so i have the stems to queens bohemian rapsody

[versuviusx]

does anyone know what they used on the vocals?
mic
compressor
eq
room treatment.
i love it.
there is like no reverb and his vocals with no reverb sound better than mine with reverb. even when you add reverb to their vocals it sounds way bettter yeah but the vocals can easily stand on their own. what did they use??? i believe if you study other peoples stuff and find out how to get the same sounds as they did you can actually get ahead faster. so that's what i'm trying to do. trying to figure out how to emulate so i can know what works and what does not.

[TV Lenny]

Freddie and I found we liked using The Verbation Verberator on his vox. No longer made but you can still find it at yard sales for about $75 or so.

[JGriffin]

Freddie and I found we liked using The Verbation Verberator on his vox. No longer made but you can still find it at yard sales for about $75 or so.

Now selling on eBay for $4500, nice going dude.

[newfuturevintage]

there is like no reverb and his vocals with no reverb sound better than mine with reverb.

I'm afraid it's because they used Freddie Mercury...

[farview]

i believe if you study other peoples stuff and find out how to get the same sounds as they did you can actually get ahead faster. so that's what i'm trying to do. trying to figure out how to emulate so i can know what works and what does not.

While that is very true, the biggest variable in this equation is Freddie. If you figure it out, next time Mr. Mercury shows up in your studio, you will know what to do.

It's the same thing with John Bonhams drum sound. It really didn't matter how the kit was mic'd, what size room he was in, what mic preamps, which compressors, etc... It would sound like that because he sounded like that.

Just like if Eddie Van Halen picks up James Hetfields guitar, it's still going to sound like Eddie.

It starts with the performer, then the instrument, then the environment...everything after that gets less and less important as you move through the signal chain.

BTW, where did you get the stems for Queen?

[acjetnut]

BTW, where did you get the stems for Queen?

+1,000,000,000,000

???

[kuene]

there are stems floating around out there for killer queen, brighton rock, maybe more. ive never heard of bohemian though...

[baronvon]

next time Mr. Mercury shows up in your studio, you will know what to do.

I'd say if you're seeing Freddie Mercury, you've got bigger problems to deal with.

[drumsound]

I wouldn't doubt that it's something like a U87, console pre and a pair of 1176s in series. RTB loves compression and I've been told by engineers that have worked with him that if you plugged in a compressor that he liked the sound of his first question would be "do you have another?"

[mertmo]

I have both "killer queen" and "BR" somewhere...

Killer queen -
I bring up the 24 faders and BAM, it sounds like the song is supposed to sound. Awesome.

Bohemian Rhapsody -
I mix up the drums and bass and piano and I'm thinking, "yeah man, this is so cool..." Then I start on the rest of the tracks. YEAH RIGHT. It is an insane mishmash of random moments just stuck onto the tracks. Basically, if you weren't actually there during that mix, there's no way you're going to recreate the sound of that song without literally spending days or more on it. Without knowing what the "map" to their routing scheme was... sorry, no easy BR mix for you!
It was a cool moment, actually. I like that even though I had the actual multitrack files, the mix was STILL outside of my grasp. The mystery of Bohemian Rhapsody intact...
The way it should be I think.

Oh, and in response to the original question: Freddie trumps all gear. Bonham trumps all gear. Maybe if we were all concentrating on becoming that badass instead of exploring the minutiae of boring recording gear... some of us could be creating new classics. Instead of learning how to recreate old ones.

[farview]

I have both "killer queen" and "BR" somewhere...

Killer queen -
I bring up the 24 faders and BAM, it sounds like the song is supposed to sound. Awesome.

Bohemian Rhapsody -
I mix up the drums and bass and piano and I'm thinking, "yeah man, this is so cool..." Then I start on the rest of the tracks. YEAH RIGHT. It is an insane mishmash of random moments just stuck onto the tracks. Basically, if you weren't actually there during that mix, there's no way you're going to recreate the sound of that song without literally spending days or more on it. Without knowing what the "map" to their routing scheme was... sorry, no easy BR mix for you!

And I ask again: Where does one find these files?

[Mane1234]

I heard the BR stems last month. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. Just everything sounded so cool. Those drums sounded great. We played around with it for awhile and then just put on the CD cuz it wasn't going to get any better than what's already been done with it.

Some of the mistakes were pretty funny. Even the best of the best can miss a note by a mile sometimes.

[cgarges]

4 minutes 33 seconds is classic. So is the "I see a little silhoulette..." guitar bit.

It does sound like an 87 to me, although I'm pretty convinced that "Killer Queen" is a 67. At least that's what it sounds like to me.

To me...

Mama...

Chris Garges
Charlotte, NC

[RefD]

the BoRhap stems are a treasure in terms of an example to learn specific things from, not to mention getting a peek behind the curtain to see what those wizards were up to at Rockfield back in the mid-70s.

Mercury's expletive at the end...

[drumsound]

4 minutes 33 seconds is classic. So is the "I see a little silhoulette..." guitar bit.

It does sound like an 87 to me, although I'm pretty convinced that "Killer Queen" is a 67. At least that's what it sounds like to me.

To me...

Mama...

Chris Garges
Charlotte, NC

Priceless!