What ever happened to Geddy Lee's giant Oberheim/Moog Synth?

[tekkentool]

Subdivisions is my favorite song by them, how dare you!

There are plenty of Rush songs I don't care for. Entre Nous, Cyngus X-1/Hemispheres

I'm starting to see the problem.

Also I always kind of thought that 1980-1983 period of synthpop was wicked because they hadn't moved over entirely to synth only/drum machines yet so you got a cool load of crossover synthy pop things like Kim wilde, soft cell, Gary numan, Phill collins, rick james that actually aged pretty well IMO. I know I didn't live through the era so I'm getting beautiful tinted glasses of knowing only the well done s**t but I kind of like that sound, acoustic drum kits with synths and some guitar.

[Bitexion]

Duran Duran mixed riffing guitars with fake drums and synths, it was kind of unique too.
Most of these early 80s pop groups didn't have a good guitar player amongst their ranks. You'll especially hear it on live recordings.

[ronP]

I was under the impression that it was the rest of the band that pushed to do away with the synths.
Apparently poor Alex thought they were burying the guitar.

Yeah, and now his heavily-effected guitar layers bury the band's sound more than the synths ever did. His current racks dwarf Geddy's former sampler stack.

I think if Geddy had added, say, a P-08 to his Fantom and Little Phatty and used the Fantom just for samples and the analogs for old school manual play, this gripe would be muted, but he and the rest of RUSH do what they want, take it or leave it . . . And most take it!

[xanadu97]

Rush's use of synths was really good I think. Sure it started to go overboard on Hold Your Fire, even a bit on Power Windows but I love the synth stuff. To me its some of their most melodic and emotional work, musically and lyrically. Plus the synth sounds on Signals, specifically Subdivisions and Countdown, is a big eason the two synthesizers I want to own the most are the Oberheim OB-X and a Minimoog D. I honestly feel the people who only like up to Moving Pictures are really missing out (Moving Pictures is actually starting to become overrated, to me)

I'm not just saying that just because oh "its Rush and if its Rush I automatically like it", no I really do like that stuff lol. There are plenty of Rush songs I don't care for. Entre Nous, Cyngus X-1/Hemispheres I'm trying to get into but not really, Presto album I haven't been able to get into, all but 3 songs off Counterparts I don't care for, etc etc. I enjoy all musically periods of Rush.

My favorite Rush albums are 2112 to Signals. I don't like Entre Nous or Different Strings from Permanent Waves, but other than that I don't skip any songs from those albums. Live, they were the best in the '80s.

[xanadu97]

I was under the impression that it was the rest of the band that pushed to do away with the synths.
Apparently poor Alex thought they were burying the guitar.

Yeah, and now his heavily-effected guitar layers bury the band's sound more than the synths ever did. His current racks dwarf Geddy's former sampler stack.

I think if Geddy had added, say, a P-08 to his Fantom and Little Phatty and used the Fantom just for samples and the analogs for old school manual play, this gripe would be muted, but he and the rest of RUSH do what they want, take it or leave it . . . And most take it!

I don't think Alex's guitar buries anything, Geddy's bass is usually at least as loud. But the Prophet would be cool, especially since they're playing more of their '80s songs this tour.

[themilford]

I don't like Entre Nous or Different Strings"

Love those songs... Rush only wrote one truly awful song in their 70/80s tenure and that's "Tai Shan"... f**k hideous.

After counterparts I kinda gave up... I really kinda hate Test for Echo and Vapor Trails...

I even love Presto.

[tekkentool]

I think they were hit and miss in the 70's then lost the bat and started facing backwards sometime in the 80's but that's just my opinion man. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[OB-XaMinimoog]

Subdivisions is my favorite song by them, how dare you!

There are plenty of Rush songs I don't care for. Entre Nous, Cyngus X-1/Hemispheres

I'm starting to see the problem.

Also I always kind of thought that 1980-1983 period of synthpop was wicked because they hadn't moved over entirely to synth only/drum machines yet so you got a cool load of crossover synthy pop things like Kim wilde, soft cell, Gary numan, Phill collins, rick james that actually aged pretty well IMO. I know I didn't live through the era so I'm getting beautiful tinted glasses of knowing only the well done s**t but I kind of like that sound, acoustic drum kits with synths and some guitar.

Thats just me. But maybe I just need to listen the Cygnus series more, if I listen to it enough a bunch of times it'll eventually start to grow on me. I've never cared for The Trees until recently now I really like that song. h**l, I think thats partly how I got into the band lol.

And I agree early, synthpop is actually good, I like it. But when people started using like Drum machines primarily I think it got pretty cheesy sounding. I'm not a big band of drum machines like that, though. I just like Synths.

I was under the impression that it was the rest of the band that pushed to do away with the synths.
Apparently poor Alex thought they were burying the guitar.

Yeah, and now his heavily-effected guitar layers bury the band's sound more than the synths ever did. His current racks dwarf Geddy's former sampler stack.

I think if Geddy had added, say, a P-08 to his Fantom and Little Phatty and used the Fantom just for samples and the analogs for old school manual play, this gripe would be muted, but he and the rest of RUSH do what they want, take it or leave it . . . And most take it!

When I saw Rush back in September I thought the sound was balances fairly well actually. Yeah Alex's guitar did stick out but it didn't like dominate the sound. It does suck that Geddy seems to have dismissed the whole Synth period of Rush, in my opinion that was some of their best work.

P08 would be awesome! Too bad Oberheim isn't making any new Polysynths because that would be kickass to see Geddy playing an OB again. And instead of the Fatty it'd be neat for him to use a Voyager old school, its closer to a Minimoog D.

[Cumulus]

on a tangentally-related note- I read an article where Neil Peart said he was no longer enamoured with the writings of Ayn Rand.

Like a lot of folks, that stuff really resonated with him when he was younger but no longer holds any fascination for him. In the article he described himself as a "bleeding heart Libertarian".

[Carey M]

on a tangentally-related note- I read an article where Neil Peart said he was no longer enamoured with the writings of Ayn Rand.

Phew! I guess I don't have to feel that awkward anymore when I listen to Rush

[ronP]

on a tangentally-related note- I read an article where Neil Peart said he was no longer enamoured with the writings of Ayn Rand.

Like a lot of folks, that stuff really resonated with him when he was younger but no longer holds any fascination for him. In the article he described himself as a "bleeding heart Libertarian".

.


Yes, true.

Mr. Peart is now a vocal fan of thick, mostly politically-correct, novels by safe literary darlings such as Barbara Kingsolver and the ubiquitous McSweeny's publishing entrepeneur, Dave Eggers.


.

[Promark747]

Ok I had to register here just to reply to this. I think Rush' best album is signals. I love it . Still do always will, and subdivisions is one of my favorite songs by any artist , ever. At the time it was the weirdest thing I'd ever heard on fm rock radio. And at the same time accessible and alluring. The opening synth lines just draw you in, and the emotion of the lyrics perfectly matches the music. It's their zenith . I think they went to far, hold you fire I never listen too, some of presto is very good, roll the bones I don't like at all. Counterparts is too heavy and dense and lacking any depth, and the title song is the only song on tfe I really like. However they came back strong as songwriters this last 15 years, beginning with some VT and SAnd A , and clockwork angels is a better record than anything outside of their 76-82 heyday. The synths were great until they depended on them too much, a great song should sound good on a toy piano. Without a great song it doesn't matter what you play it on. Digital man on signals is a perfect blend of analog and digital. Analog kid. Countdown . The weapon, why you think about the pressure they had in following up moving pictures...its just an achievement that impressed me tremendously.

[cornutt]

Well, since I apparently missed the original thread... I give then 2112 to Power Windows as their most productive period. Obviously not all of this was synth based, but most of it was. Roll the Bones was where they hit their "we're not really sure what we're doing anymore" moment. Clockwork Angels is probably the best of the post-Power Windows period. It has little to do with electronic music, though. Why they feel that they now have to rag on the synth stuff is beyond me -- why can't they just say, "Hey, we're proud of that music, we think it was some of our best work, but that's not what we're into now." That would be perfectly understandable.

As far as the Eight Voice... no, I have no idea what happened to it. I do know, though, that playing one on stage must have been a PITA. The patch memory circuitry in the Four/Eight Voice machines was kind of a kluge; it basically just connected to each SEM's existing CV/gate interfaces, and so it was not capable of controlling all parameters. Every time you changed patches, there would be a few things that you'd have to set by hand on each SEM.

[synthRodriguez]

Power Windows baby.