What people dislike is that they don’t put the effort into tracking down the best available source.
Instead, they release cassette-tape-sounding rips of material that has circulated in far better quality for nearly two decades.
That has actually only been Carousel, where a better source does exist. Who Do You Know and Behind The Mask for example only exist on 40 year old cassette tapes. Them choosing completely random tapes of short films or songs, without any quality control is not good tho of course. I was mainly talking about people trashing on the sound quality of the other demos. Sure, I could even deliver a way better listening experience and sound quality and make it sound like an actual studio tape via noise removal, frequency restoration and proper mastering. But then again, first, The Estate would probably do a horrible job at this and second, how much editing should we allow or find acceptable to deliver a „better“ experience? Should it be „better“ or stay „true“ as it is?
but yeah, let's defend the awesome estate.
I don’t want to defend The Estate in any way. They don‘t do their job currently in terms of releases at all.
I mentioned Carousel specifically because many of us have had a better quality version for many years.
That is true, the leaked version is still better than any previous release so far.
Indeed. Especially the original version of "Chicago which should have had a proper mix to let it shine more.
The instrumental doesn‘t exist on multi-tracks. MJ was sent the instrumental as simple 2-track audio and simply overdubbed his vocals on top. You would probably have to track the multi-tracks down heavily, if they even still exist.
I think the reason they used a different version of Blue Gangsta is they were too cheap to pay to have "The good, the Bad and the Ugly" sample cleared. But your point still backs that up. Screw MJ's actual vision.
They even used an earlier version of "Blue Gangsta" as the original version the Xscape... not the final version Michael approved of in his lifetime (which leaked beforehand). That is a very backwards way of doing things in Michael's sense, like taking a step back from his creative vision.
They should let original collaborators have more say where possible in the final songs that get released.
Engineer Michael Prince insists that the record label’s decision to release the more primitive ‘original’ version – lacking all the changes Jackson went on to make – doesn’t align with the pop star’s artistic vision for the song.
“Michael was involved in every nuance of every sound on the record,” explains Michael Prince, “from the hi-hat to the snare to the sticks. If those sounds are removed from the track, it immediately takes a step away from his vision.”
“He’s totally consistent,” adds arranger Brad Buxer.
“He’ll never say one day, ‘Take this part out,’ and then the next day [ask], ‘Where is that part?’ He’ll never do that. He’s totally consistent. So all you’ve got to do is be on your toes and you’ll have a blast working with him. I’ve worked with him for a long time and it’s been the most wonderful experience.”
![[as.mjfam]](/data/avatars/m/122/122983.jpg?1756840716){kind=avatar}
