I need some help in figuring out a studio equipment thingy. Help from peeps like Sebastian who have mountains of info on these type of things would be fab. Here goes...
I'd like to find out what kind of mixing desk was used for the final mixdown per each album/song. But alas, this is very difficult info to find. Specifically, the following tracks:
Life Is Real Too Much Love Will Kill You I Was Born To Love You (Queen ver) Made In Heaven The Show Must Go On It's a Hard Life Hammer To Fall Don't Stop Me Now Dear Friends Barcelona Save Me Love Me Like There's No Tomorrow and finally, Who Wants To Live Forever.
I guess that there are a shed-load of Mountain Studio tracks listed above, but I'm not sure if the mixing console has always remained the same since Queen started using it. Possibly so.
Anyway, as an example - Bohemian Rhapsody was likely finalised on a Trident Console. That's all I got! lol Any help would be excellent! I did find a picture of the Mountain Studios console here - http://www.montreuxmusic.com/galerie/albums/userpics/10003/side1.jpg - I have seen that some say this was a predecessor of the Neve 8078 (shown here - http://www.nashvilleaudio.com/images/Neve8078_1.gif) and true enough, it does have similar stylings. But I'm stumped and tired, so off to bed!
Cheers, Adam.
Togg · Member since
Blimey Adam that's a task... will be interesting to see if you find out For what it's worth that desk looks like a Soundcraft to me, but that is just a slightly educated guess sorry...
Adam Baboolal · Member since
It's interesting that you say Soundcraft because one of the google'd things I found was saying that the newer mountain studios, which moved away from the casino, has a Soundcraft Ghost 64.
Yes, this will be a very difficult task, I know. But, for peeps like me, this info would be very useful to know!
Cheers!
Adam Baboolal · Member since
I found this picture which shows the mountain studios desk in a much more natural looking way - http://www.ifmq.com/raduni/montreux/alemix.jpg - http://img198.imageshack.us/img198/8029/normaldsc8560copie.jpg
Bit of a smaller image, but still useful. Also, I looked throughout Soundcraft's site viewing all their older desks and found nothing that looked like the one in the picture. The only one that came close was their "Series 5" console which shared a lot of the look to the one in the pictures. But it's those blue-ish knobs above the 4 knobs in a line which I can't seem to match up in any way! Damn them! lol
Anyway, again if anyone has some ideas, It would be most appreciated.
Cheers!
john bodega · Member since
I have an indistinct memory that they used a Trident A-Range at some point, and possibly a console by Harrison. Beyond that, I'm not so sure.
Adam Baboolal · Member since
I have to admit, I wasn't sure if the Trident they used was an A or B version. Nice info there Zeb!
Sebastian · Member since
Great topic, and one I'm very interested in. I haven't got mountains of info, but I'll do my best:
Trident Studios were two (hence Studios): on one they had a Trident A- (of which, IIRC, only 13 were manufactured), and on two they'd got Sound Techniques. They may have used either one of them depending on their availability, the engineers' preferences and the studio they happened to be at the time. Trident Studios'-mixed material includes all the first three albums plus Rainbow, God Save the Queen and the Keep Yourself Alive retake (although its tape box has 'Mike Stone / SARM' written in front of engineer).
Opera and Races were mixed at Sarm. According to the '95 SOS article, they'd got a Trident B- there. I'm a bit sceptic about that: while SOS is a wonderful and respectable publication, that particular article has several inaccuracies already; and while Roy was an excellent producer, he's not by any chance the most reliable eye-witness, let alone two decades later. So ... no idea. As Sarm hadn't opened in June '72, they're not included on the detailed Billboard list of http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=qkUEAAAAMBAJ&pg=RA1-PA87&dq=vic+keary&hl=en&ei=59-VTcTqOpSJ0QGd6YmBDA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCoQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false
As for News of the World, liner notes don't specify a mixing location. If and only if they were mixed at both Wessex and Basing Street, then: Wessex had two Cadac's (one at each studio) since their restoration. Basing Street, back in the Chris Blackwell days (early 70's), were Helios clients, I don't know if they still were by '77.
Jazz: Sessions began in Montreux, where they had a Neve since their foundation in 1975 up until around 1990. They finished at Super Bear, who were strong MCI endorsers (http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=DyQEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PT72&dq=super+bear+studios&hl=en&ei=suCVTfCVPMzpgAfDi52uCA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CDgQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=super%20bear%20studios&f=false).
The Game: There was a Helios at Musicland during the 70's ... a lot of people wanted to use it since it'd been associated with the Rolling Stones. I don't know if by the time Queen went there it was still the in-house console.
Flash Gordon: There was a Helios and an SSL B at the Townhouse. As for the other studios, your guess is as good as mine.
Hot Space: Neve at Mountain, whatever they had (probably Helios although look at my note above) at Musicland.
The Works: No idea about The Record Plant. At Musicland ... no idea either, TBBH.
A Kind of Magic: Neve at Mountain, SSL E at the Townhouse (probably the same would be used later on for Barcelona, although at some point they updated it to G before or during The Miracle, which also overlaps a bit with Barcelona), no idea about Musicland (maybe the Making of One Vision film can give us a lead?), no idea about Sarm West or Maison Rouge.
The Miracle: SSL G at Olympic, E at The Townhouse and Neve at Mountain.
Innuendo: Neve at Mountain, E at The Townhouse (where the album was mastered, so maybe they mixed it there too, or at least partially), Metropolis had both SSL and Neve.
Made in Heaven: SSL and Neve at Metropolis, where (IIRC) most of the mixing process was done. That also includes Back to the Light.
Adam Baboolal · Member since
Wow! Seb, that is some damned impressive info you have there. That pretty much covers everything I needed to know. AWESOME!
LOL - But honestly, for folk like myself, what are the mistakes in that article? I know you touched upon some earlier in the thread. Not everyone's clued up on these mistakes.
Sebastian · Member since
Several typos (Herefordshire, Alison, Scorpion), claiming Wessex was used for that song, recording the backing track in different parts (deflated by the multi-tracks), John using a Marshall rack, Geoff Workman being involved, Capital Radio being 'around the corner of Scorpion (sic) Studios (sic)', the De Lane Lea demos having been recorded in 1972 by Smile, Queen II having 'a lot of backward gongs' (is one a lot?)...
Sure, compared to what a lot of YouTube idiots write, that article's pure Einstein + Oppenheimer but, compared to the quality standard that SOS tends to have, and compared to the quality standard such an article should have, it seems like an eight year-old's school assignment which is VERY inaccurate but gets 'A' for effort.
john bodega · Member since
If you can trust Wikipedia, Musicland in Munich had a Harrison console which would've seen use by Queen, ELO and Giorgio Moroder. I've seen Queen (and some other names) boasted about in some of the ads for Harrison Mixbus, so I'm assuming it's not total guff.
I did a lot of my beginner engineering on a Soundtracs Quartz (a really fun bit of gear), although these days I'm spending more time messing with a DCommand control surface. I wonder what they used on Cosmos Rocks?
