Michael Jackson's "Beat It" - Isolated Guitar and Bass

Today we'll look at the the isolated bass and guitars (mostly guitars) from Michael Jackson's 1982 hit Beat It. Let's dive right in.

1) There are 3 players that you hear; Steve Lukather plays the dirty rhythm parts and lead lines in the chorus and the bass (heard here on in the first verse), Paul Jackson Jr. plays the clean rhythm parts, and Eddie Van Halen plays the solo.

2) Most of the guitar parts are doubled. Take notice that they're not exact doubles though; one side is a bit busier than the other most of the time (always a good production practice).

3) Eddie Van Halen's solo at 2:42 is interesting because his guitar track is on the right side while the effects (delay and reverb) are on the right. Credit producer Quincy Jones and engineer Bruce Swedien for coping the sound of early Van Halen records on this solo. They wanted Eddie to play like himself and the best way was to give him the sound that he was used to.

----------------------------------

Follow me on Twitter for daily news and updates on production and the music business.

Don't forget to check out my Music 3.0 blog for tips and tricks on navigating the music business.

Michael Jackson's "Beat It" - Isolated Drums

Today we're going to take a listen to the isolated drum track on Michael Jackson's seminal Beat It, one of the many singles off of his best selling Thriller album. Supposedly this 1982 crossover hit was Michael's answer to Quincy Jone's prodding, "Why don't you write something like My Sharona."

Listen to the isolated drum track by late great Jeff Pocaro and notice:

1) Pocaro plays to a drum machine and does so incredibly well. This was especially difficult in 1981 when the tune was cut, since many drummers had a tough time with a click during that era, let alone a full-on drum beat. Today this isn't such a big deal since everyone is brought up playing to loops and tracks, but it was no easy task back then. There are only two places, at 3:31 and 3:47, where you hear the slightest of flams.

2) The drum sound is nothing special. But then again, how could it be with the drum machine in the front of the mix. Engineer Bruce Swedien is the the master of track balances.

3) The drum track is simple and that's what's so beautiful about it. On the other hand, it couldn't be anything else and still work in the song.

Tomorrow - more Beat It.

----------------------------------

Follow me on Twitter for daily news and updates on production and the music business.

Don't forget to check out my Music 3.0 blog for tips and tricks on navigating the music business.

"Enter Sandman" Isolated Vocal

To end our isolated vocal week we listen to Enter Sandman by Metallica. Here's what to listen for:

1) Finally a great sounding vocal. Excellent tone and ambience, which is difficult sometimes to achieve in a hard rock mix. The compression is just the right amount and you hardly ever notice it. All in all, a great engineering job by Randy Staub.

2) James Hetfield's vocal is perfect. I don't know how much time they took to record it, but I couldn't hear a single fault, even listening with microscopic ears.

3) Listen to how the vocal track was cleaned after a lot of phrases in the beginning of the song. It almost sounds like it was gated. This kind of thing used to be done a lot on tape in the "old days" with a function called "spot erase" where you'd erase any unwanted noises between stuff you wanted to keep. It was very tricky to do and you had to be oh so careful that you didn't erase anything because then it was lost forever. Then console automation came along and no one ever used it again.

4) Once again you hear some track sharing going on when the guitars pop up during the song. In the days of magnetic tape, you had a limited number of tracks and you had to find space where ever you could for if you had a lot of overdubs. It really made for a crazy mix.

----------------------------------

Follow me on Twitter for daily news and updates on production and the music business.

Don't forget to check out my Music 3.0 blog for tips and tricks on navigating the music business.

"Dr. Feelgood" Isolated Vocal

Today we listen to a vocal that's part of a more modern production. It's the isolated vocal for Motley Crue's 1989 hit, Dr. Feelgood. Here what to listen for:

1) Boy, is this vocal strident! It takes your head off at 1 to 2kHz. Obviously it works against the track but I wouldn't call this a model vocal sound by any stretch of the imagination.

2) Boy, is there a lot of reverb on this vocal. And it has a pretty long tail as well. Popular music has gone through cycles of lots of reverb during a mix to almost none at all. This was at the top of a "lots of reverb" cycle.

3) There are plenty of punches on this track. Some are pretty noticeable and some not so much. You don't hear any of them against the track, which is the way it's supposed to be.

4) There's a lot of guitars that pop up during the song. I assume that's because some of the empty space on the vocal tracks were used to share with the guitar when they needed another overdub. Don't forget, this was in the days of magnetic tape and limited tracks.

----------------------------------

Follow me on Twitter for daily news and updates on production and the music business.

Don't forget to check out my Music 3.0 blog for tips and tricks on navigating the music business.

"Ticket To Ride" Isolated Vocals

The rest of the week we'll dedicate to analyzing vocal tracks and the first stop is The Beatles "Ticket To Ride." As with all Beatle's tracks, you just have to marvel at how well seasoned they are thanks to the many years of gigging before they began recording. Here are some things to listen for:

1) Notice how tight the vocals are with both Lennon and McCartney singing the vocal together at the same time. They have a few inconsistencies phrasing-wise, but you can tell that most of the tightness has come from long hours of singing with one another.

2) Listen to the distortion as the compressor begins to work. The more compressed, the more distorted it becomes. Given the state of studio monitoring at the time, chances are no one in the studio heard it, and if they did, they couldn't do much about it anyway if they wanted to use the compressor (which was probably a Fairchild or an Altec).

3) The vocals are dead dry, which is unusual for the time when a vocal swimming in verb was the norm.

4) Check out the George's lead guitar fill at the ends of the bridges. The second one at 2:10 has a mis-fingered note, not that it ever bothered anyone before.

----------------------------------

Follow me on Twitter for daily news and updates on production and the music business.

Don't forget to check out my Music 3.0 blog for tips and tricks on navigating the music business.