NathanH
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Post by NathanH on Apr 27, 2020 7:14:37 GMT
What in your opinion is the Queen song that sounds the most modern almost like it was a new song?
Then what song is the opposite of that first point?
Most modern for me is Crazy Little Thing Called Love and the most old sounding is Funny How Love Is.
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BrƎИsꓘi
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Post by BrƎИsꓘi on Apr 27, 2020 14:09:16 GMT
i think CLTCL is a strange choice. it's really just old time RnR. it does sound very old - so much so that many people back in 79 thought it was an old Elvis song!!!
the "sounding old" category is easier to nail:
Doin' Alright (late 60s peace/hippy/rock sound)
Night Comes Down (late 60s peace/hippy/rock sound)
Funny How Love Is (mid-60s Beach Boys)
Headlong (very 1970s)
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Lord Fickle
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Post by Lord Fickle on Apr 27, 2020 14:38:41 GMT
I think the more 'organic' recordings are the ones that still stand up well now. They used a lot of effects, particularly on the drums in the later years, which today makes them sound very much of their time. My 'best' sounding studio tracks include:
It's Late
Somebody To Love
White Man
Dragon Attack
Need Your Loving Tonight
One Vision
There will be others...
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Post by Queen II 74 on Apr 27, 2020 23:07:22 GMT
2 Albuns;
The best sound: A Day at the Races.
The worst sound: Queen I.
OK, now i can explain why. "A Day at the Races" it comes from pressure from the band itself to show that they are really good at what they do and pressure from critics and fans in the hope of being a better album or equal to A Night at the Opera. The mixes, the equipment, the amount of time spent in the studio, and the details are infinitely greater than any of their other albums. It's so clean, clear, full-bodied, everything in its proper place!
"Queen I" it has great successes and because it is the beginning of everything it is still raw. The way it was recorded, and the whole mixing process is that of a band that is starting to experiment with the limitations of the studios, Roger Taylor has said several times that he hates the drums on the first album.
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NathanH
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Post by NathanH on Apr 28, 2020 12:43:53 GMT
2 Albuns; The best sound: A Day at the Races. The worst sound: Queen I. OK, now i can explain why. "A Day at the Races" it comes from pressure from the band itself to show that they are really good at what they do and pressure from critics and fans in the hope of being a better album or equal to A Night at the Opera. The mixes, the equipment, the amount of time spent in the studio, and the details are infinitely greater than any of their other albums. It's so clean, clear, full-bodied, everything in its proper place! "Queen I" it has great successes and because it is the beginning of everything it is still raw. The way it was recorded, and the whole mixing process is that of a band that is starting to experiment with the limitations of the studios, Roger Taylor has said several times that he hates the drums on the first album.
I agree with you, ADATR sounds modern and fresh whereas the first album sounds very dated and the drums sound shit. Though I'm not too appealed by the sound on the second album either to be fair. I think that's what might put me off for ranking Queen II higher in my list - it's still one of my top favourite albums.
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NathanH
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Post by NathanH on Apr 28, 2020 12:47:07 GMT
i think CLTCL is a strange choice. it's really just old time RnR. it does sound very old - so much so that many people back in 79 thought it was an old Elvis song!!!
Well I was years being alive when it was first released so I will never know what it was like when it was first released. But, having heard it on the radio quite a lot still to me sounds just as fresh and modern as any brand new song - there's not an instrument on the record which you don't use now as it's just guitar, bass and drums.
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onedunpark
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Post by onedunpark on Apr 28, 2020 13:25:52 GMT
I have to say, I don't like the drum sound, especially the cymbals on ADATR. I'm pretty sure I read, ages ago, Roger saying they were going for something that would sound good on American FM radio as when they got there originally and realised FM was widely available (it wasn't that way in the Uk until significantly after, I believe) they realised they could tailor the sound better to the FM frequencies, giving it that "crystal sheen" if that's the right phrase.
I wish I were more musically informed to be able to better express myself.
This may be a lot of old rubbish, but I'm sure my memory isn't miles out. The change in drum sound between ADATR and NOTW and back again to Jazz and then to The Game is startling. I'm not sure RTB's approach to drums was for the better.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Apr 28, 2020 15:07:12 GMT
If we are talking about the mixing aspect (even if it is the 2011 remastered version)....
Personally I love the sound of this song (specifically this one) sonically, I think it’s the perfect blend of the 70’s production still, but with cleaner execution.
My favorite Roger drum mix, Freddie’s vocals are crystal clear and upfront as they should be and the guitar/bass sit perfectly in the mix.
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Steve
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Post by Steve on Apr 28, 2020 15:26:09 GMT
The Invisible Man sounds very fresh still.
Probably oldest sounding song is BBTLB!
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BrƎИsꓘi
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Post by BrƎИsꓘi on Apr 28, 2020 15:42:02 GMT
This may be a lot of old rubbish, but I'm sure my memory isn't miles out. The change in drum sound between ADATR and NOTW and back again to Jazz and then to The Game is startling. I'm not sure RTB's approach to drums was for the better. well, i'd have to agree there. Roy Thomas Baker was pretty much hit n miss with drums. it's a weird one, for sure. my favourite Queen LP - "II" has a terrible drum sound (in places). Contrast his (often) poor drum production with Queen against the great drum sound on the early Cars LPs he produced! - i really love those first four Cars LPs. there's even some key moments on their early hits where the drums are accentuated briefly - just to focus your attention. |
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Lord Fickle
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Post by Lord Fickle on Apr 28, 2020 15:42:27 GMT
If we are talking about the mixing aspect (even if it is the 2011 remastered version).... Personally I love the sound of this song (specifically this one) sonically, I think it’s the perfect blend of the 70’s production still, but with cleaner execution. My favorite Roger drum mix, Freddie’s vocals are crystal clear and upfront as they should be and the guitar/bass sit perfectly in the mix. I've always loved The Hero and I wish it had been made into a longer full song. Theres various bits that can be mixed together, but the sound is so uneven it's hard to make a decent sounding complete track. |
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Post by Chopin1995 on Apr 28, 2020 19:03:06 GMT
Made In Heaven album deserves a mention. It sounds marvellous.
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NathanH
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Post by NathanH on Apr 28, 2020 20:08:33 GMT
Made In Heaven album deserves a mention. It's sounds marvellous. Yes absolutely, in the top three for definite in my opinion. |
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Lord Fickle
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Post by Lord Fickle on Apr 28, 2020 20:45:17 GMT
Made In Heaven album deserves a mention. It's sounds marvellous. Yes absolutely, in the top three for definite in my opinion. Indeed, it sounds much better than most of Innuendo and The Miracle. IWBTLY was a particularly nice surprise for me. It just roars out of the speakers. Roger probably got one of his best drums sounds on that album, and the guitar was much meatier as well. It's much more of a 'classic Queen' sounding album. Just a bloody shame about the circumstances of it's making.  |
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Dimitris
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Post by Dimitris on Apr 29, 2020 9:52:48 GMT
It was Roy's intention the sound of the drums to be very loud, thus having some crisp "destortion" sound specially on snare drum. It was his signature as producer. This drum sound was better than many 70s drum sound (David Bowie, Thin Lizzy, Judas Priest, Black Sabbath early 70-72 Pink Floyd). Yes wanted that sound.
In mine opinion I would love more clear warm sound, the lack of channels in early albums sacrifed the drum sound specially during the mixing after the recording.
Mack as producer was - is very good, he managed the drum machines to sound as much as close to real drums. Also in many cases he was great on editing i. e. Princes of the universe.
Another one bites the dust, Save me, Back chat, Radio gaga, One vision are among his best works. He also capture Freddie voice the best way.
David was a different league very good he had dense and bjg sound.David had the difficult task to produce and mix the final albums, thus less time and he was at the turning point of new recording techniques. Back to the light was his best.
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Lord Fickle
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Post by Lord Fickle on Apr 29, 2020 11:04:36 GMT
It was Roy's intention the sound of the drums to be very loud, thus having some crisp "destortion" sound specially on snare drum. It was his signature as producer. This drum sound was better than many 70s drum sound (David Bowie, Thin Lizzy, Judas Priest, Black Sabbath early 70-72 Pink Floyd). Yes wanted that sound. In mine opinion I would love more clear warm sound, the lack of channels in early albums sacrifed the drum sound specially during the mixing after the recording. Mack as producer was - is very good, he managed the drum machines to sound as much as close to real drums. Also in many cases he was great on editing i. e. Princes of the universe. Another one bites the dust, Save me, Back chat, Radio gaga, One vision are among his best works. He also capture Freddie voice the best way. David was a different league very good he had dense and bjg sound.David had the difficult task to produce and mix the final albums, thus less time and he was at the turning point of new recording techniques. Back to the light was his best. Wow, I never knew David Richards produced BTTL. What a contrast between that and the Queen albums! Then again, I guess he did MIH as well, and that sounded good. |
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Post by Deleted on Apr 29, 2020 11:09:57 GMT
Wow, I never knew David Richards produced BTTL. What a contrast between that and the Queen albums! Then again, I guess he did MIH as well, and that sounded good. Because he didn't: Back to the Light was Brian and Justin (except for 'Driven By You' which was indeed Brian & David, and then there are a couple of tracks which include some material engineered - though not produced - by David). Made in Heaven was far more chaotic: 1980 - 1984 recordings were produced by Queen & Mack, 1987 - 1991 ones by Queen & David Richards (or Roger & David Richards in one case), 1993 by John & Roger (engineered by Noel Harris), 1994 - 1995 by either Brian & Justin or Roger, John & Joshua, and the final September 1995 mixes were done by David. |
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Lord Fickle
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Post by Lord Fickle on Apr 29, 2020 11:39:26 GMT
Wow, I never knew David Richards produced BTTL. What a contrast between that and the Queen albums! Then again, I guess he did MIH as well, and that sounded good. Because he didn't: Back to the Light was Brian and Justin (except for 'Driven By You' which was indeed Brian & David, and then there are a couple of tracks which include some material engineered - though not produced - by David). Made in Heaven was far more chaotic: 1980 - 1984 recordings were produced by Queen & Mack, 1987 - 1991 ones by Queen & David Richards (or Roger & David Richards in one case), 1993 by John & Roger (engineered by Noel Harris), 1994 - 1995 by either Brian & Justin or Roger, John & Joshua, and the final September 1995 mixes were done by David. Ah, OK, thanks for the clarification. 🙂 |
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Dimitris
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Post by Dimitris on Apr 29, 2020 11:44:01 GMT
Wow, I never knew David Richards produced BTTL. What a contrast between that and the Queen albums! Then again, I guess he did MIH as well, and that sounded good. Because he didn't: Back to the Light was Brian and Justin (except for 'Driven By You' which was indeed Brian & David, and then there are a couple of tracks which include some material engineered - though not produced - by David). Made in Heaven was far more chaotic: 1980 - 1984 recordings were produced by Queen & Mack, 1987 - 1991 ones by Queen & David Richards (or Roger & David Richards in one case), 1993 by John & Roger (engineered by Noel Harris), 1994 - 1995 by either Brian & Justin or Roger, John & Joshua, and the final September 1995 mixes were done by David. David contribution was more valuable than this of Justin since he did a experimental digital recording technique 24 track and also with the help of someone who I don't remember his name did the special expert programming |
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Dimitris
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Post by Dimitris on Apr 29, 2020 11:56:54 GMT
More over Sébastien the engineering is critical since it's the source of sound. If the the source is bad like the mud veil sound on Jazz album, whatever they try to do for better sounding it will not make any difference.
There is a line between engineers and producers but David was good at both fields.
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Post by Chopin1995 on Apr 29, 2020 12:54:42 GMT
Yes absolutely, in the top three for definite in my opinion. Indeed, it sounds much better than most of Innuendo and The Miracle. IWBTLY was a particularly nice surprise for me. It just roars out of the speakers. Roger probably got one of his best drums sounds on that album, and the guitar was much meatier as well. It's much more of a 'classic Queen' sounding album. Just a bloody shame about the circumstances of it's making. They really made a great effort together on this album. It's hard to imagine it being any better than it is. The only doubt for me is using two of Freddie's solo tracks instead of some Queen unreleased tracks ('Let Me In Your Heart Again' comes to mind immediately). But the album just flows beautifully and it's very consistent. I'd say that David Richards was a perfect "supervisor" for the band during that period. It seems to me he had quite a big impact on the album, and Innuendo too. |
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Post by Deleted on Apr 29, 2020 15:46:27 GMT
More over Sébastien the engineering is critical since it's the source of sound. There is a line between engineers and producers but David was good at both fields. I'm not denying any of that. My point is that David wasn't the producer when it came to Back to the Light. He produced one track (with Brian) and engineered two more (with Justin), and wasn't involved with the rest of the album. |
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mike71
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Post by mike71 on Apr 30, 2020 1:49:54 GMT
Indeed, it sounds much better than most of Innuendo and The Miracle. IWBTLY was a particularly nice surprise for me. It just roars out of the speakers. Roger probably got one of his best drums sounds on that album, and the guitar was much meatier as well. It's much more of a 'classic Queen' sounding album. Just a bloody shame about the circumstances of it's making. They really made a great effort together on this album. It's hard to imagine it being any better than it is. The only doubt for me is using two of Freddie's solo tracks instead of some Queen unreleased tracks ('Let Me In Your Heart Again' comes to mind immediately). But the album just flows beautifully and it's very consistent. I'd say that David Richards was a perfect "supervisor" for the band during that period. It seems to me he had quite a big impact on the album, and Innuendo too. Made In Heaven Is a beauty..I like Let Me In Your again for The Works album. How that song didn't make an album Is beyond me. Great song. |
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Mooghead
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Post by Mooghead on May 8, 2020 10:13:42 GMT
This is a very confused thread. Some people are taking it to mean production/mastering/mixing and others as in style (BBTLB being 30's style) etc. The OP should really clarify what he means!
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Steve
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Post by Steve on May 8, 2020 10:27:02 GMT
This is a very confused thread. Some people are taking it to mean production/mastering/mixing and others as in style (BBTLB being 30's style) etc. The OP should really clarify what he means! I think its obvious what he meant, but it has swayed off tangent slightly. |
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baronlutenvank
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Post by baronlutenvank on May 8, 2020 10:38:59 GMT
If you mean technically, like production, mastering etc. I think the original mix of Jealousy was the worst. It sounded dry without the bass drum. For the best, I liked Queen II. It all felt balanced to my ears, to put it simply.
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Steve
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Post by Steve on May 8, 2020 10:48:33 GMT
If you mean technically, like production, mastering etc. I think the original mix of Jealousy was the worst. It sounded dry without the bass drum. For the best, I liked Queen II. It all felt balanced to my ears, to put it simply. It still bugs me how some people say that Queen 2 was over produced. Load of bollocks that is. |
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Lord Fickle
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Post by Lord Fickle on May 8, 2020 10:54:33 GMT
If you mean technically, like production, mastering etc. I think the original mix of Jealousy was the worst. It sounded dry without the bass drum. For the best, I liked Queen II. It all felt balanced to my ears, to put it simply. It still bugs me how some people say that Queen 2 was over produced. Load of bollocks that is. At the time, QII sounded amazing, with all those multi-layers and tracks linked together. That hadn't really been heard much before then. Now, though, it does sound quite dated and the drums on MOTBQ sound very thin in the mix. Would love to get hold of the stems for that. |
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Steve
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Post by Steve on May 8, 2020 11:23:27 GMT
Dated, yes. Over produced, no.
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Post by theadmiester on May 8, 2020 11:28:38 GMT
For me it's hard to split it into "modern style vs good production" so I find that I judge everything by "does this sound like it could be released in the last 10 years?". I feel like Ride the Wild Wind is incredibly ahead of its time so that would be my nomination for best sounding. It's synth heavy but primarily strings which you hear a ton in modern songs anyway. It has a very dark, night-ambiance sound, it sounds crisp and clean, and to me the drums sound fantastic even if they're not necessarily real (which I'm not sure about). Another nomination would go to Need Your Loving Tonight - very crisp and clean sounding again, but this time it's a very raw song with very few effects and no synth that I can hear. It might be an older "style" of song but that stuff always tends to come back around anyway - just look at how many 80s sounding songs we have nowadays  For bad sound I'd have to say The Night Comes Down. I don't mind the song but it has an old sounding style *and* the drums sound like someone whacking a cardboard box. |
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