Voyager wrote:Journey/Survivor wrote:Peart is fantastic, but Smitty is better.
I would have to disagree. Being a drummer, it is much harder for me to emulate Neil Peart than it is Steve Smith.

Any "real" drummer understands Peart is a technician. Even Peart admits his natural physical skills as a drummer are limited. He is more of a thinking drummer than raw power or skill. Peart has often been described as a drum machine due to his natural ability to sync to almost perfect time without using a time clock. Also labled as "stiff" or "can't groove" enough, etc, etc.
Let's face it....here are Peart's strengths and weakness.
Strengths:
a) Double Bass Quads.
b) Decent single stroke rolls.
c) Good use of parradiddles.
d) Good use of flams.
e) Excellent use of doubles on the snare.
f) Ability to use all four limbs to construct mind boggling mystic rythms.
Weaknesses:
a) Fairly slow double bass abilities.
b) Single kick doesn't do alot of doubles, and no triples.
c) Somewhat stiff, not really a groove drummer.
d) Hasn't really gotten "better" on the drums over time. Listen to his solo on All The Worlds A Stage. That solo sounds very similar to his solos 30 years later except for the electronics.
Steve Smith is simply on a whole nother level as far as abilities go.
Old Steve Smith:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6gJxag_jnE
Newer Steve Smith:
This is insane towards the end...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tVQRL_pE ... re=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UpJh46j0 ... re=related
I LOVE RUSH and Peart IS the thinking man's drummer, but Smitty has progressed into something on an entirely different level of ability.
"it is much harder for me to emulate Neil Peart than it is Steve Smith.."
Maybe back in the 70's and 80's when Peart WAS better than Smitty, but not anymore.

Smitty's drumming in Journey was never about "ability" he always said playing in Journey taught him how to compliment a song more than anything else.