Michael Jackson: Thriller (1982) Mobile Fidelity Hybrid Stereo SACD

[Croweyes1121]

Originally Posted by dobyblue

In fact, if you can find a near minty original vinyl (mastered AAA by Bernie Grundman) it will also wipe the floor with the Thriller 25 vinyl.

This. I have a pristine early pressing of Thriller (without the tell-tale MJ co-producer credit on the back), and it is one of the most dynamic and spectacular albums I've ever heard on my table. As far as I'm concerned, it's the final word on the subject if you've got one. The original pressing of Bad sounds excellent as well.

[bigshot]

Originally Posted by dobyblue

I know dynamic range isn't everything, but Thriller 25 is mastered too hot for me. The longer the song goes on, the more I want to turn it down. When I'm listening to the SACD, by the time the outro hits I've got it cranked.

Ideally you shouldn't have to compensate for bad mastering by adjusting the volume while the music is playing, whether by turning the volume down or turning it up. Both of those indicate that there is something wrong with the dynamics. Normalization isn't the same as dynamic range. A mix should be normalized up so the noise floor stays down well below the threshold of audibility.

[dobyblue]

Originally Posted by bigshot

Ideally you shouldn't have to compensate for bad mastering by adjusting the volume while the music is playing, whether by turning the volume down or turning it up. Both of those indicate that there is something wrong with the dynamics. Normalization isn't the same as dynamic range. A mix should be normalized up so the noise floor stays down well below the threshold of audibility.

When I turn it up I'm not compensating for poor mastering, it's a result of really enjoying what I'm listening to and not having started it at "reference level". Yes, I wish we lived in a world where all mastering was ideal - but sadly the loudness wars have decimated a never-ending list of thousands upon thousands of albums over the past 27 years and A+R suits and artists have no idea what they're doing, they just want "our record to sound as loud as that one".

Some great mastering engineers have tried hard to win this one over the years, but aren't always in a position to leave money on the table. Others will just refuse jobs if the artist is only looking for slam, like Kevin Gray (and notes as much on his website).

This is a good video on what some of these guys are facing, from the creator of the TT DR meter:

What famous producers think about the Loudness Wars - YouTube

Thriller 25 suffers from too much drc and brickwalling, no idea why they didn't leave it at 0db peak but that wouldn't have made it sound any better. A mix should always have 6dB headroom minimum to allow the mastering engineer to do what they do.

[bigshot]

In case you haven't noticed, the downturn in CD sales has had one good aspect. CDs are not being mastered hyper compressed as much as they used to. People aren't ripping CDs any more, so they don't have to master CDs as if they are MP3s any more. They can master them as CDs again. A lot of the old releases from the era of the loudness wars are still in print, but new remasterings are much better lately.

[dobyblue]

Wow so cheapest options for shipping to Canada for the Thriller One Step:

Music Direct $50.45 UPS Worldwide Expedited
Elusive Disc $66.73 FedEx Economy
Acoustic Sounds $19.44 FedEx Ground (Canada only)

Guess this one is a no brainer. And the first two are for just the One Step, the AS shipping quote is for both the One Step and the SACD together.

[fighthefutureofhd]

I will pick up both the 2 disc set and the MOFI cd at some point, but I'm not totally on board with this record. The songs that were released as singles, at least the ones with heavy play, weren't great. Overplayed and somewhat schlocky. The sort of thing the underground music at the time was rebelling against. It is sort of no wonder why R.E.M.'s Murmur beat out Thriller as Album of the year in 1983. Still, I will definitely check this. The MOFI cd of Natalie Merchant's Tigerlily is so revelatory. And even on my crappy portable cd player at the time. So, I know this has every chance of being really good.

[RageATL]

Originally Posted by fighthefutureofhd

The MOFI cd of Natalie Merchant's Tigerlily is so revelatory. And even on my crappy portable cd player at the time.

Hmm, I need to find a copy of that. It's an already well-recorded album so comes as no surprise that MoFi possibly shined it up a bit more.

[fighthefutureofhd]

It's going to cost you, I think. An initial Google search shows it at $70. However, that was just a cursory glance.

[RageATL]

Originally Posted by fighthefutureofhd

It's going to cost you, I think. An initial Google search shows it at $70. However, that was just a cursory glance.

Yep, it's out of stock at all of my usual haunts, so I should have picked it up when I had the chance, dang.

[fighthefutureofhd]

It's been out quite a while. So, it may have been out of circulation for a while I think. I got it when it came out and that was before my fiance killed themselves in 2009. So it's been at least 13 years, if not longer.

[sfmarine]

Pre-order has dropped to $25 on Amazon.

[Ray O. Blu]

Originally Posted by fighthefutureofhd

I will pick up both the 2 disc set and the MOFI cd at some point, but I'm not totally on board with this record. The songs that were released as singles, at least the ones with heavy play, weren't great. Overplayed and somewhat schlocky. The sort of thing the underground music at the time was rebelling against. It is sort of no wonder why R.E.M.'s Murmur beat out Thriller as Album of the year in 1983*. Still, I will definitely check this. The MOFI cd of Natalie Merchant's Tigerlily is so revelatory. And even on my crappy portable cd player at the time. So, I know this has every chance of being really good.

*R.E.M. won Rolling Stone Album of the Year in 1983.
Toto won the 1983 Grammy for Album of the Year with Toto IV.

Michael Jackson won the 1984 Grammy for Album of the Year with Thriller. (The first year it was eligible)
Thriller is the #1 selling album of all time with 70 million units sold.
R.E.M. Murmur has 1.9 million units sold.

Just posting some informative numbers.
Looking forward to this release.

[fighthefutureofhd]

This is true and thanks for the clarification on the album of the year distinction. The fact that Thriller is the no.1 selling album of all time and yet lost out to R.E.M. for the Rolling Stone Album of the year says a whole lot. I think, and this is just my thoughts on it, that Murmur has stood the test of time and shown how important of an album it is vs. Thriller. That's not to say that Thriller isn't good or even important in its own right. However, at that time, a whole generation was rebelling against the slick commercialism that music was selling at that point in time.

And generations removed from that have also been inspired by Murmur. Of course, the same can be said about Thriller in terms of inspiring future generations. Michael has a remarkable body of work and deserves his place in rock and roll history. I just feel Murmur is one of the rare special albums that changed things forever. Enough of my waxing though. Thanks for reading.

[dobyblue]

As far as the test of time, Rolling Stone's current "Top 500 albums" has Thriller at #12 and the top R.E.M. album is Automatic for the People at #96.

Rolling Stone aren't very consistent. That's not to take away how cool Murmur was in 1983 though, as well as u2's War which was also one of the runners up for RS' 1983 album of the year.

Frustrating that with 8 R.E.M. studio albums mixed into surround, they didn't bother with the earliest records. Maybe no surviving multitrack elements?

[stvn1974]

Originally Posted by dobyblue

As far as the test of time, Rolling Stone's current "Top 500 albums" has Thriller at #12 and the top R.E.M. album is Automatic for the People at #96.

Rolling Stone aren't very consistent. That's not to take away how cool Murmur was in 1983 though, as well as u2's War which was also one of the runners up for RS' 1983 album of the year.

Frustrating that with 8 R.E.M. studio albums mixed into surround, they didn't bother with the earliest records. Maybe no surviving multitrack elements?

I think the early albums are with a different label?

[RageATL]

Originally Posted by stvn1974

I think the early albums are with a different label?

IRS versus Warner, right?

[dobyblue]

Ah that would explain it.

So R.E.M. signed up with Concord in 2015 to handle all the albums they previous had under Warner, while I.R.S. retained the first few albums which now go through Universal Music Group; the band signed a publishing deal in 2016 with Universal Music Publishing and in 2020 Concord signed a deal with Universal Music Group to handle distribution - so that's why the deluxe edition of Automatic with the new Atmos mix has the Universal logo on it.

So confusing! lol

[fighthefutureofhd]

Plus, R.E.M were one of the artists affected by the Universal fire. So, the first two albums may not be available to do anything with. And the next 3 records are with Capitol. So, that confuses things even more.

[sfmarine]

This is no longer available on Amazon. I hope my pre-order still goes through.

[stvn1974]

Wasn't this supposed to come out in Nov? I could have sworn that both Music Direct and Acoustic Sounds had a November release date but now both just have TBA listed.