MJ "Thriller" outboard mixing and recording setup

[Nikola]

Usual suspects >>>

1st stack
Eventide 1745 delay
2-Technics M-85 cassette decks
Eventide 1745 delay
Lexicon Model 97 Super Prime Time

2nd stack
GML 8200
URIE 565 Little Dipper
Eventide 910 Harmonizer
Innovonics compressor
2-Dolby 361
URIE 964 Digital Metronome
Orban 526A De-esser
Eventide H-949 Harmonizer

3rd stack
Lexicon 224XL
Publison Fullmost relief enlarger (high frequency enhancer w/ de-essing)
URIE 545 Parametric EQ
3-UREI 1176
UREI LA-2A

4th stack
UREI 545 Parametric EQ
2-DBX 160
2-UREI LA-4A
2-DBX 160X


Multitrack Recording setup



Two 3M M79 24 track tape recorders synchronized together for total 48 tracks.


Mixing console

Harrison 32 series - The Harrison 4032



Props to Bruce Swedien for these pictures and much respect.

[djukak]

[MENTION=369]Nikola
Two 3M M79 24 track tape recorders synchronized together for total 48 tracks.
This means 48 different layers on one track?

[Alucard]

Bruce Sweden is a Real Magic/Music man, beside MJ he really did a lot of contributions in many singers albums

[Nikola]

[MENTION=369]Nikola
Two 3M M79 24 track tape recorders synchronized together for total 48 tracks.
This means 48 different layers on one track?

Yes. Not that all 48 tracks were used but they could if it was needed.
every source that was recorded for Thriller was captured in stereo. Stereo recording takes up 2 channels. So they would run out of 24 tracks very quickly.

So on Thriller you have:
Synths
Keyboards
Percussion
Vocals
Claps
Guitars
Drums

All these recorded in stereo, which is very unusual, especially for that era.
Even mono sources such as guitar amps were tracked in stereo. That gives you extra dimension and sense of space when u listen the song.

We all have two ears, listen in stereo, so why not capture instruments the way we would hear them live?

thats why Thriller is engineering masterpeace, nobody before recorded EVERY source in stereo!
Bruce Sweden is known for being huge fan of natural, dynamic, un-conpressed true to life sound, his stereo micing and recording techniques helped capturing every detail in room to perfection.

Capturing Lots of ambiance / room reverb is also very important, Bruce has great understanding of acoustics and use of reverb. This is what makes recording to sound even more three-dimensional...

[Nikola]

Bump! both for musical and engineering masterpiece.

[Biological]

Vary interesting stuff.

Hey Nikola I have a question for you. Back in the day masters were saved on tape reels right? What is the standard practice for saving masters in 2012? Is it just saved on a hard drive or is there a hard copy made? if so, what is the hard copy? a disc?

[Nikola]

Vary interesting stuff.

Hey Nikola I have a question for you. Back in the day masters were saved on tape reels right? What is the standard practice for saving masters in 2012? Is it just saved on a hard drive or is there a hard copy made? if so, what is the hard copy? a disc?

Back in the analog days before DAWs, mixdowns were bounced from 2" multitrack reels on-to 1/2 inch or 1/4 inch stereo (2 channel) reel to reel recorders and later taken to mastering session and after mastering into commercial reproduction on Vinyl, CD and cassette tape formats.

Nowdays, since everything is digital, mixdowns are bounced in same format as songs are recorded (24 bit WAV/AIFF files on hard drive). Some people like to go from digital and bounce final mix from computer on 1/2" or 1/4" tape machine to add characteristics of analog tape recording (color, saturation, tape compression, etc) on digital recordings which can be very clean or "sterile" as some would say especially if song was mixed entirely "in the box" using nothing but software, which is not bad thing but sound of high-end analog and well maintained tape recorders is something wonderful, and still pretty untouchable to emulate in digital world. That sound of analog tape recording left huge mark in recording industry, thats the sound we all love and grew up to listening.

[schnoedl]

thanks 4 the insight.... classic stuff