Just Blaze has cracked the code behind the sample instrument sound which was heard on one of Michael Jackson’s biggest records.
On Saturday (August 12), the legendary producer took to Instagram and posted a video of a record player playing a record which was sampled from a Synclavier II synthesizer — or synth keyboard.
The four musical bars that played in the video are identical to the introduction of 1982’s “Beat It.”
“MJ was chopping breaks in 82,” Just Blaze captioned the post.
In the additional photos within the carousel, it shows information regarding the Synclavier II synthesizer itself.
Check out his post below:
“Beat It” was produced by both Quincy Jones and MJ himself.
The Synclavier II was an all-in-one digital audio workstation (DAW) that many producers from yesteryear sampled from and utilized in the studio.
Michael Jackson used the piece of musical equipment, along with others throughout the 1980s, on top-selling hits such as “Thriller,” “Bad,” and “Smooth Criminal” to name a few.
In addition to this new discovery, Just Blaze also revealed in March that there is an King Of Pop-assisted version of JAY-Z‘s 2001 hit “Girls, Girls, Girls” – a version the legendary producer himself didn’t know existed until nearly 20 years later.
Just previously appeared as a guest on an episode of the Bloomberg Originals series Idea Generation on March 13. While fans have always loved the MJ x Hov collab “Rock My World,” no one knew they also linked up on an a version of “Girls, Girls, Girls,” and Just revealed how he himself found out during the COVID-19 quarantine.
“So Michael Jackson is on the ‘Girls, Girls, Girls’ remix – the A version,” he began at the time. “And I never knew that. I don’t know if I didn’t go to the studio that day. I thought it was an urban legend or something that Jay said like in jest one day or just was some kind of a myth.”
He continued: “So one day I was looking for something on the server and I find this folder that says MJ vocals. And I’m like, ‘MJ? Don’t that mean Michael Jackson? Oh, whatever.’ And I’m thinking it’s probably stuff from – remember Jay had or remember they had the ‘Rock My World’? So I’m thinking it’s like, takes from that session. And I’m like, ‘I don’t think they recorded this at Baseline but let me take a listen and see what it is.’”
“And I realize as I’m listening to it, it’s him singing on ‘Girls, Girls, Girls.’ And I’m like, it’s true! Like I never…the last 20 years… I just found it during quarantine. So all these years, I’ve never known it was actually a real thing. And turns out the files had been sitting downstairs this entire time.”
