f Tom,,. : "Dangerous" Label: Epic Produced by: Michael Jackson, Teddy Riley. FOCUS: Bruce Swedien, Bill Bottrell Engineered by: Bruce Swedien, Teddy Riley, Bill Bottrell, Bruce Forger, Jim Mitchell. Jean - BRUCE SWEDIEN, Producer /Engineer, "Dangerous" Marie Norval, Thom Russo. Dave Way, Richard Cottrell, REP: What are the sequenced sounds on Jam? There's one that sounds like a sleigh bell. Mixed by: Bruce Swedien, Teddy Riley, Bruce BS: Right, it is! It's a sleigh bell I've had in my barn, I brought it out from Minneapolis Forger, Bill Bottrell when I moved here. Rene Moore and I came up with the orignal concept for that piece Recorded at: Ocean Way, Record One, Lar- and there's a bunch of really unique sounds in there - a drum loop that's an old groove rabee. Westlake, Smoketree, Toad Hall, Record thing and some new sounds that Rene and I played on drums. Plant (Los Angeles) Mastered bj': Bernie Grundman REP: What sequencer did you use for the album? SPARS Code: DAD /AAD BS: For the techno -pop things that Teddy [Riley] was invovled in, he did all the sequencing himself with Atari equipment. The stuff I did, like "Jam" and "Keep The Faith" is all Linn's MPCC60. Rhett Lawrence did the sequencing on "Keep the Faith" directly on the MPCC60. I think feel -wise it's far superior to Macintosh -based stuff like Performer. I don't know what the difference is. but it seems like Linn's just wake up feeling good. The original samples were recorded at 96K on a Mitsubishi 86HS with B &K 4006s.

REP: How did you get the vocal effects? A lot of it sounds like heavy compression and stereo phasing. BS: I think it's SPX 1000 on a special chorus, with parameters I modified. My favorite com- pressor these days is the Neve 2254: it's a vintage, spectacular piece of equipment. I carry two racks of them with me.

REP: What's that thing that sounds like a sequenced on "Can't Let Her Get Away;' playing the t/s note "chunk chunk" part? BS: That was Teddy playing guitar - we sampled it on the Mits and then dumped it into a Roland stereo sampler.

REP: The credits read "Recorded, mixed and mastered with the exclusive Quantum Range Recording Process : What's that all about? BS: (Laughs) I'd rather not comment. Comments: There aren't enough superla- tives for this effort. technically speaking. The REP: Hmmm...(Long pause) musical trend follows previous albums. mean- BS: Well. it's the space age accusonic. It's really a term to describe the way I multiplex ing more groove, perhaps at the expense of multitrack tapes. whether they are analog or digital. I think the most dramatic sonic value melody. It is clear. however, that the members it has is that it allows us to keep a lot more discrete stereo up until the final stage of the of the production team. notably Bill Bottrell, mix, which lets us keep the sound wider and fuller. Bruce Swedien and Teddy Riley, have created I have a penchant for recording true stereophonic images. By that I don't mean left- right- a new standard, a "sound" that everyone will mono: to me that is about as interesting as yesterday's shirt. The most value there is that be trying to copy for some time to come. The I'm able to keep a lot of truly discrete stereo images to the final mix. because the minute bottom end is as good as we've ever heard: the you bus a lot of those sounds down to mono you lose the polar pattern of the stereo and machine tracks cook and move some serious they become resultantly very very small. By keeping a lot of the sound of the original air. In spots, Michael's vocals are a bit lower stereo miking, whether it's x -y or a -b or whatever, you can really improve the sound with- and more ambiently distant in the mix than has out any additional effort. been the custom lately, but of course this will The problem with an x -y mic pickup is that the incoherent sound is very apparent, but probably be the next trend in balancing. it's not coherent, so it gives you a center -feeling image. It has a feeling of acoustics and all Of special interest: Some of the 3 -D and that. but if you really listen. the whole sound field seems to come from the middle. But it spatial effects are stunning. If you've seen the still has a big feeling of space. video or heard the track. there is a sequence With a traditional a -b mic pickup you get a great deal of left -right intensity. By combin- at the beginning of "" where a ing those techniques you can come up with some incredible values. I never think about kid is listening to music and his father comes minimizing the number of tracks I use. I drive the studio people crazy. Kind of a "Tracks R pounding at the door, telling him to turn it Us" concept. It does burn up alot of tracks. but I don't care. With a-b the intensity differ- down. The effects are so uncannily realistic. ence between mics is vastly more apparent. one finds oneself doing a double -take even af- B &K went and made me a special calibrated stand for their omnis, which they offer for ter a dozen listenings. sale now. It's numbered and you can return the mikes to their orignial x -y position with Overall, the mixes are far from the sterile great accuracy. carefulness one might expect on such a high - profile, expensive project - they are occasion- REP: What's your favorite vocal mic these days? ally loose and sometimes even a bit raw and BS: Last time you and I discussed mics we got into a lot of trouble. But I can tell you gritty, all with great feel. Surprisingly, tape or there's only one mic that's come out in the last decade which is truly remarkable, and preamp hiss (remember that ?) shows up on that's the Milab VIP50. And the fact that I'm a Swede too has nothing to do with it. I used several tracks, most noticably on "Keep The it on Ray Charles on "I'll Be Good to You" in " : He came into the stu- Faith : One wonders whether it's there as art dio right after the tracking and said, "What mic is that, I have to have one : or artifact.

18 R E P February 1992