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Interesting outtakes-Michael Jackson "We are the World"


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This is really interesting and a little disturbing for some reason at the same time. We`ve heard rumors he doesn`t REALLY talk like this, but he behaves like a child. If you watch through the whole thing, you`ll see he cannot resist doing some signature moves, despite it not being a music video. He is defiantly a pro in the sense that you flub, you just pick it up on the next line. Likewise, requesting a "punch" for a small phrase(the old days). The notes at the bottom are interesting as well.."Steve Perry walks in studio..etc.". It just popped up when scrolling for random stuff.

 

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Engineers- why do they keep asking him to "step back a couple feet" like 3 times to sing the same line?

 

-note it looks like he just kicks the C12 power supply out of the way:lol:

 

Not an engineer, but it would make sense to get different 'ranges' to fill the vocal overlaying. A bit more 'room depth' actually recorded instead of modified digitally or via effects. That's my theory, at any rate. Take it for what it's worth.

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Engineers- why do they keep asking him to "step back a couple feet" like 3 times to sing the same line?

 

-note it looks like he just kicks the C12 power supply out of the way:lol:

 

There can be a couple of different reasons for that. First of all, he's overdubbing the same part multiple times - double and even triple-tracking his lead vocal part. You can hear it on the video - there might not be any AutoTune, but when you stack several vocals like that, even if they're expertly sung, there's always going to be a bit of subtle variation in time and pitch on each track, giving the composite a natural chorusing effect and thickening that can really smooth it out and yes, even cover minor imperfections. It's a very commonly-used technique, even today.

 

Why move back? Acoustics and volume. When you move further away from the mic, you change the ratio of the direct sound vs room ambience that the mic is picking up. As I say frequently, for me, distance equals depth. You want something to sit further back in the mix? Move it a little further away from the mics. You pick up more of the room, which gives the ear an audible cue that it's further away via the increase in early reflections and reverberation that will be picked up on the recording. Now when you pull it down a bit in the mix, it sounds like it's further back and farther away, instead of like an up-close recording that was just turned down a bit...

 

Proximity effect can also come into play... at a distance of greater than ~12" (depending on the mic - in this particular case, it is indeed a vintage AKG C12, and yeah, I LOL'd when I saw him kicking the power supply too :lol: ), the proximity effect will largely go away, so you get less low frequency boost. In the video it looks like he's not close enough to begin with for this to be a major factor on this particular recording since it looks like when he's "close", he's a good foot away from the mic, and when he moves back, he's at least 3-4' from it, so there's probably not a big difference in the amount of LF boost for either position.

 

When using multiple tracks of a vocal, you sometimes want one to be the primary, with the other one (or two, or whatever) supporting it for effect... but not directly conflicting with it. So you move the singer back away from the mic a bit for the overdubs, and maybe pan those two supporting tracks slightly to either side, and now you have a centered, up-front main vocal track, with stereo sweetening doubles slightly to either side and pulled back slightly - both because they're a bit softer (since they were recorded at a greater distance from the mic) and possibly with their faders pulled down slightly so again, they add to the thickening and chorusing / doubling (tripling, etc. etc.) effect, but so they don't overpower / conflict with the main vocal...

 

I will often record the lead and BGVs with different mics, and at different distances to help emphasize the differences between them and give each their own space in the mix - especially if the lead singer is doing all or some of the BGV parts too.

 

 

 

 

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Just looked the tune up after not having thought about it in decades, and was surprised to see that the only credited songwriters are Micheal Jackson and Lionel Richie. Michael Jackson showed up early to record his solo parts. Quincy Jones produced and conducted.

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