"Octave Split" Feature Request

wolf2112 · Post by **wolf2112** » Wed Mar 03, 2010 12:23 pm

Fair enough... I stand corrected on the section name, and how you describe it is precisely how I play it on my PK-5's... but, if you listen to the following four times: 2:20-2:23, 2:45-2:48, 8:24-8:28 and 8:56-9:00, I distinctly hear the lower "A". The other four passes do go back up to the original "A", however.

The Merely Players book states that Geddy, in fact, used a set of Moog Taurus II pedals on the Grace Under Pressure and Spring Training tours. On the Hold Your Fire and Presto tours, one set of Taurus pedals were replaced by a set of Korg Midi pedals. On the Roll The Bones tour, the Korgs were offstage and he used 2 Yamaha KX76 controllers onstage. It doesn't specify when the Taurus' were retired completely, but it does state that one set was brought out of retirement (with the Mini-Moog) for the Test For Echo tour.

As far as Geddy buying a set of Taurus 3's, I'm torn on that... he may have, but I've studied videos from the past several tours and it seems to me he's not playing what should be the proper notes - ie, he's mostly just triggering samples with the Korgs.

shanef · Post by **shanef** » Wed Mar 03, 2010 4:46 pm

Wolf2112: I'll check out those song sections when I get home tonight. Are you talking studio version or the version on Exit Stage Left? For the Hemispheres version I bet they played them with their hands and were able to quickly hit the octave button. I guess I made the assumption that we were talking about how they played it live.

And you're right on about how he's triggering sounds with the Korgs instead of actually playing notes these days. Cygnus X-1 on one of the recent videos (R30 I think?) is a prime example. Very lazy in my opinion!

wolf2112 · Post by **wolf2112** » Wed Mar 03, 2010 7:27 pm

I'm referring to the Hemispheres version. Oddly, I'm not familiar enough with the ESL version... will listen later.

I've noticed that some time ago they stopped playing the bass pedals in the bridge of "The Spirit of Radio" entirely and haven't for about 20 years now. Geddy even uses a teleprompter, so I don't know if it's laziness or merely old age setting in.

Still, I love them either way...

shanef · Post by **shanef** » Wed Mar 03, 2010 8:05 pm

wolf2112 wrote:I'm referring to the Hemispheres version. Oddly, I'm not familiar enough with the ESL version... will listen later.

I've noticed that some time ago they stopped playing the bass pedals in the bridge of "The Spirit of Radio" entirely and haven't for about 20 years now. Geddy even uses a teleprompter, so I don't know if it's laziness or merely old age setting in.
Still, I love them either way...

Just listened to the Hemispheres version and indeed it goes DOWN to A. I think you'll find that it goes up to A on the live version, much easier to play on the T1 obviously.

Regarding TSoR, you're right, and to me and it hasn't really sounded good live in about 20 years. Coincidence, I think not

! This has got me thinking of a Rush radio broadcast bootleg I have from St. Louis 1980. It's called "Taurus Pedals from Hell"

. I'll have to give that a spin again soon. The Taurus is extremely high in the mix, hence the name.

wolf2112 · Post by **wolf2112** » Wed Mar 03, 2010 9:33 pm

I have that boot as well... I'll dig through my boot collection and listen to it again.

And regarding the Taurus 2's... I'm watching the GUP video again and I believe there is a set under the left set of keyboards... at least they appear to be larger that the other two sets of Taurus 1's he has onstage.

So, I'll recant my previous statement about this "octave split" being useful on "La Villa"... it is, however, not a bad idea in theory. In practice is another story...

hieronymous · Post by **hieronymous** » Thu Mar 04, 2010 3:24 am

Probably not the section you're talking about, but check out 1:07 in this video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ti-bpjcPD40