We know that in the albums AKOM, TM and Innuendo at least a lot of work of the drums were done not by Roger , but by a drum machine.
It was in the same in the first albums or what we hear it s just Roger's work?
queen79luca
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rhyeking
I'm sure more musically trained people can give a better answer, but there is difference between drum machines and using electronic drums. I know Queen have used programmed drums on several tracks ("I Can't Live With You" and "Thank God It's Christmas", to name two). Electronic drums are just drums, but you can program the sounds they produce, to get weird, funky sounds, or just other percussion sounds, like bongos or steel drums or whatever. You still need someone to actually play the drums.
queen79luca
Ok, this is a good answer, but still a part of it.
In the first albums its just Roger play a normal drum kit, being recorded of course, what we hear as final result?
In the first albums its just Roger play a normal drum kit, being recorded of course, what we hear as final result?
cmsdrums
I'm sure someone more knowledgable than me can advise (Sebastian), but I'd say that all the drums were real acoustic drums up to and including News of the World.
To my ears, Jazz features the first use of non- acoustic drums, and utlilises electronic drums, but these are still played 'live' by Roger and not programmed - certainly to my ears Fun It uses completely electronic drums (and possibly no acoustic cymbals at all too?).
after that, the technology of the day became more and more used on Queen drums tracks
Examples that spring to mind are;
The Game: - Dragon Attack IS Roger playing, but only a couple of bars which are then copied and looped over and over.
Hot Space :- Features both electronic drums played 'live' and pre-programmed drums from a computer (as well as acoustic drums too).
The Works: Awful acoustic drum sound(!), and some electronic toms on Keep Passing The Open Windows and Hammer To Fall, and the obvious and intentional use of drum machines changing into acoustic drums on Machines (..or Back To Humans)
(interestingly the distinction of electronic vs acoustic drums is a lot clearer and effective on the remastered albums on tracks like Staying Power and Machines...)
A Kind Of Magic - very sterile drum sound (to me) all round on this album and lots of programmed drums on tracks like One Year of Love, A Kind Of Magic and Pain Is So Close To Pleasure
The Miracle:- Probably utilises the best mixes of electronic vs acoustic drums. Drum machines are obviously a useful tool for writing, but the previous few albums had seen the band stick with these (lazy?) at the expense of having Roger re-play programmed parts. Invisible Man and Party for example actually feature a lot of acoustic drums, but peole tend to thik they don't simply because of the style of song they are. Whilst these two tracks do contain a lot of programming, this is not at the expense of acoustic drums ,and they both compliment the songs.
Innuendo:- Tracks like All God's People and These Are the Days Of Our Lives feature mostly programmed drum and percusson tracks, although the former has some nice real drums by Roger during the heavier '12 blues' type section. I think Inneundo features probably the most instances of triggered drums sounds whereby Roger played a lot of parts, but the acoustic sounds were replaced by an electronically generated audio sample (Quite common nowadays with most 'rock' bands)
Made In Heaven:- Mostly acoustic and a nice 'room' type drum sound.
Whilst this is by no means a track by track analysis, it hopefully gives a general overview of how the drums worked throughout the years.
I think Queen were effectively a good 'barometer' of the studio technology of the times throughout their recordings - whatever technologies were the latest thing, you can guarantee that Queen used them (sometimes just 'dabbling' ,sometimes more heavily).
Hope this is of help
To my ears, Jazz features the first use of non- acoustic drums, and utlilises electronic drums, but these are still played 'live' by Roger and not programmed - certainly to my ears Fun It uses completely electronic drums (and possibly no acoustic cymbals at all too?).
after that, the technology of the day became more and more used on Queen drums tracks
Examples that spring to mind are;
The Game: - Dragon Attack IS Roger playing, but only a couple of bars which are then copied and looped over and over.
Hot Space :- Features both electronic drums played 'live' and pre-programmed drums from a computer (as well as acoustic drums too).
The Works: Awful acoustic drum sound(!), and some electronic toms on Keep Passing The Open Windows and Hammer To Fall, and the obvious and intentional use of drum machines changing into acoustic drums on Machines (..or Back To Humans)
(interestingly the distinction of electronic vs acoustic drums is a lot clearer and effective on the remastered albums on tracks like Staying Power and Machines...)
A Kind Of Magic - very sterile drum sound (to me) all round on this album and lots of programmed drums on tracks like One Year of Love, A Kind Of Magic and Pain Is So Close To Pleasure
The Miracle:- Probably utilises the best mixes of electronic vs acoustic drums. Drum machines are obviously a useful tool for writing, but the previous few albums had seen the band stick with these (lazy?) at the expense of having Roger re-play programmed parts. Invisible Man and Party for example actually feature a lot of acoustic drums, but peole tend to thik they don't simply because of the style of song they are. Whilst these two tracks do contain a lot of programming, this is not at the expense of acoustic drums ,and they both compliment the songs.
Innuendo:- Tracks like All God's People and These Are the Days Of Our Lives feature mostly programmed drum and percusson tracks, although the former has some nice real drums by Roger during the heavier '12 blues' type section. I think Inneundo features probably the most instances of triggered drums sounds whereby Roger played a lot of parts, but the acoustic sounds were replaced by an electronically generated audio sample (Quite common nowadays with most 'rock' bands)
Made In Heaven:- Mostly acoustic and a nice 'room' type drum sound.
Whilst this is by no means a track by track analysis, it hopefully gives a general overview of how the drums worked throughout the years.
I think Queen were effectively a good 'barometer' of the studio technology of the times throughout their recordings - whatever technologies were the latest thing, you can guarantee that Queen used them (sometimes just 'dabbling' ,sometimes more heavily).
Hope this is of help
queen79luca
That s great "cms drums" !
It really helps.
Thanks!
It really helps.
Thanks!
ploughman
I have grown more and more fond of The Miracle album. David Richards did a beutiful job on it production wise.
It was the last album done on the analog tape and they still used a lots of programmed stuff there.
Lots of the songs have acoustic drums on them , but the programming on the top of it has been done really cleverly.
I Want it All for example: Basic acoustic drum beat but on the top of the bassdrum and snare drum there are samples and gated reverb + during the choruses a programmed shaker and a tambourine.
Scandal must be my favourite when talking about production. Again the drums are real, but there are sampling and of course these arpeggiator rythms (and furthermore: vibraslap, effected cymbals, varisped guitar chords etc). The clever thing is that on the every 4th snare drum there is a different triggered (deeper, more reverb) snare sound on the top of that.
Listening to AKOM again: there arent really many live drumtracks! One Vision and Princess of the Universe for sure, but the rest of them. Even Who Wants to live forever sound s little bit programmed, but might be real.
On Innuendo there is more programming than on The Miracle. I cant Live With You beaing the worst example. The drums there are only machines. The title track and Show Must Go On however are totally livedrums. Recorded at the Casino Hall in Montreaux, hence the huge reverb.
It was the last album done on the analog tape and they still used a lots of programmed stuff there.
Lots of the songs have acoustic drums on them , but the programming on the top of it has been done really cleverly.
I Want it All for example: Basic acoustic drum beat but on the top of the bassdrum and snare drum there are samples and gated reverb + during the choruses a programmed shaker and a tambourine.
Scandal must be my favourite when talking about production. Again the drums are real, but there are sampling and of course these arpeggiator rythms (and furthermore: vibraslap, effected cymbals, varisped guitar chords etc). The clever thing is that on the every 4th snare drum there is a different triggered (deeper, more reverb) snare sound on the top of that.
Listening to AKOM again: there arent really many live drumtracks! One Vision and Princess of the Universe for sure, but the rest of them. Even Who Wants to live forever sound s little bit programmed, but might be real.
On Innuendo there is more programming than on The Miracle. I cant Live With You beaing the worst example. The drums there are only machines. The title track and Show Must Go On however are totally livedrums. Recorded at the Casino Hall in Montreaux, hence the huge reverb.
Biggus Dickus
The show must go on also has an interesing change in snare sound going back and forth in the 'my soul is painted...' section.
ploughman
[QUOTE] [b]Biggus Dickus wrote:[/b]
The show must go on also has an interesing change in snare sound going back and forth in the 'my soul is painted...' section.[/QUOTE]
That is just plain flanger-effect. I think the flanger is only on overhead channels so part of the snare sound aswell as all the cymbals are affected by this.
The show must go on also has an interesing change in snare sound going back and forth in the 'my soul is painted...' section.[/QUOTE]
That is just plain flanger-effect. I think the flanger is only on overhead channels so part of the snare sound aswell as all the cymbals are affected by this.
Biggus Dickus
[QUOTE] [b]ploughman wrote:[/b]
[QUOTE] [b]Biggus Dickus wrote:[/b]
The show must go on also has an interesing change in snare sound going back and forth in the 'my soul is painted...' section.[/QUOTE]
That is just plain flanger-effect. I think the flanger is only on overhead channels so part of the snare sound aswell as all the cymbals are affected by this.
[/QUOTE]
Yeah, I didn't think it was a drum machine. Thanks for the detailed info.
[QUOTE] [b]Biggus Dickus wrote:[/b]
The show must go on also has an interesing change in snare sound going back and forth in the 'my soul is painted...' section.[/QUOTE]
That is just plain flanger-effect. I think the flanger is only on overhead channels so part of the snare sound aswell as all the cymbals are affected by this.
[/QUOTE]
Yeah, I didn't think it was a drum machine. Thanks for the detailed info.
Sebastian
As far as I know, 'Show Must Go On' was recorded in London, not Montreux. Moreover, it does have programmed drums alongside the live ones, as stems confirm.
cmsdrums
[QUOTE] [b]Sebastian wrote:[/b]
As far as I know, 'Show Must Go On' was recorded in London, not Montreux. Moreover, it does have programmed drums alongside the live ones, as stems confirm.[/QUOTE]
Hi Seb. I haven't got the stems for this so can you say which section have got programmed drums please? Thanks. (I think it's a ridiculous decision for them to do that, on a track that suits Roger's sound and playing perfectly).
As far as I know, 'Show Must Go On' was recorded in London, not Montreux. Moreover, it does have programmed drums alongside the live ones, as stems confirm.[/QUOTE]
Hi Seb. I haven't got the stems for this so can you say which section have got programmed drums please? Thanks. (I think it's a ridiculous decision for them to do that, on a track that suits Roger's sound and playing perfectly).
ploughman
[QUOTE] [b]Sebastian wrote:[/b]
As far as I know, 'Show Must Go On' was recorded in London, not Montreux. Moreover, it does have programmed drums alongside the live ones, as stems confirm.[/QUOTE]
On Show Must go On I can only hear the "sampled" bassdrum and snare drum. No programing that I'm aware of?
I Want it All has a shaker and tambourine programmed during choruses.
As far as I know, 'Show Must Go On' was recorded in London, not Montreux. Moreover, it does have programmed drums alongside the live ones, as stems confirm.[/QUOTE]
On Show Must go On I can only hear the "sampled" bassdrum and snare drum. No programing that I'm aware of?
I Want it All has a shaker and tambourine programmed during choruses.
Sebastian
A short sample (the beginning of the second chorus). First, you can hear Roger's acoustic drums. Then, Brian's (I assume, or perhaps David's) programmed drums. Then, both of them together.
Sebastian
Just the acoustic kit all throughout.
Sebastian
Just the digital parts all throughout.