Michael Jackson Thriller Recording Notes

Vocals

The combo of a Shure SM7 microphone into a Neve 1084 microphone preamp / equalizer was used for every vocal on the Thriller album. Bruce Swedien told Future Music, “We used the same mic and pre throughout the album – I used my Shure SM7, serial number 232, which is very early [...] The mic pre we used was a Neve 1084 – I’ve got two of them in a gorgeous oak case and I used to carry them with me from session to session.”

Bass

Louis Johnson’s bass line for “Billie Jean” was recorded direct through a custom DI with a UTC transformer belonging to engineer Bruce Swedien. Johnson’s bass was a Music Man Stingray custom built for him by Leo Fender. The bass was recorded along with the drums to a custom, portable mixer made by George Massenburg.

Synth

The four-chord progression of “Billie Jean” is one of the most recognizable synth parts in pop music. It was performed by Michael himself on a Yamaha CS-80 synthesizer.

Drum Set

bruce swedien kick device

Bruce Swedien's custom kick drum cover

The unmistakable drum sound for “Billie Jean” was created by drummer N’Dugu Chancler and engineer Bruce Swedien. Chancler’s drums were set up on a plywood platform in Westlake Audio’s Studio A with a wall of gobos surrounding the drum set. The bass drum wore a custom slip Swedien had made which zipped over the entire front head after the mic had been placed in the drum. Drums were recorded to a 16-track tape machine through a custom George Massenberg mixer with a Shure SM57 on snare, RCA 77DX ribbon mic on hi-hat, Neumann U67s on the toms and overheads, and some sort of Sennheiser mic on the kick drum. During mixing, Swedien applied reverb from an EMT 250 digital reverb unit.

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2 Comments

  1. Cocoman
    Posted July 16, 2012 at 10:52 pm | Permalink

    The Bass Information is wrong:
    Quote from Soundengineer Bruce Swedien: “Well Gang….. Greg Phillanganes just called me back…. The bass on P.Y.T. was a Mini-Moog!!! Recorded through my Bass Boxxx….
    Bruce”

    The Thriller bass sound on the original was done with two Minimoogs.

    Quote from Michael Boddicker (MJ’s main synth-programmer at the time):
    “The synth basses on “Thriller” “P.Y.T.,” and “Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’.” Those were my two Richie Walbourn-modified Minimoogs, set side by side, with engineer Bruce Swedien’s special multiple-mono compression.”

    Reply
    • Cocoman
      Posted July 16, 2012 at 11:01 pm | Permalink

      edit: referring to Michael Boddicker´s two Richie Walbourn-modified Minimoog Model Ds:
      “Regarding Michael Boddicker’s Mini’s (he had three of ‘em): they were essentially modular Minimoog’s. He could get into the filter, the amplifier,
      the mixer, the keyboard control voltage, the gates and the mod wheels.”

      Reply

One Trackback

  1. By How to Build a Boutique Passive DI - D.I.Y. Recording Equipment on June 29, 2012 at 11:14 pm

    [...] Let’s start from the top: a DI, or “direct inject” or “direct box,” is a device that allows one to plug an instrument output directly into a microphone preamp. A DI achieves this by doing two conversions: 1) from high impedance (Hi-Z) to low and 2) from unbalanced to balanced. Electronically, there are two ways (at least) to perform these conversions: 1) actively, with buffering/balancing circuitry or 2) passively, with an audio transformer. Active DIs are fairly complex, require power (usually in the form of +48Vdc “phantom power”), and are ideally suited for hi-Z signals such as those from passive guitar and bass pickups. Passive DIs are extremely simple, require no power, and are best suited for lo-Z inputs such as synthesizers and active pickups (however, they have been known to sound great on passive sources such as the “Billy Jean” bass line). [...]

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