If a Mellotron ever sounds "authentic" viz-a-viz sounding like the real thing, either choir, string section, whatever, it probably has more to do with the keyboardist playing something that's idiomatic to whatever they're supposed to be emulating, ie you're playing a part that actually sounds like what a string section would play, versus just playing the same chord voicings a pianist or organist would play.
The reason a lot of the early Mellotron emulations didn't sound "right" was related to the inconsistencies of the Mellotron, as well as the way the Mellotron tapes were created. Each note was sampled individually, ie the string section would play a C for 8 seconds, then they'd play C# for 8 seconds, then D for 8 seconds, etc. But the intonation of the individual notes were never checked for intonation against each other. So even if your Mellotron was running perfectly, and was tuned up perfectly (apparently both statistically unlikely), the notes within whatever part you were playing would be out of tune with each other. It'd come out sounding like a guitar with faulty intonation. It'd be close, but still just ever so slightly out of tune.
And like all tape machines, the Mellotron never ran perfectly, precisely at a given speed, so there was always a little bit of wobble. Without the wobble, it doesn't quite sound like a Mellotron. So those creating digital replicas had to figure out ways to introduce the wobble electronically, but only just a little bit of it. And I think to the get the same kind of lack of perfect intonation, sampled versions had to have each individual note sampled.
I think Geddy only used the Steinberger on one tour, Grace Under Pressure (at least in the Subdivisions and Countdown videos, he's still playing the 4001). And yes, I did read on interview that he used it because it made moving back and forth between the synths and his "out front" mic easier. On the other hand, I also recall he said he still brought the 4001 out on that tour for the older songs because "they were built around it's sound, so I feel obligated to use it. By the time of the Power Windows tour, though, he had started using a MIDI master keyboard, so most of the synths were hidden under the stage or behind the backline, so I think he felt he could swap back to something else he was more comfortable with than the Steinberger, which is how he ended up using the Wal bass for awhile, before swapping over to the Jazz models full time sometime in the early 90's.
He seems to have swapped back and forth between Fenders and the Rickenbacker throughout the 70's and early 80's. I just happened to have close at hand the 1980 issue of Guitar Player with interviews with both him and Alex. He used a Precision bass on the first album. When they signed to Mercury got their first real advance, he bought the 4001, which he then used on all of Fly By Night (though on By-Tor And The Snow Dog, he ran the Precision bass through a fuzztone and phase shifter to get the monster sounds during the battle sequence). I think he said he used both on Caress Of Steel. Then at some point, he had the Precision bass cut into a teardrop shape, which he said "unfortunately, it changed it's sound". I know I read one interview where he said it has a "lot of low end, but it's completely uncontrollable".
I think he used the 4001 for most of the subsequent albums, up until Permanent Waves. By that time he had gotten a 69 or 70 Jazz Bass, and used it on about half of that album. And I know I've read he also used it on a lot of Moving Pictures. For instance, apparently Tom Sawyer is the Jazz Bass, although he used the 4001 when playing it live on that tour.
I don't know about "not often used" synths. Assuming that Geddy's synth rig on the Grace Under Pressure tour was anything to go by, he had a Minimoog, a PPG Wave 2.2, an Oberheim OB-Xa, and Roland Jupiter-8. None of those are what I would call "not often used". The Wave 2.2, maybe, but a lot of people did use it (notably Tangerine Dream, but it seems to me like I remember seeing a lot of well known synth players were using it during that era). Here's a partial list of users Wave users:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PPG_Wave#Market_success
I think Geddy was interviewed in Guitar Player around the time of Power Windows or Hold Your Fire, where he said the reason he they started using synth programmers was because he didn't have time to learn the intricacies of programming the synths he was using at the time. But that was happening with a lot of musicians, and I think that's part of why music became so homogeneous sounding in the mid and late 80's: not only was everyone using the same synths, multi-effects processors, etc, but they were also hiring the same programmers. Having said that, though, I think Rush suffers from that particular problem a lot less than a lot of other bands/artists during that era.
They're mostly good records, though I never liked Hold Your Fire much. I think there's a lot of good songs on both Grace Under Pressure and Power Windows. I just wish there was more melodic synth playing on those records, that's all.
He was doign it before MIDI even existed. People don't realize MIDI didn't come into being until about 1983. I keep hearing people talk about MIDI drums or whatever from the 70's, and I'm like, "MIDI didn't exist in the 70's". At any rate, most of the better synths that were around in the 70's had 1v/per octave and gate ins and outs on the rear panel. This allowed you to, say, connect a sequencer to your ARP Odyssey or Oberheim SEM. In fact Tom Oberheim developed the SEM to interface with the Oberheim Digital Sequencer. Then after the fact he came up with the Two Voice, Four Voice, and Eight Voice synths.
And you could do things like linking your Minimoog or Odyssey or whatever to each other, or to a SEM, which was the beginning of "stacking" synths, sort of like a primitive version of the "unison" mode most polyphonic synths would have later on, or like MIDIing two or more synths together so that you had multiple voices playing the same part.
I read an interview with Geddy fairly recently where he talked about how they were trying to build this custom interface system of his synths, I think going back to the Hemispheres era. I've forgotten the details, but I gather he wanted to have just one keyboard onstage and be able to trigger all the synths from that, or have the synths hidden backstage, where his synth tech could worry about setting up patches while he simply worried about playing and singing, something of that nature. Well, he said they spent several years trying to get this prototype interface system working, and it never did. Then MIDI came out in 1983, and that pretty much did everything they were trying to do, so that put an end to the custom interface concept they had been working on.
Actually, I think you could, as the Taurus pedals have the ability to climb above the bass register, apparently you have to know which buttons to push on the thing to make it do that though. But you might not have been able to get that particular timbre.
But I think on Tom Sawyer, a lot of the synth sounds you're hearing are from the Oberheim OB-X. I think it was Neil who said the big filter sweep, like at the beginning of the song, came from the OB-X. The solo line is obviously the Minimoog. Not sure what the string synth sound you're talking about is, it might be the Taurus and the OB-X mixed together.
And don't feel bad about feeling like an idiot. There was limited resources in those days to find out what bands were doing with stuff like that.
Originally Posted by Roth-Handle Studios
Reply With Quote
Bookmarks