Neil Peart's drum sound

With due respect - Neil Peart's drum sound is technically excellent but it lacks...feel.
 
Neil was never a feel or "pocket" player. He's all about precision. Its not a knock on him whatsoever. He's one of the all time greats. But whatever "feel" Rush has comes from Alex Lifeson. Incredibly underrated guy, love his playing.
 
Woah, sticks calm down! Ian was just voicing his opinion, not bashing Neil. Neil does his own thing (which is great) but he doesn't sound like Steve Jordan if you know what I'm saying.

-Jonathan
 
Never been a fan and dunno his different kits ... but the beastie he was playing on Letterman sounded great, especially the high toms. Cool electro kit sounds too. Overall, pretty well a perfect classic rock sound plus his swag of additional fab-sounding goodies.

I will be polite and not even mention Bill Bruford's name on Neil's thread ... oops ...

:)
 
....To answer the actually question though, I thought whatever kit he used on Moving Pictures sounded pretty great. The kits he uses now are tuned waaay to high for my liking. that 8" sounds like a tin can in this video at around 9:26. but that's just my opinion.

-Jonathan

p.s. @Gvdadrummasum if their was a joke in there, it went way the hell over my head. haha
 
I was just watching the Time Machine show on Paladia last night and commented to a buddy how great his drums sounded.

and they have this great overhead shot of him.

Sticks what are those cymbals he is using ?

they have those cool designs going around them and each one has its own little logo type thing.

anyway, his kit sounds amazing on the show I was watching , had that classic Peart tuning.

never noticed how high he has his hats, it has him holding his arm up in front of his chest whenever he plays them.

Neils playing is superb on this show and I recommend seeing it to all who have not

and Im not even a huge Peart fan
 
....To answer the actually question though, I thought whatever kit he used on Moving Pictures sounded pretty great. The kits he uses now are tuned waaay to high for my liking. that 8" sounds like a tin can in this video at around 9:26. but that's just my opinion.

-Jonathan

p.s. @Gvdadrummasum if their was a joke in there, it went way the hell over my head. haha

that video is amazing. Ive never seen it

I need me some hand dryers :)

as for the joke , I thought he was referring to a Peart conversation that developed in the Moon thread

just assumed it was some sarcasm
 
I will be polite and not even mention Bill Bruford's name on Neil's thread ... oops ...

:)

Don't you even!

I loved Peart's sound on the early Rush records and Moving Pictures was probably the high water mark for me. After Terry Brown moved on, I was less enthusiastic about the drum sound. Some of those late-80s records were way over-produced for my tastes, especially Presto. I think the newer stuff from the last 10 years or so sounds good, too.
 
I was just watching the Time Machine show on Paladia last night and commented to a buddy how great his drums sounded.

and they have this great overhead shot of him.

Sticks what are those cymbals he is using ?

they have those cool designs going around them and each one has its own little logo type thing.

anyway, his kit sounds amazing on the show I was watching , had that classic Peart tuning.

never noticed how high he has his hats, it has him holding his arm up in front of his chest whenever he plays them.

Neils playing is superb on this show and I recommend seeing it to all who have not

and Im not even a huge Peart fan


He uses Sabian Brilliant Paragon Cymbals that he had alchemy symbols printed on.

I happen to be a pretty big fan of the chrome Slingerlands he used back in 74. I don't know why I like those so much...

picture.php
 
I think I can answer what he played (I did follow them a bit)....

Started on a small set of Rogers, then went to Slingerland up until the Hemispheres album. He jumped to Tama, then went to Ludwig, then ended up with DW. Correct? I think he said he did that vibra-fibing to his drums all the way up to when he got with DW (John Goode probably talked him out of vibra-fibing the DW's ;)

When you consider how long he's been doing this, I'm surprised he hasn't played for more drum companies. But oddly enough, no matter when I heard Rush, he always sounded like Neil Peart to me. Some drummers are like that, who they are just comes out regardless of what they're playing. Bill Bruford is like that, so is Steve Jordan, and many other identifiable players (who are really in the top 1% of our chosen musical realm).

I really liked the sounds he got with his old Slingerland kit on the "Farewell to Kings" album. He and David Robinson of the Cars made me proud to be playing Slingerland drums back then.
 
that video is amazing. Ive never seen it

I need me some hand dryers :)

as for the joke , I thought he was referring to a Peart conversation that developed in the Moon thread

just assumed it was some sarcasm

Oooooh probably was. I've been absent from the site for a little while so I haven't had a chance to read it.

Feeling dumb now! lol

-Jonathan
 
I loved Peart's sound on the early Rush records and Moving Pictures was probably the high water mark for me. After Terry Brown moved on, I was less enthusiastic about the drum sound. Some of those late-80s records were way over-produced for my tastes, especially Presto. I think the newer stuff from the last 10 years or so sounds good, too.

Presto wasn't really "over-produced". That album began a stage of going with less effects, less keyboards and whatnot. Here's a good video, and really the whole documentary is very good.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=4vhR1tcxAIQ#t=375s

Anything on any RUSH album was made to be able to play live. Any little tiny electronic sound you might here is either played on a electronic drum pad by Neil or on moog pedals/synths by Alex or Geddy

My favorite drum sound of Neil's would have to be Hemispheres for it's cripness and cleaness.

Edit:

Here's a litle qoute from Geddy i found.

"We wanted [Presto] to be more of a singer’s album, and I think you’ll notice that the arrangements musically support the vocal. . . . Neil’s lyrics to me are a lot more heartfelt. Presently, they’re experience oriented. I think they deal with living . . . This album was a real reaction against technology in a sense. I was getting sick and tired of working with computers and synthesizers. Fortunately, so was [co-producer] Rupert [Hine]. . . . We made a pact to stay away from strings, pianos, and organs—to stay away from digital technology. In the end, we couldn’t resist using them for colour."
 
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I feel that Moving Pictures was his best sound and that may be due to the fact that it was my first exposure to Rush. Hemispheres was the album on which the band really solidified themselves and became everything they should have been! Presto was one of my favorite albums by Rush - it was as groundbreaking as Moving Pictures was. I quit listening to Rush after Roll the Bones and got heavily into some of Neil's favorite drummers of the day and totally changed my playing for the better, no disrespect to Neil. There aren't that many paying gigs for Neil clones and he would probably agree that it's more important to just be yourself and be the best you that you can be.


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