The Show Must Go on And The Wind of Change

Holly2003 wrote:

Wiley wrote:

There's something about Innuendo's production that underwhelms me in a way. Most of them are great songs. There's real guitar, real drums, in there, but even the parts that rock don't rock as hard as Queen used to. I don't think it's the performance but maybe something in the way it was recorded or mixed. Can't put my finger on it but the term that pops into my head is 'sterile', for some reason.

The miracle suffers a bit of it as well, the keyboards make it sound dated but in there the guitars Rock really hard.

Yep. The word "processed" comes to mind for some reason. Even so, the song Innuendo rocks.

My guess is, although i hate to admit, that this is done because of Freddie's voice. Although it gained an angelic quality and a very effective touch it became also very thin. It was impossible to mix such a timber of a voice with the rock Queen sound. So, heavy process with loads of compressor i imagine, were necessary for the final result.

Wiley wrote:

Now, I've often wondered how The Show Must Go On would sound, had Queen used real strings as opposed to a synth pad... or, better yet, a Brian-esque guitar orchestration or something like what Jimmy Page did in Kashmir (he uses a bow to play his guitar, doesn't he?). I'm talking about the main backing melody that plays throughout the song.

At first, I got excited that my crappy Yamaha keyboard has almost the exact same synth pad used in The Show Must Go On but then I noticed how crappy it sounds.

I disagree with the real strings. The May orchestration sounds creative. But i prefer the epic-ness of the synth sound they used. I can also hear something like a helicopter in the entering chords. There is also a light static effect/vibe there.
* I had that sort of ''sweet distortion'' when back then i used to record in the tape-recorder directly from the TV sound output.

i can't stand klaus meine's voice. the whisteling in the intro is one thing... but his voice is killing my nerves!
'show must go on' instead is a very beautiful song. i just stripped it down to the acoustic instruments some time ago. it's a real masterpiece!