| Wilki Amieva 06.08.2015 15:34 |
Cheers everybody! In 1998 Brian May opened his own website to promote his solo album ANOTHER WORLD. This short-lived official site had a video section in which there was only one clip, for a total timing of 6:42 - but it was a very interesting home video! It showed THE BRIAN MAY BAND (Cozy, Neil, Spike and Jamie) at the Allerton Hill Studio circa 1997 jamming around ...and supposedly working. It contained a bit from the sessions for the song Another World, specifically Ken Taylor laying his bass guitar track. There was a second clip announced, but it never materialised. So far so good... The only problem is that back then there was no full HD, no HD and not even a decent PAL or NTSC streaming - so the frame was a crappy 192 x 144 pixels. And it seems that in those modern days... I mean, modeM days, 45.1 kbps was considered a luxury, because that was the bandwidth for the 'high quality' option ('low quality' was 20 kbps). Oh, and did I mention that RealVideo was the format of choice? Anyway, yesterday I came across the .rv files I downloaded in 1998 and decided to try my best on them. I offer the result below: https://www.dropbox.com/s/try38fkx15pty17/ANOTHER%20WORLD%20Alerton%20Hill%20Studio%20Sessions%201997%20%5BWA%20remaster%20-%20PAL%5D.mp4 [720 x 576 px, 25 fps, 255 MB] I used VirtualDub (deblocking, upscaling, noise managemente and level/color correction), Adobe Audition (resampling, wave centering, NR and Eq) and Adobe Premiere (just for a/v sync and fades). If anybody wants to get technical, please send me a PM (but don't expect me to answer anytime soon, sorry!). Hope you like it! (c) 1998 Duck Productions Ltd. |
| Wilki Amieva 06.08.2015 15:37 |
EDIT: After I did the PAL format conversion, I re-checked the original files and now I believe that these might have been compressed from a NTSC source. So, here you have a NTSC version just in case: https://www.dropbox.com/s/dn3dkir4cpzh8ji/ANOTHER%20WORLD%20Alerton%20Hill%20Studio%20Sessions%201997%20%5BWA%20remaster%20-%20NTSC%5D.mp4 [720 x 480 px, 29,97 fps, 255 MB] |
| brians wig 06.08.2015 18:24 |
Thanks Wilki. I too downloaded that file at the time but I'll take a look at yours and see what you've done :) Hopefully Brian may be persuaded to upload a better quality version onto his Youtube channel.... |
| MAYniac91 06.08.2015 18:42 |
The file isn't online anymore! :( |
| Wilki Amieva 06.08.2015 19:41 |
MAYniac91 wrote: The file isn't online anymore! :( How strange! Let me check... EDIT: Problem solved! I messed up the links when I uploaded the NTSC version. My bad, sorry! |
| Nitroboy 06.08.2015 19:59 |
You've seriously kept a file around for 17 years? Damn, I've got files from almost 8 years back, but 17 years? That's just insane. |
| Wilki Amieva 06.08.2015 22:49 |
Nitroboy wrote: You've seriously kept a file around for 17 years? Damn, I've got files from almost 8 years back, but 17 years? That's just insane. I've got ALL my e-mails (incoming and outgoing) since 1993... |
| Wilki Amieva 06.08.2015 22:52 |
BTW, here are some screen captures for comparison, taken from times 1:30 (Spike, Brian & Jamie from above), 3:00 (Brian), 4:30 (Neil) and 5:30 (Cozy) in the video. Left: Original file (upscaled, NN) / Right: PAL version |
| Wilki Amieva 06.08.2015 22:53 |
And more screen captures for comparison, taken from times 1:30 (Spike, Brian & Jamie from above), 3:00 (Brian), 4:30 (Neil) and 5:30 (Cozy) in the video. Left: Original file (upscaled, NN) / Right: NTSC version |
| Chief Mouse 07.08.2015 04:41 |
Thanks! |
| hobbit in Rhye 07.08.2015 07:13 |
Thank you Wilki. I also wish Brian would upload the HD of it to his sites. I can harly recognize his face in the video :D In the mean time, I would enjoy your remaster. |
| The Real Wizard 07.08.2015 14:57 |
Cool, thanks for this. Brian really was a great singer in the 90s. |
| pittrek 07.08.2015 15:06 |
Thanks, I didn't have a copy of this yet. |
| tassilo 08.08.2015 02:11 |
Thanks a lot for this one. |
| Pim Derks 08.08.2015 02:57 |
Converting a 6 MB video to a 255 MB video, only on Queenzone :D ;-) I remember this well, I think I have a copy of the original file somewhere as well. I used to save everything around that time. I've even got copies of my first message on the queen-fip.com website somewhere, dating back to early 1997. Such a shame it's been 17 years since a real BM solo release. |
| brians wig 08.08.2015 03:17 |
Pim Derks wrote: Such a shame it's been 17 years since a real BM solo release.Yes. he must have a ton of unreleased stuff. Maybe some of it will see the light of day if he ever does his own Anthology set. |
| Wilki Amieva 09.08.2015 18:08 |
Pim Derks wrote: Converting a 6 MB video to a 255 MB video, only on Queenzone :D ;-)Who said it was 6 MB? It was only 2 MB!!! :-P |
| Chief Mouse 10.08.2015 03:48 |
Thanks again, sir :) Could you please also upload the original file if possible? I just want to mess around with it a bit. |
| Wilki Amieva 10.08.2015 10:30 |
Chief Mouse wrote: Thanks again, sir :) Could you please also upload the original file if possible? I just want to mess around with it a bit.Of course! And there you have it! |
| Chief Mouse 10.08.2015 11:04 |
Cheers! |
| Chief Mouse 10.08.2015 12:25 |
Since Mr Amieva was kind enough to share the original, I messed with it a bit. Do you think the FPS manipulation is worth it or not? It does look artificial but perhaps it is better than a laggy video with orginally 7 frames per second. Any thoughts / opinions? . |
| hobbit in Rhye 10.08.2015 14:41 |
I prefer the artificial one ;) The original one is not only laggy but has too much noise, which you cleaned up. Of course some details are lost but I guess that's the trade up. @ Amieva: when I was at Queen Studio in Montreux, I saw that the Spanish brochure was "generously donated by Mr Wilki Amieva" :D That's cool of you. To the guy who has generously donated the English brochure: there's no more of it in the room, so I don't know your name... And I don't know what the Spanish brochure said either. |
| Mr.QueenFan 10.08.2015 15:17 |
Thank you for sharing wilki. Never seen this before. @ChiefMouse The video on the right side is smoother. |
| pittrek 11.08.2015 13:22 |
The movement looks MUCH better. However it looks like some details were indeed lost. |
| Wilki Amieva 11.08.2015 21:40 |
Thanks, Hobbit and QueenFan! (About Queen: The Studio Experience: Well, there is no English brochure, because the original text was on the exhibition walls and also on the beautiful programme, so there was no need for one. I just did the Spanish translation, and also the revision of the English texts and some of the other translations. I had the privilege of attending the opening in 2013. You can read my recollection here: link |
| Chief Mouse 12.08.2015 07:21 |
^ That was a nice read. Thanks :) Makes me really wish I was there. |
| queenside 18.08.2015 15:15 |
hey chief i'm a fan of your video work as i'm sure everybody is. will you maybe processed this video? i think this is amazing stuff especially cos brian is playing rory gallagher song called morning sun, actually it's a taste song and i'm a huge rory fan so this is fantastic for me to see cos i never saw any other video of brian playing his idol rory. and of course i'd like to have this is best possible quality and i know you're a man to see about that. |
| Hitman 19.08.2015 05:33 |
thank you WIlki!! this is a gem! i forgot about this video, after all this years. Really a great Job. It's also nice to have a "fps enhanced" version, but there's the little lack of details...when the original has already a huge lack of details. Anyway thank you, Chief Mouse! by the way, Brian's Anthology should be a priority, considered the huge amount of material that should be included. Frankly, i doubt it will ever come to the light as a "nearly complete" collection. |