RUSH Live - YYZ & Neil Peart Drum Solo - 2022 Deluxe Remaster - Birmingham, 1988

The story of why it took me over a month to upload this video -

So, a few months ago someone sent me a digitized copy of the ASOH Laserdisc from back in the day, and to my surprise the audio was drastically different than the DVD sourced clips that we are accustomed to seeing on Youtube. Though not perfect, it had exponentially more dynamic range than the 2006 re-release, was a lot crisper and less twangy, but the two most significant things I noticed were the drums and Geddy's vocals. Though the cymbals and toms are mostly mixed too low in my opinion, the kick and snare slammed much harder than I was used to. More surprising was that handful of Geddy's vocal lines that are auto-tuned on the DVD were not a product of the late '80s that hadn't aged well as I previously assumed, as there is no autotune in the original mix at all. Even weirder, the vocals that had autotune applied to them on the DVD not only sounded better originally, but they were totally in tune, so I have no idea why they were touched at all.

First came the audio, which at first was going to be an all-laserdisc remaster, but the drums sounded too incomplete so I tried something I've never done before which was cutting out a range of frequencies from the Laserdisc, between about 200hz and 6khz (basically carving out the middle spectrum) and replaced it with DVD audio, to gain a lot of the drum tone without losing the punch and crispiness of the Laserdisc kick and snare. I was surprised that it worked, and lucky it did because just layering the two versions together as-is resulted in phasing problems that I could not resolve. (When you try and combine two audio sources that are nearly identical, any sounds that are the same in both versions can just cancel each-other out, which was the case here, usually it's possible to move things around on the scale of a fraction of a millisecond and make it work but not in this case). The one downside to this is that Neil's cymbals, mainly his ride, are quieter than the DVD, but I thought it was worth the trade-off.

Then came the video, and I was not prepared for the dark side of this innocent looking DVD. It features what appears to be actual film rather than digital video tape that we see on virtually every classic live Rush release, which can look excellent, but can be nearly impossible to work with. The framerate actually changes whenever digital elements / overlays are on-screen, the DVD runs at 29.97 fps, but the film runs at 24fps. Even knowing this, I kept trying to convert the video to 24fps for this track, but this only messed up the video in very subtle ways that I couldn't really detect until it was too late and I had already enhanced most of it. I tried converting the jittery looking video to every possible format, all the way up to 120fps, yet something still just looked wrong despite me not being able to put my finger on it until weeks later when I realized the process wasn't working right and though I was seeing 24 moving frames a second, the movement of everything was fluctuating a couple times a second, which looked really weird during normal speed playback, yet I couldn't understand why exactly. After going back to square one over and over and trying different settings, and deleting massive amounts of already partially enhanced video, I finally discovered that one little de-interlacing setting was causing this, and I finally managed to get a decent 24fps conversion. I thought the hard part was over but I had no idea, I kept finding duplicate frames during editing which had to be cut out, but I couldn't change the length of the overall video so I would either fill in the gap by taking both frames on either side of the duplicate and blending them together so it would be almost undetectable, or would make make up for the gap at the next camera cut, making little fades and micro black fade transitions. I can't imagine anyone is going to still be awake by this point, so bravo for somehow getting through this long nonsensical rant.

Unfortunately, this ended up only being the beginning of the issues I ran in to this time. For unknown reasons, the contrast and colors in this video seem to refuse to look the same on different screens, so I uploaded and deleted about 15 versions of this until I got one that seemed OK-ish. By this point the project file was so bloated my video editor started buckling under the weight of it and would randomly black out for one or more moments in the final render, resulting in days of trying again until I finally won the render lottery and one of them didn't come out disfigured... All in all, many painful lessons were learned here that hopefully will make the next upload a breeze by comparison.. hopefully...

[francisouellette]

Only one word: magnificent. 3 guys, 3 fucking talented musicians at the service of music. I listen and look at this and want to cry. It is so beautiful.

[nomad]

Neils solos were almost like a firework show. There's a begining, middle, and an end. Most drummers just try to show off with random noise. But he actually made each solo have something distinctive to remember and actually make a song out of it. Never heard anybody else do drum solos like him.

[mookyyzed]

The thing that always stands out to me with Neil's solos is that he doesn't linger on something. He is always driving forward with the foot to the floor. A masterful performance!

[davidpomm]

Wow! That Wal bass sound is so distinct. I love this era of Rush the best!

[WarhawkBeyond]

Neil Peart was one of those special musicians who only come once in a lifetime and can touch your soul by telling a story through his lyrics but he can also make your jaw drop at the same time with his incredible drumming. He truly was the professor.

[StickHits]

Did anyone else also think for years that Neil missed one of the notes on his marimba during the final section? Because it turns out on the seemingly unedited original release, there was no mistake... Now I'm wondering if they intentionally edited in a single flaw on the DVD release because Neil's solo was too perfect...

[digidrum]

I am 55 years old and this makes me smile and get a little misty eyed....i saw Rush 9 times including their last i miss them so much!!!!

[oilman]

Fabulous solo by Neil. Probably my favorite. I think Buddy Rich’s influence on him is clearly apparent here. I’m old enough to miss the virtuosity of both of them. RIP, Buddy and Neil.

[lozmar]

I was there! It was F*&King incredible! 🥳 R.I.P the Professor! 💔

[edisfoamy]

The way Neil plays the drums just makes it look like a day in the office. Super focused and coordinated.

[orpheusospreay]

Having really discovered Rush's music is like being reborn

[woverby]

All the members of rush are legends, I love them all but I admit I mostly watch for Neil. I've always loved the drums and his skill and creativity is breathtaking to me. I am mesmerized watching him play. Sorely missed.

[ge]

Wow, a music video where we don't constantly see the audience's reaction and get to watch the band? Refreshing.

[jackw]

THIS is the YYZ video that I've been looking for for a while. It was on Youtube then disappeared. Thanks for this!

[lopey]

Absolute rock god. No kit went uncontested with him. The likes of the very best.

[mr.k]

WOW...just fricking WOW! I have seen Neil play this solo in his later years but today was the first time I watched him play it when he was SO young. His intensity was amazing.
On a side note, I saw Rush live at Kitchener Auditorium in the mid-70's and my ears rang for 2 days after the concert.

[jsalts]

after all these years, i've finally found the best video on youtube

[MrRezRising]

Geddy sounds so clean! Neil's snare sounds amazing!
Frankly I'm not used to seeing this performance unless it looks like they're in a blizzard (crt screen).
This solo was a major part of why I play drums the way I do. Thanks StickHits!

[Hawgfrog]

Rush, in my opinion, is one of the greatest bands of all time. The sound that comes out of those three guys still floors me to this day. And Neil, what a magnificent drummer and person. He's my all-time favorite musician. RIP 🙏

[kylemarkley]

This is ridicuolous! It looks like it was filmed yesterday. The first time I ever saw Neil perform his solo was this concert. But it was a grainy video through terrible headphones years and years ago. Now its like watching it for the first time all over again and its almost bringing me to tears!