ITSM 25.09.2013 05:48 |
This is straight out of Wikipedia, but kinda fun to just copy paste the album-titles into Spotify (or YouTube) and check out some other work besides Queen by this man: ------------------------------------------------ David Richards (record producer) David Richards is an English-born Swiss-based record producer, engineer and musician. In the Mountain Studios in Montreux, owned by the rock band Queen, and in Attalens he engineered and co-produced many albums by Queen, David Bowie and other artists. Richards also played keyboards on some records. He also deals with live music recording in such events as Montreux Jazz Festival. Selected discography Albums (co-)produced by David Richards: Roger Taylor – Strange Frontier (1984) Jimmy Nail – Take It or Leave It (1985; single: "Love Don't Live Here Anymore") Feargal Sharkey – Feargal Sharkey (1985; single: "Loving You") Queen – A Kind of Magic (1986) Iggy Pop – Blah Blah Blah (1986) Magnum – Vigilante (1986) Virginia Wolf – Virginia Wolf (1986) David Bowie – Never Let Me Down (1987) The Cross – Shove It (1988) Freddie Mercury and Montserrat Caballé – Barcelona (1988) Queen – The Miracle (1989) Queen – Innuendo (1991) David Bowie – The Buddha of Suburbia (1993) David Bowie – Outside (1995) Queen – Made in Heaven (1995) Others: Queen – Live Killers (1979; assistant engineer) Yes – Going for the One (1977; assistant engineer) Roger Taylor – Fun in Space (1981) Queen – Live Magic (1986; recorded by Mack and Richards) Brian May – Back to the Light (1992; engineer, recording, mixing: "Driven by You", "Last Horizon", "Just One Life") Brian May – Another World (1998; additional recording: "Why Don't We Try Again"; mixing: "Another World") Samael – Eternal (1999; recording, mixing) ------------------------------------------------------------ By the way, check out: Klaus Nomi - Valentine's Day (not produced by David Richards, though). |
princetom 25.09.2013 05:53 |
of the non-queen-related projects i know, there's bowie's "outside" i like the most for its creepy atmosphere... really an outstanding record ! |
cmsdrums 25.09.2013 06:34 |
Richards' input to Queen's work always seemed to go further than just the usual standard producer (for example we know that he contributed approx. 50% of the keyboard work to 'Fun In Space' too). I love most of his output with Queen, and purely from an audio perspective his prodcution and mixes, particularly on some live releases, is massively better than Justin Shirley Smith. |
Band Forever 25.09.2013 07:47 |
I think his work is a bit mixed overall. Live Killers (79) Terrible Mono Sounds like played their concert and recorded it in a box room. The Drum sound is tinny and the overall sounds dull, even though it contains one Queen's best performances of Now I'm Here improv. Spread Your Wings is excellent too. Live Magic (86) Again terrible editing and sound when you compare the top quality recording of Mannheim 86, on a bootleg! especially Roger's drum sound. Don't really know Bowie's work beyond the hits and even some of them are so so! Some of the later Queen albums would've sounded terrific with today's sound recording techniques on their latters albums, but without stbo Richards had to work with inferior technology in the 90's. |
Sebastian 25.09.2013 12:31 |
cmsdrums wrote: Richards' input to Queen's work always seemed to go further than just the usual standard producer (for example we know that he contributed approx. 50% of the keyboard work to 'Fun In Space' too).Yeah but FIS is not a Queen record... and he didn't produce that one anyway, Roger did. David was the engineer (not the same as producer). David did co-produce SF and some things with Roger in the mid 80's (Magnum, etc.), as well as, well, loads of other things. For actual Queen projects (i.e., no Roger solo, no Fred & Montserrat, no Brian solo, no The Cross), David still contributed quite a few things, including keyboard programming (ICLWY, Innuendo, TATDOOL, Scandal, MBDM), some arrangement ideas (HFE, TSMGO) and, apparently, piano on UP (which one, though?). |
shannaschaffer 25.09.2013 13:21 |
I've never been clear on this. What is the difference between an engineer and a producer? |
Sebastian 25.09.2013 14:28 |
It's a bit of a grey area, indeed. Producers are in charge of supervising the... well, product, whether it's an album, a song, a compilation, or a specific bit (e.g., Makeba Riddick produced some of Rihanna's vocals on 'Love the Way You Lie', but wasn't involved in anything else on the track). Balance engineers are more into making sure the sound is captured correctly, which involves mic positioning, pre-amps (if any), effects (or lack thereof), EQ, compression, etc. Of course, that role and the producers' can and do overlap quite often, so sometimes it's hard to tell who's who or who's doing what. Another main difference is on money, although each case is different. Sometimes the producer will be paid a percentage of the record's net gain while the engineer is 'just' paid a fixed fee for the session(s), although, again, it really depends on many factors. But yeah, usually engineers don't earn any points, and if they ask for that, that could be a deal-breaker (ask Alan Parsons). There are of course many other tasks that some producers and some engineers can and do take part of sometimes, such as coaching the performers on their recording takes (e.g., 'no, that wasn't good enough, try again!'), choosing the best takes for the comps (e.g., 'take 1 is better on this line, take 3 on that line, etc.), or even contributing to arrangements and songwriting (e.g., David Richards co-wrote Abandonfire, George Martin used to score and conduct most orchestras for The Beatles), or playing instruments and/or singing (e.g., Freddie on 'Man from Manhattan'). There's also the role of executive producer, which is more about financing the record. Engineers come in different pecking orders as well: there's usually a 'chief' engineer and a junior engineer, or an assistant engineer, or even a tea boy. That was particularly usual in the 70s when the most common way to become an engineer was to start off from the bottom, making tea and sweeping the floor, until you got the chance of moving some leads or pressing 'rec', and so on, until someone gave you the chance of actually handling the faders. Queen's 1971 sessions were self-produced, and they were engineered (but not produced or co-produced) by Louis Austin. That means the band made their own decisions about sounds and tracks and all that, and Austin made sure things were recorded properly. For the 1972-1973 sessions for the album, John Anthony produced (except when he was ill, that Roy took over) and there was an engineer, usually whoever happened to be on shift that particular night. 'Queen II' and 'Sheer Heart Attack' had Roy as main producer (with some exceptions) but the band were second-billed as producers - usually, the person who'd written the song would assist in making sure his vision was brought to life exactly as he wanted. Mike Stone was the main engineer, assisted by in-house staff at different studios (e.g., Geoff Workman at Wessex). 'A Night at the Opera', 'Jazz' and all of the albums from 'Hot Space' until 'Innuendo' had Queen as main producers and then Roy, Reinhold or David second billed, with some exceptions. The main decision maker was the person who'd written the song, followed by the external producer, and then there'd be engineers and such. 'A Day at the Races', 'News of the World', 'The Game' and the post-1991 sessions for 'Made in Heaven' were self-produced, and Stone, Mack, Richards, Shirley-Smith and Macrae acted 'merely' as co-producers (similar to the difference between pilot and co-pilot), having different engineers. 'Flash' was produced by Mack and Brian, with different engineers working on different tracks. |
Apocalipsis_Darko 25.09.2013 21:34 |
Sebastian, the producers had some more power than you think in some records. Specially Roy Thomas Baker and Mack. About David Richards, the only album I like from him outside Queen is Bowie's Outside, with the hipnotic I'm derangered (included in the soundtrack of Lost Highway). Blah, Blah, Blah by Iggy, was bettern than the previous Iggy album, but I think Iggy, until Beat by beat and American Caesar, didn't found the inspiration again. |
cmsdrums 26.09.2013 03:22 |
Band Forever wrote: I think his work is a bit mixed overall. Live Killers (79) Terrible Mono Sounds like played their concert and recorded it in a box room. The Drum sound is tinny and the overall sounds dull, even though it contains one Queen's best performances of Now I'm Here improv. Spread Your Wings is excellent too. Live Magic (86) Again terrible editing and sound when you compare the top quality recording of Mannheim 86, on a bootleg! especially Roger's drum sound. Don't really know Bowie's work beyond the hits and even some of them are so so! Some of the later Queen albums would've sounded terrific with today's sound recording techniques on their latters albums, but without stbo Richards had to work with inferior technology in the 90's.Strangely I find the actually sound on Live Magic really good - the Knebworth tracks especially have great sounding drums to my ears! Yes the edits aren't fantastic, but that was possibly the band/label choice so they could git it all to one LP; I think the actual edits themselves sound ok given with where Richards was asked to make them. One of the last things I think Richards worked on with the band was the 46664 concert releases, and the Queen stuff on there, certainly the drums, sound massively better than the absolute mush of a drum sound on Return of the Champions. |
Sebastian 26.09.2013 06:00 |
Apocalipsis_Darko wrote: Sebastian, the producers had some more power than you think in some records.Producers do have a lot of 'power', but in the band's case, the person who'd written the song was the main producer (from 1975 onwards anyway), sometimes assisted by Roy, sometimes by Reinhold and sometimes by David. It's not the same case as, say, George Martin and The Beatles, or Jerry Finn and Blink-182. Roy was invaluable for the band, and he was the only one out of the holy trinity (Roy, Reinhold and David) who got first billing as producer (on SHA and most of Queen II), but he didn't contribute to arrangements or instrumentation. Reinhold and David did, occasionally, but they were second billed (on 'The Game', Reinhold was only a 'co-producer', not a producer, he became full producer on 'Fash', and from 'Hot Space' onwards he was second billed). |
Apocalipsis_Darko 26.09.2013 08:59 |
The Game and Hot Space are albums with a lot of influence of Mack, in the arrengment and that kind of things. For example, Crazy Little Thing Called Love, Mack said to Brian May to play with a Fender, not the Real Special. Brian accused to Mack later that he could be sound rock n roll playing his red special. Hot Space there is a lot of arregement did by Mack, also The Works he gave ideas, and if you can see, A Kind Of Magic, the songs by Freddie and John are produced by Mack, behind the songs by Brian and Roger produced by David Richards. Other thing are the credits...but...Steve Hunter played all the guitars in Train Kept a-rollin Aerosmith's cover in Get Your Wings, and was not credit for that. |
shannaschaffer 26.09.2013 11:16 |
Thanks for the layman's explanation. Makes much more sense now :) |
Sebastian 26.09.2013 12:03 |
Apocalipsis_Darko wrote:The Game and Hot Space are albums with a lot of influence of Mack, in the arrengment and that kind of things.Some, yes. A lot, no. At least 90% of the arrangements on both records were NOT suggested by Mack. That's not to say he wasn't important for the band or that his contributions were irrelevant, it's just that what he did, good as it was, and important as it was, wasn't by any means 'a lot' in terms of arrangements. Apocalipsis_Darko wrote:For example, Crazy Little Thing Called Love, Mack said to Brian May to play with a Fender, not the Real Special.Yeah, but that's not an arrangement per se. And, still, Mack didn't choose which guitar Brian should use on Play the Game, Dragon Attack, Another One Bites the Dust, Need Your Loving Tonight, Rock It, Sail Away Sweet Sister, Coming Soon or Save Me, so the amount of times Mack did NOT dictate the equipment choice far outnumbers the amount of times he did. Apocalipsis_Darko wrote:Hot Space there is a lot of arregement did by MackNo, there isn't: * Staying Power was arranged by Freddie and Arif. * Dancer was arranged by Brian. * Back Chat was arranged by John and Brian. * Body Language was arranged by Freddie. * Action This Day was arranged by Roger and Dino. * Put Out the Fire was arranged by Brian. * Calling All Girls was arranged by Roger. * Life Is Real was arranged by Freddie. * Las Palabras de Amor was arranged by Brian. * Cool Cat was arranged by John. * Under Pressure was arranged by Freddie, David and Brian. So there. Mack contributed a lot to HS as an engineer and as a secondary producer, but he did not contribute to that album as an arranger. Apocalipsis_Darko wrote:The Works he gave ideasNot really. He did supply the programming on Machines, which is great and all, but he neither contributed arrangements to the remaning instrumentation of the track (i.e. guitar, bass, drums, drum-machine, synth bass), nor did he arrange the remaining 88.89% of the album. Mack did a lot for The Works as an engineer and secondary producer, but not as an arranger. In that department, Fred Mandel's contributions were far larger. Apocalipsis_Darko wrote:if you can see, A Kind Of Magic, the songs by Freddie and John are produced by Mack, behind the songs by Brian and Roger produced by David Richards.Produced 'with', not 'by', plus there's an exception with One Vision. Mack's contribution to One Vision, Pain Is So Close to Pleasure, Friends Will Be Friends, One Year of Love and Princes of the Universe were great.But he contributed as an engineer and secondary producer, not as an arranger. Those tracks were produced by Queen with him, not by him per se (not the same thing). Other thing are the credits...but...Steve Hunter played all the guitars in Train Kept a-rollin Aerosmith's cover in Get Your Wings, and was not credit for that.Yeah, and Brian wasn't credited for piano on 'All Dead, All Dead', so? |
Apocalipsis_Darko 26.09.2013 13:54 |
Well, I had the quotes about how Hot Space was made by Mack Sebastian...and I can tell you the band, specially Roger, were outside the recording. Listen the drums, for example. This is a lot of beats, and things like that. You can say like you want, but as I told you, he was a producer, like Roy Thomas Baker. Of course, Queen produced also, but was a team, not a second producer.And Fred Mandel did a lot in The Works songs, that's true. Radio Ga Ga for example, is almost more to Fred than Roger. And of course, Roy and Mack were'nt like Bob Ezrin or Phil Spector, but not so second plane. If you listen the first The Cars album, you can hear a lot of Queen things, and is produced by Baker. |
Sebastian 26.09.2013 20:10 |
Apocalipsis_Darko wrote:Listen the drums, for example. This is a lot of beats, and things like that.There are people other than Mack capable of programming a drum machine. Apocalipsis_Darko wrote:he was a producerYeah, he was: the second producer. The author of the song was the first. Apocalipsis_Darko wrote:Queen produced also, but was a teamA team with hierarchy: first the author of the song, then Roy/Reinhold/David, with some exceptions such as Queen, Queen II and SHa, and the four self-produced records (ADATR, NOTW, The Game and MIH). Apocalipsis_Darko wrote:Radio Ga Ga for example, is almost more to Fred than Roger.Fred + Fred arranged, but the song's Roger's through and through. Still, no Mack as arranger. Apocalipsis_Darko wrote:If you listen the first The Cars album, you can hear a lot of Queen things, and is produced by Baker.If you listen to ADATR, you can hear a lot of Queen things and it's not produced by Baker; same for NOTW, The Game, etc. |
Apocalipsis_Darko 26.09.2013 20:40 |
Well, before ADATR were ANATO or the three first albumst, so....the logical thing is... But if you don't believe the word of Mack, is not my problem. Is your opinion and I respect it, but I'm not agree. Mack did a lot of things in The Game and Hot Space. He said them how to complete well Crazzy little thing called love and Another one bites the dust when they show to him before Brian was in the studio. That's a producer team thing. Less in The Works? Yes, but also contribuid. But at least, we have different opinions, and with respect, I enjoy to discuss n a good way that kind of things Sebastian ;) |
cmsdrums 27.09.2013 05:37 |
On a related point, does anyone know if DR is over the health issues he had a couple of years ago? I know his Facebook profile was public by mistake, and it seemed that he discussed a few things there, but soon switched it to private once he realised it was available for all to see. I hope he is well. |
Sebastian 27.09.2013 07:30 |
Apocalipsis_Darko wrote:Mack did a lot of things in The Game and Hot Space.Yes, he did. But he wasn't a main producer on either. The Game was produced by Queen, and Mack was an engineer and co-producer, which is a very important role, but not the same; Hot Space was produced by both the band and him (and Arif and David), but the band still were billed first. The author of each particular song would have ultimate say, outranking the rest of the band and Mack. Of course that doesn't mean he didn't do a lot - he did, and his work was great. But still, it's fair not to overrate him. Apocalipsis_Darko wrote:Less in The Works? Yes, but also contribuid.Yeah, he contributed a lot to The Works. But that doesn't change the fact he was the album's chief engineer and second producer. The author of each particular song would have ultimate say, outranking the rest of the band and Mack. |
Apocalipsis_Darko 27.09.2013 08:58 |
John and Paul signed together some songs, but the orden of the names was not always right. If you talk with Mack, and Roy Thomas Baker and give contrast info, I will write and read again this post. Meanwhile, I will read again the history of producers, from Sam Phillips to Rick Rubin or Mark Ronson... |
Sebastian 27.09.2013 13:15 |
Top billing doesn't always reflect amount of input, yes. Tobin Bell was top billed on Saw 3D even though he showed up for about 5 minutes (of new footage, that is). However, sometimes billing order is right. Queen was produced by Anthony & Baker (except for TNCD, which was produced by Queen). Queen II was produced by Baker/Queen, Cable/Queen or Baker/Cable/Queen, depending on the case. SHA: Baker/Queen. ANATO & Jazz: Queen/Baker (different order). ADATR, NOTW, The Game, MIH: Queen. Flash: Mack/May. HS & Works: Queen/Mack (except UP and SP). Magic: Queen/Mack and Queen/Richards, depending. Miracle & Innuendo: Queen/Richards. |
ITSM 02.10.2013 03:32 |
Thanks for your interesting inputs! |