Bank “M” presets are gone, erased & replaced with 4 of my own, and in less than 2 hours, I will be playing them on stage for the first time. During soundcheck, beer bottles were dancing on tables, various pieces of “art” were falling off the club’s walls and customer’s heads were “gophering” all the way in the back, trying to see what was making that sound. My guitarist & drummer were staring slack-jawed at the T-3s in disbelief, and all my singer could say was “Holy Cr@p!” Gonna be a good night…
EPIC! Mine should be here on Monday!!!
We’re going to need a full gig report of course.
Curious, are you playing through house PA or your own cabinets? If so, wha are you pushing and what with?
Also interested to hear what type of music you are play. Originals? IIRC you guys are a 3 piece doing some Rush covers?
-Mike W. from NJ
Or perhaps some early Genesis???
We play covers with a few originals mixed in - covers with Taurus parts include “Limelight”, “Spirit of Radio”, “White Room”,“Dead or Alive”, “Sound of Madness” and a few others, as well some original stuff. We play a mix of classic & modern rock, and metal, and we try & keep sections danceable. and The gig went great, and I’m posting a link to my photobucket album - the first 5 pix are from the gig. Taurus go straight to the PA (ours, there is no house system at this club), and I also have a 400-watt SWR Headlite amp driving a single "15 JBL in a Sonic cab (sitting left of the beefy Phil Jones bass amp) for a stage monitor. Man, the new Taurus sound friggin great with a few thousand watts behind them!
Hey superd I’d really love to hear the details of how you use the T3 on the Rush songs! We want to cover some Rush and Id like to get as close as possible to the originals, but I’ll admit I am fairly new to the whole synth thing.
I am wondering what settings you are using for Limelight in particular as the synth parts in that song (specifically the chorus/solo) seem to be higher than the octave setting on my T3 allows for. Also what preset you use for the synth notes in the intro. La Villa and Xanadu are some other ones I’m trying to figure out how to get the higher-register sound for
Thanks!
Factorplayer, glad to help - the Rush presets are all ones I wrote myself. PM me your email address, & I’ll email you a photocopy of my Limelight patch. I have Friday off, so I’ll jot the settings down on the Taurus 3 patch template I downloaded from Knobtweak, scan it into my PC, and email it to you. Meanwhile, I suggest you start tweaking one of the factory presets so you will have an idea of how to change and store your own patches. Don’t worry, its pretty easy, and if you lose or mess up a factory patch that you want back, you can always do a reboot and restore all of the factory sounds. Talk to you Friday.
Update - I sent you the Limelight patch, and posted it on Knobtweak & the T-3 microsite for anyone interested. Enjoy!
All of that high string stuff on Permanent Waves, Moving Pictures, and Signals was an Oberheim 8 voice, so trying to emulate it will be impossible. 16 oscillators in unison mode would be the answer. I hope you have a good tech, and lots of money. Geddy’s tech, Jack Secret devised a way for him to trigger the 8 voice via the Moog Taurus 1. By the way, I have a set of Taurus 1’s that date January of 1975, and I also had a manual that was printed in November of 1974. I ordered #450, so all of the kinks will be out of the Taurus 3’s by then. I just hope they sound as beefy as the original, but if they don’t, I’m sitting on 2 sets of Taurus 1’s that will bring 7K or more each…but I doubt I would sell them at that price. I would sample 16 tracks of Oberheim SEM’s, mix it down to 2 tracks panned L and R, and then trigger it via the Taurus 3’s.
Thanks yeti, I am probably going to go with a V-Machine running OP-X pro for the Obie sounds, controlled with a Roland PK… wish me luck!
Yeti,
I wouldn’t count on that 7k profit anymore. Im telling you I have been watching the market on these pedals and actually considered getting a set myself. The ultimate time for some ebay rapeage was the period just before the T3 announcement I saw a set of T1’s last week with a buy it now price for 1000. Why would anyone in their right minds pay 4k or even more than 2k when they can get a brand new set with midi, cv control and a warranty for under 2? I understand the vintage aspect, but I think for now at least the days of getting 4k or more for the T1s won’t come around again for a time.
I could be mistaken on this, but they have definately been coming down. I saw a Moog rogue and a set of T2 pedals selling for like 850 for both seperately, and 1200 for a whole set of t2’s that were together on a different auction.
Eric
Factorplayer, your Taurus 3 is as good a midi pedal controller as the PK-5 (which I also own), with the added ability to play their own internal sounds. Give my patch a try - for the majority of the song, it pretty much nails the sound. For the high strings sound over the solo section, I use a string patch from my Roland JP-8000, also played from the T-3, and again, it nails the sound. Yeti, (who also posts under several other names, including Kimber) may try & steer you away from the Taurus 3s, as he is seemingly bitter over having paid too much for several sets of old Taurus 1s - an investment he may never recoup now that the mighty Taurus 3 is here, and even though most everyone here agrees the Taurus 3s sound identical to the oldies, he trys to convince otherwise.
Only a bad carpenter blames his tools for his inability to get the job done. Geddy also used a Mini and an Obie 4-voice for most of the solos during that era, and now he gets the same job done with a Little Phatty. Its not the tools, its the way you use them that matters. Done preaching now, back to our regularly scheduled program…
superd2112, why would you attack me without provocation? I was merely stating how to get that high string sound using your Taurus 3 pedals, because they won’t do it, and neither will the Voyager, Little Phatty, or the Minimoog. You need an Oberheim 8 Voice synthesizer. I am not bitter, and I am not steering anyone away from the Taurus 3. I ordered number 450, and I am waiting to see if they sound the same as the Taurus 1. There’s something I know, that you don’t, but because of respect and confidentiality to friends, and fellow professionals, I won’t go there. Ignorance is bliss I guess. Good luck with your cover band in Highlands Ranch, Colorado.
ouch, yeah, i too have been watching the bay for the last 5+ years and can confirm that the T1 prices are toast. the only thing crispier is the amount of non-sales of overpriced T1s. the real question is when the T3s start to make their way into the eBay marketplace will the T1s stand a chance at all? great time to scoop up a cheap set though…
yeti wrote:
“There’s something I know, that you don’t, but because of respect and confidentiality to friends, and fellow professionals, I won’t go there. Ignorance is bliss I guess.”
is there a secret handshake to go along with that? jeeze 
I think even Geddy would tell you the little phatty doesn’t sound as good as a minimoog. They gave him a free one for the road, and they sample everything else. From what I hear, Geddy didn’t like the PK-5 either. He preferred the Korg pedals for their spongy action. Korg doesn’t make those anymore, so they had a hard time finding them, so they tried the PK-5, then they found some more Korg pedals, and they went back to them. When I go on tour, I will have Superd2112 and Timmy tune my Taurus 3 pedals for me. I will do them a favor and pay them a decent salary for a change. I’ll tune up their cars, so they can drive from their apartments to my private jet. I might even let them shine my shoes! Also, on the link where they compare the T1 to the T3, nobody is saying that the T3 sounds as good as the T1. What’s up with that? Like everything else, I have to do it myself…Why would someone pay $2000, and then admit they screwed up?
sorry… i didn’t catch what band you were in? private jet? you’re a hoot, dude. just post some cool pics to riddle us with envy for goodness sakes. if you can post an honest photo of you inside your crop duster i will offer my services as your personal T1 tuner. however, you’ll have to let us know of your tour dates occurring outside of your living room as i do not make house calls. until then just admit that you blew a large sum of money on two sets of used, overpriced, antiquated, outdated, accurately replicated T1s.
it’s all good brother.
I paid 1500 each for 2 mint Taurus 1’s. Who said I overpaid? Can someone please A/B these pedals with a decent recording medium (not moog, their biased). I don’t have mine yet. If they don’t cut it, all you have is a $2000 Little Phatty, ooops. I would rather keep my T1’s, and put the money into a Moog Modular.
Whatever . For someone who is supposed to be such a professional you behave more like a troll.
Yeti is just a 15 year old boy. I can prove it. I just can’t tell you how.