Brad Sundberg seminars: In the studio with MJ

Michael Jackson's news in English. Your updated reference for Michael Jackson's news in English language from all around the world. Rumors, gossip and true facts. And a lot of Michael Jackson's beautiful pictures.
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Brad Sundberg seminars: In the studio with MJ

Messaggio da soulmum » 7 giugno 2016, 15:28

Greetings Everyone!
The clock is ticking down to MJU in less than three weeks... what have I done?
I added another old friend of mine to the guest line-up for Tuesday - the early years. Craig Huxley was friends with Michael from the age of 10. The two of them grew up together in Encino, and Craig went on to work with him on many of the solo projects. He brings a wealth of information and experiences to the table, and I know you are going to enjoy getting to know him.

Craig is an amazing musician, engineer and producer. He was worked with countless legends in the music industry, but we will be focusing on those early solo years with Craig, particularly Off The Wall and Thriller.
There are two things about MJU that make me nervous. OK, maybe more than two, but primarily these two things: Not having enough time in the studio, and people not hearing about it or not buying a ticket until it is too late.

I love hosting these types of events - and this is the biggest we have ever attempted - but they take an enormous amount of time and effort to pull off. Don't let this chance to spend four days learning and laughing with some of Michael's musical inner-circle pass you by.
Tickets are on sale now at http://www.inthestudiowithmj.com
Class is in session... Will You Be There?
‪#‎4daysofmj
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Re: Brad Sundberg seminars: Making Music With Michael Jackso

Messaggio da soulmum » 1 settembre 2016, 9:30

29 years???

There are a few expressions I really don't care for:
>Bucket List
>Once In A Lifetime
>$#@% Happens
>It Is What It Is
>Time Flies

The drag is, time does fly.

The Bad album may not feel like we were in the studio couple months ago, but there is no way it was 29 years ago. (Actually the production would have been going on 30 years ago).
The Bad album was recorded at Westlake Studio D, on Santa Monica Blvd in West Hollywood, CA. To this day it is a beautiful studio with several cool little features.
>It has it's one mini-kitchen (basically a coffee bar)
>A bathroom with a shower (which we used to record many of the percussion sounds on the album)
>A motorized skylight (I seem to remember one in the recording room and one in Michael's lounge upstairs)
>An upstairs kitchen and lounge
>A private entrance off the parking lot (nice for slipping VIPs in without drawing a lot of attention)
>Some of the loudest speakers I have ever worked with
>A huge control room - particularly for the late 1980's

The classic Westlake "feel" is everywhere (sloping ceiling, uneven walls, stretched fabric panels, no 90-degree angles, etc.).
One of my many memories of the Bad album is Quincy's chicken sandwiches.
Quincy had a chef by the name of John-Luke. This guy could cook. At least once a week he would show up with a plate of simple chicken sandwiches that were amazing. I have never tasted a chicken sandwich that came close to them. The chicken was moist and tender, with just mayo, a sliver of jalapeno and a bit of salt and pepper, served on toast cut into triangles. I have tried to replicate them - no luck.
Bruce had his original Macintosh 128 on a rolling cart next to him at the console, with a box of floppy drives. We would type out lyrics, liner notes, to-do lists, etc., and print them up for the project.
He also had his mug of coffee (typically half coffee and half hot water) on a coaster next to his Mac. Bruce would walk into the studio a few minutes before noon (downbeat was at noon), and open his briefcase and settle in for day at hand. He was the captain of the ship - and Quincy would constantly be calling him "Svensk!" Bruce also loved Butterfingers, and there was always one stashed away somewhere for an after-dinner snack.

Rod would usually find a spot next to Quincy or Michael, and he would commence filling several ashtrays throughout the day. I seem to remember we had air cleaners near him, but I never remember the studio really smelling of smoke. Rod was always quick with a joke in his thick British accent, and he was remarkably generous, funny and talented. He also has the most exaggerated head-bob of almost anyone I have ever seen. When the groove hits him his head bobs front-to-back like a well-oiled machine. Pity the demo that received no head-bobbing approval.

Neither Rod nor Quincy could drive. Quincy was always driven in by one of his security team, while Rod usually grabbed a taxi from his home on Mulholland.
Chris Currell was always at his seat at the Synclavier in the corner, experimenting with sounds on this enormous machine. I remember there would always be a competition between Michael and Peter Gabriel as to who had the largest, most powerful Synclav. I remember helping unbox new memory boards and learning they they were roughly a quarter the cost of my house. Chris was - big surprise here - remarkably friendly and easy to get along with. Zero drama, lots of talent.

Craig Johnson was on the other side of the room, manning the patch bay, the outboard gear, the tape machines, the tape vault, the synchronizer, etc. Craig also kept the mood light and fun, particularly with puns.
Miko Brando would sometimes drive Michael, other times he would just be around to take care of errands, bring things in, or just hang out with us. He was very close to Michael and truly a pleasure to be around. I would sit in the small studio kitchen with Miko on many occasions and help with tasks that Michael needed done, or just swap stories with him. His were better.

Mark Hagen was another part of the comedy team. Mark was working on an apprenticeship with Bruce, and he was both a solid helper as well as a good friend. I think he and I both wound up driving Michael or Rod or Quincy at one time or another - funny how nearly half of the team didn't drive! Mark and I both had other sessions to attend to throughout the project, but we always found ourselves back in Studio D in the afternoon or evening.

Along the way were constant visits from Siedah, Frank Dileo, John Barnes, Jerry Hey, The Slam Dunk Sisters, Jolie Levine, Evvy Tavaski, Norma Skaikos - and of course Bill Bray (among many others).

Everyone loved Bill. He used to call Michael "Joker".
"You know what that Joker did?" he would ask me. "He threw my shoes out of the window in Tokyo, and I had to walk around in my socks to buy new ones!" Then he would laugh in his beautiful gravelly voice. One of the sweetest men you could ever hope to meet.

Bill always seems to show up around dinner time (5pm or so) and we would tease him about it. More laughter, more friendship.

In the center of all was Michael. The remarkably talented, sweet, funny, humble guy who I was fortunate enough to have an ongoing working relationship for nearly two decades. We had gotten to know each other during the production of Captain EO with Matt Forger in Westlake Studio A, and now he had invited me to help on this project.

He would show up early for vocal warm-ups with Seth Riggs, and many times it would just be the three of us in the studio, getting ready for the day. He was always cold, so we had heaters for him, as we had to keep the studio cool for all of the gear. He would greet everyone with a hug when he arrived, and when he left.
He almost always wore black chords, a heavy long-sleeve shirt, his black shoes, and sometimes a huge jacket. And of course the hat and Ray Bans. He was a rock star, and he always looked great.
Michael Bush would sometimes stop by to show Michael some new outfits, and he may have tried them on upstairs for fitting, but he never wore them in the control room with us. I seem to remember Joe Pytka stopping by, as well as Emmanual Lewis. He came by several times.
The animals would also come for visits, including Bubbles and two young chimps that I am trying to recall their names - Lucy? Muscles the python stopped by once or twice, but not very often. More than once I would be tasked with holding Bubbles or one of the smaller chimps while Michael sang. Not gonna lie - it was fun.

I remember his favorite snack food during the project - pomegranates. Here's the thing - pomegranates are a mess to eat, with purple juice all over your fingers and running down your chin. Michael could care less - he just loved them! He would tear into them sitting right next to Bruce at the console, getting juice all over his hands and the leather armrest of the console. Once he left the room Mark or I would grab some paper towels and give it a bit of a scrubbing.

Another favorite snack was popcorn. Air-popped popcorn. We ate so much of it that the Slam Dunk Sisters actually had two machines upstairs to keep it coming. We thought were were being "healthy", but after they poured about a cup of butter into each bag, I think the health part went out the skylight. But it was good, and after a couple hours the floor had popcorn scattered everywhere.

Bruce had many "sayings" that he was famous for through the years. One of my favorites was after a huge meal that the Slam Dunk Sisters would provide he would groan, "The only thing wrong with this meal is it ruined my appetite!" That's Bruce 101, and Michael loved it.

Michael started called me "Really Really Brad" almost every time I walked into the room. It was funny and a sort of cool. I knew Bad was going to be a single, but none of us knew it was be the album title. Back then we just called it "The Project." Bruce would also sometimes call me "Really Really Brad", but Quincy always called me "Braddy Daddy". Could I ask for a better nickname from Quincy Jones?

It was fun. It was pure magic. The songs were coming a mile a minute and even though the days/nights were sometimes very long, the vibe was incredible. I think for every bar of music recorded there was a minute of laughter in the room. A room full of friends. A studio family.
As the project went on the songs got bigger. TWYMMF was like a wall of thunder. Smooth Criminal was electric. Then came Man In The Mirror. Bruce would play Mirror for almost every guest that came in, at full volume. It was common for us to replace at least one 18" subwoofer per week. Seriously. There were four 18" subs in the room, and we would blow through them like crazy. It was like NASCAR when a sub would blow - a couple of us could have it replaced in maybe three minutes.

It doesn't seem 29 years ago, but the calendar doesn't lie. I remember during the project there was a little girl trapped in a well (baby Jessica) that we all watched on TV day by day as they finally successfully rescued her. The Chernobyl accident was also around that time. That was also when I bought my first CD player, which sat proudly on my Beta machine at home.
29 years did fly by - but no - I won't insert a Speed Demon pun here.
<><><><><><><><><><><><>
HOUSEKEEPING TIME
I have some seminar news for you! I have had to push back our trip to Europe this fall due to scheduling conflicts, but here is the TENTATIVE plan for the coming months for In The Studio With MJ:
London - Oct 15
Dublin - Oct 18/19
Berlin - Oct 22
Mexico City - Nov 12
Australia (Cities/Dates TBD) - Jan 2017
Thanks for your ongoing support, notes, comments and such.
Faithfully -
Really, Really Brad
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Re: Brad Sundberg seminars: Making Music With Michael Jackso

Messaggio da soulmum » 6 settembre 2016, 9:50

Latest from Brad: (In the Studio with Michael Jackson' FB page)


The Autumn Tour Is Coming...

London 14 October 2016 - The Remix VIP Event
London 15 October 2016 - In The Studio With MJ 2016 (Full Seminar)

Dublin 17 October 2016 - The Remix VIP Event
Dublin 18 October 2016 - In The Studio With MJ 2016 (Seminar Part 1)
Dublin 19 October 2016 - In The Studio With MJ 2016 (Seminar Part 2)

Berlin 21 October 2016 - The Remix VIP Event
Berlin 22 October 2016 - In The Studio With MJ (Full Seminar)

Mexico City 11 November 2016 - The Remix VIP Event
Mexico City 12 November 2016 - In The Studio With MJ (Full Seminar)

Tickets go on sale shortly... Will You Be There?

www.inthestudiowithmj.com

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Re: Brad Sundberg seminars: Making Music With Michael Jackso

Messaggio da soulmum » 21 settembre 2016, 16:22

Latest from Brad...with some background about IJCSLY

I Just Can't Stop Loving You

Twenty-nine years ago this week "I Just Can't Stop Loving You" topped the Billboard charts here in the US. Is it my favorite MJ song? Not really, but it does have an interesting history.

When we were in the studio working on IJCSLY, Michael, Quincy and Bruce wanted an interesting intro for the song, so along came the "Pillow Talk". The theory was that Michael wanted it to sound like he was whispering into a girl's ear - just a few simple phrases.

We went to great lengths (far more effort than you could imagine) to create a holophonic sound. We used a modified binaural microphone, which is shaped exactly like a human head, only the ears have been fitted with microphones.

Michael was giving a script of phrases to record into the holophonic head, then Bruce fed those phrases into a sound processor called Q-Sound. (No relation to Quincy). There were many other steps in the process, but in the end Michael's voice sounded, well, very close to the listener. The funny thing was that the day it was released (I still remember hearing it at 7am on KIIS FM Los Angeles with Rick Dees), the DJs hated the intro! It was too long and they wanted to get to the song as quickly as possible. So Bruce called me and we returned to the studio to remove the intro for all future pressings of the album. (It was returned for Bad 25).

Also, many people have heard rumors that the song was written for Barbra Streisand. True! Not only was it written for Barbra but Michael actually scribbled her initials on the original lyrics as a guideline for her. She declined, and truthfully I think Siedah was a far more natural choice. (Oddly enough after the Bad album Quincy, Bruce and I worked with Barbra on her album "Till I Loved You". We had a running joke that with Barbra Streisand, Bruce Swedien and Brad Sundberg - there was way too much BS in the room!)

During the initial run of the Bad Tour it was Sheryl Crow (yes, THAT Sheryl Crow) who sang the duet on stage with Michael.

Bruce and I used to hear about the countless weddings and receptions where IJCSLY was played or sang for brides and grooms around the world. It seemed like it was on the radio all the time that autumn.

I don't know if people read liner notes anymore, but the players on IJCSLY represent some of the best talent in the music industry:
Quincy Jones
Nathan East
N'dugu Chancler
Dann Huff
Paulinho Da Costa
John Barnes
Christopher Currell
David Paich
Greg Phillinganes
Steve Porcaro
Michael and Siedah

Lots of recognizable and re-occurring names on that list. This song was not about showboating or upstaging the vocalists, rather they created a lush, beautiful track which was impeccably recorded and mixed by Bruce. Musical precision and restraint from start to finish.

During the latter part of recording the Bad album I was assigned to Westlake Studio C down the hall from Studio D to help Michael and Siedah record the French and Spanish versions of the song. I am told the French version is not a perfect translation, but I think it was an honest gesture from Michael to his international fans to give them something special. It was fun to watch him try to pronounce each phrase perfectly with the translators. Here's the funny thing: the engineer assigned to handle some of that recording (I won't mention his name out of respect) was in way over his head. He had never worked with anyone close to Michael's stature, and he was nervous. Like shaking nervous. I tried to calm him down, but he was a wreck! The problem with being that nervous is you make mistakes, and he made a lot. At one point he accidentally erased an entire section of Michael's finished vocals. I thought he (the engineer) was going to throw up. I explained to Michael that an honest mistake had been made and we had to re-record those vocals. I won't say Michael was thrilled, but he accepted the challenge without complaining and we started over.

I often joke that people who purchased our albums likely think that our projects were recorded in massive recording palaces with an enormous staff of engineers. Not true - we kept it lean and mean back then.

Happy 29th Birthday "I Just Can't Stop Loving You!" A beautiful song performed by a pair of remarkable singers.

I am so excited to be bringing my "In The Studio With MJ" seminars to London, Dublin and Berlin next month, and Mexico City in November. Come with me into the studio and learn about the songs, hear the stories and be introduced to Michael's music in a whole new way.

Tickets are on sale now - Will You Be There?

www.inthestudiowithmj.com
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Re: Brad Sundberg seminars: Making Music With Michael Jackso

Messaggio da soulmum » 30 settembre 2016, 9:09

Latest from Brad:

Sometimes it's the little things.

I have been blessed to have seen many amazing places from Mount Fuji to the Jungfrau; the original Starbucks in Seattle to a cozy club in St. Petersburg, Russia; Half-dome in Yosemite to the midway of the Minnesota State Fair; EPCOT to Positano, Italy. All are beautiful in their own way, and you can't really compare one with another.

That's sort of how I feel about Neverland. People often missed much of a magic of the place. Let me give you a very crude example: If you ask a person on the street what their favorite MJ song is, they might say Thriller or Billie Jean or Beat It. Amazing songs! But they are missing so many of the hidden gems of his catalog. Ask a slightly more serious MJ fan the same question and they will cringe at such a difficult question! Moscow, Heal The World, Closet, Butterflies, We've Had Enough... the list goes on and on.

Neverland has a similar persona, at least to me. Sure, everyone loved the theater and the carousel and elephants. But Michael tucked so many gems away that most people likely saw right past them. I have shared stories about the chirping birds we created, and the crickets, but I stumbled across a photo of the stagecoach that suddenly threw me back quite a few years.

Michael loved animals, although he was always a bit nervous around dogs. I never went horseback riding with him (sort of wish I would have), but I know he loved the horses. He even insisted that Neverland be sold with the two horses that he and Bill Bray rode during and early visit to the then Sycamore Valley Ranch.

The horse (Cowboy) section of the ranch was further back on the property, and it is likely that not everyone ever made it back that far. The amusement park was, understandably, the big draw. But if you walked just another hundred yards or so past the bumper cars, you would be in the zoo - and the horse barn.

During our peak at Neverland, which truthfully lasted for several years, we were building music and lighting systems almost as fast as Michael could think up new areas and projects. He always gave me plenty of time to research new projects, but once I presented him with an idea he liked, he couldn't wait for us to build it! One day we would be up on a hill putting music in a gazebo, and the next day we would adding subwoofers to the music system on the Zipper.

I don't remember the exact phone call, but at some point he purchased a horse-drawn carriage, or as we sometimes called it The Stagecoach. I have no idea of it's history or actual age, but it seemed very old and very legit. Anyway, he told me he wanted music on the stagecoach.

Now, let's mention the obvious here, in case you missed it. A stagecoach has no motor or engine to power a music system - only a walking horse. So, we had to improvise.

I designed a very simple yet power music system by mounting a CD player (remember the old Sony Walkman CD players??) on a flexible metal arm, which suspended just next to the driver. If you look closely in the picture you can see it.

Next, we had to build a power little 12-volt amplifier and four (yes four) speakers mounted under the seats. This all ran off of a giant boat battery which would be charged between guests.

I already knew the type of music Michael liked at Neverland (I burned all of the CDs myself), so there was no guesswork there. I brought one of the custom Neverland CDs and loaded into the CD player and took it for a test listen. I really don't care to brag too much, but it was, without a doubt, the best sounding stagecoach that I had ever heard!

It took a few days to design and build it, and - like every project I worked on with Michael - I was so excited to play it for him when it was finished. He loved it, job well done!

So is there anything terribly exciting about putting music on a stagecoach? Well, maybe not, but here's what I keep tripping on in my head when I think about Neverland. It wasn't just me up there - it was artists and builders and painters and landscapers and masons and florists. There was art and music and beauty everywhere. There was Michael everywhere. You could feel it. You could feel him.

I used to stay late at Neverland, because I loved being there after dark. The workers would all leave, and I would stay an extra hour or two and adjust the subwoofer levels on the bumper cars or the EQ on the carousel just a little bit. I wanted everything to be perfect for the next group, and I just liked the place.

After dark, if no guests were on property, Neverland would be incredibly dark and almost magical. Then I could hear my chirping birds, the cricket sounds, the comforting notes of Debussy, and I would just walk and take it all in. The park might be lit up, or it might be dark, depending on the day and event. But once in a while I would see "my" stagecoach coming out for a practice run. The music would be playing and the driver would always greet me with a smile or allow me to hop in for a ride.

So much to take in. So many details. Such an amazing labor of love, and yet even something as simple and rarely used as a stagecoach still got the full treatment. That... was Michael.

Join me in less than three weeks as I take you behind the scenes in the studio and at Neverland. Let me give you just a glimpse of what it was like to work with, laugh with, learn with and be friends with someone I have endless respect for - Michael Jackson.

Tickets are on sale now - I hope you can join me In The Studio.

>Brad
http://www.inthestudiowithmj.com
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Re: Brad Sundberg seminars: Making Music With Michael Jackso

Messaggio da soulmum » 14 ottobre 2016, 8:39

Thank you London - we are sold out!! Game over!

Tomorrow night we will be in London at Fiction Studios for the Remix, followed the next day by the full "In The Studio With MJ" seminar, and we are currently at capacity! Thank you so much for your support!

Dublin and Berlin - tickets are still available for when we arrive in your beautiful cities.

I don't expect you to remember this, but I spent more than 18 years working with Michael, with many of those years spent building the music and lighting systems at Neverland. I was reviewing the "Tour Of Neverland" segment yesterday, and it blows me away just how large the place was.

I was describing the "little train" (there were two trains at Neverland) to a friend of mine, and told him that when we first installed it Michael was riding around with Lee Tucker driving it. (Lee was Michael's good friend and projectionist from Warner Hollywood). He asked Lee what it was like to drive the train, and Lee said something to the effect of, "It's your train, why don't YOU drive it!" Michael was so surprised that he could actually drive his own train at his ranch!

The "Tour Of Neverland" segment has become one of my favorite parts of the seminar, and fittingly it tucks in between the Bad and Dangerous albums, because that was when we started so many of the projects, including the theme park.

The theme park had their own crew, and they were some of the nicest guys imaginable. We used to pack a lunch when we worked up there for a day (or sometimes the chef would make us lunch), and during our lunch break they would always ask us if we wanted to hit the rides for a bit, you know, for the sake of "testing". We would almost always ride the bumper cars until we felt like we needed to be hospitalized. Michael didn't want them to move slowly and safely like Disney, he wanted them full-speed with the music full volume. I have never ridden bumper cars like that since!

Pull the curtain back.
Ignore the "Closed Session" sign.

Join me for a day in the studio.
Let me take you to Neverland.

Hear things you have never heard.
See things you have never seen.
Learn things you never knew.

Let me introduce you to a friend of mine - his name is Michael Jackson. I hope you can spend a day with me In The Studio.

Tickets for Dublin and Berlin are on sale now - Will You Be There?

DUBLIN:
October 17th, 2016 6:00 pm
October 19th, 2016 10:00 pm

35 Liffey Street Lower, North City, Dublin 1, Ireland


BERLIN:
October 21st, 2016 6:00 pm
October 22nd, 2016 7:00 pm

Nalepastraße 18, 12459 Berlin, Germany

https://ticketbud.com/events/search?...n=&%5Bsort%5D=

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Re: Brad Sundberg seminars: Making Music With Michael Jackso

Messaggio da soulmum » 10 gennaio 2017, 14:55

Hi Aussie fans,

Just a heads up that Brad Sundberg's seminar is arriving in Australia this weekend - Please see the below link for details and for an amazing Buy One Get One Free ticket offer!!!

http://inthestudiowithmj.com/events/

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Re: Brad Sundberg seminars: Making Music With Michael Jackso

Messaggio da soulmum » 10 febbraio 2017, 14:19

Brad Sundberg is hosting his "In the studio with MJ" 100th SEMINAR! March 17-18-19, 2017 in Paris where the first one was held 5 years ago
"Paris, France
March 17th & 19th
SAE Studios Paris
45 avenue Victor Hugo Building 229 93300 Aubervilliers
DISCOUNT TICKETS UNTIL FEBRUARY 20, 2017

In The Studio With MJ – The Centennial Celebration in Paris

This is the weekend that we celebrate our 100th ITSWMJ event since we launched in Paris five years ago! An amazing milestone worth celebrating with my friends and Studio Rats new and old! There will be surprises and special treats all through the weekend – I hope you can join us.

Friday – VIP Listening Session
A great way to hear Michael’s music and mixes in a way you have never heard them before. Brad will take you through songs and let you hear things you have never heard before, in a great sounding studio. Very limited seating, a very unique way to explore Michael’s mixes.

Saturday – The Seminar
Four studio albums. Countless sessions. Video mixes. Dance mixes. Three world tours. A ranch called “Neverland.” This was Brad Sundberg’s life and career for nearly 18 years, working closely with the King of Pop himself, Michael Jackson. This is your chance to hear of the music, the stories behind the music, and what it was like to be a part of Michael’s team. This is a one-of-a-kind music, photo and video-filled seminar.
Brad had the opportunity to work closely in the studio and at Neverland Valley Ranch with Michael Jackson. He was Michael’s technical director and one of the engineers on four studio albums including “Bad”, “Dangerous”, “HIStory”, and “Blood On The Dancefloor.” (Michael even gave Brad the nickname “Really, Really Brad”.) These mammoth projects (including production, tour-prep and countless remixes) took upwards of 16 months each. You will see and hear what it was like to be in the studio with Michael and the team of engineers and producers who created these songs, through a carefully crafted timeline of music, video and behind-the-scenes info. From “Captain Eo” to “Man In The Mirror” to “Smile”, Brad was there, and you will hear about the production process.
Brad is generous with his insights and knowledge, and there will be time for questions. The multi-media seminar features many new segments and dual video screens to bring you into the studio like you never thought was possible.
If you are a fan of Michael’s music, or are curious about how those albums were recorded and the staggering amount of tapes, tracks and time invested, you will not want to miss “In The Studio With MJ 2017”.

Sunday – The Extended Remix
The Extended Remix is part seminar, part listening session, part MJU recap, part hands-on mixing to some of your favorite songs. Fewer stories, more music, lots of things to discover. A very casual, one-of-a-kind, hands-on event in the studio hearing music in a whole new way.
Included in “The Extended Remix” is the Tour Of Neverland segment. Michael tapped Brad to help in the early days of designing and building Neverland Valley Ranch, his incredible home. The ranch was filled with rides, music and surprises waiting to be discovered. He commissioned Brad to bring music to virtually ever corner. Michael would even give him specific playlists for certain areas of the ranch, to create just the right environment. The Tour Of Neverland will give you a sense of the size, attention to detail and creative magic of Michael’s dream home.
Think of it as hanging out in a studio – or even a family room – with Brad as he plays mixes, video clips, photos anything else that won’t fit into the seminar. Try your hand at building a dance mix. Dig deep into the catalog and hear Michael’s music as if for the first time. Bigger and better than ever – The Extended Remix is a day you will not soon forget!
Truly a very unique experience for Michael’s fans."

Be sure to “Like” our Facebook page: www.facebook.com/inthestudiowithmj
website and tickets

"http://inthestudiowithmj.com/paris/

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Re: Brad Sundberg seminars: Making Music With Michael Jackso

Messaggio da soulmum » 10 marzo 2017, 10:24

2017
March 18 - Paris
April 22 - Houston
May 6 - Mexico City
May 20 - New York City
June 24 - Orlando
July 22 - San Paulo, Brazil
August 26 - Minneapolis
September - TBD (San Francisco?)
October 14 - Madrid, Spain
October 21 - Oslo, Norway
November 4 - Edmonton, Canada

2018
January 20 - Tokyo, Japan
January 27 - Osaka, Japan
Spring 2018 - Moscow, Russia
Spring 2018 - Poznan, Poland

Thanks for your support of "In The Studio With MJ"! I look forward to seeing many of you very soon.
- Brad


http://inthestudiowithmj.com/

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Re: Brad Sundberg seminars: Making Music With Michael Jackso

Messaggio da soulmum » 24 marzo 2017, 9:34

Latest from Brad:

They say everything's bigger in Texas!
Saturday, April 22, 2017 - "In The Studio With MJ" is coming to Austin, Texas! We will be debuting our first-ever Texas event at the beautiful Stinson Studios.
I am offering two events on the same day.

At 11am we will launch into the 2017 version of "In The Studio With MJ". This is the full seminar with new songs, segments and video clips.
At 6pm we'll shift gears and start "The Tour Of Neverland" and "The Extended Remix" and go until they throw us out (or more likely we'll stop around 9:30pm).

Two great events in one day - MJ in Texas!
Tickets will go on sale this evening, but I wanted to give you time to ponder it while you're saddling up for an afternoon ride, or whatever it is Texans do.
We'll be announcing and launching ticket sales for a lot of events over the next few days, so stay tuned...

http://stinsonstudios.com/

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Re: Brad Sundberg seminars: Making Music With Michael Jackso

Messaggio da soulmum » 12 aprile 2017, 11:03

Latest from Brad:

Behind The Scenes
I was scrolling through my FB timeline this morning and someone posted the behind the scenes footage of the "In The Closet" Herb Ritts short film with Naomi and Michael. Like many of those projects I was there for much of it, but behind the scenes.

By the time the Dangerous project was winding down I was juggling a lot of things. We had projects rolling full speed at Neverland (I seem to remember the Sea Dragon and Zipper were installed around that time), plus I was working with Bruce, Bill and Teddy in the studio wrapping up the album. That of course meant short films and tour prep were either beginning or just around the corner.
Michael loved a large, portable music playback system I built for him to use on the short films (I have written about it before), but essentially it was an estimated 20,000 watt monster that would and could "hurt you" if you weren't careful. Michael wasn't careful. At all.

Hurt me!! Hurt me!!" he would yell as we set the system up for shooting "Ghosts", "2Bad", "Closet", etc. The volume this thing produced could send even the most jaded, know-it-all production person into the craft services ("Crafty") snack tent to roll up some napkins and stuff them in their ears. I loved it.
I didn't spend a lot of time on the "Closet" shoot for two reasons.
First, I wasn't in the union, so I couldn't actually operate my own system - it had to be handled by a union guy. I just set it up, tuned it, made sure Michael was happy and handed over the keys to the union guy.

Second, and you might find this odd, but Michael had put my family and I up in a really nice resort in Palm Springs, and we loved the idea of a few days of down-time, so I spent much of that time poolside, knowing that I might have to drive to the set if my system needed attention. It didn't, so I relaxed much of the time.
Production shoots were always much more intense than working on the albums. There were people everywhere, with lots of radios and clipboards (this was before iPads) and laminates and stopwatches. Security guys guard every entrance with their official windbreakers and Security baseball caps.
Rows production trailers, dressing rooms, star trailers, honeywagons (bonus points if you know what they are), generators, catering trucks, lighting trucks, lighting guys, sound guys, set guys, safety people, production assistants (PA's), craft services, etc. Shooting a Michael Jackson film in Southern California is like moving, organizing and paying for an army - and they can do almost anything once they are assembled.

So again, it was interesting, but the layers and hierarchy of people and who could stand where and when and why and made my pool and a bottle of Corona really inviting on most days.
In flipping through some photos, watching the behind-the-scenes footage of Closet, etc., I stumbled on the photo of Michael with his flashlight in the studio. This photo always makes me smile.

The comparison of an MJ short-film production, as I just described, to a typical day in the recording studio is pretty funny. On most days in the studio there might just be a handful of people. If we weren't recording any musicians or strings that day, it might have just been six or eight people in the whole building during the Dangerous project. That number would mysteriously double at dinner time.

Wayne and Marcus (Michael's security guys) might come and go through the day, and we might have a guest now and then, but most of the time it was just a handful of us, and the mood was typically very focused, yet light and low-pressure. We knew we had a lot of work to do, but it wasn't frantic in any way.
In the summer in Southern California it was not uncommon for huge parts of the city to experience what became known as rolling "brown-outs". This meant your power might dip for a few seconds as so many air conditioners were kicking on, and it was some way for the power company to manage the flow of power. Sometimes the power went out completely, which of course is a "black-out."

A black-out in a studio is particularly fun because there are no windows. Studios very rarely have windows to help with soundproofing and to help exhausted team members not get too depressed over missing beautiful day after beautiful day while working on an endless album project.
This particular black-out lasted quite a while, and we dug out some flashlights for people to use, including Michael. He bundled up in his parka (it was not cold inside!), and thumbed through some of his art books in the dark, basically amused by the whole thing.

The funny thing is that it would be very rare for a black-out to occur on a production set because all the power is provided by huge generators. But if a delay does hit a big shoot, radios are lit up with production assistants wanting updates, accountants on the verge of tears watching their costs, mount, union guys taking naps, etc.
In the studio, we simply removed the tapes from the machines via flashlight (you don't want a Michael Jackson master tape snapped when the power returns), and found places to relax for a bit. It was just simple down time - not a bad thing.

Michael never complained - he knew there was nothing anyone could do, so we just sat it out. The album would get done when it got done.
In less than two weeks we'll be in Austin, Texas sharing stories and music about my 18 years of working with Michael. In four weeks we'll be in Mexico City, and in six weeks New York. There won't be any stressed out production assistants, nor is it likely that you will need a flashlight or a rolled up napkin in your ears to endure the volume, but you are invited to spend a day with behind the scenes, In The Studio With MJ.

Orlando and LA are slated for June, and we are looking at Brazil for July.

Hear things you have never heard.
See things you have never seen.
Learn things you never knew.

In The Studio With MJ. Will You Be There?
www.inthestudiowithmj.com/events

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Re: Brad Sundberg seminars: Making Music With Michael Jackso

Messaggio da soulmum » 18 aprile 2017, 11:53

I've been to and through Texas many times, but for reasons unknown to me I've never made it to Austin. This weekend I'll change that when I set up at the Recording Conservatory of Austin. I have heard all about Austin's food, music and culture, so I am very excited to visit!

I don't talk about this very often on my "Studio" page, but one of the things I love doing on my seminar weekends is teach recording and music students a class I call "Studio Etiquette On A Michael Jackson Session". This is not an MJ seminar, rather it is targeted specifically at students, and I am honored to be teaching this Friday to a group of students at the Conservatory.

One of the challenges of working with Michael was making sure he was comfortable. I know Michael loved trying new things, new sounds, new production techniques, but he also wanted some things to be consistent and predictable. Familiar.

When we moved into a new studio, we would never bring Michael there on the first day - or even the first week! We had to get the studio up to his (our) standards in terms of technical quality, security and comfort. There were many techniques that we learned and practiced on those projects, and I enjoy sharing them with students to help prepare them for sessions large and small. I will be offering this same course at the University of Technology in Mexico City in just three weeks. These teaching opportunities have become one of my favorite "tangents" of In The Studio With MJ.

Speaking of ITSWMJ, we have spent hours - scores of hours - rebuilding both the seminar and the Remix. The hardest part of rebuilding isn't adding new things, it's taking things out. In a tiny, tiny way it reminds me of when Michael and Bruce and the production team would have to cut songs from an album for space. Back when CDs were the primary method of delivering music to the public, we were limited to just over 77 minutes per album, so songs like "Streetwalker" and "For All Time" didn't quite fit onto the record. The same goes for my seminar - not every segment will fit, so we have to choose what stays and what goes.

The seminar has changed and evolved drastically since my first "event" nearly five years ago in Paris. I want it to keep changing and growing, and we push to make that happen, but we also want it to be honest and fun for our guests - whether it is their first time or their tenth.

The 2017 itinerary is 95% established:
April 22 - Austin
May 7 - Mexico City
May 20 - New York City
June 24 - Orlando
June 26/27/28 - Southern California
July 22 - San Paulo
August 26 - Minneapolis/St. Paul
October 12 - 24 - Madrid/Milan/Oslo
November 4 - Edmonton
January 19 - 29 - Tokyo/Osaka

Some dates may shift slightly, but that is the plan-de-jour.

I am working on a very special event in Southern CA on June 26-28th. One full day will be devoted to Neverland on a level like never before. Another day will focus on the HIStory album with many of the original team members. More details to come very soon.

Have a great week and thanks for your interest and support! See you this weekend in Austin!

In The Studio With MJ.
www.inthestudiowithmj.com/events

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Re: Brad Sundberg seminars: Making Music With Michael Jackso

Messaggio da soulmum » 21 aprile 2017, 10:08

Brad Sundberg talks about Michael and Lisa in an interview

Michael married a very pretty Lisa Marie Presley (a complete surprise to us), and we all enjoyed having her in the studio. She made him happy, and I think he did the same for her. They were fun to be around.


From his Facebook page:

Q - Brad, I'm really sorry, but I wanna ask one more question Were there times when Lisa came into the studio to spend time with Michael? What did they do together? Maybe Lisa gave some advises to Michael or she never was interested in the recording process? -

A - No need for sorry! Lisa was awesome, very funny, very comfortable and very much into Michael. They laughed and called each other silly names, like a pair of Jr. Highers. She didn't really contribute to the recording process, she just sat on his lap... so maybe in some ways she did. : )



ETA - Asia, you're welcome. Hope you guys join us here.

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Re: Brad Sundberg seminars: Making Music With Michael Jackso

Messaggio da soulmum » 29 aprile 2017, 10:05

Los Angeles, 2017
In The Studio With MJ is coming back to LA this June with a trio of special events for our guests to enjoy!

June 26 - "Inside HIStory". A track-by-track journey through one of Michael's most iconic albums, hosted by part of the team who helped created it.

June 26 (evening) - "The Extended Remix". Fewer stories, more music, lots of things to discover. A very casual, one-of-a-kind, hands-on event in the studio hearing music in a whole new way.

June 27 - "Return to Neverland". Big Al Scanlan will join me in the studio (not AT Neverland) and take you on a detailed, fun and story-fill tour of Michael's amazing ranch. See, hear and learn about Neverland like never before - from the guys who were there for many, many years.

June 28 - "In The Studio With MJ - 2017". I will present the full seminar digging deep into the projects I was directly involved in: Bad (est. 30M sales), Dangerous (est. 32M sales) and HIStory (est. 40M sales). Hear the music and the stories behind the music from these incredible projects.

Yes, there will be special guests. Many more details to come!

Make your journey to LA complete with a trio of one-of-a-kind events, In The Studio. Will You Be There?
Tickets will go on sale this weekend.

www.inthestudiowithmj.com

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Re: Brad Sundberg seminars: Making Music With Michael Jackso

Messaggio da soulmum » 12 maggio 2017, 12:10


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Re: Brad Sundberg seminars: Making Music With Michael Jackso

Messaggio da soulmum » 17 maggio 2017, 11:48

I have some very exciting news for our upcoming seminars in New York and LA!

Greetings, and I am sorry to have been absent for a few days. Our daughter Maddie graduated from college this past weekend and I have been slightly pre-occupied for a few days, but we are back on track, ready for New York this weekend!

Now, I have two special guests that I am very proud to announce! This Saturday at Smash Studios in New York I am proud to welcome an old friend of mine from the HIStory album - producer and grammy-winning engineer Tony Black! Tony was with us day to day, early in his career at the Hit Factory working on HIStory. He is an amazing talent and a great guy, and I look forward to having him share his memories and stories with you on Saturday!
But wait, there's more!

Next month we will be in LA for three days talking about HIStory (day 1), Neverland (day 2) and the full In The Studio With MJ seminar (day 3).

On our HIStory track-by-track day (Monday, June 26th) will have Rob Hoffman and Brian Vibberts in the studio with me, but another of the project's amazing engineers Eddie Delana will also be in the room with us! Eddie was a key part of the project from start to finish. He recorded many of the songs on HIStory and is also an amazing guy.

I have said it before, but bringing these seminars to you not along gives you an incredible behind-the-scenes peek into how we made these albums, but it also gives those of us that worked with Michael a chance to reconnect and share these stories with you. This was an amazing team assembled for HIStory, and having Tony in New York and Eddie, Brian and Rob in LA is going to be a lot of fun.
No script. No detailed notes of who says what. Just a chance to hang out with a group of guys who worked, lived and laughed through one of Michael's most important albums.

I hope you can join me in the studio this weekend in New York, and next month in Los Angeles.
(I have decided to postpone the Orlando event until later in the summer - details to come soon).
Tickets are on sale now!

www.inthestudiowithmj.com/events

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Re: Brad Sundberg seminars: Making Music With Michael Jackso

Messaggio da soulmum » 1 giugno 2017, 10:53

Latest from Brad:

Fireworks and Roller Coasters and Livestreaming...

Michael and I had countless meetings at Neverland about upcoming projects, ideas and "dreaming out loud". I have always loved Disney - particularly the parks. Michael knew I went to Disneyland at least twice a month back then, as it was an escape from LA for a few hours.

Almost without fail the next time he and I would talk we would discuss Disneyland, new attractions, etc. He once told me that Disney was designing a statue of him to have in the parks! I laughed and said, "Come on, are you serious?!" He said, "Yes!!"
We often talked about adding a roller coaster at Neverland. The terrain is such that it could be done without going too high in the air - it could just hug the rolling hills naturally. I told him about a ride at Six Flags Magic Mountain called "Gold Rusher", which is a coaster that does just that - stays lower to the ground while building up a lot of speed.

<<<>>>

Since my "scope" of involvement focused more on music, sound effects and lighting control, I enjoyed these conversations as I didn't have to be the one to engineer how to make it actually happen if Michael really wanted something. But it was so much fun to kick ideas around with him. I would visit parks in different cities and show him photos of rides and possible ways to add music and effects if he wanted to add that particular ride at Neverland.

We also discussed fireworks several times. To the best of my knowledge there were never fireworks at Neverland - at least not a big display. The mountains are typically so dry and combustable up there that virtually any firework is prohibited. Still, we talked about how fun it would be to end a day at Neverland with a huge display of pyro in the sky!

I never went to a Disney park with Michael, but I wish we could have at some point. I know he rented out Disneyland for Elizabeth's and Larry's wedding, and he would sneak down there after hours or put on one of his goofy (no pun intended) disguises to explore the park - but I wish he could have seen it through my eyes, if that makes sense. It's different seeing something without layers of security and people in business suits guiding you past dumpsters and repair shops backstage.

A few days ago the Magic Kingdom in WDW Orlando (my home), introduced their new fireworks show, "Happily Ever After". It's pretty amazing, and I know Michael and I would have talked about it - then. It's a bit odd but I think about him when stuff like this happens, ever after all these years.
A new attraction will open and I can almost hear him giggling with anticipation of wanting to ride it. I think of how we could use today's technology at Neverland - giant projectors and lasers and motion simulators - far more advanced than what we had to work with in the 80s and 90s and 00's. I miss those conversations. I miss being able to talk to him on a "wouldn't it be fun if..." kind of level.

On Wednesday night, May 31st, at 9pm New York time, I will livestream the new fireworks show "Happily Ever After" for you. No, it won't be a multi-camera HD presentation. It will be me and my phone, standing among tens of thousands of other hot, sweaty Magic Kingdom guests. But I would love to for you share it with me if possible. It's Disney. It's magical. It's something that I really think Michael would have loved.
It's not a huge gift, but it's a nod to my friend and his love of all things innocent. It's a small way of saying "Thank You" to Michael for allowing me to be a small part of his world, and to you for allowing me to share many of these experiences with you.

Tickets are on sale for our 3-day adventure in LA next month at SAE Studios at www.inthestudiowithmj.com/events.

Hopefully I'll be able to spend a few minutes with you tomorrow evening at 9pm as I livestream "Happily Ever After" for you! See you then - if You'll Be There!!
Brad

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Re: Brad Sundberg seminars: Making Music With Michael Jackso

Messaggio da soulmum » 7 giugno 2017, 11:57

Latest from Brad:

Where will you be in 21 days?
The HIStory project was monumental in scale. It didn't really start out that way - it was just going to be a best-of project with three or four new songs. But it grew. And grew. And grew.

When I was in New York a few weeks ago Tony Black and I were discussing the HIStory project, which of course we recorded in NY in 1994/1995. He said it was the strangest feeling imaginable to work on projects AFTER HIStory and try to explain to other production teams what it was like. I can't argue with him.
Michael was in full-tilt work mode. He had a lot on his mind and he wanted to get it on tape. At one point we had an estimated 13 recording studios working in various cities - all on HIStory. We were flying musicians, singers and the Andre Crouch Choir (!) in to New York to participate on the project.

Janet Jackson? Of course.
Biggie Smalls? Yep.
Jimmy and Terry? Why not?
The New York Philharmonic Orchestra? Sure!
Stomp? Done.

At one point we put the word out - I swear this is true - that "Michael Jackson wants sounds and sonic landscapes that no one has ever heard before." This was before you could send files via the internet, so envelopes started arriving at the Hit Factory with tapes and floppy discs and home-made CDs of sounds. Boxes of envelopes that we would have to sort through, like letters to Santa in a Christmas movie! It is crazy.
The project got larger and larger, and the songs kept getting stronger.

Moscow.
Earth.
Childhood.
They Don't Care.
Scream.
You Are Not Alone.
Susie. (One of my favorites).

We were pushing the technology to the limits, and the studio crew almost to exhaustion. It's hard to encapsulate how many hours, how much sweat, how many tears, cups of coffee, flights, studio hours, dollars, blown speakers and so on went into it. Likewise, it's hard to explain the depth of friendship, the laughter, the memories, the harmonies, the warmth I feel when I hear those mixes.

I'm not a record critic. I don't write about albums in terms of (stroking my chin and creating a silly accent)..."Clearly the meaning that the artist is trying to convey in this is one of vapid emptiness and isolation, with a sprinkling of the rising sun of hope" blah blah blah. You won't find that at my seminars. Rather, I am bringing you some of the key guys - the engineering team - the ones who were in the room, setting up the microphones, capturing the music that you hear on HIStory.
Eddie Delana and Brian Vibberts were with us from the very beginning - day one. Rob Hoffman joined the team shortly after, as did Tony Black.

It was a small team, yet 23 years later we are all still friends. Think about that.
The end of June is never a "fun" time for MJ fans, I understand that. But I want to celebrate Michael's life. His creativity. His willingness to take a chance and push the boundaries. He had a lot to say in HIStory, and we were there to get it on tape as fast as we could.

I hope you will considering joining us in 21 days in Hollywood as we tackle one of the most incredible projects any of us have ever been a part of - HIStory - on Monday, June 26th.

That evening is "The Extended Remix" - a really fun night for MJ fans.

On Tuesday, June 27th is the "Return To Neverland" with my friend Big Al Scanlan.

On Wednesday, June 28th I will present the full presentation of "In The Studio With MJ 2017"

Tickets are on sale at http://www.inthestudiowithmj.com.events
Will You Be There?
Immagine

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Re: Brad Sundberg seminars: Making Music With Michael Jackso

Messaggio da soulmum » 1 luglio 2017, 11:15

Nice story from Brad today:

We got up early this morning to take advantage of Extra Magic Hours at Disney California Adventure Park. I rode the new Guardians of the Galaxy: Mission Breakout ride at 7am in the first group with barely a cup of coffee to wake me up, and what song accompanies my ride? Michael - singing "One More Chance." The whole car started cheering.

Now, I have heard there is a random playlist of six songs for that ride, so it was a nice surprise.

Oddly enough, there was a very minor malfunction on the ride, as one door didn't open - so afterwards they asked my car if we wanted to ride it again? We moved to a different car so that one could be repaired. I figured I get another song, but nope - there was Michael again for my second ride, singing like no other 11-ish year old ever has! The whole group cheered louder and sang through the ride a second time!

Looking back, it was an amazing three days in the studio, and if you haven't heard - the one and only John Barnes stopped by for a chat on day 3! John was so close to Michael for so many years, and it was an honor to reconnect with him

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Re: Brad Sundberg seminars: Making Music With Michael Jackso

Messaggio da soulmum » 24 luglio 2017, 11:11

Latest from Brad:

Minneapolis - "In The Studio With MJ" is coming to your beautiful city next month - Aug 26th, 2017!!

See, Hear and Learn what it was like to work side-by-side with Michael Jackson on three of his icon albums (Bad, Dangerous and HIStory), plus being part of the team that designed and built Neverland Valley Ranch.

A full day in the studio, with an optional evening event called "The Extended Remix" that you basically have to experience to fully understand.
I hope you can us in Minneapolis next month - In The Studio With MJ!
Will You Be There?


Tickets are on sale now - http://tinyurl.com/y8u5cowg

www.inthestudiowithmj.com

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Re: Brad Sundberg seminars: Making Music With Michael Jackso

Messaggio da soulmum » 3 agosto 2017, 9:56

Track Sheets, Multitracks and Vaults

Have you ever talked to someone in the military or law enforcement, and they sort of have their own language? They have numbers and abbreviations for various phrases and such. Many of them are not exactly family-friendly so I'll spare you examples, by my point is that Studio Rats also have a language of their own - albeit not nearly as comprehensive as the military.

I have often jumped into a story in a seminar or lecture and assumed that my guests know what a track is, or a track sheet, or a multitrack. Then someone might bravely raise their hand and ask me to define those terms - which I am always happy to do. So, let's go to basic studio school for a bit if you are interested. (If you only came here to find out if Michael put hot sauce on his popcorn, the answer is yes.)

I could go into a very long explanation about the history of multitrack recording, what with Les Paul and Mary Ford being early pioneers, but I quickly discovered that good old Wikipedia does a pretty decent job of explaining the history. https://en.wikipedia.org/wi…/History...rack_recording
Two quick comments: First, if you glance at the article you might read that Patty Page recorded a song in 1947 called "Confess", which was the first vocal-on-vocal recording, ever. Bill Putnam was her engineer, and who do you suppose Bill mentored later in his career? No other than a young Bruce Swedien - who of course was Michael's engineer from The Wiz on! How cool is that? Bruce - a pioneer in his own right - learned his craft from the guy that recorded the first multirack vocal-on-vocal! Next - and stay with me on this - you can't imagine how crucial having multiple tracks to record on has been to the artists and records you love. Not to disrespect Michael in the least, but Liberian Girl without the ability to stack vocals would be a pretty one-dimensional song.

So - what is a track?

A track is a single recording, from a single human voice to a full orchestra - whatever the engineer wants it to be. For example, if I were to record a drum kit, I might put microphones on the snare, the high-hat, the kick drum, each of the toms (let's assume there are four), then two over the drummer's head for the cymbals, and two further back in the room for the "room sound" of the drums. By my count that's 11 mics (big drum sessions often use quite a few more) - so you would record those to 11 "tracks".

How to keep track of all of these tracks (before the days of tapeless recording)? The Track Sheet! Now, when you play those track back into a console, each fader on the console controls the volume for each track. So, if i were playing the tape for the song Dangerous (as shown), and wanted to hear more strings, I would push up faders 21 and 22. Notice how the drums have been submixed down to just two tracks on 15 and 16? That's so the engineer can have a nice mix ready to go for the singer - who on this particular session is Michael Jackson. Notice how we are recording Michael on tracks 1-6? He is recording various "takes" of his vocal on those tracks, then we will compile those takes onto one track - called a "comp" mix - but we'll dig deeper into that on another post.

During MJ albums we burned through a lot of tracks. Like... thousands. And these tracks filled a lot of multitrack tapes. Like... hundreds. And keeping track of all of these tracks, track sheets and tapes took the organizational skills of a school librarian. That was part of the job.

All of these tapes were stored in tape vaults in the studios, and typically only a very few people would have the keys to those vaults. Then, to make it even more complicated - as the projects got larger and larger, Michael would be working in 2, then 5, then 9, then (during the HIStory project) as many as 14 studios at once. And he would need specific tapes in each of those studios. This was before you could "send a file" over the internet - we actually had to deliver the tapes! Sometimes by car, sometimes by FedEx, sometimes hand-carried on flights.

When we moved the HIStory project from New York to LA for mixing, we hired a 53' semi-truck to move us from Hit Factory to Record One, and (to the best of my memory), not a single tape or track sheet was lost. It as a logistical nightmare and masterpiece all at the same time!

All this because Les Paul and Mary Ford, then Bill Putnam and Patty Page, discovered how to create beautiful music by using more than one track. Michael and the team took that to a whole new level with some songs filling more than 200 tracks and scores of tapes!

So the next time I start using phrases or studio terms that you don't fully understand, please don't hesitate to let me know. In the meantime - go listen to "Liberian Girl", where you are hearing Michael stack his background vocals 16 times! THAT... is how good multitrack recording can sound.
We have a very busy few months in front of us.

Minneapolis/St. Paul is just under four weeks away, followed by Seattle. San Paulo, Brazil and Orlando (finally) are also coming together.
It has been a crazy summer, so thank you for your flexibility, but we are getting back on track this fall.

Tickets for upcoming events are on sale now at www.inthestudiowithmj.com

Keep The Faith, and stay on track! LOL

Brad

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Re: Brad Sundberg seminars: Making Music With Michael Jackso

Messaggio da soulmum » 8 agosto 2017, 11:59

Minneapolis/St. Paul

I have very deep roots in the "Twin Cities" of Minneapolis/St. Paul. My parents grew up, met and married in Minnesota. Most of my extended family still lives in Minnesota. Most of my early vacations as a kid were spent in Minnesota on lakes, in the cities, riding buses, visiting cousins, going to the Mall of America (anyone remember Camp Snoopy?), finding county fairs further up north... on and on.

Bruce Swedien also called Minnesota "home" for his early life. (He converted a movie theater into a recording studio - which is still in operation in Minneapolis). He - and several of my cousins - graduated from Minnihaha Academy, which tragically suffered a horrible, accidental yet deadly explosion this past week.
I have visited the Twin Cities too many times to count, usually to see family and friends - but I have never hosted a seminar in Minnesota.

Minnesota has a rich musical history - from Jimmy and Terry to Prince and Soul Asylum and the Replacements. Even when I was on staff at Westlake in LA there many times our technicians were in Minnesota building parts of Paisley Park or Flyte Tyme Studios - and we waited anxiously for them to return with stories or photos. When I got to work with Susan Rogers (one of Prince's engineers), I likely hounded her with questions about Paisley Park, their equipment, working style, etc. In the early 90's I did manage a nice tour of Flyte Tyme. It's always great to see a world-class studio in a city outside of LA or NY.

During my countless trips to Minnesota we always had a tradition of eating at White Castle. If you don't know what White Castle is, I actually feel a bit sad for you. They are the best little sliders (mini-burgers) ever created. Some people call them bus station food - I call them delicious.

During the HIStory album I would fly back and forth between LA (home) and NY (studio) for about 15 months. Once I found out that there was a White Castle not far from JFK Airport in Queens, I would ask the driver to stop there when I landed and on several occasions I showed up in the studio with a couple giant sacks of Castles for Michael, Bruce and the crew. A nod to my childhood trips to Minnesota, and they were a big hit with everyone - including Applehead.

On Saturday, Aug. 26th, I am proudly and excitedly bringing "In The Studio With MJ" and "The Tour of Neverland/Extended Remix" to the High School for Recording Arts in St. Paul, Minnesota. It's a bit of a homecoming for me as I have so much family that I will be seeing for a few days - and a quick visit to the Minnesota State Fair!

I want to invite you to spend a day with me in the studio learning what it was like to work with, learn from and laugh with the greatest entertainer of our generation - Michael Jackson.

Hear things you have never heard.
See things you have never seen.
Learn things you never knew.
Tickets are on sale now - Will You Be There?

www.inthestudiowithmj.com

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Re: Brad Sundberg seminars: Making Music With Michael Jackso

Messaggio da soulmum » 10 agosto 2017, 9:52

Brad Sundberg‏ @InStudioWithMJ 8. Aug.

I've seen a lot of talk about the IJCSLY bed in this photo. But people are missing that's @QuincyDJones & StevieWonder at the piano for JGF
Immagine

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Re: Brad Sundberg seminars: Making Music With Michael Jackso

Messaggio da soulmum » 17 agosto 2017, 11:43

Minneapolis/ St. Paul: On Saturday, Aug. 26th,
It's BOGO time!

We will be in the Twin Cities in ten days and I want as many people as possible to experience a day "In The Studio!"

Are you a Michael Jackson fan?
Are you a music lover?
Have you wondered what it was like to work in the studio with Michael?
Have you ever been curious about the techniques used to record albums like "Bad", "Dangerous" or "HIStory"?
What were the sessions like?
How long did those projects take?
Who was there?
How many songs were recorded?

I want to invite you to join me "In The Studio With MJ" see, hear and learn what it was like to work with, laugh with, learn from and spend time with the greatest entertainer of our generation - Michael Jackson.

I will be bringing my full seven-hour music and video-filled seminar, along with my "Extended Remix/Tour of Neverland" on Saturday, Aug 26th, 2017 at The High School For Recording Arts in St. Paul.

Hear things you have never heard.
See things you have never seen.
Learn things you never knew.
For the next ten days if you purchase one ticket, you can bring a friend at no additional charge. Buy-One-Get-One!

Will You Be There?

Tickets on sale now at www.inthestudiowithmj.com

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Re: Brad Sundberg seminars: Making Music With Michael Jackso

Messaggio da soulmum » 30 agosto 2017, 11:48

August 29, 2017
I don't remember big birthday celebrations in the studio during the EO/Bad/Dangerous/HIStory era, but I do recall Michael's chefs bringing cake or of course banana puddin' to make the day more special for everyone.

Michael was of course raised as a Jehovah Witness, so birthdays were frowned upon. As the years went by he seemed to separate himself from that rule - especially when his own kids came along. Brad Buxer tells a story of Blanket's birthday in Vegas with a giant assortment of musicians, entertainers, magicians, gifts, etc. Still - during those many birthdays we all celebrated in the studio, I don't remember giant celebrations - particularly for Michael.

Two things do pop into my head however whenever I think of birthdays as they relate to Michael. The first is when each of my girls were born (their actual BIRTHday), he had enormous gift baskets delivered to the house. It was both unexpected and remarkably generous on his part. Like most things in Michael-world, these were not small, gift-shop trinkets. They were huge and beautiful and perhaps a bit over-the-top! And they were greatly appreciated.

When Prince was born we gave him a book to welcome him into the world, and Michael responded with a very sweet hand-written note of thanks, which we cherish to this day.

The second thing I think of when it comes to birthdays is something I saw at Neverland. In the back office of the main house - where the staff could take breaks - was a scheduling calendar, like you might see in any office or workplace. (Neverland was a workplace after all for quite a large staff). On the bottom of the calendar was a list of birthdays for each month for the staff members, with a heading that read "The Most Special Day Of The Year!" Most staff members got their birthday off unless there happened to be a large event at the ranch that needed "all hands on deck". The staff always seemed very understanding if they had to schedule their birthday time off for another date due to another event.

The thing about our studio days is that the projects were very long (8-15 months) and "all-consuming". It may not make sense, but the hours were so long that we really didn't make a priority to run to the store to buy birthday cards and gifts for everyone on the crew, so we did the best we could with a special meal together and maybe some really out-of-tune singing of Happy Birthday over a cake and ice cream. We were together so much that we didn't really need much more than that.
Still, if I had the chance to write him one more card, share one more bowl of banana puddin' and offer up one more birthday hug - it would make the day a lot more special.

I miss him, and I celebrate this special day.
Happy Birthday Applehead!
Brad

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Re: Brad Sundberg seminars: Making Music With Michael Jackso

Messaggio da soulmum » 10 settembre 2017, 16:37

Brad's Forthcoming events, Autumn / Winter 2017- 18 (all tickets on sale):

In The Studio With MJ 2017 - Madrid

OCTOBER 13TH, 2017 6:00 pm
OCTOBER 14TH, 2017 6:00 pm
Calle de Alcalá, 265, 28027 Madrid, Spain

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

In The Studio With MJ 2017 - Milan

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 17TH, 2017 11:00 am – 10:00 pm
Milan, Italy

---------------------------------------------------------------------
In The Studio With MJ 2017 - Oslo

OCTOBER 20TH, 2017 6:00 pm
OCTOBER 21ST, 2017 6:00 pm
Oslo, Norway

----------------------------------------------------------------
In The Studio With MJ 2017 - Edmonton

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 4TH, 2017 11:00 am – 10:00 pm
Edmonton, AB, Canada

----------------------------------------------------------------------
In The Studio With MJ 2017 - Sao Paulo Brazil

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 11TH, 2017

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
In The Studio With MJ 2018 - Tokyo

JANUARY 20TH, 2018 11:00 am
JANUARY 21ST, 2018 7:30 pm
Japan, 〒154-0023 Tōkyō-to, Setagaya-ku, Wakabayashi, 1 Chome−30−8

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
In The Studio With MJ 2018 - Osaka

JANUARY 27TH, 2018 11:00 am
JANUARY 28TH, 2018 7:30 pm
Japan, 〒154-0023 Tōkyō-to, Setagaya-ku, Wakabayashi, 1 Chome−30−8

In The Studio With MJ

www.inthestudiowithmj.com

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Re: Brad Sundberg seminars: Making Music With Michael Jackso

Messaggio da soulmum » 29 settembre 2017, 10:26

Latest from Brad:

It All Seemed So Simple
18 years is a long time - enough time to get to know someone pretty well.
I knew when he was happy, and I knew when he was uncomfortable. The goal was to make him happy.
Every.
Single.
Time.

I was very fortunate to work with him in different parts of his world, which was rare among team-members.

EO
Bad
Dangerous
HIStory
Tours
Grammys
Moonwalker
Havenhurst
Neverland
Video Shoots
Super Bowl
Special Projects
18 Years.

It's funny - it takes me about a second to type or say the word "Neverland", yet just the word floods my mind with scores, if not hundreds of images and memories. Just the phrase "I helped build Neverland" doesn't really encompass how amazing the whole thing was.

Neverland, at it's peak, had a staff of something like 80 people. And that doesn't include contractors, electricians, builders, etc., who would create everything from train stations to a zoo. The scope of Neverland was jaw-dropping, and it was a huge part of my life for nearly two decades.
The photo of the bumper cars always makes me smile. The owner loved that ride! The sound system (my creation) was club-level volumes. The side panels would usually be closed, and when guests were coming to the park the guys would fill the ride with fog, start the strobe lights, the disco ball, and the music. It was like thunder in there - insanely loud!
Bumper cars, so I learned, have pre-determined speed controls - which set maximum speed the cars can move. This way if a ride is installed in a park for small kids the cars bump very gently. The owner had no interest in slow-moving bumper cars, so it was set to max and - upon being smashed into full speed by the owner and other guests - you felt it.

Neverland also featured two trains. The "Little Train", which was used extensively to shuttle groups from the ornate gate to the park and zoo, and the "Big Train", which was more of a beautiful featured attraction. The owner called me and asked me to design a monster music system for his new train. Let the games begin!
I quickly had to learn about generators, power conditioning, how much amplification would be needed for that many speakers, passive subwoofers, on and on. This was not just a train - it was for Neverland, and no corners would be cut.

People sometimes ask what my favorite thing at Neverland was, and it is nearly impossible to answer, but the big train (Katherine) is pretty tough to beat.
He wore a lot of hats.
He was my boss.
He was my client.
He was the owner.
He was the artist.
He was the performer.
He was the singer.
He was the songwriter.
He came up the ideas, but he also listened to ours.
He wrote music, but he loved other songwriters.
He knew what he wanted, and he built a team who could deliver.
He was kind.
He was funny.
He was smart.
He was talented.
He was generous.
He was a good friend, and I'd like to introduce him to you.

His name is Michael, and he was like no one you have ever met. I'd like to tell you what it was like to laugh with him, work with him and learn from him.
We have some amazing events planned for the next few weeks in Madrid, Milan and Oslo.

Madrid
Friday, Oct 13
6pm - 10pm
SAE Studios
The Extended Remix and The Tour Of Neverland

Madrid
Saturday, Oct 14
11am - 5:30pm
SAE Studios
In The Studio With MJ 2017

Milan
Tuesday, Oct 17
11am - 5:30pm
SAE Studios
In The Studio With MJ 2017

Milan
Tuesday, Oct 17
6pm - 10pm
SAE Studios
The Extended Remix and The Tour Of Neverland

Oslo
Saturday Oct 21st
11am - 5:30pm
PhatCat Studios
In The Studio With MJ 2017

Oslo
Saturday Oct 21st
6pm - 10pm
PhatCat Studios
The Extended Remix and The Tour Of Neverland

After that, we'll be in Edmonton on Nov 4th and Sao Paulo on Nov 11th!

Tickets for all events are on sale now at http://tinyurl.com/ybyv65oh
or
www.inthestudiowithmj.com

18 years is a long time, but I wouldn't trade them for the world!
Will You Be There?

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Re: Brad Sundberg seminars: Making Music With Michael Jackso

Messaggio da soulmum » 30 ottobre 2017, 10:50

BRAD SUNDBERG IN THE STUDIO WITH MJ RETURNING TO DUBLIN IRELAND 2018

Megan, the organiser of the previous Brad Sundberg Dublin Seminars has contacted Brad about returning to Dublin in 2018. Like before she has created a Facebook event page to promote the event and get an idea of the amount of people who would attend a Dublin seminar. She needs approx 35 people who would genuinely be able to buy a ticket and attend the Dublin seminars to register on the Facebook page before Brad will add Dublin to his schedule and start looking for a venue.

This is the event Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/events/1976370335985988/

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Re: Brad Sundberg seminars: Making Music With Michael Jackso

Messaggio da soulmum » 29 novembre 2017, 9:56

Latest from Brad:

According to Wikipedia, Dangerous was released on November 26th, 1991 - just under 9500 days ago, which is another way of saying 26 years and one day ago.
A lot has been written about Michael, the Dangerous album, the various songs, producers, etc. I have written quite a bit, and it remains both my favorite album AND my favorite portion of the seminars. I love talking about Dangerous.
But I was thinking about project last night and I had a completely nutty idea. (You might even say my idea is a bit Off The Wall.) If you look through the liner notes (many of which I wrote myself), there are names and bits of info that likely mean very little to you, so I thought it might be fun to introduce you to a few people.

To be fair - I have not asked permission, and in many cases I have not spoken to some of them in, well, 9500 days. So this is a pure stream of memories that takes me back to that time and place. As with all memories, this is not based on intensive research - these were just people I knew and likely have lost touch with. Curious? So am I, so let's get started.

Dangerous was recorded at Record One, Larrabee North and Westlake. A few of the orchestra sessions were done in Hollywood at Oceanway, and a few sessions at Toad Hall and Smoketree. My time was mostly split between Record One (mostly in the first half of the album) and Larrabee (for the much of the second half). There were many sessions that I was not part of as it was such a large project.

Princess Stephanie / Nancy Reagan
The "Mystery Girl" Princess joined us at Larrabee Studios for her vocals on "Closet". She was very sweet, very pretty and quite shy. I seem to remember that she was there within a few weeks of Nancy Reagan. Nancy came for a visit with Michael after the Secret Service spent a few hours checking the studio for anything out of the ordinary. It was a studio - everything is out of the ordinary. Both guests were kind and respectful to us.

Rene Moore
Rene was Bruce Swedien's songwriter/arranger. Rene was the Rene from Rene and Angela - an 80's R&B duo. He was funny could fly on an MPC-60 - Bruce's drum machine of choice. Bruce and I had recorded hundreds of acoustic drums into his MPC, so his sounds were incredible, and Rene was a master at creating great grooves. Can you say "Jam"?

Bruce "Desk Doctor" Millett
Bruce was (and is) a technical wizard. Professional studios with their mammoth consoles, patch bays and racks of gear take an enormous amount of technical "TLC" to maintain, or the records sound like a Justin Bieber demo. This is old school soldering, oscilloscopes, replacing capacitors, etc. Although you can't "hear" the work of guys like Bruce, the results speak for themselves.

Laura Grover and Nina Greenfield
Our production coordinators, Laura and Nina helped book studios, musicians, worked on scheduling and day-to-day tasks that we needed help with. Jolie Levine was our production coordinator on the Bad album, so having two peiple helped distribute the work load now that we had three production teams at work. I remember that Nina got married at or near the end of the project, and Laura got very sick one afternoon and I had to rush her to the hospital. Thankfully she was fine and returned to work within a few days.

Lotti Kierkegaard
Lotti was one of our runners at Record One, who (I believe) was originally from Sweden. I say this with tremendous respect - but she created the most beautiful fruit baskets you have ever seen! Every day she would purchase fresh fruit and arrange it meticulously so when Michael and the crew arrived it looked amazing. She was a friendly, familiar face - part of our little studio family.

Rob Disner
I have written about Rob before (we are friends to this day), as he was another one of our runners. For the sake of clarity - a studio runner helps keep the studios clean, brings in groceries, lunches, runs errands, etc. Rob brought his dry humor to the team and was sent on several assignments, often from Michael himself. At the risk of stealing Rob's thunder, I believe his favorite story was when Michael sent him out for some fresh "tidy whities", as well as the time Michael asked Rob to bring him some McDonald's food from next door. "What to you want?" Rob asked. "Everything," Michael responded. So... Rob brought back several sacks of Mickie D's for Michael's junk-food extravaganza.

Slam-Dunk Sisters Katherine and Laura
Speaking of food - Katherine and Laura were Michael's personal chefs, whom he generously commissioned to cook for the entire crew every Friday (Family Fridays). Katherine was more outspoken - the leader of the two. Laura was a bit more reserved, but they could cook! Bruce Swedien loved Family Fridays I think more than anyone, and Katherine and Laura prepared amazing feasts of turkey, roast beef, fried chicken, mashed potatoes, veggies, salads, and of course... banana puddin'. This was my favorite, and Michael's as well. They brought food and laughter to the studio every week.

Aaron Berg
I love that Aaron received a credit! Aaron was one of the kindest guys I had encountered in my studio-life. He was the rep from 3M tapes - the tape that Bruce Swedien preferred to use on his projects. Back then, the choice was either 3M or Ampex - and they were fierce competitors. It was a big deal for a major artist like Michael to use either 3M or Ampex - it was bragging rights for the manufacture. We used so much tape (hundreds and hundreds of reels, at more than $200/each) that Aaron would personally check on us many times through the project - he was a great friend. If there were any imperfections or problems with a certain batch of tape, Aaron would take care of it immediately. Given the sheer scope of the project, having a guy like Aaron on the team was vital - but his mid-west friendliness made us actually look forward to his visits. (I seem to remember he usually stopped by on Family Fridays for some reason...)

Thom Russo
Thom and I got to be very close during the Dangerous album, and I have watched his career explode in the best possible way from those early days. Thom has earned more than 12 Grammys for his engineering since our days at Larrabee, primarily with Latin artists. His talent and humor were a huge bonus to the Dangerous album, but one evening he and I were doing some edits to the flugel horn solo on the song "Someone Put Your Hand Out", and we started doing crazy pitch manipulation to the horn. It's hard to explain why it was so funny, but the long hours and constant exhaustion caught up with us as we intensionally destroyed the solo for our own pleasure - and we laughed so hard that I think he rolled on the floor and I wiped tears off my cheeks. Remind me and I'll play it for you sometime at a seminar, but it's sort of one of those "you had to be there" things.

Matt Forger
My buddy Matt. I am honored to still be good friends with Matt, even if we live a couple thousand miles apart. Matt goes WAY back with Michael, to Thriller. His engineering chops mixed with his warm personality made Matt a fixture on the team. During Dangerous Matt got very involved in digital editing and sonic landscaping. The intro to "Black Or White" (bang bang bang!! "It's too late for this!") is all done by Matt (the dad voice is Bill Bottrell). Vocals, intros, transitions, crazy edits - Matt. Matt was using a giant sampling system that I think was made by Lexicon, but in just a couple years it would be replaced by Pro Tools - the recording format for most studios and engineers around the world. Michael loved Matt, and it was always fun to watch the two of them interact, as they were so comfortable together. They had this bit called "The Matt Forger Show", where Michael would say in a wacky voice, "Ladies and Gentleman, the Matt Forger Show, starring Matt Forger!", then Matt would jump in and say "And featuring today's special guest, Michael Jackson!" I can hear it like it was yesterday.

Steve Porcaro
Siedah Garrett
David Paich
Marty Paich (David's dad)
Bart Stevens
Brad Buxer
This list goes on and on.

It was an amazing project, filled with amazing faces and talents.
We laughed together.
We worked together.
It was innocent.
It was cut-throat.
It as huge.
It was fun.
It was hard.
It was a family.
It was a battlefield.
It was exhausting.
It was electrifying.
It was Dangerous - and I consider it an honor to have worked with each and every person that was part it.

>>>In The Studio With MJ 2018 launches in January with a couple pop-up events in Orlando, followed by an amazing weekend in Tokyo at Noah Studio on January 20th and 21st! New segments. New stories. New insights.<<<

https://ticketbud.com/…/550a83a0-47f...2-1fe0eb34743d

Soon to be announced for 2018:
London
Toronto
Dublin
Moscow
New York
Amsterdam
Copenhagen
Stockholm
Los Angeles
Edmonton
Frankfurt

The journey continues..

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Re: Brad Sundberg seminars: Making Music With Michael Jackso

Messaggio da soulmum » 23 dicembre 2017, 9:47

Latest from Brad: Currently planned 2018 dates / locations:

In The Studio is coming to town!!

Jan 13 - Orlando

Jan 26/27 - Nashville

Feb 23/24 - London

Mar 16/17 - Toronto

Apr 20/21 - Dublin

May 17 - Osaka

May 19/20 - Tokyo

June 23/34/25 - LA

July 13/14 - Amsterdam

July 17 - Copenhagen (Tuesday)

July 20/21 - Stockholm

Aug 29/30/31 - Moscow

Sept 21/22 - London

Oct 10/11 - Cologne

Oct 12/13 - Frankfurt

Nov 2/3 - Edmonton

Dec 7/8 - New York

Jan 2019 - Australia (Cities TBD)

https://www.facebook.com/inthestudiowithmj/?ref=br_tf

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Re: Brad Sundberg seminars: Making Music With Michael Jackso

Messaggio da soulmum » 4 gennaio 2018, 9:20

Brad Sundberg @InStudioWithMJ



@MJJLegion Help spread the word so no #MJFam missed out. Tickets for ALL seminars now on sale. Visit http://inthestudiowithmj.com for more

00:09 - 3. Jan. 2018

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Re: Brad Sundberg seminars: Making Music With Michael Jackso

Messaggio da soulmum » 12 gennaio 2018, 14:05

Latest from Brad:

It's cold outside, but it's warm In The Studio...

Greetings Studio Rats!! I hope 2018 is treating you well so far.

The past couple weeks we have been editing and fine-tuning the seminar like never before. Today we were working on some of the transitions and I stumbled across a mix that I hadn't heard in years - seriously. I sat and listened to it a couple times, and just for a moment I was back at Record One in the early 90's, listening to it for the first time.

It's funny sometimes when I look at one of our production calendars from those projects and see just how fast we worked, and how hard we would push Michael towards the end of a project. He was a notorious procrastinator when it came to finishing writing the lyrics, and singing the final vocals. We were always against the absolute deadline that CBS/Sony would give us, with Michael singing almost at the same time Bruce was mixing! Song after song - the pressure was real for everyone.

I have tried to explain this in my seminars, but you almost can't imagine how exhausting those last few weeks are on one of Michael's projects. There are 168 hours in a week, and I clearly remember turning in my timesheet with more than 110 hours in a week on several occasions. You get so tired that your body is almost numb. You don't know whether to laugh or cry, you just keep going. Even in final days of mixing, when we all looked like death-warmed-over, I don't remember any snippy words or arguing, we knew we were working on something incredible, and adrenaline just sort of took over. How can you be angry when you are getting paid to work on songs like "Give In To Me", "Will You Be There" and "In The Closet"? Song after song, hour after hour, lead vocal after lead vocal. If Michael can do it, so can I.

I was talking with Matt Forger last night and we once again said how the guys in those productions are still friends - 20+ years later. We all have our own lives, some in the industry, some not, but we were part of something remarkable - and we don't take that for granted.

Michael would have been 60 this year.

There are no more lead vocals to record.
No late nights wondering how he is still able to stand.
No more raiding the fridge for a 2am bowl of Katherine and Laura's Banana Puddin'.
The songs are mixed, the microphones are put away, the studio is dark.

It's days like this when I find a mix and listen to it - intently - it's like a hug from an old friend.

I can't bring you back to the Hit Factory in New York in 1994, but I show you what it was like.

I can't bring you back to Record One in Sherman Oaks in 1990, but I can take you deep into many of those songs.

I can't bring you back to Westlake in Hollywood in 1986, but I can give you glimpse of what life in the studio was like.

Music is funny sometimes. It picks you up and takes you somewhere in time, in your memory, in your imagination.

I hear a few notes and I can taste banana puddin'.
I hear Michael's voice and I am momentarily back in a warm studio, like a kid in a candy store, watching guys like Steve Porcaro or Brad Buxer create - music.
I hear the jokes in my head, I see Bruce add just a pinch of EQ that most people could never detect, yet the song gets ever stronger.
It's all right there - in my mind - waiting for a musical trigger to release those beautiful memories.

I was listening to Fleetwood Mac's "Rumours" album (vinyl) earlier today on an amazing pair of speakers with one of my daughters. I was explaining to her that this album was incredibly popular when I was growing up, and it was one of many that pulled into the recording industry. As we were talking the acoustic guitar strings of Gold Dust Woman started to play. I stopped talking and just listened. The mixing of that record - the soundscape - is so rich it reaches outside of the speakers and wraps around you.

Well did she make you cry
Make you break down
Shatter your illusions of love
And is it over now
Do you know how
Pick up the pieces and go home

One week from now I'll presenting "In The Studio With MJ 2018". I'm excited and nervous - but mostly excited.

I want my events to reflect - in some small way - the pursuit of perfection and creativity that Michael strove for.

He was an artist, but also a great guy.
I miss him, but if I can give you a glimpse into the Studio, into his humor and talent - I've done my job.

I hope you will consider joining me in Orlando next weekend, followed by Nashville and host of other amazing cities.

It's cold outside, but it's warm In The Studio.
Will You Be There?

Tickets on sale now

https://ticketbud.com/events/search?...n=&%5Bsort%5D=

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Re: Brad Sundberg seminars: Making Music With Michael Jackso

Messaggio da soulmum » 16 gennaio 2018, 16:14

Latest from Brad:

Your Attention Please...
Your Attention Please...

Orlando - what a great weekend!! KDS Studios was a great venue, the sound was on-point, and our guests were fantastic! It's nice when everything comes together.

KDS has a pretty cool history in Orlando as it was home to the "Boy Bands" like N'Sync and Backstreet Boys. I am told that Eminem also spent a lot of time at KDS. (Now do you get the intro?)

I previewed several new segments for the 2018 shows, and the response was very positive. As always, I am grateful to you studio rats for hanging out with me, digging into these songs and stories.

Now - I have some very exciting news for our Nashville event: We have secured Southern Grounds Studio - owned by Zak Brown! This is a legit facility with a rich history in music, and I so excited to bring my seminar, Tour of Neverland and The Remix to their beautiful facility!

Just after that we hop across the pond for a weekend in London at Fiction Studios. It's going to be a very busy February.

I have added an entire segment on the song "You Are Not Alone". I can't say too much, but even as I was building this I was blown away by how much work and transformation that song went through. I previewed with my Orlando guests this weekend and I think they really liked it.

One of the things that always strikes me when I present my seminar is how willing Michael was to take chances, to push the limits and try new things. As we are now celebrating what would have been his 60th birthday year, I want to give my guests a blend of the stories they know and appreciate along with some new ideas - digging a bit deeper into Michael's catalog. I think you will be pleased with the result.

Have a great week, and I hope to see you In The Studio in 2018!

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Re: Brad Sundberg seminars: Making Music With Michael Jackso

Messaggio da soulmum » 31 gennaio 2018, 8:39

Latest from Brad:

Nashville.

I've talked about this in some of my seminars, but some cities have a "sound". Speaking in very broad terms, musicians and engineers from LA have a different feel and approach than their NY counterparts. I swear this is true - a few of us in the studio used to listen to CDs and try to figure out where they were mixed before we read the liner notes. NY records - particularly if they have a horn section - sound like NY. Would anyone ever think an Eagles or Fleetwood album was mixed at Power Station in NY? Not hardly, they sound of pure LA.

Then there was Nashville.

There were always these "stories" about what sessions were like in Nashville. Real drums. Real musicians. 3-hour time blocks. Old pros. Young prodigies. Historic studios.

I had always heard about "Music Row", but I had never stepped foot in a studio there. I've been in studios from Tokyo to Stockholm, Berlin to Perth - but never in Nashville. At least not until now.

And if we are going to bring my seminar to Nashville - why not go right to Zak Brown's own Southern Ground Studio?

There is a mystique and history in all studios, but this one - am told - has a long heritage.

I remember the first time I walked through the "old" Hit Factory in New York - now long gone. This was where Paul Simon, Stevie Wonder and John Lennon worked and created. The walls almost wanted to talk, to tell those stories - and you could feel it.

Now we are entering a studio where names like Tillis, Allman, Gatlin, Frampton, Clapton and Shelton are all found in the guest book. Roger Miller, Vince Gil and Willie Nelson have all spent time at Southern Ground. I am not a country aficionado, but names like that command tremendous respect. Yes - I'm excited. To be a fly on the wall for some of those sessions...

So it is with great pride that I will be hosting "In The Studio With MJ" at Southern Ground on Feb 17th, 2018.
You know Michael Jackson, but do you really know what it was like to work with him?

I first met Michael in 1984, during a project called "Captain EO". Little did I know back then that over the next 18 years I would spend countless hours with him working on projects like "Bad", "Dangerous" and "HIStory".

Dance mixes.

Video shoots.

Special projects.

Tour preparations.

Neverland Valley Ranch.

He was my boss.

He was my client.

He was like no one I have met.

His name is Michael Jackson, and I'd like to introduce you to him.

<><><><><>

Getting curious?

Let me share a few words from my friend Joe Vogel:

”Brad’s seminars offer a fascinating, eye (and ear)-opening experience, in which genuine insights about Michael Jackson as an artist, a person and a friend, are revealed. I thoroughly enjoyed the warm, conversational approach and the deep well of materials. There were several goosebump moments. Brad puts you right there, inside the studio in those eras, and shows how the magic was made. I couldn’t recommend it more to both fans of Jackson and anyone who cares about music.”

JOSEPH VOGEL

AUTHOR OF MAN IN THE MUSIC: THE CREATIVE LIFE AND WORK OF MICHAEL JACKSON

<><><><><>

In The Studio With MJ is coming to Nashville for the first time on Feb 17th, 2018.

I know you'd "expect" me to say this, but the 2018 seminar is bigger and better than ever - with some great new segments that you are going to love. I am so excited to share it with you!

Hear things you have never heard.
See things you have never seen.
Learn things you never know.

Tickets on sale now - https://tinyurl.com/ybyv65oh

Will You Be There?

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Re: Brad Sundberg seminars: Making Music With Michael Jackso

Messaggio da soulmum » 21 febbraio 2018, 9:21

Latest from Brad:

Track Sheets, Multitracks and Vaults

Have you ever talked to someone in the military or law enforcement, and they sort of have their own language? They have numbers and abbreviations for various phrases and such. Many of them are not exactly family-friendly so I'll spare you examples, by my point is that Studio Rats also have a language of their own - albeit not nearly as comprehensive as the military.

I have often jumped into a story in a seminar or lecture and assumed that my guests know what a track is, or a track sheet, or a multitrack. Then someone might bravely raise their hand and ask me to define those terms - which I am always happy to do. So, let's go to basic studio school for a bit if you are interested. (If you only came here to find out if Michael put hot sauce on his popcorn, the answer is yes.)

I could go into a very long explanation about the history of multitrack recording, what with Les Paul and Mary Ford being early pioneers, but I quickly discovered that good old Wikipedia does a pretty decent job of explaining the history. https://en.wikipedia.org/wi…/History...rack_recording

Two quick comments: First, if you glance at the article you might read that Patty Page recorded a song in 1947 called "Confess", which was the first vocal-on-vocal recording, ever. Bill Putnam was her engineer, and who do you suppose Bill mentored later in his career? No other than a young Bruce Swedien - who of course was Michael's engineer from The Wiz on! How cool is that? Bruce - a pioneer in his own right - learned his craft from the guy that recorded the first multirack vocal-on-vocal! Next - and stay with me on this - you can't imagine how crucial having multiple tracks to record on has been to the artists and records you love. Not to disrespect Michael in the least, but Liberian Girl without the ability to stack vocals would be a pretty one-dimensional song.

So - what is a track?

A track is a single recording, from a single human voice to a full orchestra - whatever the engineer wants it to be. For example, if I were to record a drum kit, I might put microphones on the snare, the high-hat, the kick drum, each of the toms (let's assume there are four), then two over the drummer's head for the cymbals, and two further back in the room for the "room sound" of the drums. By my count that's 11 mics (big drum sessions often use quite a few more) - so you would record those to 11 "tracks".

How to keep track of all of these tracks (before the days of tapeless recording)? The Track Sheet! Now, when you play those track back into a console, each fader on the console controls the volume for each track. So, if i were playing the tape for the song Dangerous (as shown), and wanted to hear more strings, I would push up faders 21 and 22. Notice how the drums have been submixed down to just two tracks on 15 and 16? That's so the engineer can have a nice mix ready to go for the singer - who on this particular session is Michael Jackson. Notice how we are recording Michael on tracks 1-6? He is recording various "takes" of his vocal on those tracks, then we will compile those takes onto one track - called a "comp" mix - but we'll dig deeper into that on another post.

During MJ albums we burned through a lot of tracks. Like... thousands. And these tracks filled a lot of multitrack tapes. Like... hundreds. And keeping track of all of these tracks, track sheets and tapes took the organizational skills of a school librarian. That was part of the job.

All of these tapes were stored in tape vaults in the studios, and typically only a very few people would have the keys to those vaults. Then, to make it even more complicated - as the projects got larger and larger, Michael would be working in 2, then 5, then 9, then (during the HIStory project) as many as 14 studios at once. And he would need specific tapes in each of those studios. This was before you could "send a file" over the internet - we actually had to deliver the tapes! Sometimes by car, sometimes by FedEx, sometimes hand-carried on flights.

When we moved the HIStory project from New York to LA for mixing, we hired a 53' semi-truck to move us from Hit Factory to Record One, and (to the best of my memory), not a single tape or track sheet was lost. It as a logistical nightmare and masterpiece all at the same time!

All this because Les Paul and Mary Ford, then Bill Putnam and Patty Page, discovered how to create beautiful music by using more than one track. Michael and the team took that to a whole new level with some songs filling more than 200 tracks and scores of tapes!

So the next time I start using phrases or studio terms that you don't fully understand, please don't hesitate to let me know. In the meantime - go listen to "Liberian Girl", where you are hearing Michael stack his background vocals 16 times! THAT... is how good multitrack recording can sound.

We're coming to Nashville this weekend, and London the following!


The following weekend (Sat 24th Feb) we arrive at Fiction Studios in London - one of my favorite little spaces!
Tickets still available.

Hear things you have never heard.
See things you have never seen.
Learn things you never knew.

Will You Be There?

Tickets on sale now - https://tinyurl.com/ybyv65oh

www.inthestudiowithmj.com

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Re: Brad Sundberg seminars: Making Music With Michael Jackso

Messaggio da soulmum » 10 marzo 2018, 9:39

Immagine

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Re: Brad Sundberg seminars: Making Music With Michael Jackso

Messaggio da soulmum » 4 aprile 2018, 10:56

For fans in Ireland, from Brad (I know there are quite a few of you).


U2 recorded there.
So did Paul Simon and Bob Dylan.

On Saturday, April 21st, we will proudly be presenting "In The Studio With MJ" at the beautiful Westland Studios in Dublin.

http://www.westlandstudiosdublin.com/

Can I be 100% honest for a second? We have presented ITSWMJ events roughly 140 times, and our last visit to Dublin was... bumpy.

The city was fantastic, the guests were amazing. But the venue and mid-week scheduling were less than great. I'll spare you the details, but it was memorably "not-perfect", and it has bugged me ever since.

The 2018 seminar is something I am really proud of, and the Tour of Neverland / The Remix is also a lot of fun. So - we're bringing it back to Dublin.

I had a long chat with the studio manager this morning and I think you are in for an amazing venue this time. If you have never been to one of my events, I can assure you I put everything I can into giving you a glimpse into what it was like to work with, laugh with and learn from Michael. I want you to experience how the vocals were recorded, how the studios were prepped, how the songs were written. I want you to feel like you have met someone that I spent 18 years working with.

I know full well that Michael loved Ireland, and the friends we made on our first visit were fantastic. I can't wait for the morning of April 21st to be back in Dublin, in a much better venue, meeting our guests and rolling up my sleeves for a day you will not soon forget.

I hope you will consider joining me In The Studio.

Tickets on sale now at www.inthestudiowithmj.com



Dublin -
In less than three weeks I'll be presenting ITSWMJ 2018 for you at beautiful Westland Studios!

Hear things you have never heard.
See things you have never seen.
Learn things you never knew.

Brad

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Re: Brad Sundberg seminars: Making Music With Michael Jackso

Messaggio da soulmum » 15 aprile 2018, 10:40

��Experience Michael Jackson in the recording studio, at the very heart of his creative process. You’ll hear music and behind-the-scenes stories. You’ll see video and photographs. You’ll learn how Michael interacted with his team and how they combined focus and discipline with creativity, fun, and food.

��Learn how Michael wrote songs, and how they progressed from the original demo to the album version. Brad will explain and demonstrate how the songs changed and progressed along the way, as they were edited, remixed and restructured for various dance mixes, short films and live tours.

��Discover Michael’s vision and exacting standards for the sound and video systems at Neverland Valley Ranch – including his dance studio and personal listening systems – to give his family and guests an incredible experience.

��All of this takes place inside an actual recording studio, for a full multi-sensory experience that will leave you feeling as if you were really there. Each seminar is limited to an intimate group of people, so you can ask questions and share conversation with Brad and other guests.

��The 2018 presentation of "In The Studio With MJ" is better than it ever has been! I am very proud of the new material, video segments, music, etc. It takes a lot of effort to create an event like this, and I am very proud of my "behind-the-scenes" team.

��The studio will be spectacular.
��The music was created by the greatest entertainer of our time.
��The stories are true and delivered in the best way I know how.
��It will be fun.
��It will be memorable.
��It will be the place to be on April 21st.

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

��See Things You Have Never Seen
Brad had the unique opportunity to work closely with Michael in the studio on projects like Captain EO, Bad, Dangerous and HIStory. Additionally Michael utilized Brad’s skills to build unique music and video systems for his productions, personal use and of course his amazing home – Neverland Valley Ranch. Be prepared to see things on screen and in your mind that you have never seen.

��Hear Things You Have Never Heard
The process of recording music with Michael was very complex, yet also remarkably simple and pure. Brad will take break songs down in a fun, easy-to-understand way that will take you “behind the scenes” of a recording session and explain multi-track techniques, vocal stacking, songwriting, etc. You will learn that while the team had the most advanced techniques at their fingertips, having Michael behind the microphone required very little in terms of electronic wizardry. As Bruce would say, “Less is more.” Your ears will never hear Michael’s music quite the same way again.

��Learn Things You Never Knew
Michael was remarkably talented, driven, patient, kind, a perfectionist, trusting – and very funny. In a word – he was complicated. He was a terrible driver who loved to drive. He was painfully shy but loved to perform in front of enormous crowds. He tried to eat healthy but loved fries, popcorn and ice cream. He was often the first one in the studio and sometimes the last to leave. He would work for days on end without a break then disappear without warning to Tokyo or London for a few days. He wasn’t perfect, he wasn’t normal – but that’s what made him Michael.

See you soon!
Best,
Brad Sundberg





Some fair questions:
How did my working relationship with Michael begin?
How did the seminars start?
What happens at the seminars?
Do I need to dress like Michael and attempt to Moonwalk at the seminars?

Well, lets start at the beginning. I first met Michael around late 1984 when he was working on pre-production for a movie called Captain EO for Disney. He was working with Matt Forger, and I was a runner (gopher) at Westlake Studios, and we became friends. Not "BFFs" - just friends. I made him laugh, he made me laugh. And so it began. He trusted me, and I took that trust very serious.

I went on to work as part of the team under Bruce Swedien on countless projects, demos, albums, short films, tour preparations, on and on. Albums like Bad, Dangerous and HIStory. Video projects like Moonwalker, Ghosts, 2Bad and In The Closet.
Dance mixes.
Radio mixes.
Video mixes.

Keep in mind these albums lasted sometimes 8-14 months, and a remix might last nearly a week. And the short films were weeks of pre-production followed by many days of actual production.

Then there was Neverland. Almost immediately after Michael purchased Sycamore Valley Ranch (and renamed it Neverland Valley Ranch) I was involved in almost every corner of the ranch putting music on rides, trains, a horse-drawn carriage - even inside a reptile barn! It seemed like it would never end...

But then it did.

After Michael passed away some friends invited me to share some stories and memories in Paris. It was amazing. Then we offered a seminar in New York. Soon we were hosting seminars in Madrid, Stockholm, Los Angeles, Tokyo - on and on. Over time more than 100 events were in the rear-view mirror, and they continue to this day.

The seminar grew and more segments were added. Stories about how songs were written or recorded. Crazy things that happened in the studio. The food we ate. The challenges we faced. The endless learning, laughing and creating.

So what should you expect from my seminar? You will find out what it was like to work with the greatest entertainer of our time. To see his vision. The hear his voice. To learn from his experience. To laugh at his goofiness. To allow me, as much as possible, to introduce him to you.

It's not school.
It's not church.
It's not a comedy routine.
It's not a dance class.
It's not a lecture.
It's not sitting in a circle, weeping around a single candle.

It IS a day that I think you will truly enjoy, and one that I think you will long remember.

You will learn about our recording process.
You will see what it was like in the studio - and why the projects grew so big.
I will take you on a first-person tour of Neverland.

You will hear songs that you know and love in a whole new way - and you will likely never hear them the same again.

I will be in Dublin at the beautiful Westland Studios next Saturday, April 21st for a full day of music, laughter and love for this guy that I was fortunate enough to work with .

I'd like to personally invite you to join me - In The Studio With MJ.

~Brad Sundberg~

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Re: Brad Sundberg seminars: Making Music With Michael Jackso

Messaggio da soulmum » 12 maggio 2018, 10:52

Posted by Brad Sundberg on “The Michael Jackson Archives”;

During the whole project Matt Forger was creating interludes and sound effects on a big digital sampling console that I think was provided by lexicon. Michael liked abrupt endings and sfx, rather than fade -outs.

The B/W intro features Bill Bottrell pounding on the door, and (I believe) his real son answering. Bill had mixed feelings about doing it because he said he would never actually yell at his son like that.

If you're curious about hearing the story first hand, you might want to join us in June in LA because both Bill Bottrell and Matt Forger will be joining me In The Studio. More details to come in the next day or so, but you heard it here first, LOL.

Also, Brad posted this;

“After Thriller and before Bad there were the Hayvenhurst Sessions. Los Angeles June 2018”

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Re: Brad Sundberg seminars: Making Music With Michael Jackso

Messaggio da soulmum » 16 maggio 2018, 11:11

Latest from Brad:

OK - I have some news.

The LA events (June 22/23/24) are in the final planning stages. I can finally officially announce that the one and only Bill Bottrell will be joining us on Saturday, June23rd! If you know anything about Bill, this will be a rare treat! Bill and I have not seen each since 1994, and my plan is to not script or plan anything. Bill and Michael had a very special working relationship and friendship, and you don't want to miss this.

John Barnes and Matt Forger and also scheduled to join us that weekend - and of course Brian Vibberts will likely be there!

Day One (Friday, June 22) we are planning to dig into Captain EO and the Tour of Neverland. After that, I thinking of doing something a bit different with the Remix, where we might actually build a mix and go into detail how it is done.

Day Two (Saturday, June 23) will likely be called "The Havenhurst Sessions", where Bill, John and Matt will talk about the early days at Havenhurst, leading into the Bad and Dangerous albums. Lots and lots of ground to cover.

Day Three (Sunday, June 24) I will present "In The Studio With MJ - 2018". The show has been significantly reworked this year, so even if you have seen it before, there are several new segments along with many of my personal favorites.

We booked into Cascade Studios in Hollywood, and seats are very limited.

We will start the bigger promotional push very soon on FB, Twitter, Instagram, etc., but I wanted to let you know what is coming first.

So... Will You Be There?

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Re: Brad Sundberg seminars: Making Music With Michael Jackso

Messaggio da soulmum » 27 maggio 2018, 10:09

Immagine

Darren Hayes‏Verified account @darrenhayes

Follow Follow @darrenhays

One of the best #MichaelJackson experience I've ever had was attending 'In the Studio with Michael Jackson'. You'll see and hear what it was like to be in the studio with Michael, from the people who were actually there. If you're in LA - GO TO THIS!

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Re: Brad Sundberg seminars: Making Music With Michael Jackso

Messaggio da soulmum » 17 giugno 2018, 10:42

Immagine
Immagine
@InStudioWithMJ
Next Saturday in LA we have an unbelievable line up of #MichaelJackson collaborators. You’ll hear from them first hand what it was like to work with MJ and create his timeless music. Don’t miss it. Tix at http://inthestudiowithmj.com

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Re: Brad Sundberg seminars: Making Music With Michael Jackso

Messaggio da soulmum » 18 giugno 2018, 11:08

Latest from Brad re. LA event next weekend (22 - 24 June 18):

In The Studio With Michael Jackson
Give In To Me

The Dangerous project had three production teams: Bruce, Bill and Teddy.

Let me break it down a bit further.

The project started with Brian Loren, who was both extremely talented and a really nice guy. (This is the no-judgement zone.) Brian was replaced by Teddy Riley during the early months.

Bruce Swedien goes WAY back with Michael - back to the Wiz to be specific. There is no doubt a father-figure persona with Bruce. He, in no small way, was part of how pop and rock records sound. He pushed the limits of recording technology, worked with tape manufactures to get more interesting sounding tapes, he helped design the layouts of many studios. Oh - and he recorded and mixed a little record called Thriller. Bruce commands respect in a session.

So along comes Bill Bottrell. Bill and Michael had a very unique and cool friendship. Bill is high-quality, but more of a "capture the moment" approach. He is much closer to Michael in age, and the two of them created some amazing music together.

Black or White.
Who Is It.
Monkey Business.
And of course - Give In To Me.

During the Dangerous project Bruce was working on the song Jam. Jam got bigger and bigger, and the mix was incredibly complex. Stay with me on this for a minute: You know when you see pictures of studios and the giant consoles? Those can handle perhaps 80 or so tracks each. (There are many tricks to increase that number, but I don't want to get to technical). Jam grew to the point where Bruce needed two consoles - in two side-by-side studios, just to mix it! We had at least four digital multitracks running in sync, feeding into two consoles - with Bruce and the assistants running up and down the hallway to mix this monster. (To my recording friends - yes, there were other methods we could have used to combine tracks, build stems, etc., - but it got to the point of, "why not?").

Bill, on the other hand, perhaps by design kept his track-count down quite a bit. He wanted to have just enough musical elements to make the song sound great, without going over-the-top.

Here's the thing - I appreciate both approaches. I love the lush, over-the-top production of Bruce's production on Will You Be There, but I also love the simplicity of Bill's song Give In To Me.

Give In To Me was born in the studio control room, in one evening.

Bill was noodling around on his drum machine and strumming his guitar, and Michael wanted to record a new song. I helped with much of the recording, while Bill and Michael kicked ideas back and forth.

Bill played, Michael sang.

Michael would come up with an idea, Bill would try it.

Over the course of the evening Give In To Me was created.

Now, I have told the full, detailed story of the song in many cities, to many groups. But this coming weekend you will have a chance to hear it for yourself, from Bill.

We will dig deep into the track, listen to how it came to life - and hear Bill's thoughts from that day.

A lot happened during and after that project.
A lot happened between Michael and Bill.
A lot happened between Bill and the music industry.
And something happened between Bill and I, which caused a painful falling out.
A lot of years have passed, and I am honored - truly honored - that Bill has agreed to join us next weekend at Cascade Studios.

I haven't spoken to Bill - outside of a few emails - since 1994, when we testified on Michael's behalf in a songwriting trial.

This will be real. It will be unrehearsed. There is no Google Map for this.

I take these events very seriously. I occasionally stick my foot in my mouth, or slip up on a date or song-title, but the core intent of sharing these memories with you is pure.

I wasn't a big shot - I looked up to these guys! They were my mentors, and I was and am proud to call them my friends. And they will be with us next weekend.

Matt Forger
Bill Bottrell
John Barnes

I was blessed, truly blessed, to be at the right place at the exact right time and meet them, work with them, laugh with them, befriend them.

We're older now. Lots of years, lots of events, lots of pain, lots of successes, lots of failures. Just like you.

It's funny, for lack of a better word. I've been laying low on FB for a couple weeks because I don't really know what to say. I'm a bit nervous and a bit excited about this one. This is, in many ways, the event I have wished for the most - and now it's here. (What have I done??!! LOL) I'll be seeing Bill for the first time in more than 20 years.

I have heard from several people, "I hope you can do this again next year!! You guys should all come to (town name)!" Unfortunately, it doesn't work that way, though I wish it were that easy.

If you are going to be in LA next weekend, the ninth anniversary of the passing an in incredible and uniquely talented man by the name of Michael Jackson, I would highly encourage you to consider joining us at Cascade Studios.

On Friday I will be joined by Matt Forger - one of the sweetest guys on the planet - to discuss Captain EO (when I first met Michael), Thriller, Bad - and Matt's unique perspective of their close working relationship. After that we will dig into The Extended Remix and go into much greater detail how a song is mixed. Lastly, I will take you on a virtual tour of Michael's amazing Neverland Valley Ranch! My buddy Al Scanlan might pop in for a bit to share some memories of his years at Neverland.

On Saturday - brace yourself - we will dig into the Havenhurst Sessions with Bill Bottrell, Matt Forger and the incredible John Barnes. These are THE guys! They recorded MOST of the Bad album before the project even started at Westlake. What changed? What songs didn't make it? Why? Find out on Saturday.

Sunday will be my latest presentation of "In The Studio With MJ - 2018". I will take you through the albums Bad, Dangerous and HIStory - from my perspective. How were they recorded? How were the songs written? What was daily life like in the studio?

I have a feeling we'll have a few other friends stop by - it's LA!

Tickets are on sale - please share this post in your groups and to fans who are looking for a place to get as close to Michael's music as possible - which of course is In The Studio.

See you next weekend!

www.inthestudiowithmj.com

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Re: Brad Sundberg seminars: Making Music With Michael Jackso

Messaggio da soulmum » 13 luglio 2018, 11:00

Immagine
Brad Sundberg‏ @InStudioWithMJ · 5h5 hours ago

Amsterdam MJfam - curious what our seminar is like? Come and have a taster with our King of Pop Up mini seminar.

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Re: Brad Sundberg seminars: Making Music With Michael Jackso

Messaggio da soulmum » 17 luglio 2018, 11:33

Immagine
Brad Sundberg‏ @InStudioWithMJ · 12h12 hours ago

We’ve got a busy few weeks coming up. Will you be there? Copenhagen, Stockholm, Moscow, London...

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Re: Brad Sundberg seminars: Making Music With Michael Jackso

Messaggio da soulmum » 1 agosto 2018, 16:47

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jWSosuyykSg

https://www.inthestudiowithmj.ru/

Seems like Russia is gonna have a great 3-day event! Brad Sundberg and team will celebrate MJ's 60th anniversary with the guests of his seminars in Moscow on August 31st!

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Re: Brad Sundberg seminars: Making Music With Michael Jackso

Messaggio da soulmum » 17 agosto 2018, 11:42

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Brad Sundberg‏ @InStudioWithMJ

Moscow. Will you be there?

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Re: Brad Sundberg seminars: Making Music With Michael Jackso

Messaggio da soulmum » 14 settembre 2018, 10:31

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Will you be there? London Saturday Sept 22 for a fun filled day In The Studio With MJ. Tickets are still available.

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Re: Brad Sundberg seminars: Making Music With Michael Jackso

Messaggio da soulmum » 23 settembre 2018, 10:37

@Dobb2004
Another amazing @InStudioWithMJ seminar from the very humble, Brad Sundberg and hosted by the lovely team at Fiction Studios. Was in music nerd heaven, ruminating about snare drums, reverb and recording techniques. #Cologne #MichaelJackson fans - don’t miss it on October 10!

9:57 PM - 22 Sep 2018



Brad Sundberg Retweeted
Bob‏ @Dobb2004
@InStudioWithMJ Thanks for a great seminar today. The stripped down #MichaelJackson tracks gave me goosebumps! What an incredible vocalist. He was blessed to have been surrounded by such a dedicated, talented family of musicians and technicians.

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Iscritto il: 31 maggio 2016, 12:43

Re: Brad Sundberg seminars: Making Music With Michael Jackso

Messaggio da soulmum » 13 ottobre 2018, 12:48

"You've been patient and flexible, and I greatly appreciate it. My very small way of saying "Thank You" is to book two jaw-dropping studios for November!

On Saturday, November 10th we will be at Abbey Road Institute in Frankfurt. Yeah... I'm just a little excited. I have been working "behind the scenes" to bring my seminar to such a beautiful, well-respected venue.

The next day, Sunday, November 11th, we have another very special studio called Topaz in Cologne. It is going to be a very busy weekend, and it is our last time in Europe in 2018 so I will jam it with as many songs, stories and surprises as possible.

I am offering something called the Ultimate MJ Weekend, which allows you to come to Frankfurt on Saturday, then Cologne on Sunday (train ticket not included). If you want a double-dip of MJ in November, this is it!

Tickets are on sale now at https://ticketbud.com/events/search

Will You Be There?"

https://www.facebook.com/inthestudiowithmj/

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