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As some of us know, Thriller was actually officially mixed in 5.1 in 2001 for SACD, however instead, Sony gives us the worst sounding SACD mix of Thriller which even non MJ fans consider the worst sounding SACD ever released.
Sony Pictures has similar issues with the release of The Fifth Element however Sony released a revised version. So why dont they do this with Thriller which is of greater importance than The Fifth Element. Sony should release Thriller 5.1 on Blu Ray. However they should do the 5.1 mix again because when Thriller was initially mixed in 5.1, it was during the infancy of 5.1.
It would be great if Bruce Swedien mixed Thriller in 5.1, however Bruce is not into 5.1 mixing.
From what I can establish form the article below, Michael had the artist's approval clause in his contract that stipulates that Michael can veto what Sony want to release. Going by the below article, Sony have spent millions mixing Michales albums in 5.1. Seems there were arguments as to whether Thriller should be left as is or mixed in 5.1, it appears that Michael was against the 5.1 and vetoed its released. Being that Michael was fighting with Mottola at the time and Mottola was one person who requested the 5.1 mix against Michael's wishes just added fuel to their feud.
Mick Guzauski who mixed Thriller in 5.1 mixed the previously-unreleased "For All Time" for T25.
Sony Pictures has similar issues with the release of The Fifth Element however Sony released a revised version. So why dont they do this with Thriller which is of greater importance than The Fifth Element. Sony should release Thriller 5.1 on Blu Ray. However they should do the 5.1 mix again because when Thriller was initially mixed in 5.1, it was during the infancy of 5.1.
It would be great if Bruce Swedien mixed Thriller in 5.1, however Bruce is not into 5.1 mixing.
From what I can establish form the article below, Michael had the artist's approval clause in his contract that stipulates that Michael can veto what Sony want to release. Going by the below article, Sony have spent millions mixing Michales albums in 5.1. Seems there were arguments as to whether Thriller should be left as is or mixed in 5.1, it appears that Michael was against the 5.1 and vetoed its released. Being that Michael was fighting with Mottola at the time and Mottola was one person who requested the 5.1 mix against Michael's wishes just added fuel to their feud.
Mick Guzauski who mixed Thriller in 5.1 mixed the previously-unreleased "For All Time" for T25.
We all know cover-ups are occurring everyday, with the CIA, the FBI, the military and…Michael Jackson? You better believe it. With the 25th anniversary of Thriller past, it may seem surprising that no 5.1 surround version of one of the greatest albums of all time has ever been released — especially because the 6-channel mix for much of the album has been in existence since 2001.
The intrigue began seven years ago, when mixer Mick Guzauski (www.jdmanagement.com) got a call from Tommy Mottola and Al Smith at Sony Records: Would he be interested in doing a surround mix of the Quincy Jones-produced Thriller — the album that has sold an estimated 100 million copies and won seven Grammys? “I said, ‘Yeah!’” Guzuaski recalls. “Thriller has great production, great music, great parts. I thought something like that could really work in 5.1.”
Early on, however, Guzauski got the feeling that things might not move smoothly for Thriller. “There were arguments going on within Sony,” he says. “Some people thought strongly that it should be left as is and not mixed in surround, and some thought that it should. While that was going on, there were all the well-publicized problems between Michael and Tommy, and Michael and the law.”
Nonetheless, later in the year, Guzauski's Lawrence Swist-designed Barking Doctor Recording studio (Mount Kisco, N.Y.) received a prized shipment in the form of the raw Thriller sessions, transferred from 30 ips analog to Sony 3348 48k/24-bit digital tape.
Working with his longtime assistant Tom Bender (Thriller engineer/stereo mixer Bruce Swedien was invited but was unavailable), Guzauski hunkered down behind his Sony Oxford console and got to work on converting Thriller from stereo to multichannel.
“The approach wasn't to change anything,” he explains. “Bruce did an incredible job recording that album. Naturally, [my approach] is going to be a little different — different studio and different mixer — but I wanted to give the album a little more space to live in while staying true to the original mixes.”
Mixing down to six tracks in Pro Tools, Guzauski began to sink his teeth into the hits that make up Thriller, giving the surround treatment to “Billie Jean,” “Thriller,” “The Girl Is Mine,” “Baby Be Mine,” “Wanna Be Startin' Something” and “Beat It.”
“The appeal of surround is there's so much more space to place stuff in,” says Guzauski. “Where Thriller benefited most from this was mainly in the vocal arrangements. There are so many cool things in the background that didn't draw your attention in the stereo mix, but really helped in 5.1.
“The song ‘Thriller’ gave us the most opportunity to be expressive with the surround soundfield: the door slamming, the guy walking around — all the effects there were fabulous.”
Listening on five Tannoy SRM 10B monitors and a JBL subwoofer, Guzauski reached mostly for outboard gear such as his EMT 140 plate, Sony DRE777 and Eventide SP2016 reverbs. “There actually weren't a lot of reverbs and delays on that record,” he observes. “Michael's vocals were very well-recorded, so there wasn't any dynamics correction needed. It was just finding the balance and positioning, and getting it to fit in the mix.”
Into 2002 and in the middle of mixing “Beat It,” Guzauski got another call from Sony. “They put a hold on it,” he reports, “and said, ‘We don't know if we're going to finish it.’ They said they'd restart it several times, but the last time was in 2004, when I got a call saying, ‘We want to finish Thriller. What would it cost?’ Two hours later, it came on the news that Michael's Neverland ranch had been raided for a second time. That's the last I heard about it.”
In the wake of label infighting, legal wrangling and Jackson's personal problems, the only place in the world to hear true 5.1 surround mixes of Thriller is sitting next to Guzauski at Barking Doctor. “It's one of the most classic records ever made,” he says, “and it works great in 5.1. I just know a lot of people would love to hear it like that.”
http://mixonline.com/recording/mixing/new-york-metro-november/
Thriller SE 2002 SACD Review:
Michel Jackson’s Thriller is the defining album of mainstream pop music in the 1980s. Produced by the legendary Quincy Jones, Thriller literally wrote a new playbook for what it takes to create a great pop record from then on. To this day, Thriller stands as the largest-selling pop record of all time, with over 47 million copies sold, although Jackson’s fall from popularity (to put it politely) has allowed country singer Garth Brooks to take over the title of “the best-selling artist of all time.”
With the format war between DVD-Audio and Sony’s SACD raging on, titles like Thriller give cause for music lovers and audiophiles alike to give SACD a shot. While this stereo SACD is not a hybrid title (meaning it cannot play on a CD player at all), it is frequently one of the first discs people pick up when getting into SACD. I was no exception. My first trip to Tower Records on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood was complete with the purchase of Thriller, among other high-profile SACD titles.
What I heard when I got home was nothing short of heartbreaking. The sound of the remastered SACD had some improvements over the 16-bit CD in terms of openness in the height and width of the soundstage, but the bass was seemingly missing from the mix. Other SACDs were better in terms of bass, notably Dave Brubeck’s classic Time Out and Joe Satriani’s Strange Beautiful Music. The highs were thin and edgy, even compared to Thriller on CD on the same transport, through the same DACs and the same AV preamp. To say I was disappointed would be to put it too mildly. I felt sold out and left wondering if ***** actually ever heard the SACD of Thriller before it was released. If so, and if he approved it, you might make the argument that he has had plastic surgery on his ears and can no longer hear what I consider to be the smooth, dynamic and present sound that I expect from a cutting-edge new audio format like SACD.
Musically and creatively, Thriller is as good as it gets in the pop genre. You know the hits, because the record is almost exclusively comprised of them. The concept of the celebrity duet is in full effect with “The Girl is Mine,” with Jackson fighting it out over a girl with Paul McCartney. Music industry lore states it was during the recording of Thriller that McCartney, one of the wealthiest people in all of music thanks to music publishing, taught Jackson about the profitability of owning music publishing catalogs. Soon after Thriller became a hit record, the likes of which no one had ever seen before, Jackson got himself in the bidding for the early Beatles catalog. McCartney had plenty of cash at the time to make the acquisition, but thought he was bidding directly against Yoko Ono, not his music publishing prodigy Jackson. In the end, it was Jackson who landed the Beatles publishing rights, which is pretty much of an evergreen of an investment. It is also rumored that he recently put up his Beatles catalog as collateral with Sony Music versus the incredible promotional budget needed to promote his last flop of a record from 2001, ironically entitled Invincible.
Part of the incredible success of Thriller was the newly-developed power of MTV and no song more than the title track of Thriller made a greater impact on the network, even to this day. The John Landis-directed video, the Vincent Price narration and an infectious backbeat make for an all-time great pop song. Unfortunately, SACD doesn’t (or hasn’t to date) offered videos as an added value, unlike the competing format DVD-Audio. A version of the uncut video and/or “The Making of Thriller” video would have greatly added to the value of the Thriller SACD for those with SACD players that have any kind of video outputs, which many do.
An even better pop song than “Thriller” is “Beat It,” which is a pretty soft political statement about gang violence. It was more about the video and its “West Side Story”-inspired choreography. More Jackson lore comes into play on “Beat It” with the Eddie Van Halen’s guitar solo. As a (terrible) guitarist myself, it is my opinion that Eddie Van Halen is the only guitarist second only to the immortal Jimi Hendrix on the list of all-time greatest to ever play the instrument. His solo, rumored to have been amazingly recorded in one take, is my favorite Eddie Van Halen solo of all time, including those on all of the studio Van Halen records.
“Billie Jean” is one of the biggest sonic disappointments on the record. While the tune musically is so very tight with a truly solid beat and melodies that pass the test of time, the audio on the SACD sounded even shriller than the CD. The tone of the high hat is more lively on the SACD but definitely more bright and thin. This was a particular disappointment to AudioRevolution.com music editor Bryan Dailey, who actually studied with Billie Jean drummer Ndugu Chancler. The mids on the tune are more open on the SACD, but the bass is better on the CD. I demand more from a high-resolution audio format with a specific mix designed to sound great on a dedicated player.
The unsung hero on Thriller is “P.Y.T (Pretty Young Thing).” Without any kind of political statement, this neat little pop track has a tight bass line that accents a great Jackson vocal performance. Sampled and effects-laden backup vocals make up the rest of the sonic picture on “P.Y.T.,” but the shrillness of the high hat and cymbals were tough for me to take.
It pains me to not be able to rave about the audio quality of Thriller on SACD. It is deserving of the ultra-rare 10 on a scale of 1 to 10 for performance. Its 3 for sound is about as low as I can remember giving to any record on any format. That is how disappointed I am in the way this title sounds. I have heard much better recordings, both newer and older than Thriller, on SACD and expect more from such an important record. I urge you not to judge SACD on one listen to Thriller in this format. SACD can do better sonically.
http://www.avrev.com/music-disc-reviews/sacd/michael-jackson-thriller.html
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