Queen - Mannheim, Slane, Newcastle & Wembley 1986 - Live vs. Overdubs (Episode 8)

[@ivanschickendantz]

I've grown up thinking Wembley was the best Queen concert ever, but it turns out to be an incredibly mythological show. It might not be the best gig, but the most important one. At least those overdubs... yes, are very artificial, but are there to immortalize Freddie's impeccable voice. Freddie was right: he isn't a rock star, he's a legend

[@silasaraujo2849]

At least the overdubs are demonstrations of Freddie's skill as a singer, as opposed to corrections like autotune.

[@ivanschickendantz]

@@silasaraujo2849 yeah, he recorded overdubs, himself, in studio instead using autotune. However, some of the last releases have a little of pitch correction with autotune, I think. Mr. Bad Guy reissue, for example

[@TimmyTurner_765]

​@@ivanschickendantzyeah man made paradise either has very horrible pitch Corrections or autotune for some god forsaken reason

[@ivanschickendantz]

​@@TimmyTurner_765 I wonder why, I mean, it's a STUDIO ALBUM SUNG BY FREDDIE; why did they use autotune????? Does Freddie sing out of tune? P.S.: Man Made Paradise is one of my favourite Freddie songs

[@luisxd3708]

@@ivanschickendantzfreddie en ninguna desafinó Xd pero no se la verdad porque usaron eso

[@evanneta172]

24:57 the cup being thrown towards freddie omg 😂😂😂

Despite how terrible the "Wembley Studio" overdubs were placed in the official releases, I find it impressive that Freddie was still able to reach those notes during the overdubbing sessions (though it's obviously due to him being less tired)! Also, I'm so happy to learn that I actually got to help you in this wonderful series! Can't wait for the future episodes!

[@TsukiNoJoo]

48:12 Since they decided to remove the iconic reverbs during the intro of 'Now I'm Here', I myself edited them back in and made them sound like an official release. So for anybody who wants to hear that part of the official release version but with the reverbs implemented, like they had them live, here ya go: kzbin.info/www/bejne/hoCsnndmp7yteq8 You and the people working on this made a banger video. I myself am very deep into the matter and am a extremely big nerd on Queen, so I enjoyed the heck out of the overdubs vs. live series. Thank you!

[@michelpuy]

I love this series, I've learned a lot about audio with my favorite artist Queen

[@ross1701]

The special effects, slow mos and stills in the 92 release were a hold over from when the concert was originally broadcast on TV. I've seen an original VHS recording taken of the broadcast and mostly when the video went to a still, at the end of a song, an ad break was taken. At the time of being broadcast, special effects were all the rage on TV so you could argue that the 92 release is "of its time".

[@mrgrahamreed]

Absolutely. I watched a VHS of the original Channel 4 broadcast and yes, the visual effects (usually in a then advanced but now rudimentary program called quantel paintbox) were present in the original broadcast - especially with the ad breaks. The VHS was 75 mins i think (or roughly 90 mins including adverts) and simulcast with independent radio stations. That said, the VHS release was i think in xmas 1990 or so (after the band had to delay innuendo until 1991, which they had promised to fans in 90) so was put out as sto-gap product. A lot of TV broadcasts used the same VFx - see Jean michel Jarre at docklands and a lot of other stuff directed by mike mansfield.

[@metallica-fan]

Well, the time has come. I’m glad I could at least contribute a little bit by finding the A Magic Year documentary mixes so that you can look into it for this series! Can’t wait to see it later! ;)

[@JorgeBernat-w3f]

Enourmous work done here... enjoying every deteail.. (now realizing my heroes were not perfect...)

[@silasaraujo2849]

Wembley certainly doesn't deserve the title of Queen's best concert, but it's still legendary, simply because it's at these shows that we find some of Queen's best moments. Freddie and his yellow jacket, his iconic possession, plus his excellent form as a Frontman, plus the genuine joy and enthusiasm of the stage band. And even when we eliminate those corrections and edits, they're not bad shows, far from it. The first night is superbeb.

[@JesonWu-z9d]

Nope, 2nd Wembley was still a bad Magic tour concert, especially for songs like Under Pressure, WWTLF, Break Free, Hammer To Fall, Radio Ga Ga, WWRY, Friends, etc. literally some of the WORST versions I've ever heard (at least for Magic tour)

[@BaronessFahrenheit]

Setting my alarm for this one! Thanks Chinwonder!

[@xabsentx]

Amazing as always, here's hoping Part 9 comes out before 2024!

[@dongarrido4409]

😔😔

[@Musiccollectionyeah]

It will be come out at 24th November 2024, which is the 33th year of Freddie's death.

[@jackcolbert05]

Glad you took time to care about the vocoder on We Are the Champions, wished QAL still did all the cool vocoder bits on songs like The Works/Magic Tour 😅😅😅🌝🌝🌝🌝

[@JesonWu-z9d]

34:37 it sounded painfully dry in the audience recording, but 34:45 the same note sounded quite powerful on the official release… (given that it’s not an overdub)

[@Musiccollectionyeah]

Maybe it's an overdub?

[@ivanschickendantz]

When I was a child I thought those soaring voices in the We Are the Champions chorus weren't Freddie, but Roger!!! Just because of the camera angles

[@EthanThompson-Murray]

Before this video, I never noticed the continuity error for Roger's part in WATC and I'm never going to be able to not notice it now 😂😂 Cheers Chin!

[@MrCreepyBoss]

I love these videos

[@sebobie]

Also, minor change, on the ending of Now I’m Here July 12 they raised the synth levels as they are noticeably lower on the radio broadcast but quite loud on the audience recording.

[@tomgallagher655]

I don’t see the vocal improv for July 12th marked in the description but I think it’s worth noting that when they use it now for the Q+AL concerts, Freddie’s ‘F*ck you’ at the end is much louder and more clearly audible than what was heard on July 12th.

[@Chinwonder2]

Eh, such a minor change but in hindsight I probably should have. Ah well. Lol

[@barrymitchell6444]

Some of us are more interested in the music. Who cares how loud his "Fuck you" is at Queen + Lambert concerts, ffs? They edited all of it out at the London Olympics. So... not worth noting at all 🤡

[@tomgallagher655]

@@barrymitchell6444 Why are you being such an asshole in the comments to people? What did they do to you?

[@ivanschickendantz]

Live at Wembley Studio 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@ariesmercurio1869]

56:06 you can hear spike 's vocals here lol

[@loshisad3889]

yeeeey🎉 Other amazing content for beauties like us 👍💪 keep the good work

[@leonardofuentes5844]

Can you imagine that they will take Tokyo out of 79 the amount of overdubs it would have

[@JesonWu-z9d]

And put out an IMAX version of that during this year

[@bucho448]

We love you Freddie and all band!

[@AudioStudioSound]

im so excited

[@greatsoundingmaracas]

Well, I'm glad I could contribute something to this episode, I was hyped for this one for a very long time! By the way wtf are those "effects" and slow motion shots on the 92 laserdisc? Like who thought it would be a good idea lmao

[@WorksOfMagic]

It kinda has this funky 90s release charm I kinda like. Though I'm glad they removed them for the 2003/2011 re-release.

It's gonna be the last full moon in 2023 tonight, but how come this isn't in the Live vs Overdubs playlist yet?

[@Chinwonder2]

Whoops! Lol

[@OBrasilo]

Then there was the 1992 CD release of Live At Wembley '86 where they cut the reprise Tutti Frutti and changed the audience noise between Crazy Little Thing Called Love and Big Spender.

[@Scmulcahy1]

I noticed that too when listening to on Apple Music. Because for many years I listened to the original CD of the live version and noticed a slight altercation with the audience background as well as the voices.

[@StarshipGamer]

2nd Night Wembley has so much overdubs that I’m surprised they didn’t just overdub a C5 in Bohemian Rhapsody and We Are The Champions 😂

[@JesonWu-z9d]

EXACTLY, or the AKOM "bell THAT rings" B4s Stockholm 86 literarily had a C5 but they've never released it themselves…

[@Kungfumaster69s]

I think 1st wembley if it was intended to be released would also have tons of overdubs but since Queen intended to release the 2nd night no overdubs ended up being recorded

[@MarioThePlumber_1997]

Those last We Are The Champions overdubs were so outta place. For example at 1:00:47, Freddie's face expression doesn't match at all with the high note in the overdub. With high notes he tended most of the time to open his mouth entirely for better vocal extension (I think),

[@K_Jailberg]

Can't wait for Hungarian Rhapsody, Knebworth and Live Magic Episode

[@MrTheBaron]

I'll say this for those who may not have been aware about how much overdubs were done with Wembley, you can't unhear it after watching this vid. I kinda suspected that they would autotune the 1st night, but I didn't think they'd go as far as to autocorrect the other concert clips even for a documentary! Now I'm wanna know how much autotuning was done for Hungarian Rhapsody if any

[@MrTheBaron]

Okay, I only just saw this now. "Live At Wembley Studio" gave me the giggles.

[@xXSammyBWillickersXx]

58:16 this overdub is probably one of the worst and unrealistic of the bunch. He sounds so tired and speak-sings, then goes full-voice and sings the high chorus the next second? Okay QPL 🙄

[@itsamanmadeparadise1923]

Those were pretty slicks!!

[@menze9521]

omg omg omg im sooooo hyped 😍

[@sheatiller2465]

43:20 I bet Freddie possibly could've achieved that phrasing in Stockholm or especially Leiden if he had tried it, but alas.

[@anshshah4927]

He got it in frejus

[@sheatiller2465]

@@anshshah4927 yeah ik

[@kilgore1863]

Instead, he tried some weird mixed voice phrasing like the studio. Didn't sound bad, but not that good either.

[@schokoladenfan]

So does overdub mean that they corrected and pitched his vocals or that Freddie re-recorded some of the "bad" vocals in the studio and they mixed it into the dvd & album versions?

[@piskipeti]

Some lines they recorded again, some they just pitch corrected

[@erdave2309]

1st Wembley Bo Rhap on that "Anyway" Freddie is sharp, not flat

[@evanneta172]

gotta do something special for the tenth part!!

[@MisterSandmanAU]

Very nice! How long did it take to get past UMG?

[@Chinwonder2]

Too long lol

[@WorksOfMagic]

Well, had Chin not gotten the copyright strikes three months ago, the video would've probably been ready much earlier. That's all I can say on the matter. 😂

[@MisterSandmanAU]

​@@Chinwonder2 and now MK & tokorozawa have fallen victim to content ID

[@minhthien-wrgp]

44:24 Did I hear wrong🧐?,I hear Roger's voice very loud in this part.

[@TrekkieChannel]

Excellent as always, I admire the people who can detect all of these changes (even though most of the Wembley overdubs are pretty noticable even for a semideaf guy like me :-) ), so now the only thing that remains is Knebworth, right? Or do you plan to also cover the tribute concert, QPR and QAL eras?

[@feduwtc]

i can't understand why they would go through the trouble of overdubbing concert for footage that appears for just a little bit in a DOCUMENTARY

[@loshisad3889]

Beautiful video, really good mate 👏👍 Btw are there going to be more episodes and if yes what are they going to be about?

[@WorksOfMagic]

Well, as someone who's been working with Chin since episode 6 of the series, I can safely say that were planning to go in chronological order of live performances. So for example, episode 9 will feature the gigs at Budapest and Knebworth Park, episode 10 will feature (iirc) the Freddie Mercury tribute concert etc...

[@loshisad3889]

@@WorksOfMagicthanks for the answer

[@baerenonkel]

It's strange that "gimme your hands" on Wembley 2 was not dubbed when it sounds so bad

[@syarifd5605]

Does the bohemian rhapsody Budapest verse "but now i've gone and trown and all away" use the frejus show because it's so similar

[@metallica-fan]

Honestly, it’s possible. Judging by how Mannheim was multi-tracked, we could only come up with a theory that the band multi-tracked the whole tour for future releases, with one such release being Live Magic back in ‘86.

[@erdave2309]

Nope, they pitch-corrected the original one. They did take "life had just begun" from Slane Castle tho

[@sheatiller2465]

@@metallica-fanif they'd multitracked the whole tour, I think many bits of Stockholm and Leiden would've shown up by now in various releases.

[@metallica-fan]

@@sheatiller2465 🤣 knowing QPL, releasing stuff is rare..

[@sheatiller2465]

@@metallica-fan I mean yeah, but with Freddie nailing stuff there, I'd be surprised if clips of it weren't used here and there like in the year of magic doc if they had it.

[@JesonWu-z9d]

There are cracks on Seven Seas & Crazy LTCL (and also some left on Break Free), and Queen Productions didn't even bother to patch them…

[@JesonWu-z9d]

Also, they've probably cut down Crazy Little Thing Called Love's outro jam…

[@Musiccollectionyeah]

is there budapest live vs overdub?

[@jakethepanda5748]

Goes to show how wembley 7/12's AOBTD was way too good to be overdubbed, even for them.

[@jakethepanda5748]

Oh and at 44:18 it seems they heavily reduced or muted Roger's scream completely in the official release. Or it's an audience member and im confusing it all lol

[@jakethepanda5748]

1:01:13 I find it funny that in the official releases of the videos, they avoid showing freddie singing altogether because of the overdub being so obvious, even in the freddie cam

[@thischannelhasabigname1755]

is Mannheim from the on air album

[@Chinwonder2]

It’s from the A Magic Year 2012 documentary, featured as a bonus on the Hungarian Rhapsody release. There are no fixes on the On Air release.

[@thischannelhasabigname1755]

@@Chinwonder2 I see, thanks for replying I can't wait!

[@metallica-fan]

@@thischannelhasabigname1755yeah, the On Air release used the soundboard recording that we have been hearing for years..

[@thischannelhasabigname1755]

@@metallica-fan the only difference I spotted was that the on air release has a little bit better quality, soundboard still sounds amazing though.

[@metallica-fan]

@@thischannelhasabigname1755 was it higher quality tho? I didn’t really noticed.. either ways, thanks for spotting and sharing the difference on the sources!

[@TimmyTurner_765]

Next is budapest and live magic right?

[@WorksOfMagic]

Precisely. Chin and I will mostly be focusing on both Budapest and Knebworth.

[@TimmyTurner_765]

​@@WorksOfMagica bit late ik but nice work on the thumbnails they all look nice

[@miguael_ribuera]

After seeing this i definitely prefer the original live audience of July 12 1986 Wembley because of the horrible We Are The Champions in the DVD

[@coasterexpert7501]

Great work. The second night of wembley shouldn't be allowed to be marketed as a real recording of a conert with almost every line of the concert being overdubbed.

[@thischannelhasabigname1755]

I've recently been thinking Freddie purposely made the overdubs obvious, similar how in for example the Montreux pop festival he sings with his mic down. The fact that in the original We will rock You release he cracks in some Overdubs and sings off key doesn't make sense, although maybe I'm overthinking it.

[@chewymew]

Freddie seems like the kind of guy who would've trolled the producers who wanted him to do overdubs lol

[@ranpep]

Hey, I know it’s a bit late but can you also do the Hungarian rhapsody + Knebworth that would be perfect

[@thegreatwallofting]

I think the person singing off key at 1:00:06 might be John.

[@samethbo109]

What happened to the bootleg collection you had? Had a hankering for em, and the best uploader for em doesnt have them anymore.

[@ariesmercurio1869]

36:24 they added some echo or reverb to pretend that It 's the audience singing along with the song

[@feduwtc]

hot-take: while still bad, Wembley's overdubs arent the worst (of course, since nothing can beat Montreal lol) we have our notes that Freddie suddenly hits that feel out of place with the rest of the song (like the high note on "live" in Who Wants To Live Forever's ending, even though he sings the entire song in a more low voice so the high bote feels out of place), but they also made good changes like removing unnecessary reverbs and or readding i want to break free's bridge vocals that were cut

[@CHR001-z]

You can do the hammersmith odeon of the year 1979?

[@ExePlasm]

Bro it wasn't overdubbed cause qpl didn't release it

[@TimmyTurner_765]

Did they really mess with wembley friday's vocal improv? This is why i hate QPL

[@WorksOfMagic]

It's only one falsetto vocal part that I actually found by accident thankfully, but yeah. Pretty annoying they did this.

[@TimmyTurner_765]

@@WorksOfMagicwhat part…

[@cha02psc]

It’s weird they did all that tweaking and then left the bit right at the end of “of the world” on the Wembley Friday show. It’s not even remotely anywhere near a key. Why not just clip that bit altogether? 😂

[@JesonWu-z9d]

Why don't they just overdub some B4s on A Kind of Magic's "a bell THAT rings" xD

[@jameseisen9371]

Oh dear... I think post Hot Space Freddie's voice got noticeably huskier - battered by chain smoking, drugs drinking and his untrained singing technique... I think his strained voice added to his charismatic delivery tho....

[@Tutialalayza777]

you forgot about budapest and knewborth

[@miguael_ribuera]

Those will continue in the next episode

[@sebkovy24]

noti on

[@mattscomics]

I can kind of understand overdubs for bad cracks and instrumental flubs. But I think the pitch correction is pointless. Even the overdubs can get ridiculous. Great video, by the way.

[@baerenonkel]

Why do they even bother fixing these minor, very human imperfections (pitch correction). It’s not like he was way off. Ridiculous and unnecessary.

[@marvinpeace882]

1st Wembley show they did a pretty good job. On 2nd Wembley show not so much. Also the sound quality itself is somehow much better on the 1st show.

[@leonardofuentes5844]

Knebworth has overdubs ?

[@WorksOfMagic]

Yup. Quite a few actually. A few of the band members' vocals along with a little bit of their instrumental work has been overdubbed on Live Magic. Mostly John's bass work and Brian's guitar work on songs like One Vision, AOBTD, FWBF and WATC for example.

[@leonardofuentes5844]

@@WorksOfMagic So it's better to listen to the hearing audience recording full which doesn't sound too bad.

[@WorksOfMagic]

​@@leonardofuentes5844That's basically it. Otherwise, wait for the definitive source merge to come out after episode 9 of this series comes out.

[@JesonWu-z9d]

56:31 The solo itself was an extremely boring one compared to even the average Works tour versions, so I'm surprise they didn't let Brian to overdub a CRAZY solo instead Also they didn't even bother to overdub Freddie's flat & rough "make the bed" and a cracked "lift your face" on HTF…

[@mayonnaise6964]

Do you know what happened to Ryan’s channel?

[@edgarferrer8084]

He deleted everything himself because of copyright.

[@WorksOfMagic]

Iirc, three months ago, UMG or whoever owns the rights of distribution to Queen's catalog went and tracked down every big Queen channel which had JP concerts along with live performances of Hangman uploaded on their channel and sent copyright strikes at them, leading to most of them needing to private their contents to avoid getting the last one that could cost their channel. Ryan was one of the people hit by this, and since he's dealt with stuff like this before, and because he's a busy guy, he didn't feel the need to continue keeping his channel up, knowing people like Greg and Leon were doing his job of uploading updated sources. So yeah... I guess in a way, he's retired.

[@silasaraujo2849]

@@WorksOfMagic Very sad, loved that channel.

[@Musiccollectionyeah]

54:51 Horrible obvious overdubs, which is noticeable.

[@davis_taylor.1984]

The Hammer to Fall Overdubs are more clear in Live Magic Mix... very terrible vocal mix there. You can distinguish the studio track from the live one. I will never understand this need to overdub anything.

[@tgfsad6973]

Budapest?

[@JesonWu-z9d]

43:08 well then Queen Productions should've released Frejus as well, or any other GREAT concerts from the tour (Stockholm, Leiden, Cologne, etc.)! Unfortunately, it's just another day that they're busy with the bullshit like IMAX concerts, pitch-correcting, re-uploading their poor old materials, anything they can do to make money out of casual fans…

[@ariesmercurio1869]

Wembley 2 has the worst overdubs in history,not because of Freddie 's vocals, because It 's obvious As hell, doesn't even match with freddie's lips and expressions lol

[@miguael_ribuera]

Exactly bro, the original audio in the audience is the best version watch and hear the concert

[@tgfsad6973]

Freddie Mercury tribute?

[@miguael_ribuera]

Yeah. That deserve special talk in overdubs

[@RichWards-Wins]

Why isn't mick jagger, paul McCartney, robert plant, bowie, or rod stewart scrutinized as much as Freddie is on these videos? Like those guys arent critiqued nearly as much as Freddie. Its like every note Freddie sings is scrutinized under a microscope but the others get a free pass. Personally, all those other prima donnas sound like shit compared to Freddie.

[@chewymew]

The exact same thing could be done to any other singers, but Queen fans are actually dedicated enough to look into these things with this level of detail

[@stuartanderson6785]

Why? What's the point of these videos. No live show goes off without a hitch. WTF are you expecting? This just reeks of a desperate attempt to throw shade on Queen. Did Brian piss in your Wheaties or something? I've seen them live twice and twice more after Freddie passed. All were awesome regardless of the hiccups where mics failed, guitar cables were ripped out of Brian's guitar, speakers blew out, and Freddie's voice broke.; even when Brian fell into the piano pit as it opened up behind him and he landed right on top of the piano throwing his guitar completely out of tune. Yes, I was there. The audience was simply relieved he was all right and carried on like a champ even though he finished the show out with a limp. They were all awesome. All you accomplish with these videos is bring people back to those unbelievable moments in their lives and say, "Look, it's crap." And we all know it wasn't. Those moments were hallmarks of our lives and you're taking a whizz all over them. I have zero respect for you doing this. I Simply don't understand this deep desire to crap on legends just to establish yourself some special kind of legitimacy. Shame.

[@mymelancholyboots]

2nd Wembley never fails to make burst out laughing... Shame that Queen just sucked and still kinda sucks when it comes to live albums

[@elperdido98]

i hate the overdubs

[@AudioStudioSound]

1:00:46 is the worse overdub as hell

[@miguael_ribuera]

Absolutely agree with you. They make Freddie Mercury sound goofy in the overdub version than in the audience live that sounds more original with that absolutely amazing voice of Freddie Mercury

[@sheatiller2465]

I don't think it's goofy at all, it's Roger who's doing that crazy vibrato anyways.

[@chewymew]

His facial expression looks way too calm to be belting those notes lol