| Adam Baboolal 03.07.2005 12:05 |
As I read Brian's soapbox I was stunned to scroll down to Friday 1st July heading and see a picture of the studio sheet for GSTQ. However, I was further stunned when Brian mentioned the following: __Until recently ( I mean until 2 weeks ago!) the multi-track for the recording of our “God Save the Queen” was believed lost, along with a small piece of the Prophet’s Song. It turned out that the GSTQ tape was not, as Khashoggi protests in Ben Elton’s script, lost, but simply could not be found ! I am sworn to secrecy as to how, but the admirably rigorous Kris Fredriksson, after 20 odd years of it hiding in the darkness, managed to locate it, and at the 11th hour we are now able do a surround sound mix of it for the forthcoming DVD of A Night at the Opera – the 30th anniversary commemorative edition, which will be stunning in its breadth. (Really!) So here I am 30 years later, with this multitude of guitars from a young Brian May coming out of various channels again, this time not directly from a piece of 16-track tape, but from a wonderfully well-ordered corresponding Protools file on a hard disc, lovingly created by Kris, faithful to the original, and lacking only some of the old clicks and pops and tape hiss which we all had to live with in those days.__ I don't know about you folks, but that brings a big HURRAH from me! I'm glad they found the multitrack at last. And will look forward towards the goodness Bri speaks of with a surround version. ... Holy cow, he actually starts talking about the mixing of it below that! Oh man... this is starting to sound like the 30th anniversary version will be cool. Happy reading, folks. Peace, Adam. |
| inu-liger 03.07.2005 12:26 |
I know! That *is* cool that they found it just in time for the 30th anniversary. Turns out that line in the musical WAS true to its very word! (''Could not be found'' instead of being ''Lost'') Speaking of multitracks, that reminds me, I have to e-mail Justin and Greg... |
| Adam Baboolal 03.07.2005 12:31 |
Pray tell, what do you mean Inu? Email about multi-tracks? Peace, Adam. |
| Saint Jiub 03.07.2005 12:33 |
I hope this 30th anniversary ANATO set has a disk of archive material rather than solely recyled stuff. |
| bohemian 11513 03.07.2005 12:37 |
Hope this one will be released before Charles becomes King of England... ;-) |
| Lord Fickle 03.07.2005 15:50 |
Is it me? What's going to be the difference between this and the DVD-A which came out last year? Surely they must have had the multi-tracks for that, or am I missing something? To be honest, unless it's going to be filled with out-takes, etc, I'd much rather have ADATR out on DVD-A, rather than buying ANATO for a 5th time! |
| Adam Baboolal 03.07.2005 16:45 |
No dvd-a was released last year, Fickle. I can't think what you're referring to as I'm not aware of any releases last year apart from the Milton Keynes dvd. Both The Game and ANATO came out a few years previous... As for the 5.1 state of play, here's why it's important: ANATO dvd-a had God Save The Queen as faked 5.1. Faked 5.1 can usually be found on most consumer amps where you can upmix a normal stereo track into 5.1 and it'll sound passable most of the time. That's what they did for both Prophet's song harmony vocal section and the entirety of GSTQ. It was done because the multi-track was not available at the time and considered to be lost. Peace, Adam. |
| Lord Fickle 03.07.2005 17:58 |
Adam Baboolal wrote: No dvd-a was released last year, Fickle. I can't think what you're referring to as I'm not aware of any releases last year apart from the Milton Keynes dvd. Both The Game and ANATO came out a few years previous...I was referring to the ANATO DVD-A, which came out 'a few years ago'. Time flies when you're getting older! Adam Baboolal wrote: As for the 5.1 state of play, here's why it's important: ANATO dvd-a had God Save The Queen as faked 5.1. Faked 5.1 can usually be found on most consumer amps where you can upmix a normal stereo track into 5.1 and it'll sound passable most of the time. That's what they did for both Prophet's song harmony vocal section and the entirety of GSTQ. It was done because the multi-track was not available at the time and considered to be lost. Peace, Adam.Didn't realise that. Thanks for the clarification. |
| inu-liger 03.07.2005 20:22 |
Adam Baboolal wrote: Pray tell, what do you mean Inu? Email about multi-tracks? Peace, Adam.More or less, I'm trying to aide with a search for one of the missing tapes. I will let you guys know more once I get final answers from those two guys. |
| wstüssyb 04.07.2005 00:31 |
More or less, I'm trying to aide with a search for one of the missing tapes. I will let you guys know more once I get final answers from those two guys. How are you helping them look for something that is about 5,000 miles from where you live? |
| Tero 04.07.2005 05:59 |
Wow! This is something to be really excited about! I mean, there's going to be more than a minute of new 5.1 sounds on the extra special 30th anniversary edition... Forgive me if I don't sound too excited about this revelation. |
| Adam Baboolal 04.07.2005 09:12 |
Tero wrote: Wow! This is something to be really excited about! I mean, there's going to be more than a minute of new 5.1 sounds on the extra special 30th anniversary edition... Forgive me if I don't sound too excited about this revelation.You forget that Brian mentioned the multi-track not only has the entirety of GSTQ, but was acompanied by the Prophet's song middle vocal section, so it's a pretty big find. Peace, Adam. |
| Boy Thomas Raker 04.07.2005 09:17 |
Adam, for us non-techies, could you please explain Brian's explanation from a recording point of view as to how the following process works ? "Some of the guitars were done with the tape slowed down, to give the high trills, with a nice different texture. For the “euphonium” we speeded the tape up to record it, so the guitar came out suitably deep for the ‘bass’ part." I'm assuming that all guitars are recorded in standard tuning. Is Brian playing at the same speed, and if so, how do they get to the natural pitch when the tape speed is being manipulated? I'd think that slowing down or speeding up would alter the pitch drastically. Thanks in advance! |
| Adam Baboolal 04.07.2005 09:42 |
BHM 0271 wrote: Adam, for us non-techies, could you please explain Brian's explanation from a recording point of view as to how the following process works ? "Some of the guitars were done with the tape slowed down, to give the high trills, with a nice different texture. For the “euphonium” we speeded the tape up to record it, so the guitar came out suitably deep for the ‘bass’ part." I'm assuming that all guitars are recorded in standard tuning. Is Brian playing at the same speed, and if so, how do they get to the natural pitch when the tape speed is being manipulated? I'd think that slowing down or speeding up would alter the pitch drastically. Thanks in advance!I can only guess as I'm not seasoned in using tape. I've spliced it a few times and pieced it back together, but that's about it. However, there is a function called varispeed and if you speed the tape up(or down) and play in the correct key for that particular pitch - when it returns to the normal speed, your newly recorded part will also playback at the original pitch. It alters the sound in a few ways and gives it a certain sound. I'm sure that's what Brian's talking about. I've done it a couple of times myself, but only in the digital realm. I recorded a guitar part at a slower playback level and then put it back at the correct speed. It worked a treat and sounds nice. And yes, it can be done in any tuning. Just as long as it fits to what you're recording. Another example I could give is this... I had an acoustic guitar that couldn't be tuned up to standard pitch (long story!). So, I recorded my track and had a listen. After that, I used the varispeed option to correct the lower tuned acoustic and brought it up to standard tuning. And when I recorded parts like electric guitars to this higher pitch - I then turned off the varispeed and it ALL returned to the pitch that the acoustic was recorded at. I hope I explained that well enough. Playing parts on the high strings of a guitar, I guess, sometimes doesn't sound as smooth and full as using lower strings. And when you pitch those lower strings up on a recording, they'll sound a little better, depending on what you're going for. It's all a very **try it and see what happens** kind of thing! Peace, Adam. |
| Saint Jiub 04.07.2005 10:10 |
Adam Baboolal wrote:What a great deal! Buy 40 minutes of 5.1 a 2nd time to hear that 5 minutes of newly found 5.1.Tero wrote: Wow! This is something to be really excited about! I mean, there's going to be more than a minute of new 5.1 sounds on the extra special 30th anniversary edition... Forgive me if I don't sound too excited about this revelation.You forget that Brian mentioned the multi-track not only has the entirety of GSTQ, but was acompanied by the Prophet's song middle vocal section, so it's a pretty big find. Peace, Adam. Recycling at its best. |
| Tero 04.07.2005 10:21 |
You forget that Brian mentioned the multi-track not only has the entirety of GSTQ, but was acompanied by the Prophet's song middle vocal section, so it's a pretty big find. Peace, Adam.I didn't see any mention of the middle section... Wasn't it supposed to be a small bit only? Either way, I'm not too keen on the song anyway. All those multitracked vocals might have sounded cool in a concert, but I think they're waste of vinyl. |
| Lord Fickle 04.07.2005 11:05 |
Queen 'reissues' have always seemed a bit of a money spinner to me. OK, so they may have been remastered a few times, but an average listener with an average hi-fi would be hard pressed to tell the difference between one remaster and the next. Other bands who reissue CDs often add extra tracks. Even if there is no further studio material to be found from those eras, I'm sure a few unreleased live tracks wouldn't have gone unappreciated, on each reissued CD, and there are plenty of those in the vaults. That said, I'm just talking about the CDs here, the DVDs seem a bit better for extras. I will definitely wait for full details of the ANATO 30th Anniversary Edition, before making any decision to purchase. |
| Boy Thomas Raker 04.07.2005 11:36 |
Thanks Adam, greatly appreciated. I've been waiting a long time for what is hopefully the definitive audio collection of ANATO. I think it's fantastic that they've found these tapes, as Brian said, this was their Sgt. Pepper. Very important to have it done right. |
| Adam Baboolal 04.07.2005 12:27 |
I totally agree BHM. I'm chuffed for them to have that tape back. If only it could happen with other lost multi-tracks... sigh. Peace, Adam. |
| inu-liger 04.07.2005 21:13 |
I'm not trying to be a "show-off", Thomas. I provided the name of someone who I suspect MIGHT have one of the missing tapes (Staying Power), that's what I did. |
| inu-liger 04.07.2005 21:16 |
wstüssyb wrote: More or less, I'm trying to aide with a search for one of the missing tapes. I will let you guys know more once I get final answers from those two guys. How are you helping them look for something that is about 5,000 miles from where you live?How do you know it's 5,000 miles from where I live? For all I know, it could be half that, or twice the number of miles |
| inu-liger 04.07.2005 21:23 |
Taken and quoted from link (copyrighted): ''OK, dear Audiophiles !! The version of God Save The Queen on the exisiting DTS version of A Night at the Opera is simply an "unwrap" of the original stereo mix .... because there was no alternative at the time of mixing. There are various machines available for this "unwrap" process ..... the basic principle being to make something which sounds like surround out of a two-channel mix ..... it is literally like "unwrapping" the sound so it appears to open up all around the listener. .... I've never gone into it, but 'unwrap' seems to do roughly what the old "Quad simulators" did years ago .... take some of the out-of-phase signal and put it in the back ... but I'm sure there's a little more to it than that. A lot of this out of phase information on most mixes is in fact the reverb, both natural and artifical ... so the effect gives quite a nice feeling of the music reverberating around the listener. The new version, with REAL surround, has a lot more going for it, as you will imagine... As a matter of interest, there is one small piece of "The Prophet's Song" on the DTS mix which is also "unwrapped" stereo ..... this can't be fixed until we find the relevant piece of multitrack tape .... the last piece in the jig-saw. Cheers bri'' So they didn't quite find the missing multitrack from the middle part of ''Prophet's Song'' yet, unfortunately. Brian's last piece about the tapes was a bit misleading on the part about TPS. |
| Adam Baboolal 04.07.2005 22:21 |
Inu-Liger<h6>-a.k.a. Richard Guilbault- wrote: So they didn't quite find the missing multitrack from the middle part of ''Prophet's Song'' yet, unfortunately. Brian's last piece about the tapes was a bit misleading on the part about TPS.Damned shame. And hey, if you really can aid in getting information on those tapes - do it! Don't listen to what anyone else says. If I had an inkling of where something might be, I'd follow it up too. Well done for being a concerned fan, Inu. Peace, Adam. |
| inu-liger 05.07.2005 00:04 |
Thanks Adam. I'm glad to have someone acknowledge my efforts. Like I said, I will update you guys when I get an answer regarding the tape. Greg and Justin actually know about the person I mentioned in my e-mails, and last I heard Justin was "in contact" with the person in question, which was shortly before the 2005 Queen + Paul Rodgers European Tour, so I think it might have been put off hold because of the tour. |
| inu-liger 05.07.2005 10:45 |
Got an e-mail back from Justin. He says that he has been busy, and is currently in the studio mixing the Sheffield show for CD and DVD, so he hasn't had time to chase the person I named. (I asked him in my reply, for you guys, if the Sheffield show was going to be in 5.1 or 4.1) Greg also replied, and hasn't heard anything yet about the whereabouts of the tape either. So nothing yet, unfortunately. :( |