C_Matt's HD Revisions

C_Matt I've just discovered your excellent work. I can't imagine how many hours you must have spent on these. Thanks so much. I'm looking forward to Queen II and maybe one day Sheer Heart Attack (too much to ask, I know!).

Matt, your mix of Drowse is wonderful. The drums, bass and vocals shine through so much - it sounds so good.

Hi and welcome Tomchristie and Mercurial! Happy to know you liked the remixes! This is product of love and dedication. The point of this remixes is to polish the songs and let you hear lots of sounds you never knew that were there, and to give the "mixed yesterday" feeling. Some are better than others, but I work with the source material that is available for me at the moment, and the knowledge level about audio edition.

Right now, AKoM is my last work, and ADatR the one before it. I really like how AKoM sounds now too, I listen to it very often. ADatR can sound a bit better, but yes, 'Drowse' is one of my favorites in the improvement it had. The electric guitar is really audible now during the whole song.

Pablo, about TMBMtLtT... I'm on it! I'm gonna try to see what can be done. Lol, "Mr. Hero", let's check this after TMBMtLtT!

Catbert, welcome too! I'll be working with SHA, I really want to work with it too! There are other albums first, but that day will come. The next one will be 'Innuendo'... after a quick ADatR and HS 2.0 versions. I'm really scared about 'Innuendo' lol!

^ LOL. You forgot Hot Space. Your last album is AKOM, and HS is the one before it.

This is the first time I've looked into these threads. Needless to say, this is extremely impressive stuff, C_Matt.

I can only imagine what could be done with Queen's music if we got the ten best audio and visual guys on QZ together for a month in Queen's vault. It'd not only redefine the kid in the candy store concept, but also the "labour of love" concept.

Something is wrong when this stuff sounds leaps and bounds better than every Queen remaster of the last 30 years, and they had the 24 track masters to work with. Particularly the 2011 remasters, where all the digital toys were available as well.

Because if all that's going on here is EQing and not changing the physical music, then surely this kind of job would not be out of the question for official remasters, no?

Don't get me wrong - the 2011 remasters were a great cleanup job in many ways, but this version of the Queen II tracks makes the 2011 remaster sound like there's a blanket over the speakers.

And finally - I sincerely hope you're doing audio professionally !

I suspect that while Matt's remixes / remasters are excellent in so many ways, some of them are a bit too different to the originals to have become 'official' remasters. That said, the overall sound quality of Matt's versions goes to show that the official remasters could have sounded much better.

I'm awaiting Innuendo with interest, as that is probably one of the worst *sounding* Queen albums, so it will be great to hear what Matt manages to achieve with it. :)

I would love to hear, as a Queen II bonus track, See What A Fool b-side version remastered but with BBC sessions vocals. That would be, to me, the perfect mix of the song.

[QUOTE] [b]The Real Wizard wrote:[/b]

This is the first time I've looked into these threads. Needless to say, this is extremely impressive stuff, C_Matt.


[/QUOTE]

welcome Bob, glad you finally found the magic Matt´s been delivering to us ... and the best is yet to come!!

[QUOTE] [b]Lord Fickle wrote:[/b]

I suspect that while Matt's remixes / remasters are excellent in so many ways, some of them are a bit too different to the originals to have become 'official' remasters.
(...)
I'm awaiting Innuendo with interest, as that is probably one of the worst *sounding* Queen albums, so it will be great to hear what Matt manages to achieve with it. :)[/QUOTE]

yeah, I know what you mean. Perhaps TYMD is the best example of that. A bit extreme diversion from the original version, but nevertheless a very welcome breath of fresh air to the song.

But achieving what Matt´s achieved without the multitracks is, simply put, stunning. Not only listening to the albums is a pure joy, but to his "experiments" as well. One Year Of Love (demo with guitar solo), New York New York, GOFLB from ToTP almost stereo, etc etc etc ...

regarding Innuendo ... I really can´t wait :-))))

Hello!

Beta, I had to check to be sure about that lol! Well, in the docs of some album it says at the ending "Next stop" and the next album. I'm not sure about every album, but I think the correct "timeline" is: Jazz>TM>TW>TG>ANatO>HS>ADatR>AKoM>QII. About mixing both SWaFIB versions, I think that something can be done, but it wouldn't match since the style of both versions is really really different.

Wizard, thank you very much for your kind words! I would love to have the multitracks... restore the songs using the album stereo mix as a source is really harsh and takes a lot of time. I finished SSoR in a couple of days, while the rest of the songs have a lot more of hours of work on them. I love what I do, really, and I take it as a hobby. I teach a bit to a few people about this, and mix some isolated songs for some locals bands from my city (Mar del Plata); but I don't work of this right now. I wish to do it in a future. Now, I can give a fresh sound to the songs using the stereo mix as main source, but if I had the multitracks, I bet I could double that feeling in the half of time. Instead of unveiling buried details, I could expose them right in the front with better sharp using a multitrack. I'm glad you discovered this! Enjoy it as much as you can, and thank you for writing!

Fickle and Vali, those are exactly the reasons I'm revisiting ADatR and HS (and FWBF)! I'll give those albums a quick visit. For example, at the moment TYMD sounded good to me, just for the fact that it sounded cleaner than the original, but I hear it now and it can sound a lot better, and more with the techniques I've learned with AKoM and QII. And I could restore the guitar noise I fully deleted from 'White Man' and do an alternative version with it for those who want it, and those who not (like me!). Making the AKoM extended mix (based on Fickle's own mix) was a bit hard since I had to keep the new sound of the song while extending the backing track and deleting some guitars before the new solo and for the new part of the solo. I learned how to do that in that specific moment pressing buttons! I can give a quick revisit to both albums since I saved the "multitracks" I worked with. I didn't keep them for my first 5 albums... shit.

'Innuendo'... brufff! It gives me shivers every time I think about it! I want to give a different EQ to Freddie's voice, since it sounds really different (as I explained above). I suppose I could start experimenting with 'Mother Love' or TSMGO acapella.

With regards the extended AKoM, I think it came out very well. It's really difficult to go back and try to match the sound of an old mix, unless you've saved all the EQ and other settings. Just for myself, I actually added the end of the album version, to get the little bits of guitar in the fade, so it's as complete as it can be.

Hi, Fickle! I know what you say, it was really hard. Since 'Hot Space' I save all the "multitracks" I worked with, so then I was able to work with the extended version of AKoM, and now I'm able to revisit HS and ADatR very quickly. I don't save the EQ settings after I finish the album I'm working with, I delete them because the preset list grows very long. For example, the EQ presets for 'Queen II' songs are saved with titles such as "1974 - FtS Drums Toms 1" or "1974 - TLitE Vocals 3"... Imagine if I'd saved HS and ADatR, then for AKoM I need to go to 1986 for every preset... it's a karma, lol!

In the album version I've added the deleted solo at the very end, low volume trough.

Cheers!

Any news on further remixes? :-)

I really enjoy your work and I would like to hear Albums like Innuendo or The Miracle after you cleaned it up!

^^
pls check Matt's recent posts at the Queen II and The Miracle threads

I'm really happy to know that you liked the remixes! And thank you Vali for answering! 'Innuendo' will be my next after a quick check to other albums. I'll upload QII, probably this Sunday 29th.

PD: To the user "Lookin' Divine In Good Ol' '89", I wanted to reply your PM, but for some reason I can't, your nick gives me error. Anyway, it was to thank you very much!