I was an Expert Witness. Q. Jones V. The Estate of Michael Jackson.

Thanks for posting this, great story. But now I really think I need to upgrade all of my audio system:(
 
Hey
For us that don't keep up with m. Jackson/q. Jones trivia, who won?
Cool story, the guy does got a gift of gab. Eric
 
There's not much that comes out of M. Fremer's mouth that I find interesting. His headcam video visit to Excel in Japan turned me off him for good.

I would have thrown that clown out if I was the Japanese executives- he came across as an absolute oaf.
 
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I kept running into him at RMAF 2014. He seemed OK. He pointed me to a great reel to reel room and he checked out my Kromecaster in the Harman room but never wrote about it. I'm pretty sure I would have had to buy an ad for that to happen.

EDIT: How is ANY of this relevant to QJ being entitled to cash from MJ's estate? I have to agree with the judge who threw it out.
 
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I met Mr Fremer informally. We discussed phono, especially high-end cartridges. I asked what he does with all the cartridges he is sent to test and review. Are they returned to the manufacturer? He ended the conversation and walked away. He must have been late for an appointment.
 
I have to agree with the judge who threw it out.

The judge did not "throw it out", it was agreed to by a joint decision by both parties. It is called "stipulating". It was a risk the defense took. They in effect said: "we agree that these recordings were substantially altered" and there would be no trying to say they were not. They were expunged from the transcript probably in case of appeal.........both my ex wife and daughter are lawyers and things like this are really complex. Things that seem silly to a regular person on a jury seem perfectly sane to a lawyer and vice versa.

An interesting video, I enjoyed it. Quincy Jones is beyond incredible, anything he touches is forever changed. His career was and is just beyond descriptors. One of my favorite things on film is QJ conducting the Count Basie Orchestra behind Sinatra: You see QJ watching Frank and then looking back to the musicians.....then Frank turns to him (I think during "You Make Me Feel So Young) and says "JUMP Q, JUMP!" to really get them swinging and they just brought the house down.

I looked through Spotify and they have the Bad 25 and a 1997 remix. I had never really sat down and listened to the "helicopter" noise going back and forth (probably because I was never that much of a MJ fan) and it was interesting to hear it. The "25" does sound wretched.....the 1997 remix is not as bad but it still does not sound that great.
 
The judge did not "throw it out",

Excluded, not thrown out.

"Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Michael L. Stern, though, later excluded Fremer's testimony from the case after conferring privately with both legal teams." Billboard Magazine.

I too am curious why the Fremer testimony was excluded. Maybe it was deemed confusing or maybe not of value to the jury. I have searched for an answer but can not find any record of what happened at that sidebar and the reason for the exclusion of the testimony.

My personal opinion is bringing a sound system into a court room and trying to convince a jury of degradation in sound quality is risky.
 
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Was the defense arguing that QJ's work was of less value because the sound quality was crappy? Like Quincy said, his value was selecting the music, doing the arrangement, finding talent etc. Let's face it guys, 99% of the people out there, including that entire jury most likely, don't care one whit about sound quality. It's all about gestalt, and we (and Michael Fremer) have a completely different gestalt as far as music playback is concerned from the rest of the world.

BTW my favorite Quincy album is Back on the Block. Smackwater Jack is pretty nice too.
 
Ah yes, but I think we have evidence now that not all digital files sound the same.

It's not all just Is and Os. It's not that simple.
 
Ah yes, but I think we have evidence now that not all digital files sound the same.
Indeed. They may be created from different masters, they may or may not employ lossy compression, the hardware/software used to play them back may vary, the original sampling frequency may vary and have an effect on the sonic impact of reconstruction filters, and so on.
It's not all just Is and Os. It's not that simple.
Actually, by definition, it is all just 1s and 0s. However, what they represent, or how they're processed to produce sound, may vary.
 
Ones and Zeros, not I's and O's.

I once said it was X's and O's.

I'll get this figured out someday.

And it's more like ultra-fast Morse Code than, shall we say, a Choo Choo train comin' down the track.

:confused:
 
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