Alex's back-up vocals??

[chemistry1973]

There are some boots from the mid 80s or early 90s where you can hear Alex sing actual harmonies. That fell by the wayside pretty quickly though. It started to look pretty silly watching him mouth backing vocals to 18 Geddy Lees.

[goose]

The CBC live broadcasting of RUSH's performance at the 2003 Toronto Rocks SARS benefit concert is where you can really hear Alex's background vocals during the performance. If anyone sees the video on YouTube with the CBC logo on the bottom right, it means this is the version that wasn't edited.

 

Whereas the truncated performance on the DVD release is mixed where Alex's mic is removed and Geddy's background vocals added.

@ 11:25 on, Alex singing in Dreamline

 

[grasbo]

Maybe Geddy also uses a harmoniser as well as the triggered samples on the vocals, i have also wondered about this!

We have used a harmoniser in our band.The easiest way to describe it is think of Brian May multi layered guitar parts but for vocals instead.It can bet set higher and lower registers from the original vocal.It also thickens up the sound.We quit using it because our singer kept on getting disoriented with it.There are many variations/names for this gadget (I have a bass octavier pedal) .Its all over later day Rush concerts vids

[chemistry1973]

Maybe Geddy also uses a harmoniser as well as the triggered samples on the vocals, i have also wondered about this!

We have used a harmoniser in our band.The easiest way to describe it is think of Brian May multi layered guitar parts but for vocals instead.It can bet set higher and lower registers from the original vocal.It also thickens up the sound.We quit using it because our singer kept on getting disoriented with it.There are many variations/names for this gadget (I have a bass octavier pedal) .Its all over later day Rush concerts vids

 

I played in a band where the singer had one of these - nothing like harmonized terrible vocals!

[Ron2112]

Great topic.

 

I recall a friend of mine who worked in radio mentioning to me (many years ago) that he'd heard isolated recordings of Alex's singing during live shows..... and that they weren't all that flattering.

 

I suppose it would be possible to isolate Alex's vocal mic, and it'd be interesting to hear it. I wonder if anything of the sort can be found online?

 

There are scanner-sourced bootlegs out there from the RTB tour with Alex's vocal feed in the forefront. it's pretty obvious why they keep his volume just above the point of audibility.