MJ’s Thriller Minimoog Marimba (Synth Breakdown)

video upload by Anthony Marinelli Music

"This video makes a very important point about what you need to consider when you want to make a "great" sound. The Minimoog Marimba sound occurs during the Outro of "Thriller" which is loaded with complex sounds that are both melodic, sustaining and building. The song at this point hardly needs another element. You'll notice that I chose to make a very simple and relatively thin sound. It establishes some personality from its percussive and resonance aspects but most of its value comes from the rhythm and performance of the part. I'm telling you this because when you want to make a great sound the most important questions to ask are "Who, What, When Where and How". Who is playing it (a person or MIDI), what is happening at the same time (orchestration), When does it enter (what part of the beat), Where does it happen in the dramatic flow and How will the listener be affected by it? After thinking about the answers to these questions I realized that a great sound here needed to be very simple and not too thick. When you hear the Minimoog marimba in the context of the song you'll notice that it stays out of the way of the other sounds frequencies. Every sound is a puzzle piece that needs to fit with the other pieces. This is the process I follow when making any sound! "

00:00 Thriller re-creation music
00:24 Intro
01:05 Marimba Playing technique description
01:51 Thriller re-creation video with Greg Phillinganes Technique preview
03:17 How to create the Thriller Outro Marimba on Minimoog
03:54 The Oscillators
04:54 The Mixer
05:17 The Filter
06:05 The Resonance Effect
06:33 The Envelopes
07:44 Re-cap the Envelopes
08:17 Modulation and Keyboard Control Voltage
08:54 Keyboard Technique
09:07 CTA
09:37 Sound Performance to Thriller Re-Creation Track

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