| Reviews : In the Studio with Michael Jackson |
Technical Details
- ISBN13: 9781423464952
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
- Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices
Product Description
The inside secrets of Michael Jackson's greatest records by the Grammy-winning engineer who captured and enhanced their sound. Multiple color photos of Jackson, producer Quincy Jones, and all the talents who collaborated to make pop history with Jackson's albums. Plucked from a job at legendary Universal Audio in Chicago, Bruce Swedien entered into a fruitful and historic 30-year relationship with producer Quincy Jones. That partnership culminated in the groundbreaking recordings of Michael Jackson, beginning with The Wiz, continuing with Jackson's breakout solo debut Off the Wall, and triumphing with Thriller, which revolutionized music and video and fixed Jackson in culture as the King of Pop. Now Swedien reveals the technical details of creating those albums (along with Bad, Dangerous, and HIStory) and offers personal remembrances and anecdotes about working with the pop icon. Swedien's book provides an insider's look that will thrill anyone interested in the nuts and bolts of hit making and the history of some of America's most influential recordings. * Large collection of photographs from Michael Jackson recording sessions * Forewords by producer Quincy Jones and writer/producer Rod TempertonSimilar Products
Customer Reviews
By Michelle Ng Wei Li (Malaysia/Singapore)
I ordered this book from Amazon before it was released. Thus there's no readers' review but only the editor's(if I remember correctly). Still I ordered the book because I wanted to know how this genius named Michael Jackson did his magics in the studio.
One of the reviewers said this book IS supposed to be of a technical nature with some anecdotes and not a biography. I wish I've known that when I ordered the book. Because it is really technical, half the time, or should I say more than half the time I have no idea what I was reading.
The book title IS misleading in my opinion. It gave me the notion that this book s around Michael but it was not. Bruce Swedien did talk about how it's like working with Michael, but that's like maybe less than 10% of the content.
I do not know much about Bruce Swedien and I know nuts about different types of microphones, recording techniques, etc. But judging from the fact that Michael has worked with him for so long, he must be a legend himself in the music recording field.
Since this book is supposed to be of a technical nature, and since I know nuts about recording stuffs, I gave it a 3 star , the middle rating. I can only say that I am disappointed with the book title which is very misleading.
p.s. I do not think this book is one of those who jumped on the bandwagon to capitalise on Michael's death. This book was scheduled to release around the time This Is It concert was to be held, if I remember correctly. They just pulled the release date earlier when Michael so unfortunately and so shockingly passed away.
By L. Gischler (Amsterdam. The Netherlands)
I've just finished this book and must say that I enjoyed it , although I can understand the dissapointments shown in the other reviews.
I must agree that it's silly to read the same sentences about M.J. several times. Wasn't this book pre-read by the publisher? Furthermore is the title misleading, because of the little info about M.J..
But still, being a home studio recording/mixing engineer, I really enjoyed the information about the recording/mixing process. Also a great story about Quincy Jones and Bruce in the hotel before recording The Wiz!
Maybe Bruce Swedien is not a great writer, he's still a genius who changed the sound of music back in 1982!! I have a lot of respect for this man.
By R. Maurer
FACT: This book was scheduled for release, and already titled, WAY before Jackson's death.
FACT: Hal Leonard Publishing is a company that publishes TRADE/TECHNICAL books, not novels and biographies.
FACT: This is a book that details Bruce Swedien's work in the studio with Michael Jackson, and as in other books in a similar vain published by Hal Leonard, and is supposed to be of a technical nature with some anecdotes, not the other way around. It's not a rip-off biography, nor was it ever meant to be.
There are books like this written about Elvis Presley, Beatles, and many other recording icons. People in the recording industry, the intended audience for these books, drink these up to find out how certain recording techniques were used to get certain sounds on tape. If you want to read about Bubbles the Chimp or Webster in the studio, this isn't the book for you. If, however, you always loved the drum sound on "Billie Jean", read on.
By Jools (Kirkland, WA United States)
I think it's absolutely deplorable that Bruce Swedien used Michael's name in the title. Reading the title you would think that this would be the companion book to Taborelli's biography, that it would be about his experiences working with Michael in the studio. Well, he could have named the book "In the Sound Studio" and it would have been perfectly alright. The fact that he mentions Michael's name maybe 20 times does not make the book about being in the studio with Michael Jackson. The book was about working in the sound studio .. microphones etc. Period. Imagine writing an essay titled "what i did last summer", except you write about summer and little about what you did. This is analogous to what this book is about ... working in the sound studio, and very marginally about MJ.
If he does mention Michael, it's to say that Michael was professional and polite. OK. How many times can you repeat that? Aside from the content not matching up to the title, the writing wasn't great at all. This may sound harsh but it reminded me of 7th grade composition, if even.
It's frustrating that this book was written and published under that title, especially when Bruce Swedien featured so greatly in Michael's professional work. One would think that he would not be yet another vulture trying to benefit from MJ's death.
Don't buy this!
By L. Nguyen (Fremont, CA USA)
With a title that reads, "In the Studio with Michael Jackson," one would expect interesting and new anecdotes about the singer. But instead, you get NONE of that!! Really. That is the honest truth. The author did not reveal anything about Michael that we did not know. However he did drone on and on about the types of microphones, speakers, and recording machines that he used in Michael's recordings. He used recording lingo that very few people would understand throughout the whole book and never bothered to explain what they mean. For instance, how many people know what an SMPTE or a 6 db over 185 nano/Webers are? He uses these terms and it will be frustrating for those who don't know anything about professional recording. Moreover, who cares about the equipment! Tell us about Michael. Additionally, I have heard interviews from Quincy Jones from the Special Edition "Thriller" and "Off the Wall" albums and I'm telling you, the words that Swedien used to describe his experiences with these albums were almost verbatim to what Quincy said in various interviews. In fact, there are at least two key sections to this book where he repeated himself when describing Michael Jackson and Quincy Jones. In the beginning of the book, he writes, "Michael Jackson is the most professional and most accomplished artist...he always says please and thank you...the quality goes in before the names goes on..." He writes the exact same thing toward the end of the book. What was this author thinking?!? He writes 2 or 3 things about Michael Jackson and rewrites variations of it throughout the whole book. This book is also self-indulgent when halfway through, he starts writing about his experiences with other, not very interesting artists and includes over 20-page discography with Michael only filling up about 2 pages. Very Misleading book. His writing style, flow, and grammar are horrendous. In sum, the book is 191 pages but if I were to total the content about Michael Jackson, you get only about 10 uninteresting pages. If you are a fan of Michael Jackson it is highly likely that you already know everything that is written about him in this book.
All Reviews
No comments:
Post a Comment