The Seven Seas Of Rhye (Instrumental)

The Platinum version and the 1991 HR version are at identical speeds, despite being different remasters. They likely trace back to the same master, from which copies were made and sent to HR for their re-issues.

rhyeking wrote: The Platinum version and the 1991 HR version are at identical speeds, despite being different remasters. They likely trace back to the same master, from which copies were made and sent to HR for their re-issues.
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All right, thanks! Now, I can confirm that the Hollywood version plays slow!

Quick question: Is this refering to an instrumentalised form of the Queen II version (2:50 in length) or the half-written Queen I take (1:07 in length)??

br5946 wrote: Quick question: Is this refering to an instrumentalised form of the Queen II version (2:50 in length) or the half-written Queen I take (1:07 in length)??
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It's the 2011 Instrumental!

Soundfreak wrote: As the song was obviously recorded using a tuned piano - and those are always tuned to A= 440 Hz

It's also possible that the piano was not tuned to concert pitch. Often they are tuned to themselves as this is much easier than a full tuning. The rest of the band would tune to the slightly flat, ie lower pitch, piano.

Studio pianos are always tuned correctly to avoid any tuning problems with other instruments. Also I guess that it was recorded in the same studio as the rest of "Queen 2" using the same piano. 

It's something that happened quite often in the late 60s/early 70s, that tracks were mastered incorrectly. In some cases it happened due to different tape machines in different studios. The complete first Doors album for example played too slow, they only corrected it recently. There are stereo and mono versions of early Bee Gees albums and although it's the same recordings the mono versions play a semitone faster.....

A de-tuned piano is most unlikely reason for SSOR playing too slow. And the new remaster of the backing track is proof enough, that they used a regular tuned piano. 

P.S.: I'm amazed that very few musicians seem to be here.

I have read somewhere in the internet that the piano in Queen 1 SSOR was played using both hands whereas the full version in Queen II was played with one hand.  Just as a matter of trivial interest, can anyone tell whether the instrumental version was played with one hand or both hands ?  :-)

It's also possible that one of the versions has two pianos, playing in octaves.

Speaking of pianos, have you noticed the one on Bo Rhap is out of tune? It's probably because for that particular album they used a hired piano (the famous white one) instead of the studios'. They probably forgot to tune it or hired someone who didn't quite do it right. You know what they say about piano tuners in Wales...

The Queen II version of Seven Seas has the opening piano riff played in octaves, therefore it is also on the new Instrumental mix as that is sourced from the Queen II studio sessions. I would say it is almost definitely played with two hands - Freddie was good on piano, but I don't think he was of the standard to play fast octaves with one hand, and there'd be no need in a studio recording situation anyway as he could easily overdub.

He always played only one octave live as he needed his left hand to do the bass clef piano part. The Queen I version is pretty close to what Freddie played live, only slightly slower - It's one octave of the main riff and a bass clef part.