| PartyGirl 22.09.2008 05:43 |
Hello To all the extensive Queen community, I am currently studying Audio Engineering and I have a Serious Critical Listening Analysis assignment to do for which i have chosen the Queen song, 'I Want To Break Free' I was hoping that the more dedicated Queen lovers would be able to help me out with some technical data, the more the better, i.e which guitars and bass were used, the into synth model and any information you may have on how they actually recorded I Want To Break Free would be much appreciated, please help, Georgie. |
| Adam Baboolal 22.09.2008 07:49 |
I guess this is what you're looking for - http://sebastian.queenconcerts.com/g-songs-11-06.htm Good to hear from another engineer! Adam. |
| Togg 22.09.2008 08:21 |
I was just about to suggest that... Re the synth at a guess it will have been the Korg M1 which I beleieve they were using around that time. Sorry nothing definate though. |
| Sebastian 22.09.2008 15:31 |
Korg M1's didn't exist in 1983-1984. |
| Bobby_brown 22.09.2008 17:17 |
The only things i know is that the solo is a synth and not Brian's guitar. I've heard that the bass was synth too, but acording to sebastian site it seems that an electric bass was used. I'm not shure about this one. Take care |
| Cwazy little thing 22.09.2008 20:33 |
Bobby_brown wrote: The only things i know is that the solo is a synth and not Brian's guitar. I've heard that the bass was synth too, but acording to sebastian site it seems that an electric bass was used. I'm not shure about this one. Take careYou know I actually had never thought the solo was anything but guitar, but I think that was me being blinded by the live versions - listening back now theres something about the way its played which doesnt have the feel of a guitar, or Bri's playing - synth it is! There you go - you learn something every day. |
| john bodega 23.09.2008 01:14 |
You know, Brian once won a magazine poll for doing that 'guitar' solo! |
| Togg 23.09.2008 04:17 |
Sebastian wrote: Korg M1's didn't exist in 1983-1984.Tru nuff tru nuff, just checked back 88 would appear to be the first production issue. Well there you go I said nothing definate, infact it turned out to be nothing useful!!! |
| Martin Packer 23.09.2008 04:54 |
I thought it was the Fairlight Queen debuted on The Works. |
| Sebastian 23.09.2008 07:34 |
Fred's solo is on a Jupiter 8, that's a dead cert. The other parts could use other keyboards, or even a combination of them to make a fat sound. |
| earwig 25.09.2008 05:56 |
I own a Roland Juno-D and it's got a patch called 'Jupiter Strings' - basically the Jupiter 8 string patch and it IS the intro chords to the song (no contest!) Hope this helps. Also, is it just me or does the cowbell sound really dissonant to the rest of the instrumentation and the key (E)?! |
| FriedChicken 25.09.2008 09:05 |
Adam Baboolal wrote: I guess this is what you're looking for - link Good to hear from another engineer! Adam.I agree! And defenately female engineers! Good job! |
| FriedChicken 25.09.2008 09:07 |
earwig wrote: I own a Roland Juno-D and it's got a patch called 'Jupiter Strings' - basically the Jupiter 8 string patch and it IS the intro chords to the song (no contest!) Hope this helps. Also, is it just me or does the cowbell sound really dissonant to the rest of the instrumentation and the key (E)?!Is there something wrong with dissonants?? It's totally okay for percussion to sound dissonant |
| FriedChicken 25.09.2008 09:11 |
I think the solo was played with a guitar through a vocoder, or a synth with an input of some kind. First I thought it was a synth playing. But then I noticed that you can really hear Brian's guitar playing style in the synth sound. So it must be a guitar solo played through a synth. |
| thomasquinn 32989 25.09.2008 09:59 |
FriedChicken wrote:It depends, really; dissonance is permissible at all times, in all instruments, but it works better in some places in some songs than in others. I wouldn't go so far as to say "percussion can sound dissonant". That may be an effect you wish to add to some songs, but I certainly wouldn't use it at all times.earwig wrote: I own a Roland Juno-D and it's got a patch called 'Jupiter Strings' - basically the Jupiter 8 string patch and it IS the intro chords to the song (no contest!) Hope this helps. Also, is it just me or does the cowbell sound really dissonant to the rest of the instrumentation and the key (E)?!Is there something wrong with dissonants?? It's totally okay for percussion to sound dissonant |
| john bodega 25.09.2008 11:55 |
FriedChicken wrote: I think the solo was played with a guitar through a vocoder, or a synth with an input of some kind. First I thought it was a synth playing. But then I noticed that you can really hear Brian's guitar playing style in the synth sound. So it must be a guitar solo played through a synth.I'm pretty sure Brian cleared this up a while ago... he seems to be under the impression that the solo was a synth only affair. It might be in this guitar magazine I have floating around where he was interviewed by Nuno Bettencourt; either that, or I read it on his Soapbox. Or somewhere else. Baaaaah! Can't remember. |
| Marcos Napier 25.09.2008 23:56 |
It's a synth in the solo although at some parts near the end it seems that the real guitar joins in briefly, quieter in the mix. It seems to use the same patch as the bass sound near the end of the song (of course in a much higher octave), but with something like an envelope filter (aka wah) effect to emulate a wah pedal, the bass sound is clean (as in no other effects but these in the patch). And lots of pitch wheels too. The strings sound can be replicated with almost any decent strings patch. About the percussion: out of tune is not the same as dissonant... |
| earwig 30.09.2008 08:17 |
I read that Brian recorded a normal guitar solo and the others hated it so Fred Mandel recorded a synth solo. Wether it was based on Brian's original I don't know! My comment about the dissonent cowbell seems to have raised healthy debate - always a good thing ;-) |
| Adam Baboolal 30.09.2008 12:27 |
I thought it was a decision by John to NOT have another guitar solo and wanted the synth instead. |
| PartyGirl 12.10.2008 21:39 |
The links in the second post aren't working, any suggestions? |
| Adam Baboolal 13.10.2008 08:20 |
PartyGirl wrote: The links in the second post aren't working, any suggestions? Fixed it. QZ is screwing up links these days. Even ones that were fine before, it seems! Anyway, it's fixed now. Adam. |
| Bohardy 13.10.2008 14:53 |
A little while ago I got into a rather random correspondence with Fred Mandel's wife, which I'm sure I'll have mentioned on here previously. Naturally, I had a few questions for her regarding Fred's work with the boys. Regarding the IWTBF solo she confirmed, after asking Fred (Mandel, obviously), that the solo was fully conceived and played by him (Mandel). It's a little known fact that he's as proficient on guitar as he is on piano, and so, when he constructed the solo on the synth, he had his 'guitar brain' in and his 'keyboard hands' on, and subsequently came up with the Brian-esque solo that appears on the finished song as we know it. True story. |
| Sebastian 14.10.2008 15:29 |
Great info. Thanks. What else did she tell you about Fred's work with Queen? |
| Bohardy 14.10.2008 21:20 |
Not much Seb. I think I only asked about the 'candy floss' on Hammer To Fall, and the ending to Man On The Prowl. Fred simply confirmed he played on HTF, rather than elaborating as to why he was chosen to play the very simple keyboard parts or explaining why that playing was termed 'candy floss'; and he said that MOTP was originally intended to fade out. At the end of the song he was just 'goofing around', safe in what he thought was the knowledge that he was past the point where the song was to fade out. Obviously somebody then decided during the mix to end the track abruptly rather than use the fade out idea. I think that was it. |
| Sebastian 14.10.2008 21:29 |
Fred doesn't mention anything deeper on his MySpace either... |