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Thriller 40th Anniversary

It seems the thriller multitracks are indeed gone:

It was mixed by Serban Ghenea and John Hanes (the Batman and Robin of pop mixing, if you will). Over at this Gearspace forumwe're fortunate to have John posting quite often and answering questions. Here is what he had to say:

"Was amazing to work on it! We mixed it from the original multitracks that they transferred to digital for us.Serban mixed it with the intention to preserve the mixes of Bruce and Quincy. We wanted to re-create their mixes first, then go to Atmos. This is not from stems, there were none, so we worked by ear to match the mixes and masters.Thriller works really well in Atmos because it is not too dense; each sound can have its own space."
 
Dorian said:
It seems the thriller multitracks are indeed gone:

It was mixed by Serban Ghenea and John Hanes (the Batman and Robin of pop mixing, if you will). Over at this Gearspace forumwe're fortunate to have John posting quite often and answering questions. Here is what he had to say:

"Was amazing to work on it! We mixed it from the original multitracks that they transferred to digital for us.Serban mixed it with the intention to preserve the mixes of Bruce and Quincy. We wanted to re-create their mixes first, then go to Atmos. This is not from stems, there were none, so we worked by ear to match the mixes and masters.Thriller works really well in Atmos because it is not too dense; each sound can have its own space."
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I don’t think that’s what that means. John literally says that they specifically transferred the analog tracks to digital for the Atmos mixes.
 
AlwaysThere said:
I don’t think that’s what that means. John literally says that they specifically transferred the analog tracks to digital for the Atmos mixes.
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Thats how i read it too, he is saying there where no stems but multitracks allows for more flexibility so probably best when mixing for Atmos.
Btw, i asked John here about the sibilance on Human Nature, he gives an explanation.
 
Dorian said:
It seems the thriller multitracks are indeed gone:

It was mixed by Serban Ghenea and John Hanes (the Batman and Robin of pop mixing, if you will). Over at this Gearspace forumwe're fortunate to have John posting quite often and answering questions. Here is what he had to say:

"Was amazing to work on it! We mixed it from the original multitracks that they transferred to digital for us.Serban mixed it with the intention to preserve the mixes of Bruce and Quincy. We wanted to re-create their mixes first, then go to Atmos. This is not from stems, there were none, so we worked by ear to match the mixes and masters.Thriller works really well in Atmos because it is not too dense; each sound can have its own space."
Click to expand...

What he said is there are no stems. Stems are the multitracks but bounced down to specific groupings (e.g: kick, snare, perc, bass, or even further bounced like drums, vox, synths, etc, etc) and include the processing and effects (EQs, compressors, reverbs, etc) that are applied by the mixing engineer. This is how most songs are uploaded to the labels nowadays. The Thriller songs were transferred from their original multitracks, where all elements are the raw recordings before Bruce mixed anything, so what John is saying is that they had to recreate Bruce's original mixing as best as they could from scratch.
 
MJbr2 said:
Wait a second, did Beat It ever leak? As far as I remember, only the RB stems were made public.
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An edited version leaked some time ago! One of the vocal tracks (I forget if it’s the leads or the backgrounds) have some baked-in reverb, but a more separated multitrack is online.
 
AlwaysThere said:
An edited version leaked some time ago! One of the vocal tracks (I forget if it’s the leads or the backgrounds) have some baked-in reverb, but a more separated multitrack is online.
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I remember the non-submixed (full) multitrack was circulating and some people were uploading their mixes, but I think it never went public. Only the WBSS one did.
 
I’ve been trying to keep a positive outlook on this anniversary but it‘s getting harder every day. So much about it appears to be very cheaply made, from the artwork to the promotion to the new animated video. While the new 4K videos and 2 new songs are greatly appreciated, it’s very hard not to see what could have been if the Estate had been more competent.

Imagine a package that actually looked good with content that was actually mixed and mastered properly. Imagine a proper promotion of its content. I may be nitpicking here but did anyone else notice that they didn’t even title this “Thriller (40th anniversary)” but simply “Thriller 40”. That may appear to be not important but it looks rather unprofessional. Thriller‘s and Bad’s 25th anniversaries have the word in the title.

But my question is still: why celebrate the 40th anniversary of the album at all? Especially if you don’t have the budget! Why not wait for the 50th?
 
dethorro said:
I’ve been trying to keep a positive outlook on this anniversary but it‘s getting harder every day. So much about it appears to be very cheaply made, from the artwork to the promotion to the new animated video. While the new 4K videos and 2 new songs are greatly appreciated, it’s very hard not to see what could have been if the Estate had been more competent.

Imagine a package that actually looked good with content that was actually mixed and mastered properly. Imagine a proper promotion of its content. I may be nitpicking here but did anyone else notice that they didn’t even title this “Thriller (40th anniversary)” but simply “Thriller 40”. That may appear to be not important but it looks rather unprofessional. Thriller‘s and Bad’s 25th anniversaries have the word in the title.

But my question is still: why celebrate the 40th anniversary of the album at all? Especially if you don’t have the budget! Why not wait for the 50th?
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I'm assuming Sony have been asking them for years at this point to put out a music based product and they just crapped this out so they can say they've released something
 
dethorro said:
I may be nitpicking here but did anyone else notice that they didn’t even title this “Thriller (40th anniversary)” but simply “Thriller 40”. That may appear to be not important but it looks rather unprofessional. Thriller‘s and Bad’s 25th anniversaries have the word in the title.
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I noticed and it annoyed me but I didn't mention it since I'm sure many people would think it's too pedantic. I think paying attention to details is professional, not pedantic. It's all the little details that add up. This might not be the most important thing but it is disheartening.
 
A week later and we still can’t buy Thriller 4K on itunes in the UK. Not available to stream
om Apple Music either.
 
but why wasnt Ciara allowed then? Not sure how this makes sense. I think its simply the complication of dealing with the hierarchy amd long communication chain of MJ estate..
 
SmoothGangsta said:
I'm assuming Sony have been asking them for years at this point to put out a music based product and they just crapped this out so they can say they've released something
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If I recall correctly, Korgnex posted that Sony was pushing for Thriller 40 but the estate had no interest, and this was kinda thrown together to appease them. Apparently the two new songs were among those considered for MICHAEL and XSCAPE, hence why they already had the clearance to show up on disc 2.

If this is accurate, it’s astonishing that Sony has more of a passion for supporting MJ than his own estate. This on top of them not wanting remixes on Bad 25 speaks volumes.
 
Mister_Jay_Tee said:
I think the standard def versions of the videos should be available still, for the historical value. Beat It 4K is completely gone now, all traces of it. I wanted to find the vintage footage for creative purposes but it's basically scrubbed now. Unless you track down Visions or HIStory on Film, it's now a rarity.
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Now see that is scary, it seems if we didn't have it in our personal collection - we are a bit jacked, cos we wont get find the original so easy out online again and Michael's being - was his short films. . Just only today i saw some you tube channel *tamper* with the opera Winfrey interview . it was a you tube short although they meant well , and although badly edited , and it lasted a min or so , it still becomes a fabrication of the truth.
 
AlwaysThere said:
Who the hell are the anime characters? I was waiting to see if they would somehow be relevant to the video, but… no. They’re just there.

I like it otherwise; it’s far more creative than most lyric videos that come out. But the random unexplained characters take me out.
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This post is everything. I agree with everything, Well the characters look like Hedkandi creations to me .
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/213076626113430702/
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/816418238715876972/
 
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