Studios and desks

Thank you very much for that. Did you have success with the studio? Are you a Gearslutz member?

I can help shed some more light on the equipment used at Mountain Studios (Montreux):

Mountain Studios (at least up to January 1990) used a Neve 8048 (with Necam automation) and recorded onto two Sony 3324 digital multitrack tape machines They also had two Studer A80 24 track analogue machines (one may have been the machine they had on display at the Stormtroopers exhibition recently) .*

http://www.mikeryde.com/misc/Queen-Studer24tr.jpg

Here are some pictures I took back in January 1990 of the desk and tape machine. I was lucky enough to have been given a tour by Andre Gauchant (the maintenance engineer for the studio.. also credited in Jazz)  around the studio, hall and Casino complex.

http://www.mikeryde.com/misc/Desk-1m.jpg
http://www.mikeryde.com/misc/Sony-Digitalm.jpg

*Source:http://www.mountainstudios.com/original%20site/Studio.html

Thanks. Hey Mikeryde - would you please look at my website and check for errors and omissions? I've corrected loads and loads but I'm sure there are many left.

Hey Seb, wanted to ask - have you taken most of your website down?? I was trying to check which type of piano was used for It's a Hard Life, but when I went back, the bookmarked page doesn't show up. I tried googling your site and it looks like an old revision. It's a completely different (inferior) design than the one I saw a week or so ago.

Adam.

P.s. again, seeing great things on this thread. The kind of info you don't normally get to talk about on this forum!
EDIT: By the sound of it, I think it's some kind of Steinway. Am I right?

It's all there: http://sebastian.queenconcerts.com/a-b-t-iahlife.htm

AFAIK (though I'm not positive about it), both Musicland and the Record Plant housed Yamaha pianos but then again, they could've used Fred's Steinway. A good way would be to compare it with the live versions and see if they match. I suppose you have way better ears than I do, so feel free to correct any mistake you find. You're already on the credits anyway!

Sebastian wrote: Thank you very much for that. Did you have success with the studio? Are you a Gearslutz member?

It's my pleasure :)

Yes I'm a Gearslutz member but very rare :)

My studio is located in south of France and it's named "La Cave Sonore".
I can't say I have a huge success with the studio. I have sometimes young artists but I use it mainly for my own music with my band and to produce my solo material. :)

I have the vintage AKG C414 EB, the same used by Freddie in One Vision. It's a fab microphone ! I have other microphones used by Queen according to David Richards.

The website to see my studio material : http://www.cavesonore-materiel.blogspot.com/
and a link yo listen and watch a song inspired by my last trip to Montreux ;)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cH6_V19Qz1Q

Enjoy ! :)

Wonderful. Do you happen to know about Super Bear Studios? I seem to remember reading somewhere they'd been founded by a pianist, and that they were lost in a fire or something. But threre's hardly anything about them on- or off-line. Unless, of course, there are sources in French, which I can't speak a single word of.

Super Bear was used by Pink Floyd during the sessions for their The Wall album. There is an excellent book about the creation and the recording of that album called "Comfortably Numb-A History of The Wall". It includes a section dedicated to the "Recording Equipment" used. On this site, you can find some extracts from this book including a photo of the entrance of Super Bear Studios: http://www.pfapublishing.com/Pages.htm. You can also send the author of the book (Pink Floyd historian Vernon Fitch) an e-mail, maybe he can help you.

"So the mixing desk for It's A Hard Life and Hammer To Fall was most probably this one: Harrison 4832"

Briefly looking at the One Vision studio footage, it does seem to look pretty much the same.

I guess (rather than know) that after the success of Thriller, a lot of studios (Musicland included) started getting those consoles.

Bumped.

Bumped again. A lovely thread.

[QUOTE] [b]scallyuk wrote:[/b]

slightly OT but Tiffany Murray has already had this http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2010/jan/30/tiffany-murray-rockfield-queen published[/QUOTE]

This is a great article. Imagine the luck of the lady, hearing and watching Freddie perform "Boh Rhap" on the piano, and asking her if she likes the song!

And it´s a very interesting topic, at least for someone like me, who understands nothing about the technical aspects of recording music in a studio.

[QUOTE] [b]Sebastian wrote:[/b]

Bumped again. A lovely thread.[/QUOTE]

Yes, it is !

http://www.philsbook.com/ridge-farm.html

^ this site claims that Ridge Farm's history begins in 1976. If that's true, then much of the documented Queen history of the ANATO sessions is flawed...