C_Matt's "A Kind of Magic (HD Revision)"

Hi all, I bring to you 'One Vision', the album version, almost finished, with a fresh sound. I hope you really enjoy it, and here you have the changes list if you want to check:

[b]General:[/b]
   -The intro sounds cleaner, you can find sounds that already were there but were inaudible, and understand better some things, like Freddie's panned "I had a dream" at the intro.
   -New priority to the intro sounds, you'll hear them a bit different.
   -More depth to the intro kick drums.
   -Different things were changed for each version (extended, album & single).
   -Eliminated LOTS of clicks, mainly during the intro and the outro parts.
   -New things priority all over the intro, more prominent keys and other effects.
   -Eliminated that instruments cut which is made when Freddie starts to sing.
   -New deep and kickass chemistry between the drums kick and the bass.
   -Explosive jungle part start.
   -So much cleaner sound to the jungle part, which was really really muddy.
   -Explosive start to the ending part, it's a destructive rocking mess now!
   -New drums line and fill at the very end of the song, to give a stronger ending.
   -Extended outro.

[b]Drums:[/b]
   -More natural general sound and with more body.
   -More natural snare, new priority, leaving the whip one in second place.
   -The snare sounds stronger, it was like a whip, a weak whip, and in this song needs to kick asses.
   -A lot of depth to the intro drum kicks.
   -Cleaner drums start at the "But a cold wind blows" part.
   -Corrected some double hits between the kick and the snare at the 3:48 fill.
   -No snare reverb cut at the 3:52 "Ta-tah!", and added the kick at that part.

[b]Vocals:[/b]
   -More body to Freddie's vocals.
   -Stereo expanded some "two Freddies" parts.
   -Cleaner delay effects to Freddie vocals at the "I had a dream" and the "So give me your..." parts.
   -Cleaner "double tube effect" to Freddie at the "Look what they've done to my dreeeeeams".
   -No "double tube effect" to the "Whoa whoa who..." part at 3:43.
   -No Freddie muddy delay at the 3:34 "One vision!".
   -Stronger backing vocals at the 3:34 "One vision!"
   -Cleaner "One one one one" vocals at the 3:51 part.
   -Really noticeable vocals and screams at the jungle part.

[b]Bass:[/b]
   -More kickass string sound.
   -Deeper feeling.
   -Restored the muddy and lost bass after the jungle part.
   -Solid as a stone.

[b]Guitar:[/b]
   -More body.
   -Cleaner sound.
   -Louder guitars, Brian was really sunken.
   -Explosive sound at key parts.

[b]Keyboards and Synthezisers:[/b]
   -Cleaner and deeper sound to the keyboards. Total immersion.
   -Panning to the intro magic brights sound at 1:00.
   -More audible sequencer.
   -Kept the 2:16 cheap drum sound panned to the left, but lowered down the first one.
   -Cleaner cheap low drum sound at the "So GIVE me..." at 3:19.
   -More depth to the low explosion effect at 2:44
   -Kept the 'Extended Vision' broken keyboards at the 3:51 cut with the "One one one...".

Enjoy!

Good job, it's fantastic!

Now that IS nice.

A great job.

One vision... revisited. Awesome.

That's quite an overhaul! The drum sound is very '80s', and it reminds me of Rio era Duran Duran in places (co-incidentally, their drummer is another Roger Taylor!). It's not unfitting with the track, but personally I would have used more of the 'Room' drums from the stems to get an even more natural sound. I like the lifting of some of the vocals, and the guitar sound is good. I'd say this is probably more of a radical remix than some of your other more subtle work, but all in all, a nice job. :)

This is, as usual, AWESOME.

you´re great Matt, really, really great, and we´re so lucky for having you on board QZ

thanks a trillion !!!

Lord Fickle said it best when he said this was an overhaul. He was correct...but it made me wonder.

I downloaded it and heard it on computer speakers. Wasn't sold. But...I put it on a CD along with some other songs...all I gotta say is HOLY SHIT this is EPIC! You're timeless! I've heard some other great mixes of this song in the past, and yes they were great. This mix takes the song to a whole new level dude! Can't wait to hear the rest of this!

Greetings from sunny Southern California! :)

Absolutely fabulous!!! I like the drums sound.

Hope there will be a flac of the whole album in the nearest future :)

[QUOTE] [b]cmi wrote:[/b]

Hope there will be a flac of the whole album in the nearest future :)[/QUOTE]

of course !! Matt never fails to deliver the best sound quality !! :-)

QPL should hire you to remaster all the CDs, would be great remasters!

Matt Im Dying for the Next one!

Hi, I'm back! Working a lot with the album. Thanks for the replies! I'm happy to read all this. I really like how it sounds now too.

Fickle, I can see what you say. It sound more like 'Rio' drums, it's true hahaha. The drums needed more power, the snare was a bit weak, the bass was like a matress, and the guitars were a bit low. They work now like alloy steel together. I wanted for the drums a more natural sound, but I wanted to enhance the snare and the kick to make it more punchier. Giving more room to the drums would make it feel even more natural, but it would sound a bit more raw, like NotW drums, more like a band rehearsing, a one take thing. I don't thing this was the idea for the song. I thought like if it asked for a punchy but heavy sound which give that silly jam feeling, like "We are in the best shape playing with new sounds and being totally free, no strict patterns, put this part here, and that one there", that feeling of joy and freedom that you get when you see the making of, which I think the entire album is mainly about. It would be nice to experiment with a more raw version of this song too.

Bambams, those are good news! The overall mixing of the album songs are fine for me, but it sounds a bit muddy, a thing that is hard to understand for me, having other bands like 'Go West' or 'A-ha', from the 80's, having a really clean sound. It goes with tastes I guess. Anyway, I find the album a bit sunken in the lows. The main mission is to give life to the hidden and lost sounds, which are a lot! The original mixes work well, but as you say, if you compare both of them, the difference is noticeable. I'm really anxious to upload some new songs. Really soon!

Blaise, Action, HyperBoy and Cmi, thanks for the reply! As Vali says, I'll upload a FLAC of the entire album as soon as I finish it. By the way, Vali, those words above were really nice, thank you very much! It's great for me too to share my passion with people that I know that are interested on it.

BETA and Elektra, all I can say is that I love how it is sounding right now, the songs are going in a good path. AKoM is really catchy and punchy now with that hypnotic bass line and the drums line, OYoL is a pain to work with (the audio clip was like broken at some points) but it's sounding better and not so empty, PIsCTP is sounding clean and poppy to the point I can't stop singing it, FWBF is nicer and more powerful (I added what Blaise suggested, not the people choirs, but Queen choirs at the choruses except the first one), WWtLF just gives me chills at the final choruses and during some points, GtP... well... it changed, DLYH is more agressive and discovers a lot of unaudible sounds... and PotU... it just blows my head away.

I'm happy with the album by now, but I'm working a bit slowly, as I experiment with 'Jazz' too, but putting 99% of my effort on 'AKoM'.

A little... something:
(I know it's a bit perfectionist, but I changed the place of the "Ha ha!" so the second "ha" goes with the snare)

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OH MY GOD!!! sorry but I just Screamed out loud...simply Dying! its like a new Sound Fresh NEW QUEEN!!!!

I love what you did with drums here. Great effort Matt :-) Keep up the good work. What is gonna be the next album if I may ask?

Stoked! Can't wait for the full project! Bring it on man! :)