Michael Jackson Human Nature, PYT, Synth "ooh" sound?

[KrisMiller]

There is a glassy ooh sampler/synth sound used throughout the Thriller album. An example of this "ooh" sound is on Human Nature from 1:02 -1:04. The same sound is on the intro of PYT. Does anybody know what synth/sampler or combination of synths was used to create this sound?

PS/ Mr. Sweden if you're out there, I'm listening....

[zzzxtreme]

dunno the exact synth, but I remember my SY77 could do something like that

[KrisMiller]

Its after every chorus on PYT too.. After the "I'll take you there" bit

[subby33]

Its probably the Emulator listed on the liner notes. That production team was big on the new samplers of that time. Emulator, Synclavier, and Fairlight. I'm not 100% sure if thats where the sound come from, but I'm pretty sure it is.

The fact that its also listed for the song PYT makes me even more sure that its probably a preset on the Emulator. They also used a preset for the Synclavier on Beat It.

[Jetty]

It's a great sound.

According to Micke, it's an Emulator with Micheal's own voice going.

[mikael488]

Quotes from Michael Boddicker:

"The lush pad on “P.Y.T.” (after Michael sings “I’ll take you there . . .”). It sounds multitracked, but really, it’s not. It’s a singletrack sample of Michael Jackson’s voice, done on an E-mu Emulator I — serial number 1, in fact! We then used this mode the Emulator had where you could sample the sound twice, then detune one of the voices while in “unison” mode. It was recorded with lots of top end added, and Bruce Swedien’s special reverb known as “spit.” Quincy Jones would say, “Sven, put some spit on it!”

"The “P.Y.T.” synth noodle that answers the chorus vocal. That was a Roland Jupiter-6 “wang bar”-style pitch bend doubled with, and controlling, a Sequential Circuits Prophet-5, thus the sort of smear you can hear on the “wobble” between the top two notes. I recall the keyboards were set on the very top of a stand so they were practically at ear level!"

hmm, I wonder if they really had access to a Jup-6 ahead of its public release, or if Boddicker misremembers....
I mean, the track was recorded in the late summer of '82. Anyways, the jup-4 was also used on this album so who knows...

Also featured on P.Y.T. is a Bode vocoder with a Prophet 5 running through it and doubled with a VP-330.
(source: keyboard magazine)

[KrisMiller]

Thanks!!

[CJ1973]

Hi

Not sure what exactly it is but you can find it on FM synths as well as some Rolands including JD800. It has a sound very similar to that. So does the D50, especially that glassy sound.