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Thriller 40th Anniversary - Songs Discussion

AmitLal92 said:
Looking forward hearing on Friday but remember these are demo guys so they are not supposed to sound polished or finished.
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I was actually just wondering about that. Are people overreacting! These are unfinished songs, maybe that is the quality Estate could release. If they polished them too much fans would complain that they messed with Michael's originals?
 
Hiker said:
I was actually just wondering about that. Are people overreacting! These are unfinished songs, maybe that is the quality Estate could release. If they polished them too much fans would complain that they messed with Michael's originals?
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Not really what is being talked about here, a demo can be extremely rough (like Love Never Felt So Good, as an extreme example) and still sound good with proper mastering :(
 
Hiker said:
I was actually just wondering about that. Are people overreacting! These are unfinished songs, maybe that is the quality Estate could release. If they polished them too much fans would complain that they messed with Michael's originals?
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Bruce Swedien had shown a mater tape of Starlight on TV some years ago. The multitrack to Behind The Mask was digitised for the MICHAEL album. A longer version of The Toy exists in the Library of Congress... I could go on and on about how they could make this steaming pile of crap more palatable.

If the Estate were more transparent with fans, they could easily justify messing with the songs. But they're not, because they don't care and they don't have the knowledge/ capacity to deliver a quality product.
 
I will only be listening to This on iTunes anyway, so I just hope the mastering will be good on iTunes.
 
Dorian said:
I think they got Bernie Grundman for Bad25 or Xscape? It was awfully mastered anyway. We don’t have proper mastering in this day and age.
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THIS! As a singer/songwriter/artist myself on the rise, I can concur! I’ve had many “Mastering engineers” destroy my songs with bad mastering. The mix always has to be solid first so luckily that was one thing that worked in favor of my tracks but the “Mastering” would literally just be “experts” slapping a limiter on it and calling it a day. So I learned to be very careful about whom I hire to master as it’s almost just as important as a good mix itself.

However these songs are HORRIBLY mixed and that’s the LEAST they could’ve done. At times the instrumentation is so loud that I can’t even hear Michael’s vocals…. Not good.
 
james283126 said:
So I learned to be very careful about whom I hire to master as it’s almost just as important as a good mix itself.
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Exactly so. I'm lukewarm about re-released albums being remastered (and they ALWAYS remaster them) bc I've heard so many rubbish efforts over the years.

james283126 said:
However these songs are HORRIBLY mixed and that’s the LEAST they could’ve done. At times the instrumentation is so loud that I can’t even hear Michael’s vocals…. Not good.
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oh dear, this doesn't sound good. No pun intended. 🙁
 
SeriousFX said:
Someone on superdeluxeedition.com said that this release proves Thriller was a victim of its own success, and honestly I see where he's coming from. Obscure albums like Queen's "The Miracle" (which I didn't even know existed until its remaster was announced) get great releases, while the big fish like "Thriller" are botched to all hell. The Estate is just too high off of Michael's success to put any real effort into filling up and maintaining their archives, and as a result are far too lazy to actually try. The last time they did was Bad 25, and the remixes still were a product of laziness.

And remember how Xscape's release ended up being ruined by APWOON's terrible release? Branca and McClain seriously need to consider getting successors, because they don't really know how to actually run an estate.
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I like McClain...he did well with remixing BTM and MTS. Agree about Branca, though
 
Ok... So I just finished listening to the 2nd disc... My review

Starlight -> We have it for a long time, still it is soo wierd to listen to it. 4/10
Got The Hots -> HAve it for long time, nothing special, I actually never listened to it since it leaked... 3/10
Who Do You Know -> Well, this should be saved for the next regular project, would definetely work as the contemporized version similar to the Xscape version... 9/10
Carousel -> We have it for a long time, Don´t listen to it, same as GTH 3/10
Behind The Mask -> Love it.. Love the wibe, Love the unreleased verse 8/10
Can´Getta Out Of The Rain -> Never more please... 0/10
The Toy -> It is ok.. but BOJ is better 4/10
Sunset Driver -> YAAAS. 10/10 Love this song since UC.. should be remixed for an upcoming album
What A Lovely Way To Go -> should be remixed for an upcoming album 9/10
She´s Trouble - We have it for a long time, Don´t listen to it, same as GTH 3/10
 
So Michael's vocals abruptly cutting out in Behind the Mask at 3:52 and abruptly cutting back in at 4:17 might just be how the original demo was mixed?
 
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The lossless version of "she's trouble" that we've been had sounds better so far as mastering. Only difference is louder vocals on t40. But I'm sure alot of fans are going to fix this stuff. I rely on us fans to do damage control. I just heard an instrumental of c45 & im like why can't the estate do these things...then I think why even question anything the estate does
 
wonderouzmj said:
The lossless version of "she's trouble" that we've been had sounds better so far as mastering. Only difference is louder vocals on t40. But I'm sure alot of fans are going to fix this stuff. I rely on us fans to do damage control. I just heard an instrumental of c45 & im like why can't the estate do these things...then I think why even question anything the estate does
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I am sorry to dissapoint you but shitty mastering can't be fixed, once sound is destroyed, it can't be recovered.
We can only tamper with it to try and "lessen" the effects but in the end it's useless :(
 
NeoGardiV8 said:
I'm assuming you mean an Acetate, really doubt they would have a proper vinyl for a demo like that.
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Yes, sorry, i meant an Acetate. I understand that the want to use a source with the original demo mixes, but why use inferior sources for Carousel and CGOTR. She's Trouble is perfect for me. I always wanted the LQ leak in better quality. The Toy would be great without the loud beat. Sounds like a metronome like drum sound (Also often found in multitracks)
 
NeoGardiV8 said:
I am sorry to dissapoint you but shitty mastering can't be fixed, once sound is destroyed, it can't be recovered.
We can only tamper with it to try and "lessen" the effects but in the end it's useless :(
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NEVER underestimate us fans when it comes to his legacy. I just told you we got an entire instrumentation on c45 from a seminar recording. Whatever the estate fck up...the fans fix up!
 

Just waiting for someone to mix the BoJ acapella with The Toy's instrumental so we can have a bootleg version of the BoJ 2008 demo...
 
For anyone that wanted it, which is literally nobody, here's the entire Thriller album but in a single .ogg file that i purposefully compressed over and over for it to sound like doo doo, still sounds better than T40 Disc 2 though
https://we.tl/t-U6gscC7B8G
(yes i was bored i apologize lmao)
 
james283126 said:
THIS! As a singer/songwriter/artist myself on the rise, I can concur! I’ve had many “Mastering engineers” destroy my songs with bad mastering. The mix always has to be solid first so luckily that was one thing that worked in favor of my tracks but the “Mastering” would literally just be “experts” slapping a limiter on it and calling it a day. So I learned to be very careful about whom I hire to master as it’s almost just as important as a good mix itself.
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Mark Wilder has done a wonderful job on mastering all The Jacksons albums in 2007 or so. Although the tracks were compressed he's managed to keep the dynamics intact.
 
Fuzball said:
Mark Wilder has done a wonderful job on mastering all The Jacksons albums in 2007 or so. Although the tracks were compressed he's managed to keep the dynamics intact.
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The 2007 remasters are a blessing. Too bad that the first 2 Jacksons albums were only released in Japan
 
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