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Reply posted by slipperman
Call me crazy but....
No way Jose.
Roger Taylor, Queen’s drummer, is the only guy in the band
capable of hitting half of the Hi-D#(+) stuff on ANY of the Queen
records bvox topology. If you guys dig around, I'm pretty sure yer
gonna find a ton of documentation to support that claim. Try it.
Lemme know.
Freddy had a great voice and a decent 'full voice' range, but a
modest and maidenfeld falsetto. Roger had the 'High' voice, hard
and sharp/clear. This was common knowledge "back in de day".
A bunch of you guys know Visconti, who mentored R.T. Baker back
in the early days(ie. 1st Gentle Giant record), call him up and
have him find out for us.....
Or if somebody knows Roy, call him the fuck up, I wanna know!!!
HOHOHOHO.
Reply posted 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 posted 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 current West
End stage production based on Queen music. The final number is Bohemian
Rahpsody done by a full chorus live (I’m pretty sure 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. BTW the recording is a live multitrack so
it aint 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.
Hope this helps...
Reply posted by heef
Go to http://www.sospubs.co.uk
and search the June 2002 edition. It has 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 (and readers of AudioTechnology) 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 posted 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 yer wants results, you’s got to 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 posted 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 nauseam?
Does anyone here know Thomas Tallis's Spem in alium? It's what you
did for this effect before there was recording...
Reply posted by mcallister
If you get a choir to do it great. If you get one guy (or the band)
to do it great. Whatever works.
However, do everyone a favor and write out the parts BEFORE you
start tracking. Nothing is worse than getting into overdub #4 and
hearing "wait, lemme figure out what to sing." Similarly,
you would never say to a choir, "here's a part. . ." and
start singing it to them.
If going the choir route, you'll need to write it out, all of it.
No mistakes. Mistakes will either a) cost you time (money), b) prove
to everyone that whoever wrote the 'score' is musically illiterate,
or c) both.
If going the one guy/band route (presuming that their reading/writing
music skills are scratchy at best) have a demo done first; jot down
ideas; have a game plan before diving in.
Trust me
Reply posted by Fletcher
As long as we've strayed from the original topic... this weekend
I'm going to be working on the desk that was used to cut Bohenian
Rhapsody.
Had my choice of that desk [a Trident A-Range] or an 8078...
Reply posted by subspace
Did they ever work on a Series 80? I keep seeing their name attached
to that desk, but wonder if it's just a case of all the Tridents
getting lumped together...
Reply posted by murray
I'm comming in here way late, but wanted to answer the original
question. I know RTB, and have worked lots with engineer Mike Stone
(rip) who recorded about everything Queen did up through News of
the World.
Anyway, they did the same thing on all their records .. all sang
the low part together (three times on three tracks), then the middle
part (three times, three tracks) etc etc. Freddy would keep a finger
on the piano and hit a note for pitch before each take.
Later, Roy (with engineer George Tutko) did the same with the Cars
(same stacked treatment even though Cars weren't on pitch). Also,
Queen worked in “deadish” studios. I think Bohenian
was done at some funky place in England (Olympic?).
Mike had a stack of snapshots of them recording there, real retro,
cramped control room, console tiny. I've messed around with Roy's
Stephens-40 (which is actually small, portable) but very cool lookin'.
As I recall, he just used it for show and conversation piece, almost
positive he never used it for Queen.
BTW, I have a Stephens 8-track and love it. Roy still has his. If
you listen to the chorus on Bohenian, it's actually quite dry, might
hear a bit of room. They recorded dry then usually added a bit of
Lexicon 224 at mixdown. If you recorded that in your church, it
wouldn't sound tight enough.
Hope this helps.
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