A discussion that began in the REP Recording Forum here on ProSoundWeb that’s packed with relevant/useful points and references.

Question by kifaru
I’ve been brought a song to record that has a part in it that requires a chorus to sing part of it. The performer told me that what he had in mind for the part was a sound like the choral parts in Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen.

I’m really not sure how to achieve this sound and the performer does not have the money to hire a choir to do the part or an arrangement to give them if he did.

So here’s my question. Did Queen do the choral parts themselves and if so did they use any effects to achieve the sound?

I have a large church space to record the part in if it’s just four guys singing the harmony. However if not is there a way to achieve this effect with a few guys? I’m assuming that I’ll use no more than two mics: one for the room and one close for the choir. Any help would be appreciated.

Reply by Fletcher
From what I’ve heard, the vocals on Bohenian Rhapsody were all Freddy Mercury. All of it. Every voice, every harmony, everything that came out of a mouth came out of his… So you might want to explain to your client that he has about 40 vocal overdubs in his immediate future, and it’ll really help if he [or who ever gets the arduous task of singing on the project] has a great voice, and an excellent sense of harmony and vocal arrangements…

With a choir you end up with “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” - which may be the case anyway…

Reply by pricey
If memory serves, the liner notes say that the vocals on “Bohemian Rhapsody” are all four of them. It certainly doesn’t sound like one person. The key to that beautiful, glossy sound is
1) EXTREMELY good pitch and timing
2) Massive overdubbing
3) A neutral, uncolored tracking room.

After listening to “A Night at the Opera,” the Beatles and the Beach Boys sounded like crap in comparison!

Reply by rivers
I’m pretty sure most of those parts involve more than one voice but will require layers of overdubbing(not to mention talent) and many dedicated tracks (at least before some mixdown or reduction mix).

IMHO the Queen vocals can’t really be replicated with a “plug-in” or simple doubling but usually requires triple or quadruple tracking of harmony parts AND the right arrangement to make it happen. All of this assumes talented vocalists and a engineer/producer that has an ear for vocal arrangement.

Long and short - .it’s easy to do poorly and quite difficult to do well.

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