"What was Freddie’s preparation for a concert like? It was basically life as usual. He had no fitness regime as such. He was the only person I have ever met who had two complete home gyms, one in New York and one in Los Angeles, who never used them. He bought them for the use of friends. As for show days, he would probably talk a little less than normal and once he was at the venue he would be quite calm. He always had his hot lemon and honey drink on hand."
And now the most interesting:
"About one hour before the show Trip Khalaf, the sound engineer, would come to the dressing room. Freddie would try out his voice and if he had no trouble with the higher register Trip knew to keep Freddie’s voice up in the mix for the top notes. If there was a problem then Trip knew to put up Roger’s high voice in the mix and Freddie would sing down an octave. After he had put on his makeup and costumes, Freddie would slowly start to pump up his body and warm the voice as you see in some of the video footage of before the shows."
Here's a source: link
Chopin1995 wrote:
About one hour before the show Trip Khalaf, the sound engineer, would come to the dressing room. Freddie would try out his voice and if he had no trouble with the higher register Trip knew to keep Freddie’s voice up in the mix for the top notes. If there was a problem then Trip knew to put up Roger’s high voice in the mix and Freddie would sing down an octave.
That doesn't surprise me in the least. Even on the worst sounding audience tapes, you can tell that the front of house mix was excellent. Khalaf was brilliant at his job, and extremely dedicated to it. He even listened to the tapes every night to hear where he could make it better the next night.
I found that interesting as well. I guess with melodies as tricky as Freddies, no matter what his talents, it was a night by night effort rather than the same settings through a tour.
I'm sure the partying didn't help of course.
dysan wrote:
I guess with melodies as tricky as Freddies, no matter what his talents, it was a night by night effort rather than the same settings through a tour.
Queen road crew was doing great job. I guess they were perfectionists as well as the band itself.
Chopin1995 wrote:
About one hour before the show Trip Khalaf, the sound engineer, would come to the dressing room. Freddie would try out his voice and if he had no trouble with the higher register Trip knew to keep Freddie’s voice up in the mix for the top notes. If there was a problem then Trip knew to put up Roger’s high voice in the mix and Freddie would sing down an octave.
That doesn't surprise me in the least. Even on the worst sounding audience tapes, you can tell that the front of house mix was excellent. Khalaf was brilliant at his job, and extremely dedicated to it. He even listened to the tapes every night to hear where he dcould make it better the next night.
Yeah Trip Khalaf is a mixing desk alchemist! He used to pull the faders on backing vocal mics that weren't in use, only bringing them up as needed, thus keeping the signal path clear for lead vocals with out extra bleed from guitar or drums.
With Queen he was brilliant at giving the sound an audible presence, which probably helped make huge venues seem a little smaller and help the audience feel closer.
Having said that I remember him on a Micheal Jackson tour leaning back with his feet on the desk reading a magazine in the middle of the show.
Robert Collins Queen current sound guy is also really good. He seems to have brought back the volume and power to the sound which the Q+PR gigs seemed to lack with Trip at the desk