I’m betting that at least one of this great community has approached, programmed and tackled “Thriller” by Michael Jackson. We are planning to play this at our Halloween show this year, and I’m getting a head start knowing that I am one keyboard player playing multiple keyboard parts AND the brass parts as well. I’m interested in how those of you who play it approached the programming, which plugins you used, if you were able to capitalize on someones pre-programmed patches, etc…
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Thanks @pianopaul ,
I was struggling to see the actual names of the sounds in the sound pack when I was browsing Arturia’s website. I took the leap and purchased the MJ tribute pack and there they were. I’d still be interested in how others are approaching Thriller.
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Couple of approaches as one keyboard player.
1st i would focus on the Rhodes which is the meat of the song. The song while fairly simple has some great chord changes.
2nd i would get the strings at the beginning.
3rd is the synth Brass sound. i heard its a Jupiter 8 but my guess is any decent analog vsti would do.
if you have a bass player, i would pass on the bass or at least play the part enough for the key moments.
This is definitely a song where having a second or 3rd keyboard player would help but i think it is possible for one keyboard to get the essence especially with a bass player.
Yes Arturia has an MJ pack but IMO getting the chords and changes down would get the meat of the song.
I truly appreciate your feedback on this one. You are already spot on with most of what I was thinking, however my bass playing has a Panda Midi Impact 3. We will do bass to midi (to VSTi) on most of the bass part. We will also have the bass drive the clav part on the dance/bridge part.
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I might also need to start programming Thriller very soon, following this thread.
There is also this:
This video was taken after Dr. Mix created the samples package.
I decided to purchase the Dr Mix sound pack, but I have not loaded it up to try yet. I had found even more details about Anthony Marinelli’s programming on Thriller on his YouTube Channel under the playlist for all of his Michael Jackson work - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLeksl7tAdXt4lhAtdydUQ6b_dbiwSkPwx .
He goes very in depth on everything. I have already worked out that main opening stack, but that’s as far as I’ve gotten so far. At this point, I may just switch to the Dr Mix package so I can then move on to other songs.
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Thank you for the update @xpansion
It is a dilemma. On one hand it is fun and rewarding to program myself the sounds from scratch, but on the other hand, a masterpiece like this that has so many sound layers and colors is kind of an endless work…
Please update your progress, very interesting 
So far the Dr Mix package has not really delivered what I had hoped. It would have been nice for them to include some additional guidance and a video demonstrating using the package for ether or both Kontakt and Halcyon. I think I’m back to the drawing board. Any soundware I have found so far for this has not been a good investment.
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For Omnisphere (with other cover sounds):
Patches List
THRILLER INTRO
THRILLER SWEEP
THRILLER BASS
THRILLER TEREMIN
THRILLER FROG
…and so on.
I appreciate the tip, but alas I do not have/use Omnisphere.
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