"shitload of soundboard concerts"

The Real Wizard wrote:

Krypto_98 wrote:

They would probably sound something like Sun City 1984 or the Budapest 16 Camera's Soundboard.

Correct.

Not exactly. They are sourced from whatever generation cassette/VHS dubs and sound like it. We also don't know the origin of that Sun City tape - unlikely sourced from the bands tapes.

The band apparently recorded all their gigs from the soundboard, and seeing as they also worked with competent sound engineers they should sound decent. If they regularly changed sound engineers and only made the odd tape, you'd expect fairly rough sounding tapes with badly levelled instruments. And going to the trouble of recording onto reel instead of cassette suggests someone wanted a decent recording.

Regarding anything sounding dry - we don't know actually know that would be true for all or even most... there was nothing stopping them from putting up a couple of crowd mics and getting a typical BBC live broadcast quality recording.

I can't see them releasing any though, as I doubt Brian could live without being able to remix and perfect them. This kind of stuff is crying out for some kind of boxset or digital release though. Pick some decent performances and label them as being raw live tapes and they'd be onto a winner.

I really wish Queen fans had a situation like Led Zeppelin fans do with EVSD putting out a new soundboard every year. Or better yet like Nirvana fans, they're currently enjoying someone on reddit uploading new soundboards almost every weekend. The lack of stereo soundboards in the Queen community is truly saddening. It'd be nice if someone just started trickling a soundboard or two out every now and again. WISHFUL THINKING I KNOW but it's nice to think about.

I would think that the reason we only got an upmixed Saturday Wembley '86 show was due to all the overdubs which would need recreating from scratch and possibly/probably ending up not sounding consistent with the mix we're all familiar with.

"Hey...this vocal phrase used to be overdubbed but now the original vocal is autotuned/melodyned/jiggery buggeried!", as Brian says.

Also, I recall some speculating that the multitrack from the Saturday show had been lost or damaged, thus preventing a remix for dvd.

However, they obviously have it because they used Freddie's vocal and piano tracks from that show for two Queen + Paul Rodgers tours (miss that lineup!!) during Bohemian Rhapsody.

*returns to lurking*

pittrek wrote:

The 100 bootlegs project was doomed from the beginning, because it gave us what we had before for free, usually incomplete and/or worse quality, and expected money from it. Uncut "unoverdubbed" soundboard tapes would be a hit, I mean even I would buy them and I never pay for downloads

Indeed!

And if they don't want to flood the market with stereo soundboards from an era of which there is not an official release yet, why then not for example release more Magic tour soundboards from shows like the Leiden gigs. Very well-known and loved by the fans but only available in poor quality audience tapes....

They have to understand that it is possible to keep both the die-hards and the general public happy with their releases!

on my way up wrote:
They have to understand that it is possible to keep both the die-hards and the general public happy with their releases!

And lately they are doing exactly that. The past year they released the blissful Rainbow shows (for the hardcore fans) and Queen Forever (for general audiences).

The product for the general audiences also included a never heard before song of Freddie Mercury.

And this year they're releasing another 70s show.

Doga wrote:

on my way up wrote:
They have to understand that it is possible to keep both the die-hards and the general public happy with their releases!

And lately they are doing exactly that. The past year they released the blissful Rainbow shows (for the hardcore fans) and Queen Forever (for general audiences).

The product for the general audiences also included a never heard before song of Freddie Mercury.

And this year they're releasing another 70s show.

The November shows were still butchered into a compilation of both nights.

In related news, A soundboard tape of Bowie at Hammersmith Odeon '73 was recently sold online by the old soundman for charity. Although we'd heard that show in several variations over the years this was still great as the actual live mix on the night was very different to the commercially released stuff. I guess the variations of mix at a Queen gig would be much less than the Bowie gig which had 8 musicians on stage.

Interestingly, even though the soundman said every night was recorded off the desk (which has had fans salivating for years) for the band to listen to as reference between gigs, it turns out for the whole tour they would use the SAME TAPE and tape over the previous show! The only reason Hammy survives was because it was the last night of the tour.

^ fascinating post.

The Real Wizard wrote:

^ fascinating post.

Brian is too much of a collector himself :-) There's surely more Queen stuff in his archive :-)

on my way up wrote:

The Real Wizard wrote:

^ fascinating post.

Brian is too much of a collector himself :-) There's surely more Queen stuff in his archive :-)

Absolutely - this is the man who collected and kept 'everything' Queen related from the start...tickets stubs, posters, chocolate wrappers etc... To think that he didn't do the same with the actual music whenever the opportunity arose is naeive.

I've even got cassette tapes of most rehearsals and early gigs of my first few pub bands, and these were just a cassette plonked down in front of us whilst we rehearsed in our guitarist's front room, or gigged to an empty pub! (and Queen we certainly weren't!!)

Sure me too. But sometimes it just doesn't happen of material gets lost along the way.
I definitely think Queen would've recorded every show to listen back to tweak and improve. Although like I said that might not mean every show survives.

The most interesting comment regarding Queen recording and keeping the actual recordings in their archive came from Brian May in a radio Q&A (from the nineties I think).
People could telephone and ask a question: a Dutch fan asked about the soundboard recordings;
Brian - surprised by this question and so his answer was honest ;-) - then confirmed they INDEED recorded their shows (this was the rule, not the exception it seemed) and that those recordings were stored but that those were very dry recordings with no ambiance since those were recorded just for the band to check their playing...

I think we can be pretty sure those tapes do exist but Brian just seems unwilling to let those out...

Shit I don't care how dry it sounds I want to hear them all! More of the Mexico shows

They wont stay dry with the right touch. There are people who are actually skilled with sound editing programs and can make even the dryest soundboards sound full and good enough for official release. If more people actually learned how to be proficient with these tools then issues like dryness wouldn't be so problematic anymore.

Sue Dounim wrote:

They wont stay dry with the right touch. There are people who are actually skilled with sound editing programs and can make even the dryest soundboards sound full and good enough for official release. If more people actually learned how to be proficient with these tools then issues like dryness wouldn't be so problematic anymore.

Mmm i think most of that soundboard recordings could sound like the one from 28/2/81 Buenos Aires gig. Dry but powerful.