That's interesting, I always wondered how he got its sync sound. I had heard about the SEM combination, but no about the mods.

I tried to recreate his sound with a MonoPoly in this version of Starcycle (for the sequence part).



you've got an excellent modular rig there, congrats!

I haven’t been trolling nor have I cleaned up.

Yes I missed everything that happened… before I was born lol

Recap:

1. Moog releases this Geddy Lee edition

2. I comment that I don’t know who that is and that this might be a more niche signature edition than they’ve realized

3. Someone responds that I know nothing of rock music (that is exactly where the bs starts - a Rush fan who can’t accept that I say they’re not that famous, and chooses to go ad hominem right on)

4. I explain how it could be that I never heard of them despite always searching for good music

5. Some other Rush fan responds that I’m trolling and ”cleaning up”

So - why does it matter that they’re not very famous? Can’t you like them, and this Moog edition anyway? They don’t even seem like the kind of band that wanted that kind of fame.

Btw - this isn’t a ”Rush appreciation thread”. It’s not even a New Product alert

It’s just as much a discussion based on the impression that quite a few people have that ”Inmusic took over Moog and THIS is what they’re doing for the high end segment?”

Discontinue the Moog One. Discontinue the big Vocoder. No Moogerfooger (except plugins), no 500-series delays or filters. No minifooger pedals.

The bold and pioneering stuff - no. The foogers that people really want? No. 500-series stuff that would be the most clear cut success if they went for it? A real studio staple in fact. A must have. But no. We get VSTs and signature editions. Cool but come on. There’s a bigger picture here.

Rush's quasi-'fame' has always been kind of a weird outlier type of situation. For the longest time they were essentially a huge cult band, perhaps not Grateful-Dead-big but big enough, with legions of dedicated (aye, fanatical even) followers in numbers enough to sell out arenas, but little known in the mainstream. They broke out a little into the mainstream in the mid-late 00's with some pop culture references and appearances (South Park, I Love You Man, etc), but they've remained in that 'big cult band' kind of slot.

And no, they were not fame seekers, particularly their late drummer Neil Peart. If you bumped into him in a diner somewhere and just talked about motorcycles with him like a regular bloke, he'd be as happy and chatty as anyone. Most regular folks wouldn't recognize him anyway. But as soon as someone starts with the "OMG YOURE THE BEST DRUMMER EVERRRRRRRR CAN YOU SIGN THIS DRUMSTICK" stuff, he's making a beeline for the exit. He hated the whole hero worship thing.

I remember back in the day Keyboard Magazine
It was called Contemporary Keyboard then had a
Issue that Jan Hammer where it talked about him using a Rhodes Electric Piano Ann Oberheim SEM
and a Minimoog that he wore around his neck.
On Wired with Jeff Beck he would trade licks with Jeff. Sadly Jeff Beck is no longer with us.

I once met McCoy Tyner at the Caravan Of Dreams in Fort Worth Texas. I had him autograph ✍️ The Album Tender Moments With Mcoy Tyner. sadly he’s no longer with us and neither is Caravan Of Dreams.

The Caravan Of Dreams was a great, great jazz club. I went there a number of times when I lived in Ft. Worth. I also used to go to Billy Bob's Texas. I saw McCoy Tyner, but at the Blue Note in Boulder, CO around 1980.

Oh, so you're the one who ended up with EJ's black Minimoog! I remember that interview pretty well (LOL furniture store) and the first UK album was a HUGE influence on me, to the point of acquiring a CS-80 and otherwise being a huge proponent of polyphonic aftertouch (and the VAX77). Moreso than Vangelis, I believe he was the musician who really defined the CS-80, but as you mentioned outside of a small circle he is relatively unknown. On Minimoog, I learned from him the technique of bending a note down prior to playing it, then bending back up to pitch; he learned this from Holdsworth, and I think it works great and sounds more natural- with the notable exception of Jan Hammer I think everyone else's pitchbending sounds like ass.

Re: Voyager, I had one from 2003-16 and just never bonded with it, no matter what modifications I had done. Rick Wakeman agreed with me. Sold it just prior to the announcement of the 2016 Reissue, and have been happy ever since. The Reissues sound just like the 70's originals, and with the MUSE Board installed it does everything I could ever want.

Further modifications: I would just as soon get an AJH Synth Minimood and have a completely modular Minimoog.

I am kinda surprised that Trem is not familiar with Geddy Lee and Rush, but then again outside of some of the pioneering funk groups, I know absolutely nothing about rap and hip-hop which came later, for example. Everybody has their lane they swim in, and to be honest a lot of Rush's music can be considered an acquired taste, at least until they moved closer to the mainstream beginning with 1980's Permanent Waves.

I wonder why Mccoy tyner never got into synths, electronics, fusion (unless you mean "fusion" including world fusion) the way herbie hancock, Joe zawinul and other jazz keyboard players of his generation did. Tyner is one of my favorite pianists and I love his music, it's just interesting that he more or less stuck to the piano and acoustic music throughout his career.

Heh yeah if anyone ever asks me "where do I start with Rush???" I tell them, Permanent Waves and Moving Pictures. Those are the albums where I believe (and most people agree) everything came together and clicked for Rush. Those two albums are 100% stellar from start to finish.

If you can dig those, dip back into the '70s if you wish to bear witness to their growing pains and hear where they came from. But prepare yourself for some cringeworthy moments (that the band itself owns up to: the whole Ayn Rand thing, the Caress of Steel album, etc)

Go on further into the '80s if you're into sophisticated, meticulously produced and arranged prog-synth-rock. (I for one love this period of Rush; many Rush fans throw tomatoes at me for saying this while I also slag their '70s output.)

The '90s stuff is pretty inconsistent and generally kinda weak, but there are a few bright spots.

2002's Vapor Trails is a hot mess (almost literally, it was recorded and mastered WAY too hot in the midst of the loudness wars; the remix of the album that came out much later fares a little better).

Their final album Clockwork Angels is a good one and the band ends its recording career there on a good note.

If you are a musician of a certain age, sure, every musician knew who Rush was. They were indeed pretty famous and I was kind of taken aback at your statement - which made me feel ... older. LOL. I think it is just a generational thing you have not heard of them. No biggie.

The Moog One was pioneering and so was the Muse and the Matriarch. I think you can only make so many Moog One's before the people that want and most importantly could afford them will saturate the market for these. The Muse was done under InMusic and that was stunner.

I think you are right about the MoogerFoogers. If they could get some of those original bucket brigrade chips made - they could make some seriously wonderful pedals. InMusic may have the mojo to do it too! I agree 500 series stuff - they should make another stab at it.

Rick Wakeman has one particular Minimoog in his collection he describes as the best sounding one out of his large Minimoog collection in an interview he has with Robert Moog's daughter.

If they could take that unit, and measure the tollerances of the components and make that to Wakeman's desires and specs, well, that would be a hit; full stop.

He was old school. He would probably break a synth being that his piano technique was like attacking the piano. 🎹 Different thing the piano is compared to a synth. Keith Jarrett is another one that his musical 🎵 identity is the acoustic piano. Bill Evans also although he did play the Rhodes Electric Piano.

I remember seeing an old video (which of course I can’t find now) of Rush/Geddy setting up on stage and in that video he hit a button on the OB-1 and that Sprit of Radio sequence started playing… so I thought he used the OB-1’s built in sequencer for that bit. But maybe there was another sequencer involved. (Edit… OB-1 doesn’t have a built-in sequencer apparently… so maybe it was a DS-2).

Yeah I saw an old video of his setup from those days, and it looked like it was a DS-2 sitting there amongst his setup. Image quality wasn't super clear, but just clear enough to pick out it was likely a DS-2 (gray cash register looking thing heh)

It is very prominent in the Moog videos about the recent release, and in Geddy’s introduction to “The MiniMoog Book” that the Model D was the approachable, intuitive synth that piqued Geddy’s first interest in synths and inspired him to apply synths more and more to Rush’s music. The later prominence of Oberheims and other synths followed from Geddy’s pleasure/success in incorporating the Mini.

Thanks for that nostalgia! Good day, eh?

Yep, in just two short years he went from just the mini and a Taurus onstage to being surrounded by the massive rig everyone's seen heh. (GAS hit him hard apparently! And at that point the band was finally starting to see a financial return on all the hard work they put in.)

I've always liked how he used the Taurus as not only a bass synth to hold down the bottom, but used the Variable settings to create tones in higher registers to compliment the band's overall sound (not to mention that a little later on, his Taurus(es) would be interfaced with the Oberheims)

In a few interviews he's mentioned how he thinks of himself as a 'synthesist' first rather than a proper keyboardist. And he does seem to love that aspect of sound creation. In a later interview he was gushing over the capabilities of the PPG Wave.

Jeff Beck with the Jan Hammer Group Live
Great album lots of dueling Minimoog - Guitar moments.

Great album. I got it when I was 15, forty years ago.

Jan Hammer and Jeff Beck were great together. I remember There And Back released in 1986.

Got to see them do that show. George Duke and Billy Cobham opened up for them. Was in Philadelphia at the Spectrum. Jan Hammer group played a few tunes. Then Jan did his famous Minimoog solo on First Seven Days. Half way through, Jeff just walked out from nowhere and joined in. The crowd went crazy, what a show. Then they went right into Scatterbrain. Those times were a big influence on me.

Edit: Found the ticket stub.

Mo Foster was killer on that too.

Earth in search of the sun is one of my all time favourites

As is The Seventh Day.

Again some of his use of the PPg on rush's mid 80s albums is a big reason I want that type of sound in my arsenal, ergo why I pre-ordered the suono buono polyvera.

Obviously if I think of an iconic synth sound that geddy/rush brought the world it's the "Tom sawyer glide" on the oB-x....wonder if we'll get a geddy lee signature of that.

Wow, The Spectrum in Philly. That place is gone.