After the tragedy last Thursday, I spent the entire weekend listening to my Michael Jackson records. I always was a fan, but I'm not sure I ever appreciated all the great keyboard playing on his albums as I did this weekend. Of course the list of players is legendary, but no one is trying to take over the spotlight. No real solos, or fancy parts, just amazing arrangements with great synth programming with the limited technology of the times. And did anybody here ever notice the groovin' synth bass lines in songs like Thriller, Black or White, Man In The Mirror, PYT? Man, those bass lines are killin'!

Any other keyboard work that impresses you, fan or not?

PS. No BS comments about production costs, MJ's personal life, ghost writers, etc. This thread is for real musical discussion of some of the greatest pop music of all time. Any kind of music analysis, whether praise or criticism, is welcome, just please keep the OT comments for another thread. Thanks.

Cool thread!

I love the synth bass and chord stabs (Jupiter 8?) in Billie Jean, the rhodes on She's Out of My Life and the synth bass on The Way You Make Me Feel.

While I didn't pay much attention to his music post-Thriller, I did love the bass line in Man In The Mirror. I can't articulate exactly what it was, but there was something it did on the IV - #IV° - V in the chorus (aka the "no message could have been any clearer" part) that was really tasty.

Slightly off topic, since I'm primarily a guitarist, but I covered the song "Off the Wall" last night at a solo show (not an easy song to do solo). I was somewhat surprised at the degree of complexity for a dance/pop tune that's not really apparent at first listen. There are series of various Maj7 and dominant 11th chords in there. It was actually pretty fun and semi-challenging to play.

That's a quintessential Rod Temperton writing. Rock With You, Lady In My Life and Baby Mine all have those kinds of changes. My cover band and I were jamming out some MJ stuff on the weekend in between sets just to pay a small tribute. I broke into Rock With You on the rhodes, and without getting too far into verse, I stumbled before finding the next pass more than a few times.

Is that really a Jupiter 8? I've covered this song with a few corporate bands, and never was able to emulate those chord stabs properly. I think the last time I played it I used my PC3 and layered a string patch with some choir or something. I guess if you're right I should have used a Jupiter patch from my V-Synth. I'll try this next time.

Did you ever notice how much bite the rhodes tracks on the Thriller album have? never was sure how they got that sound but it's so low in the mix yet it cuts and you really here all the articulations clearly. I always loved that.

I love the KB parts and bassline in Heartbreak Hotel which was a Jacksons tune.

Also, the KB parts in Lady in my Life, Can't Help It, and Butterflies are nice.

Remember the Time and Unbreakable are slick too.

The KB players on MJ sessions are some of the baddest cats in the world.

There is an art to knowing when to play your a** off and showing restraint i.e. *right* parts to play.

Rod Temperton, from Heatwave to working with Quincy Jones is an under-appreciated songwriter/composer/musician. Yet, that guy constantly delivered the goods.

Similarly, not enough can be said about what Greg Phillinganes added to the mix. That cat is the ultimate accompanist.

In fact, Phillinganes' KB playing was the highlight of that otherwise wack BET Awards show I saw last night.

It is no wonder the Toto conglomerate went from session musos to a successful band in their own right. Every last one of the cats played in a number of styles. Ultra-bad musos.

Reading the liner notes of MJ records truly reveals the magic behind them. Even the *simplest* parts are being played by cats who just knew how to make it better.

Louis Johnson plays bass guitar on "Billie Jean".

Unsurprising... I thought Temperton's music writing was fantastic in his earlier band, Heatwave (like "Boogie Nights"). The guy was obviously coming from a sophisticated composition background.

+1 Man does BET suck the big one!. I turned it off after Neo's rendition of Lady In My Life with Greg Philanganes. The worst part about that, is that I'm sure half the audience and most of the viewers didn't even know that was an MJ song. I was watching it with my girlfriend who's black AND an MJ fan AND has excellent taste in music and she didn't know it was an MJ song. How awesome was the sound of that Rhodes from the Oasys? Round, warm, and totally filled up the mix over the TV set.

Yeah with you on TOTO. However, I always prefered them as session cats then as a band. Aside from a few really good songs, most of their stuff was pure cheese IMO. Toto to me was the best example of the whole being LESS THAN the sum of its parts.

Yes he does. But many of those songs have synth bass overdubs on top of the real bass. Billie Jean is one example. If you listen closely to the intro, you could hear a lower octave F# which is unmistakeably a synth.

What a great song! Although, because of a Elvis-related law suit, the song is now called This Place Hotel.

Yeah, Greg Philly made that OASYS Rhodes sing last night.

In fact, I've always felt the OASYS was the best Korg KB. Unfortunately, the price tag and fact that I couldn't use it as a mode of transportation was a deal-breaker.

Keep in mind that in order to get paid, bands had to make radio-friendly records. There was no Jam band scene.

Toto was no exception in coming up with a winning *formula*. During live performances, they would display their real musicianship.

No mention of Jimmy Smith's MIDIed B3 solo on "Bad" yet?

The synthbass doesn't double the bassline, but juxtaposes it by playing 1/8th notes on the first and fourth 1/8 note of each measure.
The signature bassline is LJ's bass guitar, but they've killed off all the top end with EQ. Or that's what it sounds like to me, anyway.

What's more, just about the whole world seems to think it's Jeff Porcaro on drums, but it is actually Leon "Ndugu" Chancler.

edit:
My bad, further on the song you can hear a synth playing along with the signature bassline. It starts when the synth strings come in. I stand corrected.


As for keyboard parts: the entire "Thriller" album excelled at innovative and soulful synthesizer work, but I think that David Paich and Jeff Porcaro really did something groundbreaking with "Human Nature".

And of course, the synthlead on the "Rock with you" intro. Very soulful, very Q. I believe that was Greg Phillinganes, but I don't have the album here.

Greg "Mouse" Phillinganes, what a masterful player.

You need to go back and listen again. There was a lot of stuff there I didn’t care for, but man, when they hit the mark, they took the bullseye and the whole target down with it. If you doubt it, here’s a few suggestions, with a few hits thrown it (because you’ll find them to be a lot deeper musically than you think):
Goodbye Girl…Rosanna…Africa…Afraid of Love…99…Tale of a Man
Pretty much the entire Minefields album is killer. Whether you’re looking at it from a performance aspect, songwriter aspect, synth programming or vocal angles, those songs are stunning, and rival anything on the MJ table, and arguably surpass it (in those terms). Again, I’m not a huge fan, but I came around a bit when I really listened to the stuff. Like I said, a lot of Toto I find unlistenable, but then there are those songs that just slay.

Speaking of MJ bass lines and session players...

I once knew a bass player who had an awesome Bad Decision story. He said at one point he had the choice between doing an international tour with a pretty successful, well-known R&B act, or recording an album with another pretty successful, well-known R&B act. He chose the tour.

The album he turned down? Thriller.

Then again, I later found out he was generally believed to be a pathological liar, so who knows...

Oh dude, don't get me wrong. I have the first four albums on vinyl plus livefields and a few compilations. The stuff you mention is among the stuff that I really like, along with Hold The Line, Georgy Porgy, etc. However, the bad stuff is REALLY bad.

I've always and always will be a HUGE fan of them as musicians. Jeff Porcaro's drumming with Steely Dan, Boz Scaggs, Michael McDonald, Michael Jackson, etc. is among the best session drumming you'll ever hear. And of course his half-time shuffle on Roseanna is legendary. David Paitch is a great songwriter and excellent piano player, whereas Steve Porcaro was much more the synth programmer guy in the band. Lukather rocks on guitar of course, but I always liked him when he held back and just grooved. His clean split coil guitar on Human Nature is magic, as is the rest of the Toto guys on that track. Coincidentally, I much prefer the songs where Lukather sings than the Bobby Kimball stuff. Beat It is another great example of how amazing they were at laying down rhythm tracks.

Haha, the guitarist playing in my band in Kenya claimed that his cousin used to play with Mozart!

I was waiting to see who would mention that first. I just listened to it this morning, and man it's killing. Somehow I can't imagine Jimmy Smith with his notorious attitude to accept playing a synth organ solo and not a real B3. It rocks nonetheless.

Dude, no doubt he's lying. Louis Johnson played bass on ALL of Off The Wall. So naturally they recruited him again for Thriller. In fact, most of the team from Off The Wall is also on Thriller.

Yeah, except John Robinson. Strange, as he is all over Q's other work.

I thought the OJays tribute with Tyrese, Johnney Gill & Trey Songz was fantastic! Wasn't that into the Tevin Campbell intro, but the trio was great. They sounded very old school R&B, very masculine.

skip to 1 min 40 seconds

But yeah Philliganes is a beast.. He records(gospel I think) at the same studio I do mixes in here in Atlanta, actually Conyers GA. When I found that out while visiting a friends session, I decided to make that place home.

Yeah, a lot of overlooked Toto material -- especially Fahrenheit, which features Miles Davis! I hadn't thought about the commonality between Toto and MJ before, but there's obviously a lot of cross-pollination due to the session players.

I had noticed the doubling on "Billie Jean" a while back but decided to keep it simple by doing the entire thing on synth bass -- although when we had a full-time keyboardist, I did it on bass guitar. It's an interesting choice to just double certain accent notes, and part of the genius of those sessions.

But I've played that song one too many times by now (live, not on the record player). It's worn a bit on me. Even so, it's clever how the reptition is broken up in different ways throughout the song. What a way to milk one riff!

Tale of A Man is one of my favorites---never released until Toto XX because 'Dirty Lowdown' evolved from the breakdown and they were too similar. ONLY David Paich could make a Db/D work as an ostinato. That's graduate school composition ability.

Veering back on topic, when I listen to Thriller and Off the Wall, I experience it as Michael Jackson playing with TOTO and in that sense I love it all the more. In that sense, perhaps, the OP's comment about Toto being less than the sum of it's parts is cast in a different light: as a band unto itself, TOTO was slick, inspiring and awesome, but as a studio BACKING BAND behind an artist like MJ, they could sell tens of millions of records and change the direction of pop music.

I had the pleasure of recording at Westlake studios a year or two ago and all I could think about was that these were the rooms where the Porcaros, Paich, Phillingaines Quincy and MJ himself made that incredible music. Awesome!

Getting back on topic further, I love all the keyboard parts of these tunes.

I've played a good amount of them live, and as a lone keyboard player in a band it becomes a gymnastic exercise performing these tunes. ESPECIALLY if you cop the vocoder parts on PYT! It's fun as hell though.

Delving into that tune especially, there are a couple parts that I really dig. One is the constant upbeat of what sounds like an M1 piano (it's obviously not as that didn't exist) that percolates through the whole verse. What is that anyway? I'd like to know. Another cool part is the synth lead that comes in at the beginning of the 2nd verse. It does that figure and then it's repeated up an octave. It doesn't get in the way, but it's a bold part and not something you'd hear in modern production as most producers would simply say that it distracts from the verse.

And you know those dreaded "solo projects" from prog-rock bands?

Funny thing is, Steve Lukather's "Luke" from 1997 is actually my favourite work by him! Strong songwriting, solid playing, incredible breadth of material.

BTW I think David Paich is the son of Marty Paich isn't he -- the guy who produced most of Mel Torme's greatest early records (I think Shorty Rogers was involved in those as well). So he probably got good schooling even before conservatory. :-)

I was always surprised that the QJ team didn't contribute to the pop genre much past their MJ collaborations. I guess that really wasn't his bag and he made an exception due to Michael's talent.

Sort of like a lot of cats sat in with The Beatles (e.g. Billy Preston) who might not normally hang with that crowd.

Yes David is Marty Paich's son.

And TOTO surely did contribute to Pop beyond MJ although not necessarily with Q involved.

Speaking of Luke's solo projects, check out the now out of print I believe but I may be wrong 'Santamental' album from the early 2000s I believe. It has Greg Bissonette on Drums and Jeff Babko on keys and some of the grooves are just beautiful and classic! My favorite is 'Angels We Have Heard on High' which is classic L.A. groove.

PYT has always been one of my favourite MJ tracks. That synth line you're talking about is just awesome. The synth programming for this album was so immaculate that it never even gets close to being in the way of the vocal, yet sits in the mix so perfectly that you could hear the whole melody. I also love that Princy synth line in the choruses which acts as an answer, sooo cool. And of course that groovin' synth bass.

Temperton, Q, Swedien & MJ, along with Phillinganes and crew did a Donna Summer album(titled Donna Summer). It didn't sell much at all, but it's the rarest of all there work, and it's great great stuff....technically.

Reading the list of musicians, singers and guest artists on that album looks like a Rock & Roll HOF dinner guest list. Take a gander

WHOA! No kidding! I have to hear that record? What kind of a budget allows you to involve all those people? Why does a record need a Phillingaines, Porcaro, Grusin, Paich AND Matthieson. And why not have a choir that includes Stevie Wonder, Bruce Springsteen and MJ. L.A. used to be a crazy place!

look at this guys #1's... get your calculator

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Jackson_singles_discography#Collaborations_and_other_releases

The entire clip is hella cool, but at 4:20 there's a brief clip of that amazing chior recording. Q, Brucie, and co

Arranged by David Foster.

The man's a miracle worker.

Not everyone can make an Habenero pepper taste like oatmeal.

Lots of good stuff on the MJ albums. I tend to buy Dangerous in the upcoming days. Not as impressive as Off The Wall, Thriller and Bad at the time, but for a trip down memory lane (my teens) it could be suitable. And I liked Black Or White even back then: great synth bass part, nice rhythm track.

There's some serious groovin' on Bad as well. I always had the impression that Bad is a bit underrated. The Way You Make Me Feel, Speed Demon (sick horns! like the synth string line towards the end), Another Part Of Me, Man In The Mirror (synth bass indeed), Smooth Criminal and Leave Me Alone, all great tracks. I like Liberian Girl as well. Just Good Friends and I Just Can't... are less favourite for me, but not 'Bad' at all (excuse the pun).

Off The Wall, great track... Wanna Be Startin' Something, wow. Well, there's lots to (re)listen, that's for sure.

I was listening to Anita Baker's "Compositions" CD quite some time ago. I heard this fantastic piano player. I had to play that CD over and over and over again.

It turned out to be Phillinganes.

WOW.

I've long loved Michael Jackson's music. Rock With You was my first favorite of his, and then pretty much the entire Thriller album when it came out. Crazy talent that guy had.

Phillinganes rig while with toto

http://www.toto99.com/features/equipmentgreg.shtml

note:yamaha logos covered... korg not

Oh, Phillinganes is a monster. Our friendly moderator dB and I, long ago, had him wander into our booth at a trade show and proceed to jam for awhile. "Sick" doesn't begin to describe it. And, in what seems like a really unfair aspect of life, he was also a complete gentleman and fun guy to be around. It seems that one shouldn't be both extraordinarily talented AND be a terrific person, but he is.

I bought this album specifically for his piano work knowing it would blow me away, and it did.

Favorite keyboard parts in MJ's songs:

Human Nature
PYT
Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough
Rock With You
ABC (ok, this is actually Jackson 5 but still...)

Not sure why you felt it necessary to point this out: Greg is a Korg Endorsee, not a Yamaha Endorsee; this is standard practice.

I would guess that the Motif ES8 that he had early in the tour had David Paich's programs in it, while Greg and his guys worked on getting the Toto performances set up in the OASYS that he did the remainder of the tour with. It might have even been David's.

I didn't know that the "organ" solo in Bad was played by Jimmy Smith. That's surprising, since nothing about that solo stands out to me. It's pretty underwhelming, really. Not that it's "bad" (play on words!), but to point where I'm wondering why they would see the need to go out get someone of Jimmy's caliber for that part. It's also surprising that Jimmy, purist that he was, would play a synth organ solo to begin with. Just odd all around.

Not really a keyboard part per se, but for some reason I always really dug those sort of Flight of the Bumblebee-ish chromatic strings on the intro to Don't Stop Till You Get Enough.

I remember a Keyboard Mag interview with Jimmy Smith where they asked him about that organ solo, and he refused to even talk about it. I don't remember why, but he was clearly not happy with how it came out. If anyone else can recall the details, please fill in what I've left out.

I'd be willing to bet that he laid down a slamming solo in the studio, but they ended up just chopping out the first 10 seconds or so for the song. That's what it sounds like to me any way. It's extremely short. It kinda sounds like he's just getting started up, and then bam, it's over. That's just a guess on my part though. Old school guys like Jimmy generally don't look too kindly on studio editing.

I remember reading somewhere that Smith tracked it on a midified B3 and that the sound (and pitch-bend) we hear on the album were done in post-production. I can imagine a slightly distorted B3 wasn't the hippest sound in '87.

Re: synth parts, I love the synth comp on "Baby Be Mine". "P.Y.T." is also one of my favorites. The synth bass and the rest of the keys on "Man In The Mirror" are sick, and "Human Nature" is just off the charts.

http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSTRE5601BS20090701

incredible...

Not surprizing in the least bit.

I've heard it mentioned that Hendrix's estate is worth 500 million. You can just imagine the sales numbers alone for the king of pop music.


Regarding great keyboard parts, after reading this thread, I must say that from all the tunes mentioned, the synth bass from 'PYT' and the piano from 'ABC' won't leave my head. So I'll count those 2 as my favs so far.

As a teenager, I can remember listening to "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'" in between 2 stereo speakers. Talk about mesmerized! Everything from the panning of the vocals(He-Haw!) to the 3D-like stereo field of the strings, horns and the backing vocals had a hypnotic effect on me, the same with "Billy Jean".

The synths in "Human Nature" still amazes me to this day. It's a terrific song all it's own, but the lush strings and the smooth synth arpeggios at the beginning of each verse are just plain brilliant, a huge departure from your typical pop song. But then again, so is most of Thriller. I absolutely love what Teddy Riley did with "Remember The Time", with that New Jack Swing groove. Nasty synth work

I did a show with a Nashville based blues act called the Stacy Mitchhart Band. They came out and did Big Boss Man. They sang it over the riff from Billie Jean.

When you listen to the old BB King version it is very close.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJRshdNugEA

I didn't know Michael Jackson listened to blues.

I'm surprised no one's yet mentioned how great the rhodes on Rock With You is. That's always been one of my favs and a part I often use to test out rhodes patches on keyboards. If I remember correctly that was tracked by Philangaines as well.

And I imagine that there are a lot of things we didn't know about Michael Jackson.

...Just sayin'.

Your right your right. To me it's not just the rhodes thats great, its the freaking awesome fact that the chords go where they do, with that surprise Db sus! But the lead is the winner for me as far cool parts go on that song.

Also the quirky lead that comes in after the bridge and before the keychange. MMMM!

OH YEAH!!!!! That Dbsus just opens up man makes me fall on my ass everytime.

Love that quirky lead as well, especially after the bridge. Just thought the rhodes was too often overlooked.

What sound was that? That lead sound as well as the Rhodes made put this song in my top 4 MJ keyboard part list. And it's probably the same Rhodes, I'm guessing, used in another top 4 pick of mine - Off The Wall.

I've also wondered about the equally quirky lead at the end of PYT.

The Rock With you lead is probably some kind of mono synth, ie Minimoog or ARP 2600. Then again, Q and his crack staff must have been using the days latest technology so maybe a Yamaha CS-80, Prophet-V? I'm not familiar enough with those old synths to be able to discern their subtle characteristics.

The lead at the end of PYT, if it's the same one I think (there's so much shit going on those tracks) sounds to me like either a Talk Box or Vocoder. This is the part Kanye West sampled I believe.

Mono synth/french horn combo.

I'm guessing it's the Prophet v since it's been said one was on the session, and that french might have been doubled with a flugel horn if weve learned anything from Quincy J.

It cannot be overstated that MJ songs were produced by A-list musos. Talented people committed to making music.

The best songs were not created in sessions with one muso and a room full of KBs, drum machines, samplers, etc.

That came later with folks like Teddy Riley and Rodney Jerkins who are bad mofos in their own right.

Still, it was a collective effort to come up with the great parts mentioned here in addition to recording expertise.

Cats like Greg Phillinganes played the parts but other ultra-bad musos provided a nice foundation for him to lay the carpet.

Based on things I've seen, or even stories I've heard from various engineers along the way.. My production motto has always been..

The best records come from a room full of people.

It is really true. Technology affords us many luxuries. Cats can hit the studio and make records alone. Yet, it is often misses something.

Dr. Dre figured it out early and as a result, his tracks are the epitome of Hip-Hop. Of course, he studied Quincy Jones.

Unless a muso is gifted e.g. Stevie Wonder or Prince, it is harder to come up with definitive parts for multiple instruments.

Otherwise, even the greatest musos enlist the help of others when it's time to make a record. Mainly for the flavor they will add to the part.

It was no accident that Miles Davis brought Hancock, Carter, Williams and Shorter together. He knew those young lions would bring something to the table.

With that knowledge, Quincy pulled the right cats together to make a "magic that must be love".

Yeah, I think part of the magic of old school records is the fact that the rhythm tracks were recorded live in the room. It's much easier to gel when the bass and drums are playing off each other instead of a pre-recorded feed to your headphones. Also I think the small amount of leakage between the mics added to the quality of the mix. Today everything is recorded so cleanly that everything sounds overly compressed and in your face. I miss that old school vibe.

We finally watched Standing in the Shadows of Motown last night, and the Funk Brothers were talking about what made the Motown sound, and how people had all these theories, it was the room, the weather, the BBQ, etc. One guy said, "yeah, right, let's throw a plate of ribs in Studio A and tell it to play a song, and see what happens!"

The funk brothers were THE studio band. What those guys were able to do together was truly unique. Most of those songs were so simple yet they turned everyone of them into masterpieces. It still amazes me how any old Motown song can come on at any party or gathering with any kind of age group, white, black, etc. and just uplift everyone. There such a joyous and uplifting vibe to all those songs.

Yup, Greg Phillinganes is one bad mofo. I recall Q saying in an interview that GP's Rhodes playing on 'I Can't Help it' was like sprinkling fairy dust on the track, or words to that effect. And this is entirely true.

His little embellishments are constantly moving, which I'm finding hard to work out (my little MJ fakebook's chords are so far off it's not even funny), and Stevie's prescribed baseline, though a beautiful thing, distracts even further. Anybody got chords that work for this song?

Here's an oldie but goodie for you, Cliff. I use to do this one some 30 years ago.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uFBS9H_tFLo

Thanks Linwood. I just spend the past half hour chasing various Greg Phillingaines videos around Youtube.

Man Greg makes it sound like playing the piano with perfect time is EASY. He's not reinventing the wheel with a lot of what he plays, but what he does play always fits perfectly and always grooves - - not ridiculously, but just enough for whatever situation he's in.

This isn't the most spectaular version of 'Mas Que Nada' I've ever heard nor the most innovative, but when you realize he segues into it with perfect time and makes everything sound huge, and it's solo piano and the melody is clear along with a roaring accompaniment, it's pretty awesome.

Very nice, thanks Linwood!

Love the track, hate the singing.

+1

IMO, Greg Phillinganes represents the consummate, professional KB player. He provides whatever the music needs.

Studio or stage, he has been a first call musician for almost 40 years. I would not be surprised if he was scheduled to do those MJ dates as well.

I've got a USB external hard drive here full of my CDs that I ripped awhile back. I'm listening to Lonely from Anita Baker's "Compositions". Phillinganes is working it. OMG. This is a great album of music.

I love 'Whatever It Takes' from that album! The huge, whole note chords he plays. very powerful and soulfull, yet there's a canyon of space left to serve the melody and song. So many other keyboardists would have mucked that tune up with a bunch of "extra" that isn't needed. What a track!

Z, I'm with you, the vox aren't the best. He must have gotten that from Donald around the time he did Nightfly with him.

Yeah, the whole tune has a Fagenish vibe to it.

Fagen wrote/produced it. If it were done today, that vocal would lay in the mix much nicer with a little polish. That's probably what most people nowdays sound like.

Exactly. I listened again after reading your post. There's a very haunting quality that the openness gives to the overall vibe. Sometimes it's not whatcha say... it's what you don't say. Leaving a little space can be a good thing.

...kinda like dynamics.

Man I thought of another one this morning while I was lying in bed. I had to get up and run to the keyboard to make sure I remembered it as it always eventually gets erased from my mind:

The PRECHORUS to PYT has so many twists and turns and yet you'd never think so. It might as well be a jazz standard with all the places it goes.

|GM7 |F#7sus F#7 |B7sus B7 |GM7 |F#7sus F#7| C/D B7b13|

That last bar is a knockout!

So the tributes are rolling in from guitarland - I've heard Buckethead's classical guitar piece and am now listening to Vai-Timmons playing "Beat It". Looking forward to hearing tributes from keyboard players.

Great parts and great sounds! Like a lot of other people, I am revisiting my MJ records. The following points which Bruce Swedien has shared are worth taking note of on the production side of things:

- He is not a fan of compression (never tracks with it and not sure if he ever mixes with it) and likes to send synth outputs into a room with mics - then blends the mic'd signal with the direct signal for added dimension (he wants the complex character of early reflections that only a real space can provide).

- He puts a great deal of effort into capturing and maintaining transients. This means mics and preamps that are up to the task - and taking steps to limit the playback of the master tapes until it's time to produce the final mix in order to avoid degradation of the analog master.

If you'd like to read up more on Mr. Swedien's approach, there is his book "Make Mine Music" and there is a collection of threads he contributed to on Gearslutz - some great reading from a true master:

http://www.gearslutz.com/board/bruce-swedien/


Hank

Just as QJ got A-list musos to play on MJ's tracks, he was had enough vision to enlist a great recording engineer in Bruce Swedien.

There was a point in time when a record producer really took parts and formed them into a cohesive unit.

Those lines have gotten blurred over the years but it's good to know the blueprint still exists.

I believe for years to come, folks will go back to MJ records listening to the magic beneath the surface.

"Music is life's only true magic." - Bruce Swedien


Amen.

WHUUUUUDT.

Can you get THOSE drums sounds without compression?!?!? The Neve board at Westlake already naturally compresses the sound right? I am surprised if that's the case.

Good question - It would be nice to know what happened in the mixes - I haven't seen any of Mr. Swedien's words on that specifically. He did state that Billie Jean (rhythm section) was recorded at Westlake to his own 16 track analog recorder with no noise reduction through a Massenburg portable 12-channel recording console.

My condolences go out to Mr. Swedien during this very sad time.


Hank

Greg Phillinganes is GOD

the guy is a genius and a lovely guy as well

so down to earth and blessed with talent

and now i cant locate ANY of his albums to buy!
cant find PULSE or SIGNIFICANT GAINS anywhere :-(

when i do, they are like 2 billion dollars!!!!