Queen albums / tracks with the best / worst sound quality.

I can see why people are saying Jazz is the worst sounding album, Yet I really love it! The first Queen album does lack the technology to have high sound quality in my opinion, but I would say that the band probably do well for the time.

Great sound quality and the The Game, The Works and Flash come to mind for me. Dragon Attack just moans from the speakers, and songs like Sail Away Sweet Sister and Its a Hard Life sound magical in part I think because of the wonderful way they have been recorded.

To be honest, I think Queen fans are lucky, because most of what's been recorded comes up pretty damn well IMO. I wonder if that is anything to do with having someone like Brian in the band. I reckon he might well have made sure the sound engineers/producers were where they needed to be. I remember seeing something from Mack about how anal Brian was with the recording of particular tracks, and possibly not just the playing on the track. I think that's a good thing. I mean once the music is out the door, that seems to be it!

Crisp, clean sound: Queen II and The Game
Great vibe: SHA, ANATO, ADATR, NOTW
Too processed: The Miracle, Innuendo, Made in Heaven
Poor: Hot Space, Live Killers, Queen I, Jazz
Meh: The Works, AKOM

The 2011 remasters did a great work in the sound quality IMO. Albums like Queen I, Queen II and Innuendo sounds much better.

On the live releases, Budapest and Montreal sounds incredible, Wembley and Milton Keynes don't sound that good.

I wonder why they never remastered Live Killers? or a collection of tracks from that era instead, if the Frankestein was too hard to remaster.

If you want clear and crispy sound of AKOM album, better grab the vinyl rip of the original first pressing. The whole 24bit/96 khz pack was shared on some site a while ago.

[QUOTE] [b]Heavenite wrote:[/b]
I wonder if that is anything to do with having someone like Brian in the band. I reckon he might well have made sure the sound engineers/producers were where they needed to be. I remember seeing something from Mack about how anal Brian was with the recording of particular tracks, and possibly not just the playing on the track. I think that's a good thing. I mean once the music is out the door, that seems to be it![/QUOTE]

Agree. Bit time. Also Freddie was after for that clean crisp sound. Remember him on the "making of One Vision" how intense he is when he sais at one point "yes,but is sounds so CLEEEEAN!"
Also Pheobe made remarks about the clarity of the opera recordings he brought him in touch with. Freddie used to turn all the volume up from the monitor speakers just to hear the surround sounds ( like the noise from the chair of the pianist or the way the hammering of the piano keys was captured) He seem fascinated by those details!

Plus his dismissal off course of the punk movement sound. He didnt believe that for whatever cause music should ever sound dirty,noisy, unprofessional etc. He had a way of how things should be done proper.

[QUOTE] [b]MercurialFreddie wrote:[/b]

If you want clear and crispy sound of AKOM album, better grab the vinyl rip of the original first pressing. The whole 24bit/96 khz pack was shared on some site a while ago.[/QUOTE]

MercurialFreddie ,
do you have any clue where that can be found?

I am so fond of AKOM plus vinyl sound!

I didn't like the sound of Innuendo, it somehow seems "filtered".
The Miracle was much fresher.

Soundwise, i always liked NOTW. It's like the band is playing in the middle of the living room.

[QUOTE] [b]Doga wrote:[/b]

The 2011 remasters did a great work in the sound quality IMO. Albums like Queen I, Queen II and Innuendo sounds much better.

On the live releases, Budapest and Montreal sounds incredible, Wembley and Milton Keynes don't sound that good.

I wonder why they never remastered Live Killers? or a collection of tracks from that era instead, if the Frankestein was too hard to remaster.[/QUOTE]

I reckon it's still coming as part of a live releases box set. There's one thing about Queen, they take their sweet time about things. Another thing is they are ALWAYS thorough. I mean even with Queen related product! We only just had Rog's The Lot last year to add to Freddie's works which came out around 14/15 years ago!

The other thing about Queen is they know how to squeeze every cent out of their works. I mean look at the their Greatest Hits albums. Then the Greatest Flix, the Platinum Collection and then the Box of Flix. Then the Absolute Greatest CD! And now possibly with a few more Freddie CD releases, they'll be able to do all that one day again and we'll have a 20 CD studio CD collection! It wouldn't surprise me one bit!

[QUOTE] [b]Stelios wrote:[/b]

[QUOTE] [b]Heavenite wrote:[/b]
I wonder if that is anything to do with having someone like Brian in the band. I reckon he might well have made sure the sound engineers/producers were where they needed to be. I remember seeing something from Mack about how anal Brian was with the recording of particular tracks, and possibly not just the playing on the track. I think that's a good thing. I mean once the music is out the door, that seems to be it![/QUOTE]

Agree. Bit time. Also Freddie was after for that clean crisp sound. Remember him on the "making of One Vision" how intense he is when he sais at one point "yes,but is sounds so CLEEEEAN!"
Also Pheobe made remarks about the clarity of the opera recordings he brought him in touch with. Freddie used to turn all the volume up from the monitor speakers just to hear the surround sounds ( like the noise from the chair of the pianist or the way the hammering of the piano keys was captured) He seem fascinated by those details!

Plus his dismissal off course of the punk movement sound. He didnt believe that for whatever cause music should ever sound dirty,noisy, unprofessional etc. He had a way of how things should be done proper.[/QUOTE]

Yes, I agree Stelios! I'm sure Freddie was like you say. Brian and Freddie would have been a pretty amazing team in that respect. And I reckon Freddie might well have been more concerned with getting those big impactful sounds right. Whereas I sort of see Brian making sure the subtle bits were all also were they needed to be. I think an excellent example of this is the hidden track off Made in Heaven! Glad they made it louder on the remasters too, as I had missed so much of it before simply because it was so soft!

from a production/mixing point of view Jazz is in my opinion the absolute weakest album by Queen. Not only the drums are mixed incorrectly (way too little punch) but also Brian's guitar sound is muffled especially on ”If you Cant beat Them” and ”Dead on Time”. The best track on the album (mixing/mastering wise) though is ”Don't stop me now”.

The debut isn't good, but at least we know why.

I don't like the sound of The Works - drums aren't good, and by then they had no excuse really.

Jazz has odd 'un-Roger' sounding drums, especially the snare.

A Kind of Magic is just a really 'sterile' sound; really clear but far too clinical for my liking. Strangely though I like The Miracle which some would say suffers from the same in places.

I love the sound of A Day At The Races and News of the World, and Sheer Hear Attack.

Like many I don't like the sound of the Jazz album.
It gives me the feeling that the overall soundquality is poor.
Especially If you can't beat them sounds far away. I don't know how to explain it well.

Scandal 12" is one of the greatest things I've ever heard. Ever.

Just sayin'.