Roll the Bones producer Rupert Hine
Recording
Roll the Bones was recorded at Le Studio in Morin-Heights, Quebec, and McClear Place in Toronto, between February and May 1991. The band resumed working with co-producer Rupert Hine and engineer Stephen Tayler, both of whom had worked on Presto. The vocals were recorded in England. Rush wanted to continue to work with Hine due to his accomplished songwriting, the feedback he gave their songs and his ability for the group to achieve a looser sound than previous albums. Lee said that various production tricks they had learned from working with Peter Collins in the 1980s were used on Presto and Roll the Bones.The bass and drum parts were put down in four days, and the guitars in eight. Lee was amazed at how Peart had learned his parts for an entire song prior to recording it, and that "Nine times out of 10 it took only one pass for him to nail it." The band had originally planned to release the album in January 1992, but they finished it two months early. They thanked the news channel CNN in the liner notes as they had the channel on while writing, and Lee recalled it was sometimes difficult to stop watching it while numerous events were taking place.Lee used two different Wal basses on the album. He liked its mid-range and "rich" bottom end sound, and the fact that he did not have to add much equalisation. He first learned of the instrument when the band were recording in England, and knew that bassist Percy Jones used one on Brand X albums, of which he was a big fan. Lee played one at the suggestion of Peter Collins during the recording of Power Windows (1985). Lee's bass was mixed closer to Peart's bass drum range which freed up space in the music for guitar parts. Peart also changed his sound and did not make a conscious decision to avoid electronics altogether, but found that most of the songs did not benefit from him playing on an electronic kit and instead mostly used acoustic drums. Peart realized that he had the tendency for his drum parts to be "too organized, too architectural" on an album, so for Roll the Bones he deliberately had spots on songs that were unrehearsed and recorded them on the day of recording with the intention of capturing more spontaneous playing.Peart wrote that the group found each stage of the recording process particularly enjoyable and satisfying, which sparked a "new conviction, a sense of rebirth" within the group. Lee described the writing sessions for the album as "very positive" and "optimistic".Joe Berndt – digital effects
Rupert Hine – additional keyboards, background vocalsProduction
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