anyone knows where did he find these harmonies?

 

In one of the drawers of Quincy Jones' desk.

 

In one of Bruce Swedien's (RIP) boxes on the attic. ;)

Damn. The last one/harmony was Jacob Collier territory.

 

First time I ever saw this: Simply amazing.
And I was just listening to this exact song on my way to work this morning...

 

Possibly he used Ozone Audio Editor and the 'Music Rebalance' feature to isolate the vocals from the song.. Just a guess?

 

i don't think any software can extract those vocal harmonies separately like that? but i don't know about that feature u referred

 

A while ago, a huge "Starlight Sessions" 48-track version had been posted on various sites, I'm sure it's still available somewhere out in the wild.

 

Maybe Melodyne can do it with the Polyphonic DNA technology that can isolate notes in chords? you can hear some digital artifacts.

 

this video contains every vocal & instr stem

 

Your post inspired me to do this mix

Spoiler: Old Mix

ps, multitracks i used have some imperfections, aplogies for that...

updated mix...

 

Last edited: Oct 29, 2021

Is that varriaspeed used as PC or are those takes adulterated with DPC or something like ReVP. The tails of each take are also all very uniform.

Something is very strange.

 

Much more natural singer recorded and a better representation of what was probably recorded.

There is a lot of very nice saturation and proximity THD in some of those takes. Jacko seems to have a busy body with a lot of movement axially and towards the microphone during takes. It sounds lovely and subtle even if it doesn't really stand out noticeably in the released full mix.

Love the howling, wonder is there was magic powder involved.

 

Fck, yeah ;) I'd even say - with the added value. The genius thing Rod Temperton did (I think it was him, RIP) is to give a hint of this killer chord progression already after the first chorus. And then going full nuts the second time..

 

Yep. I'm pretty sure it was Rod (RIP) and Michael who worked out the parts together. We studied the song at university (songwriting, bachelor's degree). Perfect teaching example!

 

It was the 80s - he probably just did it until he got each bit right. He had been a professional singer since he was 5 years old, remember. And his dad would whip him and his brothers if they messed up so he probably was just that good.

 

The artifacts of non human pitching vibrator and sustain are quite apparent. I find it disturbing that you think that's how humans sound, even the kids today who imitate auto-tune don't sound that robotic, they just sound like humans trying to sound like machines but still sound human.

Something has modified those takes in an unnatural and unpleasing way.

It has nothing to do with perfection or proper pitch.

 

The more I listen to this, the more I'm amazed:
Like many musical genius, he was at the right place at the right time.

 

That "killer, diller..." sus chord bit still gives me goosebumps every time.

Michael definitely was his own thing - but the aforementioned Rod Temperton was an essential part in pretty much all of his success. He wrote all of his biggest hits, even after Quincy's departure. Quincy was the mastermind, but Swedien created the sonics. And obviously his "L.A. crew" (including the Toto guys, Phillinganes, Louis Johnson) played the instruments.

I try not to listen to this album (at least not the title track) too much, because even though it's so overplayed, it's such a masterpiece all-around that I don't want to get "too much of a good thing".

 

There is nothing suspicious about those vocal tracks. The tails are tight but they're not copies run through a harmonizer. they are all different. you can tell. go back and watch it and listen. his pitch is very good but it's not perfect. Very impressive

 

Here is a link to a really good near complete Starlight version(First) of the song if its any use.
https://disk.yandex.com/d/_xO-P_cQ6OqDOA