Freddie's Vocal on Face It Alone Analysed

I've watched a few of his videos and have appreciated his analysis/insights. As much as he hates that Freddie’s vocals have been pitch corrected, he does make a strong argument it was done to make the track sound “modern”, not that that justifies it. It does make me wonder who initiated it: Brian/Roger, their “team”, or the label?

There's also an analysis of the original demo:

Well, that was quite technical forcing me to truly pay attention. I'm glad I watched though because I really didn't quite understand what pitch correction was. Personally, I'd rather hear Freddie's actual voice, imperfections and all. I'm rather disappointed that this technology exists.

much as I don't like auto-tune we have to accept that it's the modern thing and it's done by-and-large because "that kind of vocal" is what is currently fashionable (has been since around 2010).

Bottom line: in many ways it's no different to Queen's "vocal tinkering" throughout their career:

MoTBQ, In The Lap of The Gods, Flick of the Wrist, Killer Queen, Lazing, Millionaire Waltz, Gaga, Machines, AKoM, Invisible Man, I'm Going Slightly Made - none of these would be what they are without the added tweaks here and there.

because [as i said] it's fashionable. Queen have been after the youth market for the last 15 years - and re-styling something to a familiar vocal effect attracts new listeners.


no it isn't. it's unfair to say auto-tune is used solely for the purpose of fixing crap. it really isn't. the fact that [auto-tune] is now so ubiquitous is not a cheat/deception at all. it's a studio tool. unless you can hear the vocals prior to auto-tune, you cannot categorically say it's either cheating or covertly fixing bad vocals, can you? if you don;t know what adjustments were made, it's hard to say something was bad to begin with, isn;t it?


your opinion - and you're fully entitled to it. my own though is this: if Freddie had been such the "purist" you suggest why did he use tricks on the songs i mentioned? if he were the purist you'd have us believe, he'd have sung everything "straight out of the blocks, like the old-time first generation of soul singers like Sam Cooke.
again, Freddie didn't just sing stuff pure, he used phasing, double-tracking, and other effects because the studio was a tool to be used - and every tweak, bend and trick that could be was used wherever he saw fit. Freddie would've (likely) loved pitch correction (auto-tune) for the same reasons he loved all the other vocal tricks he deployed - after all, these were tricks he learned from one of his idols (John Lennon).

I suggest you listen to some of the W-I-P versions "Rain" "Strawberry Fields" and "I'm Only Sleeping" - these kinds of tunes were the influences on Freddie's early Queen career.
And, if you want to know where Queen [likely] got their double-tracked vocals idea, you'd do well to listen to Beatles - Here, There & Everywhere - one of Macca's finest songs. Stop and think about this: this technique which Queen used so often on their 16 and 24 track recordings, the Beatles managed to accomplish using 4-track recording (using bounce / reduction)

Whichever way you cut it Freddie was not the purist you claim - he'd use any trick/gimmick available - even if it meant copying a pioneer from a decade earlier.

Autotune, if used sparingly, could presumably also save a lot of studio time, as it could avoid doing take after take just to get one part right, or a lot of fiddly editing of takes to make a perfect 'whole'. I think it's just a sign of the times. It's a studio tool that engineers probably find incredibly useful.

The fact is, if we're going to get any more archive live material, that is bound to have corrections in it. So if all we're going to do is complain, then they might as well not release them. What would be the point of releasing, say, Earls Court, without any modifications or sound improvements, when we've already got it?

Personally, I'm glad I can't hear them and can just enjoy the track for what it is. Freddie certainly doesn't sound like a 'robot' to me.

I do respect your point, but would you rather not have had TFFMS released live? I do now 'hear' the correction in that, but it doesn't take away my enjoyment of hearing a live track that we didn't know existed for about 40 years.

i'm not having a go at you here, but i genuinely think you need to do some research before making statements like that ^
This is exactly what happened with the release of The Beatles - Real Love in 1995 (as a single released from Anthology 2). Lennon's original demo tape (vocals and instruments) is 12% slower and the 1995 release was re-pitched to provide a song that was faster - both musically and vocally.

Not quite 60 yet, but getting there! 😁

Not really!

Just to make a couple of points:

1. I didn't make a claim that John Lennon wouldn't have used autotune had it existed. You're right, I don't know enough about him to make that claim.

2. Again, from what you've described, it sounds like lots of the song was shifted around speed and pitch wise for various reason, not just the vocal, and certainly not to just make the vocal perfectly in key. At no point was automatic pitch correction software (the kind I'm complaining about) used. In fact it couldn't have been because the song was released a year before autotune was invented. So it is different. I don't get what you don't understand about that.

3. I still think that if, say, the demos on the new edition of Revolver had as much autotune on them as Face It Alone does, a fair few Beatles fans would be cross about that. Nothing you've said has changed my mind about that.

It feels to me like haven't quite understood what my problem is - as evidenced by your reply. Like I say, there are Queen songs that use tape-speed alterations - AOBTD, BBTLB, ITLOTG, HTF - and I don't have a problem with this AT ALL! My problem is with automatic pitch correction software! Hope that makes sense

Brian has expressed opinions on pro tools and autotuning, which I think are highly related to the above different opinions.

Queen/Brian did use autotune to save bump notes. But artists/engineers still need to use their ears when using tools, and not let the parameters on the screen obscure what they are actually hearing and feeling.

The difference in how people feel about using autotune on the Face It Alone comes from the acceptance of the operators' taste. Fans would assume Queen used tools to create art, but engineers may not.

It's not splitting hairs! It's different because the final effect is SO different! Autotune sounds robotic, manipulated, horrible. Altering tape speeds doesn't have this effect. Your analogy fails on that front, I'm sorry.

And yes, I said I 'thought' Freddie wouldn't have used autotune. I'm allowed that opinion. I think he : 1) was too proud of his voice, 2) would have hated the autotune sound.

I don't know if this is true. But I know a lot about Freddie. It's my opinion.

I feel slightly like I'm debating some middle-aged people who can't ever hear the autotune, and I get that if you can't hear it it must feel like I'm some mad pedant getting angry for no reason. Unfortunately I can very easily hear it and it really takes away my joy from these new songs. That's why it matters to me.

I think it's quite sad that you can't appreciate 'new' material without obsessing over whether bits of it have been tweaked. If this is the case, then you might as well give up on anything else that might be coming along, as the new technology isn't going to go away, and if we ever do get a live archive box, it's bound to have autotune in it somewhere.

Personally, I don't like most new commercial music released these days, as, with some exceptions, it's largely produced on a computer by people with no skills to play 'real' musical instruments.

But if the only way we're going to get any further archive Queen releases is to accept that they're going to be digitally 'interfered with', then I'd rather have them than not have them because Freddie might have hit a bum note or two in an otherwise perfectly listenable recording.

I think that quote from Roger is spot on, and I agree 100%, although it's slightly ironic, considering half of the tracks on the last few albums used electronic drums.

I've not had time to watch that video dissecting FIA, but is there actual hard evidence autotune was used, or is this just what people think they're hearing (no offence)? Could it, for example, be an anomaly on the tape of a 30+ year old recording?