Why you should get an early CD pressing of Off the Wall. A thread.

Note: This thread is about CD pressings, not LP's/Vinyls.

1/12) Sound Quality: Instruments, percussion and Michael's voice are transparent in the first mastering despite the low volume,it sounds natural. Special Edition doesn't sound bad, but voices are muddy compared to the original, dynamic range is compressed, just like Bad remaster.

2/12) Let's check the Dynamic Range of these two masters:

The first mastering has a nice dynamic range.

2001 Special Edition has a bad dynamic range, that's why the voices are muddier compared to the first pressing. It's loud and we lose details.

3/12) Note that Off the Wall 2016 re-issue has the same mastering than Special Edition.

4/12) The first pressings are collectors because they contain the original mixes of Rock With You and Get On The Floor. These two songs were edited after the release of the album. Like with Bad, Michael wasn't happy with the original mixes, despite it was already released.

5/12) You are maybe not familiar with it, but Rock With You original mix doesn't have the "claps" in the chorus, it was added on later pressings.

Original Mix:
https://easyupload.io/xot9o4 

Special Edition:
https://easyupload.io/8fmxim 

6/12) Get On The Floor has various edits compared to the later pressings, including guitar rhythms.

7/12) Another reason to buy an early CD pressing is that they have the original cover of Off the Wall. Later, Michael didn't like his face and decided to replace it with the back cover.

8/12) Which pressings have the original mastering/mixes ?

ESCA 5407 and 35 8P-2 are two japanese pressings with original mixes. You can find them on Ebay. Some other pressings released in the 80's may have the original mixes, but I'm not 100% sure.

9/12) Now very important ! If you buy one of these pressing (ESCA 5407 and 35 8P-2), you have to know that they have a "pre-emphasis flag" in the CD. So you need to "de-emphasis" the CD with a software like foobar2000 or SoX or the sound will be too bright.

10/12) What is "Pre-emphasis" ?

It's a signal processing method which increases the amplitude of high frequency bands and decrease the amplitudes of lower bands. Some CD’s published in the 80s were mastered using a pre-emphasis due to the primitive nature of early CD player DACs

11/12)
If you play the album with a CD player, it will automatically de-emphasis the tracklist, most of CD players have the de-emphasis function. So you have nothing to do.

12/12) Thank you for reading and...

Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough