Hi,
today I've listened to "Live at the Rainbow" (sound track from the DVD) after a long time, and I had the impression that a lot of editing has been done on it. Am I right or was it such a brilliant concert, esp. vocals-wise?
Roger sings his backing parts almost as good as on the albums. In some places It sounds as if Freddie was able to sing lead vocals AND backing vocals at the same time. Brian makes no mistakes, except from some very few slurry parts or timing issues.
Does somebody know anything about how much it was edited? I don't think there's an audience recording of the concert, is there?
There are more overdubs on that than Bo Rap and dont let anyone tell you otherwise.
I have never really paid attention to the instuments to be honest but they seem pretty OK but the vocals certainly are.
I have an old fan club mag or something from late 74 early 75 where Fred mentions that he is in the studio at the moment working on the Rainbow show to make it sound 'really good', or in other words re-recording the vocals to the songs to be included on the 30min edited version.
NTL wrote: There are more overdubs on that than Bo Rap and dont let anyone tell you otherwise.
What a load of tosh. At most, there are some extra backing vocals for the harmonies that are incredibly low in the mix. Most people can't get their heads round the fact that the footage is edited from 2 nights worth of filming and the syncing is out at parts.
Though you seem to be contradictory, I think you both are right. The backing vocals are obviously overdubbed, and – though I couldn't determine it exactly where – the lead vocals maybe at some point, too. They sound a bit too perfect. And though if everything else was left original concert sound, it seems to be altered in the studio. You can achieve a lot by mixing.
By the way, in my version of the audio, the parts between the songs sound muted, even at some low level parts in the songs there are spots where this "pumping" effect occurs. Is that due to extreme noise reduction or just my bad copy? I didn't check my video yet, but I don't think it was there, too.
The main vocal is in deed overdubbed. The most obvious song (in my opinion) is Killer Queen. You can clearly hear the actual live vocal resonating in the back ground.
Listen again...
My favorite is the Now I'm Here from GVH1. They tried to turn down the overdubs so when Freddie sings the echo part, the echo sounds different than the part Fred sings.
Overdubbing... ? That would be any of the band members re-recording their parts onto the multitrack of the actual show. Which indeed has occured in many instances of 'fixing' a live performance. A long time ago i read somewhere that 'Trident' owned the rights to that particular show... and it was the trident production team that saw fit to 'tart-up, or enhance' the performance. Not by having the band members re-record parts, but by 'flying in.. or dubbing in' (trying to choose my words carefuly for those of you who dont understand the recording process) anyways... they added the backing vocals from the actual 'album versions' of the songs in question. Not too terribly difficult to do in those days. Time consuming but not impossible. And to MY EARS' thats exactly what it sounds like.
i think you are right. there are loads of bits thru lap of the gods/killer/march
that sound like they were lifted directly off the album
and let's face it...queen were adept at this kind of fixing...they did it for live killers...50 shows used....24 tracks.....
and milton keynes has (among other things) a tarted up fat bottomed girls