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Help with RUSH sounds 4 Roland Keys


Threality

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Posted

Hey,

 

Newbie here...

 

I am primarily a bassist, but in my new band I am also playing some keys and could really use some help from you more experienced keyboardists.

 

We are playing a couple of songs by RUSH - Tom Sawyer and The Spirit of the Radio - and I am trying to put together some sounds on my Roland XP-80 that are similar to the ones used in those songs.

 

Does anyone out there have any suggestions? Are there any people out there that play these songs and have some patches and/or layered patches that they use that sound authentic to the original recordings?

 

Any and all help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance!

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Posted

see if you can find one of these expansion cards "SR-JV80-04"

it is specifically for vintage synth sounds

IMO you are going to have a hard time recreating those sounds on an almost 20 year old Roland workstation, others here might disagree

 

 

:nopity:
Posted

Consider buying an SE-1 used on ebay.

Very powerful, all of the Sawyer sounds in the very beginning and throughout.

He used an Oberheim, but the SE-1 has the Moog and Oberheim Filters, but 3 x Oscillators.

Monophonic Leads are OK on a 2 x Osc. synth but that 3rd Oscillator can be used for Fatness, Pitch Mod, Sync, FM Sync (as in Tom Sawyer Intro).

Being a Bassist you will appreciate the size of the testicles this 3U has.

Magnus C350 + FMR RNP + Realistic Unisphere Mic
Posted

You can do those with the XP-80, but it's not very intuitive with lots of menu diving.

 

You may want to do some basic synthesis tutorials online.

Dan

 

Acoustic/Electric stringed instruments ranging from 4 to 230 strings, hammered, picked, fingered, slapped, and plucked. Analog and Digital Electronic instruments, reeds, and throat/mouth.

Posted

I think I used 3 zones when I did it. Left to Right they were 1) The big bass sweep 2) the saw lead tone 3) saw/synth poly synth sound.

 

If you are open to buying a new board. I would get good all around polysynth and keep the XP-80. Something like a Prophet 08 would be cool. If I had a XP-80 and Prophet 08 I would probably use the XP-80 for the saw/strings that come in on some of the chorus part like after the the drum break and use the P08 for the sweeps and leads.

 

Between the two boards you can cover a lot of ground. The 800 pound gorilla in the room is Hammond organ emulation if you want to play organ parts in your band.

 

You can do the whole thing on a XP-80 but most of us here wouldn't want to. I wouldn't buy a new synth just to play these two 30+ year old songs. You could pull it off with the XP-80. The hardest part will be getting the filter sweeps to sound halfway close. That filter on Tom Sawyer had it's it's own special character that you will not get from a XP-80 but you can get close enough for a rock cover. If you want to play a lot more keys in the future then get a polysynth to add to your XP-80. I recommend a polysyth because of the versatility.

"It doesn't have to be difficult to be cool" - Mitch Towne

 

"A great musician can bring tears to your eyes!!!

So can a auto Mechanic." - Stokes Hunt

 

Posted

I am in a RUSH cover band, and I chose to go into the VST virtual world because of the flexibility. Buying another board just for a couple of sounds just didn't make sense.

 

Sonic Projects OPX was a big time saver. Here is our cover band performing Subdivisions. This VST already has a Tom Sawyer base sweep, and even a Camera Eye patch.

 

Subdivisions

Yamaha S90XS, Studiologic VMk-161 Organ

Small/powerful (i7, 32GB, M.2 SSD) PC controlled by 10" Touch Screen

Cantabile, Ravenscroft 275, Keyscape, OPX-II, Omnisphere 2, VB3, Chris Hein Horns, etc.

Posted

I am in a RUSH cover band, and I chose to go into the VST virtual world because of the flexibility. Buying another board just for a couple of sounds just didn't make sense.

 

Sonic Projects OPX was a big time saver. Here is our cover band performing Subdivisions. This VST already has a Tom Sawyer base sweep, and even a Camera Eye patch.

 

Subdivisions

 

Out of curiosity, what do you do during the songs that have no keyboard parts in a four-man rush tribute?

Nord Stage 2 Compact, Yamaha MODX8

Posted

 

Out of curiosity, what do you do during the songs that have no keyboard parts in a four-man rush tribute?

 

I'm no Capt. Underpants, but I was in a 4-piece Rush tribute for a couple years, and I played bass on some of the earlier, pre-synth material while our "Geddy" just sang, and other tunes, I would do the bass pedal parts from keyboard, and even played rhythm guitar a bit. If we looked closely at the studio versions of the tunes, there were always parts that could be filled in.

 

Capt. U: Nice version of Subdivisions, that was always one of the most fun tunes to play. I used OP-X a lot as well.

Turn up the speaker

Hop, flop, squawk

It's a keeper

-Captain Beefheart, Ice Cream for Crow

Posted
Dammit guys, I've had the OP-X demo for a couple of months now and you are all failing to persuade me to not shell out for the full version...

Cephid - Progressive Electro Rock

Posted
It's not a tribute band, but rather a classic rock cover band. I primarily play bass on 75% of the songs and add key while playing bass on the other songs. i.e Let It Be, Don't Tell Me You Love Me, etc...
Posted
Buying another board just for a couple of sounds just didn't make sense.

 

True, but just imagine all the fun you'll have--starting a new journey--collecting keyboards. :roll:

 

 

When an eel hits your eye like a big pizza pie, that's a Moray.

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