Michael Jacksons Recording Secrets

[Music] nothing else comes across in this tape to you the final user I would like to impart one piece of advice and that is to many Michael Jackson is known as one of the most popular and successful artists of all time but how did Michael go about capturing the magical performances he and his crew put on in the recording studio in today's video I'm going to take a look at the recording tips tricks and techniques used by legendary recording engineer Bruce medin to capture Michael Jackson we'll go over Michael Jackson's vocal chain in the full library of mics he used in different scenarios or explore the Innovative stereo marking techniques Bruce wooden used to capture the true depth of the instruments he recorded and finally we'll explore the weird and wacky DIY devices Bruce used to capture Michael and his band when it came to recording Michael Bruce had an Ever evolving roster of different microphones however the one he used the most was the Shure sm-7 bruceus's mic for its excellent mid-range presence that it added to Michael's voice and its ability to handle Michael's intense vocal performances [Music] 12 I'm keeping you satisfied cause you're the one for me we're making me feel you're really turn me down and when Bruce wanted a sweeter sound he'd use his vintage Norman u47 which Michael can be seen using quite frequently later stages of Michael's career you can see him using more and more high-end condenser microphones these included the AKG C12 and the Telefunken 251 which Bruce loved on background vocals because it's open and Airy sound would contrast the sm7b creating some fantastic separation but besides having a proper microphone there was one thing that was critical when recording Michael Jackson's vocals and you'd probably never guess that it would be a wooden platform now one critical thing the platform did do was amplify the little movements dances stops snaps and claps the Michael Jackson did while he was performing live He's greatly enhanced the feel and emotion of his performance so the drums where I'm part of it and Michael when they were recording was standing on top of it and so Michael Michael sings by snapping his hands Bruce would put that in in the mix and you can hear it in the mix foreign preamps Bruce was known for using the new 1081 on Michael Jackson's folk and you'll almost always see the custom-made rack with them wherever he goes the 1081 would then go to 1176 compressor according to his assistance he was set on a 12-1 ratio and do little to no compression you did use an 1176 a lot on on Michael's vocals on a lot of occasions didn't you absolutely yeah but very just us as we say at the University of Minnesota just a squirt well it's more interesting is that Dave pensado recently revealed that Brie Sweden built his own custom 1176 perhaps this is what it used he had lots of lots of little things lots of little techniques and um he built his own 1176 speaking of some of his recording techniques Bruce had a unique process for recording background vocals he will record the lead vocals in the first few doubles close to the microphone but as Michael saying more harmonies and more vocals he'd move him farther away from the mic let's put allow the microphone to pick up more room sound and early Reflections which gave depth in distance to his background vocals when Bruce wanted to add more distance to his vocals he'd even take out a stereo pair and use that instead of a single microphone for the background this position would add a lot of the early Reflections that are occurring in this acoustical space to the sound but if you want to eliminate the acoustical support or let's say minimize the acoustical support you can have it as close as this and I frequently do that then the first Harmony we record that and if you'll notice there on the middle Harmony I do a basic and a double up close and then the triple is Stereo mag contracts 10 and 11 is a stereo recording of the triple with Mike Michael way back what is one thing that pro-mix Engineers like Bruce Woodin obsess over and gives them the advantage over the amateur engineer is there a secret plugin compressor or mixture the answer may surprise you that it's none of these instead it's the Acoustics of a space and the sound of a studio unfortunately most of y'all have poor room Acoustics and terrible Studio setups which hinder your mixes in Productions Forum Acoustics can ultimately lead to inaccurate sound perception and compromise which often leads to subpar mixes and Productions luckily for you I've teamed up with Platinum grammy-nominated Master engineer and Acoustics expert Gerhard westfalen to bring you the Acoustics course size mastering records for some of today's top artists like Burna Boy Ed Sheeran and Chris Martin Garrett Westfield has also designed countless rooms for some of today's top mixers so what makes them unique is his ability to thrive in less than ideal circumstance in this course Gerhard will take you from no Studio to Pro Studio level we'll teach you the fundamentals of Acoustics and sound how to measure your room to identify problems how to build affordable treatment which is more cost effective and efficient than any Market alternate and how to design your ideal Studio no matter the circumstance so bonus for watching this video I'm going to be providing the treatment build plans studio monitor placement guide and Studio Design checklist to get you on the right path to revolutionizing your studio all you have to do is click the link in the description below and in your email and you'll be good to go and if you're interested in checking out this course go to www.georgetstmusic.com or click the link in the description below and check out the course now moving back to the beginning of the video what was that one piece of wisdom we were sweating wanted to let everyone know I would like to impart one piece of advice and that is to try to make our recordings sound more than merely multi-channel mono in other words try to think of stereo during the recording process during the concept of the music that we're we're working on one aspect that made versus signature sound was this different stereo marking techniques he used on different kinds of instruments this would allow him to achieve a great sense of depth in his recordings one thing that helps there more than anything is the use of stereophonic microphone technique wherever possible in other words if you're recording acoustic guitar don't just stick a microphone in front of it and make a mono image of that put two microphones coincident pair and really work on the sound this is what makes left right and deep and depth in a in a music recording perhaps one of the greatest examples of this was the way Brewster being recorded choirs he would use a bluntline technique which would involve placing two condenser microphones both set at figure eight patterns coincident to each other watch Bruce set up this technique the idea with this microphone technique is to have the capsules as close together as possible physically to minimize the phase differences of the arrival time of the soon but perhaps one of the most famous examples of this technique was the man in the mirror choir listen to Man in the Mirror listen to the choir on man in the mirror and that's a bloom line pair and that choir it was it was a gospel choir it's an Andre Crouch where and I defy any human being to duplicate that he tells you how he did it he tells you who did it where he did it and I defy anybody to make that dude it's so simple there's nothing to it you get you know what you do you I'll give you the perfect explanation for how to get a grid choir recording like man in the mirror go out and get yourself a great choir these miking techniques also extended to other instruments such as the piano in this case Bruce will be using XY miking technique this is a wonderful mic for piano recording I love this in a grand piano again X Y if you aimed at the keys or the strings rather and then do it in this coincident pair okay can you see that yeah you've got you basically are you using a cardioid on both of those are you they're a figure of eight but do you see this microphone here focuses on the high strings which are shorter okay you see right that I can't see right here and then this microphone here focuses on the low strength Bruce also uses stereo marking techniques to add depth to electronic instruments or things that couldn't be my problem with synthesizers though has always been to me the reality or the starkness of uh of the direct sound is not very interesting and I will send the sound out into the studio or a room you don't really need a studio but a big room and then Mike the room to get the early Reflections and some acoustic support true acoustic support to the sound and then add back just a little bit of that microphone the acoustic support to the direct sound and it tremendously expands the quality of the synthesizer even on sources that were usually recorded in mono like guitars Bruce would do some stereo making configurations if you had a 2x12 cabinet he'd use a space pair of condenser microphones to capture it now one instrument that was absolutely essential to Michael Jackson's songs were the drums so how did Bruce get amazing drum sounds for these records first and foremost he always worked with Quincy Jones who would always hide the perfect drummer for the song these drummers were so good that it required little effort to get a great stunning drum tone on Kick Drum Bruce it frequently used md421 AKG C12 or Electro Voice re20 and on top of the kick drum head he'd place his custom-made cover which gave the kick a Tighter and snappier Sound by reducing room Ambience here on snare you can see he's using a pretty standard mic like the sm57 but here Bruce implemented another custom-made device of his which was the snare baffle this is basically some plywood and foam that would reduce the bleed between the hi-hat and the snare drum autonomous booster frequently used Norman u87s and like using ribbon microphones on overheads the ride and the hi-hat and when recording the drum kit he would place it on top of his signature drum Riser and to help produce ambience in the drum recording he plays tube traps around the kit throughout his career boosts a variety of different recording consoles in the early days albums such as Thriller were recorded using a Harrison 32c console and most of the time during the early stages of Michael and Bruce's relationship they'd use a Harrison console for mixing and recording however as technology advanced the duo needed more tracks They started to use other consoles at one point Bruce and Michael commissioned the largest SSL console ever built at the time which is capable of 200 automated mix channels they also commissioned one of the biggest speaker systems three oceanway HR ones which were each a whopping 11 feet wide and seven feet tall let's just say they would crank their music now after the recording process came the mix down process and one thing that might shock you about Bruce's mixing process was his lack of compression we have a kind of an old saying where I say that compression is for kids I hate compression I'm a nut not about not using compression in a mix but instead of using impression he would rely on automation to bring out emotion in the mix my dear friend Bruce Sweeney the Knicks on Michael Jackson stuff he never used the bus compressor ever but what he did do is he would listen to every song he would look for every hook and every lick and it like a maybe Nathan needs to do one little bass bump that sounded amazing and he basically would ride every detail anything that created emotion or improve the mix Bruce wrote it to do that now when Bruce was mixing he spent time on his JBL 411s and his Aura tones with his ore tones he had a trick to achieving pristine balance Bruce really did like to have great big speakers and listen to everything else but when he was all done with MX he would listen to one or a tone in mono at about 65 DB and he says can I hear every Hook is there a line that I cannot hear he's not really looking at the balance he's just to make sure that if anybody's standing in is there something in there that's critical the song that I can't hear so he didn't spend a lot of time working on that one no he just really it was like is there anything I'm missing so if you're in a supermarket you hear one speaker inside yeah am I not hearing that guitar hook that Paul Jackson did or something that is part of it hopefully you all enjoyed this video taking a look at some of Michael Jackson's recorded Secrets if you did don't forget to hit like And subscribe down below anyways I'll see you all the next video

Channel: George T Music

Views: 270,328

Keywords: michael jackson in the studio, michael jackon recording, michael jackson recording studio, micheal jackson recording, bruce swedien recording, michael jackson recording studio rare footage, michael jackson rare footage

Id: UrGJU4OCVFk

Length: 13min 29sec (809 seconds)

Published: Fri Jul 28 2023