So why didn’t the producer just cut the feed to Jackson’s headphones?

This story is a fiction. Anybody who has listened to Jackson’s BIllie Jean demo, for instance, will hear him asking Quincy to turn his headphones up.

Jackson has been in the business for over forty years and nobody who has worked with him in the studio has ever described him as anything but a consummate professional. Jackson has produced a lot of his own material and would know about background noise and the such like.

This is nothing but another in a long line of fictional stories Halperin has produced about Jackson. Halperin claimed not long ago that Jackson has six months to live. Does anybody buy that?

The guy is a terrible reporter.

Alright, I actually have a Bachelor’s degree in audio production and what the producer means by “background noise” is the actual sound coming out of the headphones when they are not sealed around the ears. He means to say that when Mike has the headphones resting below his ears instead of on top of them, the track playing through the headphone speakers is being re-recorded underneath the vocals he’s singing into the microphone. If you listen to a capella tracks, you can sometimes hear the headphones too, with any artist.

This producer is spoiled. YOU WORKED WITH MICHAEL JACKSON, MORON! Count your blessings…

Then I reposted and it showed 7 comments, including both of mine, but still said there were only 5 comments.

I shall therefore repost it.

A brief lesson in recording:

Microphones record sound. Headphones play sound.

I’m Michael Jackson. I put on my headphones. Inexplicably, some background noise occurs in the sound proof booth. How does the fact that I have headphones on in any way prevent that background noise from entering the microphone?

It doesn’t. This story is completely nonsensical. Whether or not Jackson wore headphones in the booth would have absolutely no influence on whether the microphone in the booth picked up any background noise that occurred.

The only possible explanation is that this supposedly Grammy winning producer means that sound was coming down the vacant headphones and entering the microphone. In that case, this supposedly Grammy winning producer should have used the little knob on his soundboard that turns off the headphones.

Quite simple.

Exactly how long has this Grammy winning producer been working in recording studios? He seems to have little or no understanding of his own equipment.

This story quite literally does not make sense.

Microphones are for recording music. Headphones are for playing music.

Now take another look at your article.

Background noise on a track is a recording issue. Headphones are for playing music, not recording music.

Background noise is either there or it’s not there – whether or not Jackson wore headphones would have no impact whatsoever on whether or not the microphone picked up any background noise. That is a completely nonsensical statement. This article quite literally does not make sense.