Nothing more truer could be said for thriller. Billie Jean has still not lost its energy at all to me. It’s like I’m listening to the song for the first time every time! Quincys production is like a never ending climb up a mountain with the top being the ending 😭😭
I have this entire documentary and it's a must-see for any MJ, Q, or music fan. Excellent doc. Also, Bruce Swedien wrote a book called "In the Studio with Michael Jackson, where he details all the recordings he engineered on, including 'Off The Wall', 'Bad', and 'Dangerous'. I've been a fan of liner notes all my life and this doc, along with Bruce's book, is like the ultimate ode to how they used to make music.
How? Have a great talent and access to the best studios and mixing and mastering engineers and producers, lots of skills and an ear for music and this is how you make a sonic sound masterpiece.
Quincy Jones is a musical genius and he had a big part in the sound of "Off The Wall," and "Thriller," but Bruce Sweden was the engineer. What this video doesn't tell you is the recording techniques Mr. Sweden used. He recorded every track in true stereo. Whether volcals, bass guitar amps, snare, bass drum, etc, every instrument and volcal was recorded with two omni-directional mikes onto two tracks. Crazy but true. This is the true secret of MJ's sound. Three, sometimes four analog 2 inch 24 track mutitracks were synced together. Bruce built a wooden drum stand that would raise the drum kit a foot off the floor thereby decoupling the kit from the floor. He made isolation boxes for the high-hat and bass drum. He wanted no leakage. Because the drum kit was decoupled from the floor low bass frequencies don't travel and make noise all over. Inside he would put two mikes for bass drum and the same for the high hat. This led to what you hear on Thriller. Everyone thinks the drums on Beat It and Billy Jean are from a drum machine. SURPRISE. They aren't. That's the incredible clean drum sound Bruce got from his extreme drum kit set up. Michael's volcals were done in this fashion: MJ would sing three feet away from a spaced pair of omni-directional microphones (recorded to 2 tracks in real stereo) He would sing again, only this time 6 feet away, but the recording volume was turned up to match the level of the volcal take before. Then the same as before only now 9 feet, 12 feet, and finally 15 feet. This was to duplicate the five part harmony of his brothers. With this unique recording volcal technique Bruce Sweden was able to get vast amounts of depth from Jackson's volcals that would not have been possible recording the normal way. The rhythm tracks were always recorded on the first analog 2 inch 24 track. Drums, bass, rhythm guitars, percussion, keyboards were recorded in real stereo. Two spaced microphones in front of guitar amps not one. And yes..Two omni-directional mikes in front of the bass amp. He would get a second 24 track and sync the two up together with sync pulse on track 24 of tape 1 and the new tape 2. He would then do a stereo midtown of the rhythm tracks from Tape-1 to Tracks 21 & 22 of the new tape. (Note: On both multitracks Track 23 were left blank. In the days of analog it wasn't a good idea to put music tracks next to sync pulses. You could but bad idea.) With the stereo mix of the rhythm tracks now recorded on Tape-2 Bruce would put the rhythm track tape in storage. This was his secret to a crisp superfly rhythm tracks - Not to use it. Not running that 2 inch 24 Track hundreds of times through the machine. This constant playing of analog tape causes high frequency and transient loss. The only time the rhythm track tape would get played again was at the end - for the finally mix.
As an 80s kid, I have to say this album was the best album recorded. It was and still is 100% eargasmic. I know the whole team was amazing at creating this masterpiece, but without Mike, it would have been completely garbage no matter how amazing those songs were. No one could sing like Mike. His voice was magic, it was the main ingredient.
Micheal Jackson was not only vocals. He also plays piano. He also worked tirelessly behind the scenes on most songs he produced. His ear was gold! And he was a perfectionist on anything that had his name on it.
"Not only for the music, but also the quality of it's sound." Everyone in the industry praises the album but nobody is willing to go back to oldstyle sound quality. Distortion and loudness war all around. Why the heck is noone at the top willing to give old-school mastering a chance again??
FoxGhost7 compression is collateral damage in the eyes of the fat cat labels because all they want is money. Mp3 is a faster and cheaper method of distribution than pressing a physical record. But the general public have been led to believe that 320kbps is superior to proper analogue sound, which is a huge LIE.
+Pat Mcgroin maybe a new artist will change it and change/modify pop music for the better and make a huge impact. If that person achived that that person would be the biggest star the planet on a global scale like MJ. But the question is how can they do that? How can they let the public follow it?
+FoxGhost7 Things look like they're starting to change for the better, and RU-vid are playing a big role. You may or may not notice but most recent videos get normalized to the same loudness (i.e around the same RMS, not peak). Which means material that has been squashed super hard will actually have lower peak levels than something that is more dynamic, when played on RU-vid. It doesn't seem like all videos have been normalized, but google "RU-vid loudness normalization" and you'll see plenty about it.
+FoxGhost7 If you want properly mastered songs, you pretty much have to buy vinyl. Not because there's anything special about the medium, but vinyl records are mastered differently than CD's which by and large are brick-walled. This applies mostly to pop music whereas jazz CD's are usually mastered correctly as are classical. For comparison, You Tube search Daft Punk - Get Lucky (vinyl) and compare it to the VEVO release.
This album was recorded entirely (and intentionally) in alternative tunings (A=432 Hz. and A=444 Hz.). I believe this is a big part of the true secret to Thriller's huge success. 5 of the tracks are tuned to A=432 Hz. ("Baby Be Mine", "The Girl is Mine", "Beat It", "Billie Jean", and "Human Nature") and 4 of them are tuned to A=444 Hz. (C=528 Hz.): ("Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'", "Thriller", "P.Y.T.", and "The Lady in My Life"). *I used the original vinyl recording, a synthesizer, and music software to determine the album's tuning*
@@manpreetpurewal3860look up 423hz vs 440hz effect on the body. 432hz was the original tuning of all music, it is harmonizing to the body, mind & soul. 440hz is actually more disruptive. 444hz could have to do with it being a spiritual number (“Angel number”), but I don’t know if that’s why he chose it - also very harmonizing. Michael was very spiritual, so who knows. ;)
Micheal was the last true super star. Just the nature of the world pre-internet, pre-glimpses into their lives connected with fans. . You were separated from stars. They were mythical. AND MICHEAL WAS A PHENOM. Even my eight year old brain noticed the hysteria!
EXACTLY here in Chile and in the ends of the world, when there was talent, it reached those places! Now there is 0 talent, absolutely nothing out there.
Whodunit True..but it still feels wrong. An album that great. That succesfull. That record-breaking. It shouldn't go by unnoticed. And it raises some major questions about what happened the year(s) it was allowed to win awwards. Did they drop it on purpose? Did they actually think it wasn't good enough? What happened? It's like giving the olympic medal to the next fastest runner.
That year was a difficult win. It lost to The Joshua Tree by U2 which is another incredible album and the other 2 competitors were Sign O' The Times by Prince and Whitneys Best Album. As awesome as Bad was it didn't impact the industry the same as Thriller. If Michael had worked with Teddy earlier on Bad they might have topped Thriller but it's difficult to determine since there were so many variables that made Thriller so successful.
Great video. Todays technology is great in many ways but to a degree focuses on shortcuts, making people have to work less if at all to get a great sound or take. Sure, some people dont have the time to work on a song for as long as it takes, but a lot of people are missing out the experience of staying up for days, not from drugs but from the adrenaline of working on something youre that passionate about.
Great post. I think today everything is going on too fast. You don't have time to be precise, and newcomers aren't encouraged nor teached to be. I remember once Bjorn Ulvaeus of ABBA said how he cannot understand todays music authors (that was in end 90's) satisfy with less than perfect melodies and harmonies. He said they worked and worked until they found perfect melody/chords etc. Very similar aproach to those wizzards behind Michael Jackson's album.
+Craig Henry you realize Elvis used to record entire albums in a literal DAY. He recorded the King Creole album in one night and many of his other albums were done in the same way. Singers today take way longer than Elvis did to record music. I do consider him the best of all time, but I'm just saying, sometimes magic happens in minutes. Michael recorded Billie Jean ONCE and ended it there. 5 minutes in a studio booth and his biggest hit was born. It's not about time, it's about personality and talent. Today's singers, their talent, is washed down by the autotune and extremely loud and non-rhythmic music behind their vocals. I think music is better today than at any time ever but it's unfair to compare current singers to Elvis or Michael Jackson. You're pretty much taking the greatest legends of each decade and using that to compare to Katy Perry. A bit unfair if you ask me.
+Little Jimmy....Little Jimmy+ When Elvis recorded an album in a day it was when the entire band would record all at once and there was no mutitracking or punching in involved, and you arent taking in account the rehearsal time it took them to be ready to all record the song together into one, sometime 2 mics, and usually a lot of time went into setting up the mic and positioning musicians to get the best sound they could recording into one or 2 mics, I recently watched a video that gave me a new found respect on how much work went into recording sessions back in the 50's. But I think the main question is, if actually recording and making music is something people love, why do it less and less, its like sex, why is it just being reduced to a quicky all the time? lol. And exactly why is it unfair to the recording habits of Katy Perry to anyone?
+Craig Henry +Jon Lindsey It's unfair because Elvis is considered the greatest artist of all time by most people, not all, but most. And comparing number one to Katy Perry who isn't even considered the best female singer of today is unfair. It's like comparing Justin Bieber to Michael Jackson. And I agree if you love music, you should want to make as much of it as possible. I make music and I love making more and more. I wish I had my own studio though. And I also agree past music was more intimate. But that's because they mostly used live instrumentation whereas today it's all super loud synth music with echo effects that make songs sound like they're in another dimension. It's kind of nice when you're in a lounge or club but when you have earphones on or are in the house, there's no soul to it. I just can't feel it.
well no offense, but who's the greatest artist of all time pretty much comes down to personal opinion, and he's not even close to being the greatest artist of all time in mine, lol, but thats just my opinion, so to me theres nothing unfair about it. I would kind of say comparing her to a Whitney Houston might be somewhat unfair because Whitney could sing circles around her, but I still wouldnt call Whitney the greatest artist of all time.
Thriller is a very Cinimatic album and the ambience through the album gives you chills , the placement of the tracks are perfect , also if you listen to the album each track has its own colour in your minds eye , BEAT IT ....RED , THRILLER DARK GREEN BLACK , BILLIE JEAN IS LIKE A NIGHT PURPLE COLOUR and so on
I’m glad you said this because I literally cannot listen to Human Nature without imagining a beautiful bright green, and most people don’t know what I mean when I say that ahahah
Biloxi Cub the budget alone to produce Thriller was $750,000, Producers now a days half ass everything or just sample other artists music, Nobody wants to be original anymore or take their time producing their own beats sadly
This is why I sat at the engineering console at sixteen years old. I wanted see what it felt like to listen to a great production. Also another one of Quincy's best sonic albums was "Sounds and Stuff Like That" which features a host of vocalists and timeless arrangements. When you do not listen for great production and get caught up on how many notes you can play you will always finish less than first, often last, or not at all regardless of the genre. Listen to how the tracks breathe-they are living organisms!
you said it right there. if people think nowadays popmusic is thick, listen to the thriller album. the instruments, the mix, the balance is so very good. no pumped up compressors or limiters, sidechains etc.. just loose and good playing to start with, real musicians and no or little computers
Wait until Bruce Swedien dies... Q will be out there saying he engineered the whole thing. Honestly, he's kind of been suggesting that the Thriller video was all *his* idea. He keeps rewriting history and it's just sad and pathetic. Q is such a legend and genius, I just wish he could've gone out in style.
Jack Edwards you're so right. Just a few days ago he's already trying discredit Michael Jackson for writing Billie Jean saying he stole it. When in fact it was him who produced and mastered the track.
but introduce other issues, the smooth bass of VInyl is never quite captured on CD, saying that I'd like to hear the longer version of the Thriller album if it exists
Was. Like for film making, there is more and more first rate information coming out. No affiliation, just a recommendation: check the channel: 'produce like a pro' by Warren Huart.
Thriller was a more than GREAT album but there are few early 80's tunes that were recorded by other artists that I had wish Michael had been the originator and writer of and had placed them on his Thriller album and IMO, it would've made Thriller an even BIGGER album: 1.) Everybody Wants To Rule The World (Tears For Fears) 2.) In The Air Tonight (Phil Collins) 3.) All Night Long (Lionel Richie) 4.) Maniac (Michael Sembello) 5.) Jack & Diane (John Mellencamp) Imagine these classic on the same album with Billie Jean, Thriller, Beat It, and Human Nature, Thriller would've been TOO Big!
I had never heard of Jack & Diane. I don't find it particularly great now that I have listened to it. I like In The Air Tonight I might count it as a great song, Maniac works really well in the movie, All Night Long and Everybody Wants To Rule The World are good songs, but not great in my view. I don't think they would have fit onto the Thriller album.
The only one I could hear Michael doing is "Maniac" by Sembello also because I believe Sembello played with MJ, he did play with Stevie Wonder. All those others are signature songs of the artists and represented something personal to them. Hey it can't be ALL Michael for the 80's, ha.
What an album that is. Aside from Rod Temperton and Bruce Swedien and all the other people involved in the making of the album, I think the two most important people were still Michael Jackson and Quincy Jones, because when you have MJ's talent and Q's knowledge (he'd been in the business for 25 years at that point) in one studio ... BAM! That's the magic. They had everything they needed. When I listen to "Thriller," I sometimes wonder if they ever thought it would be the biggest record in history. I mean, Quincy said that there's no formula for success, but I just think it's crazy to think that when you're in the recording studio, you're creating something and the next thing you know, you're putting out a record that changes the music world permanently.
Michael wrote in his book that he said "I want this to be the best-selling album ever" and Quincy Jones & Rod Temperton laughed, his brother also said that Michael's bathroom mirror had "I will sell 20 million records" written on it which I think was above the most-ever sold at that point?
Funny enough.....many engineers will take a mix out to their car and that's usually where they can really hear what's going on in a mix because they know their car sound system.
It's beautiful... and what a large task they all took on... Michael was indeed a very important part, but the album is a result of the culmination of a lot of talents... I don't know if anyone works nearly as hard as they did in the music industry anymore.
How and Why did it all End-up so ugly! For Michael and Quincy Jones. Michael Jackson, Prince, and Whitney Houston and Tupac should still be alive and Healthy. The music industry will never be the same with the Destruction of these Legends.
Analog THAT WAS THE DIFFERENCE - we can't go back - i wish we could go back - when digital took over, it killed music as we know it - and the sad thing is that the new generation of kid will never know what it took to record on an all analog audio chain
+James Eugene Maybe a new artist can change it. More than ever people want a change. Digital music killed mainstream music. No one has real instruments anymore.
It's the Loudness War that's ruined recorded music. Squashed, compressed, terrible sound. No dynamics. Record labels want loud songs that are essentially the same level so it "sounds loud" at any volume. Punk music should be the only style that has that production value, due to its esthetic. Thriller grooves so hard because of dynamics.
+Kat Love In this day and age, no. It'd have to come from the record companies and their marketing teams. Recordings (Pop/Rock/top 40) with wide dynamic range wouldn't be released. It's all about the hype machine, not the music anymore. It's sad.
He said, something is missing rock, and jackson came up with Beat It. He is such a musical genius, and was beyond any genre. I think when I see millions and billions of hits of today's shit music, had thriller, Bad, dangerous albums been released we would have got trillion hits. Imagine people have heard these songs throught the decades still, have billion hits
Yup... still a studio standard; although anyone who has ever spent any serious amount of time mixing through them will tell you how fatiguing they can be to mix through. NS10's weren't great-sounding speakers, but, like Auratones, mixes done through them translated very nicely to other playback systems. If you managed to get a mix sounding good thru NS10's, you could be fairly confident that the mix would sound good when played back through any other system. Monitors have come a long way since the early 80's, though. There are now many different models available that translate just as well... and are far less tiring on the ears.
MrDonnyAir Thanx for your 2cents & all, but do u think any other besides prod/soundengineers will even bring up the NS10s? :) About every piece of gear was replaced/renewed in every studio the past 40y, exept for those monitors, which is an achievement on itself
I'm not disputing that NS10's have been a studio standard for many years, and still are to a large degree. I have a pair myself, I use them frequently - but I can't mix through them for any extended period of time, because their prominent mid range makes them pretty fatiguing if you are using them for long mix sessions. These days, I use them ( along with Auratones) more as a momentary reference, to check translation, but mixing through them at 75db or more, for more than an hour or two, is pretty taxing on the ears. NS10's aren't known for being a great sounding monitor.. and they never were meant to "sound great"... they are known for their exceptional translation qualities, and for that, I think they excel. But, recent technology has offered up some other great sounding monitors that also translate just as well... Adams, Focal's, Dynaudio, Barefoot, etc... all make great sounding monitors that translate just as well as NS10's do - but are a lot easier on the ears to use for longer periods of time. Even the original Alesis Monitor 1's have great translation, but aren't nearly as aurally fatiguing. That's not to say that NS10's aren't useful to have around, but if I walked into a studio that didn't have them, that wouldn't really be a "deal-breaker" for me. My own criteria would lean more on things like mics and mic pre's, converters, and monitor controllers, along with a well-balanced mixing space ...as long as the space is acoustically well treated, there are many different monitor models available now that you can get great sounding mixes through.
MrDonnyAir I know, i am a soundengineer & i use them for 25y myself :) u should give your ears a rest with any monitors after 2hours at 75db incase of a mixdown, but yeah they aint that great & why its even more amazing they managed to become the industry standard for so many years, they are built to last tho
The old saying about the NS10's, and I'm sure you would agree, is that "if you can get a mix sounding good thru NS10's, then the mix will sound great when played through any other system". I think that this sentiment is true for the most part, they do translate extremely well to other monitors and playback systems outside the studio, and that is why they have remained so popular over the years. You just have to watch how long you are mixing through them, because they can toast your ears pretty quickly with their hyped upper mid range... I agree that as engineers, we should take breaks, but there are those times when you just can't do that, if you are mixing to a deadline... and under those circumstances, the NS10's would not be my first choice for an extended mix session.
Rod Temperton not only wrote songs for MJ, like Thriller, he wrote Boogie night and other hits for Heatwave. He is a freaking awesome songwriter. MJ had a great talent for picking great songs as well.
The only bad thing about being born in the 80s and growing up with this music is that you expect the future of music to be the same or better, but it was the other way around. I am very grateful to God for being born exactly at the beginning of 1980.
Your list is extensive and accurate. One thing must also be added. There was a whole segment of the population that knew Mike was the greatest since the Jackson 5 days. Eventually the larger society started to catch on. People in Gary and Detroit knew, early on.
I agree Fashion. They did seem to be stroking Quincy just a little too much and made Michael's input almost a side note. I must say this is a wonderful video describing the whole album making process. I really love behind the scenes stuff on how the great things - songs, plays, movies, etc. - are made. What an awesome production team they all were, and how they turned the entire music industry upside down with the album with the kick-ass beats. Kudos to you all!
thriller was so good, I couldn't stop playing it.still have it.Michael Jackson is over the top talent. so one could get his soul and beats.always gonna listen to his stuff...never gonna grow old.love you Michael!
This was fascinating! Thank you for uploading this! Also, for the speakers catching fire, just shows you how powerful Eddie Van Halen’s guitar solos are!
Please do your research on times and dates. Thriller Was RELEASED November 1982. All this information is available via Google. And For those of Us old enough to remember...and are Major Michael Fans...The Buzz was absolutely Bonkers. It was A Christmas Album. The Album Sales were insane in Short order. PLEASE redo this video. Posterity calls for history to be recorded accurately.
I ended up finding this video, searching out any footage of analogue recording in the studios of yesteryear. Amazing it should bring me to Michael. Greatest musician of all time - this record, and all his music, changed the world. Thank you, Michael - the world and myself will forever love you for all that you did for us. This music wasn't just selling units - it meant something. It touched hearts. Only Michael and Quincy could have achieved this. One of the greatest recording teams in history!
It would have been awesome if we could have heard some of the working tapes or see how the songs evolved through various takes - unfortunately what we got is the version that you hear on the CD so nothing new.
videos4mydad I think they had a few demos on the Off The Wall special edition.. it's really cool to hear the beginnings of a song and then hear the end product and be like wow
Bruce Swedien spoke at the university I went to. (Full Sail) Legendary engineer. I was BLESSED with the opportunity to ask him a question. I asked him if he thinks engineers today can reach such prestige making great projects such as Thriller and he basically said "No". In my head, I politely disagreed but I respect his opinion nontheless. Over all- Bruce Swedien is a legend and a big reason we have such a classic like Thriller.
