Reply by ccgreg
Wasn’t it recorded on a Stephens 2-inch 40-track? If so, because of the incredible small track width, phase alignment was almost impossible, which made ping-ponging sound very bad. I’ve done it with extremely poor results.

Reply by mwalker_mw
As a tip to the question of the original poster, try to get ahold of the cast recording from “We Will Rock You” - it’s a West End stage production based on Queen music. The final number is Bohemian Rahpsody done by a full chorus live (I’m pretty sure, but you never know these days) on stage.

No, it doesn’t sound like the original recording, but it is a good showing of how to do something similar with a large chorus rather than extensive looping. By the way, the recording is a live multitrack, so it isn’t great, but you should be able to get some ideas out of it. Brian May and Roger Taylor were fairly heavily involved in the creative process as well, I understand.

Reply posted by heef
An article in Sound on Stage magazine several years ago had a story on the remix of “BoRap for” 5.1. Has a nice quote from Brian May too. All the extra high falsettos are by Roger. Brian and Roger make up a fair amount of the opera section too. Apparently vocals were still being tracked on the day of mixing.

Rob Schnapf tells me that Roy Thomas Baker used a Stephens Electronics tape machine. Whether this was one manufactured by Stephans, or a 3M modified by Stephans, I don’t know. I do know that “A Night at the Opera” was one of the first 24-track recordings, so it was obviously recorded on a 24-track.

Reply by dwo
There’s no real trick to achieving those vocals.. .it’s just #6 cattle wire with the tri-barb configuration, 10-inch barb spacing. Just adorn the singer in an appropriate fashion.

Some use this in conjunction with a run of electric fence wire, hookup is on a low voltage 100 amp slo-fire power supply set to gap on a 4 second interval, partly to let the deep surge caps recharge, but also to avoid singeing the singer with back-to-back DC whacks.

The high voltage/low ampere ones work better and are less cruel to the animal, but when they spark they make a distinctly audible ‘snap’ that is inappropriate for audio work.

Don’t be shy, man. If you want results, you gotta pay for ‘em. There simply isn’t a more effective inspiration for a singer than employing his genitalia as the dielectric between a sharp piece of metal and a sharp surge of DC.

Reply by doc dave
Is it worth mentioning 10cc’s “I’m Not In Love” in this thread? It is sometimes discussed alongside “BoRap” because of its amazing vocal overdubs. Noteworthy, too, that the only engineering/mixing/production credits are to “10cc”.

Among other things, I take it patience and perseverance are required in large measure. Come to think of it -  would a choral group give you the same feel as one or two voices recorded ad nauseum?

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