar_tabs/la_villa_ESL_line.jpg

Thanks!

[papaheavypsy]

QUOTE (CygnusX-1Bk2 @ May 20 2010, 04:24 AM)

Well, some of you may have known, but many did not, that sometime after R30 (Yes, that long ago... Rush has toured twice since then) us two Jims, 1-0-0-1 and myself, decided to do a coast to coast recording project, as a trial for fun. This was before the TRF Musicians album was proposed. When that came to light we decided to keep our project on the down low because we were attempting to tackle a monster... La Villa. I did the drum tracks so long ago that I have upgraded my recording rig twice since! Jim and I met in Vegas for the first leg S&A show and I came equipped with DVDs full of drum, bass, and keyboard tracks as well as my session data and handed them off to Jim in the LV airport as we departed Sin City for our respective home states. We were both rather busy and time just kept going by. I would occasionally get PMs stating that someone was close to recording rhythm guitars. Then I got them months later. Same thing for the solos. I think I finally got the final solo delivery about 7 months to a year ago. Maybe a bit more. Then it was time to mix. I had to do this between delivering a couple of different game projects then I delayed further as I was having new edit suites built at my office and I wanted to mix in that environment. That proved a challenge in itself, getting the room and gear tuned. Because I work in Sound Effects my work needs are different than if I made music all the time, and that showed a bit in the mix. We had intended from the outset to ask launch to help out with mastering the track, because that is one of the things he does, and well I might add. We got that from him a couple months ago. But Mr. Digits and I were hearing things, or not hearing things in some respects. Then after thinking and listening, and thinking too much it became clear that when listening to other commercially produced material we decided that what we weren't hearing was the warmth of the analog realm. No matter how good we thought the track was, it was still very digital sounding. So I broke out my old 4 track tape machine and ran the mastered track through the analog process; recording the digital track to analog tape then digitizing the result.  And voila.... Here we are today (or tonight, or this morning depending where you are). It is our version, not necessarily the Hemispheres version, nor the ESL, nor any other. It is far from perfect. Just me and Jim having some fun. I played drums, bass, and keys. The bass was recorded into a Millennia preamp straight into ProTools back in my old office at Activision. The drums were done at my old place and the keys were done at a couple places. Jim did the guitars at his place in NY and launch did his bit in Az. You can download the file here to listen: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=I8ERFN88 It is a Windows Media Audio file so it should be player friendly. I tried to put it up at TRF but that was unavailable. We hope you like it.

Excellent cover!

One question: What was used to do the intro synth parts,Cyg?

Sounds great!

[BassLik]

Edited June 24, 2010 by BassLik

[CygnusX-1Bk2]

I used Reason (and a Roland XP-10) which is what I have been using with Trilogy. I started with Moog and Oberheim presets and modified them to be closer to the album tones. The Glockenspiel is a Reason sample. The airy C chord under the guitar is the Roland and everything else is Reason.

[CygnusX-1Bk2]

Oh and I relocated the track to TRF Musicians:

http://www.trfmusicians.com/index.php?opti...id=68&pageid=20

[treeduck]

sounds pretty good to my dumb ears and I'm not even the tea boy in a Rush tribute band, (though I pray every night that I will one day deliver hot beverages to part time musos).

 

Very nice!

 

 

 

(It's not really the 1001st take is it though?)

 

[elvtnedge]

QUOTE (jdouglas @ Jun 2 2010, 03:10 PM)

nah, I think it's 3 pages of very positive comments for both of you, and only one page of I don't know what. For the record, this is the closest / most accurate La Villa cover...tone, notes, it's all there...I'd always swear my CD player is on when I hear this... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqCVTFEk6_M

HA HA I work for a music distributor that supplies them, I know these guys!! The guy in the middle owns a guitar store and they have this once a year jam in the parking lot with the teachers and students. The bassist was told what song to learn the night before and doesn't even like rush. The kid on the right is the student of the music school and he wanted to play this. I was invited out to this but didn't go.

 

Good find, I gotta bug the owner about this when I get into work on monday!!