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Hemispheres "too high"?


Scottjf8
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I'm watching the bonus features that came on the Lighted Stage bluray and when talking about the recording of "Hemispheres" both Terry and Ged said it came our "too high".

 

How does this happen? I know nothing about how records are made. Did Ged just sing it too high? Or did he sing how he wants to and Terry didn't record it right?

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Sounds perfect to me. I think they were too high.

 

i think so too.......i can't listen to it. Gimme side 2 of that album anyday. Perfect side, BTW.....Side 2 i mean,

 

Mick

 

Exactly what Steve Wilson said. That man is a genius at getting things right.

 

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Ok...TROLL ALERT!!

 

Hemispheres is a great, greeeat, GREEEEEEAAAAAT song...but dat voice mun! So sharp it could open tins...

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Bands usually have dates to get albums done by, they also have to pay for the studio time. If something didn't turn out right with the production it's possible the band just ran out of time and the producer couldn't go back and touch things up more. If Geddy is referring to the vocals, yes, they are extremely high. I've heard boots from the tour where Geddy was singing rediculously high, i'm not sure how he hit those notes night after night.
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They recorded the music, in too high a key, before Geddy recorded his vocals. It was too late to re-record the music in a lower key, so Geddy had to sing the entire album at the very top of his singing range.
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As I understand it, the key of the song is really high, and Geddy didn't realize just how high it is until they were in the throes of recording, and it was probably too late in the game to change it. When the boys pulled out 'Circumstances' on the Time Machine tour, it was played in a lower key, so Geddy could sing it without breaking his balls, so to speak. Kudos to him for singing Hemispheres song in their original key when they were touring that album, because, holy heck, those songs are high. I think Geddy paid a lot more attention to the key of songs after that!
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In bursts Hemispheres can be done. Until he went to do the whole thing he didn't realize how relentless it was being at the very top of his range. That tour killed Geddy. 200+ shows doing that song PLUS all of the albums before it. There was no break in the night. Had to be tough.

 

We do Hemispheres Prelude and even that short amount of time it is tough. I'm trying to build up so we can also do Dionysus and Apollo.

Edited by KennyLee
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They recorded the music, in too high a key, before Geddy recorded his vocals. It was too late to re-record the music in a lower key, so Geddy had to sing the entire album at the very top of his singing range.

 

how does this happen? Clearly there must have sessions where they wrote and rehearsed the songs before they recorded them. Geddy didn't realize before the recording process that the key they wrote the songs in was really high?

 

I love the vocals in Hemispheres but they would have to drop the tuning if there was ever a chance of performing any of it live.

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They recorded the music, in too high a key, before Geddy recorded his vocals. It was too late to re-record the music in a lower key, so Geddy had to sing the entire album at the very top of his singing range.

 

^^^^

This.

 

They worked out the without considering if it was in a key Geddy would be able to sing comfortably.

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I don't even get what having "high key" music has to do with how high your vocals should sound? I know nothing about music terms and all that

 

Vocalists have ranges that they can sing in. If vocalist is really comfortable singing in, say, the key of C, but the song is written in Eb (E-flat), then the melody that goes along with chords in that key may be too high for the vocalist to sing. Sure, a vocalist could come up with an alternate melody using harmony lines, but that often sounds weird without the main lines. The other choice would be to sing the main melody in Eb but a full octave down, which can also be a challenge for a vocalist, depending on his range.

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They recorded the music, in too high a key, before Geddy recorded his vocals. It was too late to re-record the music in a lower key, so Geddy had to sing the entire album at the very top of his singing range.

 

how does this happen? Clearly there must have sessions where they wrote and rehearsed the songs before they recorded them. Geddy didn't realize before the recording process that the key they wrote the songs in was really high?

 

I love the vocals in Hemispheres but they would have to drop the tuning if there was ever a chance of performing any of it live.

Geddy screwed up, plain and simple.

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They recorded the music, in too high a key, before Geddy recorded his vocals. It was too late to re-record the music in a lower key, so Geddy had to sing the entire album at the very top of his singing range.

 

^^^^

This.

 

They worked out the without considering if it was in a key Geddy would be able to sing comfortably.

 

again how did they not realize this during rehearsals? I remember when I watched the documentary I was thinking "huh?"

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I don't even get what having "high key" music has to do with how high your vocals should sound? I know nothing about music terms and all that

 

Vocalists have ranges that they can sing in. If vocalist is really comfortable singing in, say, the key of C, but the song is written in Eb (E-flat), then the melody that goes along with chords in that key may be too high for the vocalist to sing. Sure, a vocalist could come up with an alternate melody using harmony lines, but that often sounds weird without the main lines. The other choice would be to sing the main melody in Eb but a full octave down, which can also be a challenge for a vocalist, depending on his range.

 

You said it better than I ever could.

 

A good example from the Rush catalog is 2112. Listen to the original version and then listen to any live version after 1996. You will notice that all of the notes have been lowered in pitch so that Geddy's lower vocals will be in tune with the rest of the song.

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They recorded the music, in too high a key, before Geddy recorded his vocals. It was too late to re-record the music in a lower key, so Geddy had to sing the entire album at the very top of his singing range.

 

^^^^

This.

 

They worked out the without considering if it was in a key Geddy would be able to sing comfortably.

 

again how did they not realize this during rehearsals? I remember when I watched the documentary I was thinking "huh?"

 

I think it had something to do with how challenging the instrumentation was on that album. I'll bet that Geddy was putting all of his focus on perfecting the bass lines, that he didn't even think about how he was gonna sing it. At that point I think that he was probably taking his voice for granted. As he said, he never even tried to sing it before the instruments were all recorded.

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They recorded the music, in too high a key, before Geddy recorded his vocals. It was too late to re-record the music in a lower key, so Geddy had to sing the entire album at the very top of his singing range.

 

how does this happen? Clearly there must have sessions where they wrote and rehearsed the songs before they recorded them. Geddy didn't realize before the recording process that the key they wrote the songs in was really high?

 

I love the vocals in Hemispheres but they would have to drop the tuning if there was ever a chance of performing any of it live.

 

According to Geddy, Hemispheres (the whole album) was basically written in the studio. They had nothing going in (though it might be fair to assume they probably had some instrumental bits and pieces roughly worked out from sound check jams and such.)

 

So yeah, they work out this awesome 20-minute piece, record it, studio time's ticking away and they've gotta get back out on the road soon and Geddy's now ready to do the vocals and... uh oh!

 

The experience of recording Hemispheres was a turning point for the band in a few different ways. Not only did they decide to chuck the epic-length songs, but they also decided from that point on to slow things down a bit and do more pre-production work before going into the studio proper. ;)

Edited by Bangster of Goats
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Did you guys see on the RushCon tribute band thing that a band submitted Hemispheres Prelude as one of their songs? It is cool but I don't know what the part before it is. It's not on the studio album and I've never heard them do it live. I've been googling live Hemispheres and their ain't much out there for it.
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In bursts Hemispheres can be done. Until he went to do the whole thing he didn't realize how relentless it was being at the very top of his range. That tour killed Geddy. 200+ shows doing that song PLUS all of the albums before it. There was no break in the night. Had to be tough.

 

We do Hemispheres Prelude and even that short amount of time it is tough. I'm trying to build up so we can also do Dionysus and Apollo.

 

can la villa strangiato be considered a break?

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They recorded the music, in too high a key, before Geddy recorded his vocals. It was too late to re-record the music in a lower key, so Geddy had to sing the entire album at the very top of his singing range.

 

how does this happen? Clearly there must have sessions where they wrote and rehearsed the songs before they recorded them. Geddy didn't realize before the recording process that the key they wrote the songs in was really high?

 

I love the vocals in Hemispheres but they would have to drop the tuning if there was ever a chance of performing any of it live.

 

According to Geddy, Hemispheres (the whole album) was basically written in the studio. They had nothing going in (though it might be fair to assume they probably had some instrumental bits and pieces roughly worked out from sound check jams and such.)

 

So yeah, they work out this awesome 20-minute piece, record it, studio time's ticking away and they've gotta get back out on the road soon and Geddy's now ready to do the vocals and... uh oh!

 

The experience of recording Hemispheres was a turning point for the band in a few different ways. Not only did they decide to chuck the epic-length songs, but they also decided from that point on to slow things down a bit and do more pre-production work before going into the studio proper. ;)

 

I just wonder why they didn't rewrite the melodies in order to be more easy to sing. It just seems bizarre that he was "forced" to sing certain melodies.

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In bursts Hemispheres can be done. Until he went to do the whole thing he didn't realize how relentless it was being at the very top of his range. That tour killed Geddy. 200+ shows doing that song PLUS all of the albums before it. There was no break in the night. Had to be tough.

 

We do Hemispheres Prelude and even that short amount of time it is tough. I'm trying to build up so we can also do Dionysus and Apollo.

 

can la villa strangiato be considered a break?

 

Apparently, yes it can:

 

1break

 

verb \ˈbrāk\

 

: to separate (something) into parts or pieces often in a sudden and forceful or violent way

: to cause (a bone) to separate into two or more pieces

: to open suddenly especially because of pressure from inside

: best song ever written

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