SMiLE Sessions box set!

[The Heartical Don]

Bruce has stated on the BBB board at least once that he had a H&V acetate.

I've also read somewhere he had an acetate of "Surf's Up" featuring a full arrangement of the second part. Do somebody know more about it ? Was it from the original sessions or from the 71 remake ?

I fear that the SMiLE saga won't end with the release of that Jumbo Box Thing...

[Andrew G. Doe]

Bruce has stated on the BBB board at least once that he had a H&V acetate.

I've also read somewhere he had an acetate of "Surf's Up" featuring a full arrangement of the second part. Do somebody know more about it ? Was it from the original sessions or from the 71 remake ?

Might be on the box - who knows ?

[JMZ]

I fear that the SMiLE saga won't end with the release of that Jumbo Box Thing...

Of course not !   And that's what's great !

We were talking in PM with homeontherange about the possibility that some day, Capitol release the whole 37 + hours of sessions in HQ digital format (multitrack if available) plus every single vintage edit, acetate, sub-mix, etc. And build an official community around that.  

With a forum and everything. People could pay for accessing the files and then work on their own assembly, share ideas, skills and knownlegde around the album, so it's "polymorphic" (a bit ala "open source" philosophy) ... As I said to homeontherange SMiLE has never been and will never be, SMiLE is you, me, everyone. Back in 66/67 and even without knowing it, Brian Wilson created: The first interactive album ever !

[The Shift]

Bruce has stated on the BBB board at least once that he had a H&V acetate.

I've also read somewhere he had an acetate of "Surf's Up" featuring a full arrangement of the second part. Do somebody know more about it ? Was it from the original sessions or from the 71 remake ?

Might be on the box - who knows ?

I can state with certainty that if it is on the box, they'll have found it.

[The Heartical Don]

Bruce has stated on the BBB board at least once that he had a H&V acetate.

I've also read somewhere he had an acetate of "Surf's Up" featuring a full arrangement of the second part. Do somebody know more about it ? Was it from the original sessions or from the 71 remake ?

Might be on the box - who knows ?

I can state with certainty that if it is on the box, they'll have found it.

Nobel Prize material.

[Micha]

I specifically think that some of the work on Smile that was done by Brian after Smiley Smile (which is not in sessions information, but that he told me he did, is what he is referring to when he said he wouldn't let that material be put on a Beach Boy album. Could be Friends, but I tend to think it was Wild Honey. If I remember some conversations with Steve Desper correctly (it's been years) he said that he and Brian had pulled out Smile tapes and worked on them after Smiley Smile came out.

Wasn't there a quote lately from Mark Linett which implied that a mix of OMP was performed in 1968? Or am I misremembering? That would fit this information from Peter Reum.

[buddhahat]

I think Alan has talked about there being an edit of Omp and Barnshine but I assume it was an edit from 66. Would be cool of Brian had worked on Omp in 68.

[Mr. Cohen]

I do like, though, how AGD likes to continually reference to the idea that a "hard pan" was done to isolate one of the channels. Um... it's the year 2011.  I think they can extract one of the stereo channels without fiddling without having to do any panning.  I know, you're thinking, well... "hard pan" is just  a silly term, it doesn't mean anything. BUT THIS IS HOW RUMORS GET STARTED.

[bgas]

I do like, though, how AGD likes to continually reference to the idea that a "hard pan" was done to isolate one of the channels. Um... it's the year 2011.  I think they can extract one of the stereo channels without fiddling without having to do any panning.  I know, you're thinking, well... "hard pan" is just  a silly term, it doesn't mean anything. BUT THIS IS HOW RUMORS GET STARTED.

That's just the way OLD techies talk.

[Andrew G. Doe]

I do like, though, how AGD likes to continually reference to the idea that a "hard pan" was done to isolate one of the channels. Um... it's the year 2011.  I think they can extract one of the stereo channels without fiddling without having to do any panning.  I know, you're thinking, well... "hard pan" is just  a silly term, it doesn't mean anything. BUT THIS IS HOW RUMORS GET STARTED.

I don't trade in rumors. Just advancing an idea. 'Hard pan' is my own term, meaning balance fully left, or right. Could have said "left channel", but I'm quirky like that: it's part of my charm.

Time will tell who is right, or more likely, closest to what is actually the case. Hopefully. It's definitely not a fold-down of the verse, my ears tell me it's not a remix (anywhere) just as they tell me there are some 2011 edits in there.

[drbeachboy]

Andrew, what about the 1/2 step pitch issue with Mike's coda vocal, per the Hoffman-ites? If true, wouldn't that mean that they flew in a different take for the mono coda?

[Chris Brown]

Andrew, what about the 1/2 step pitch issue with Mike's coda vocal, per the Hoffman-ites? If true, wouldn't that mean that they flew in a different take for the mono coda?

Dare I even ask?  What pitch issue?

[drbeachboy]

Mal, at Hoffman, claims when Mike comes in with the Over and over, that Mike comes in 1/2 semi-tone higher than he should. All of the dog ears there seem to agree that somehow Mark screwed up the edit.

[hypehat]

Whose rips are they going on? Or do they all possess the vinyl? Desmondo's, though lovely, are a little slow on pitch, but i noticed it was a problem only on Wonderful....

[drbeachboy]

Here  is the post from Mal at Hoffman:

The single is off-centre on the "Cabin Essence" side :agree: I've heard 3 of these singles - all were warped, one was even more off-centre on the "Cabin Essence" side while the other didn't sound off-centre but was more badly warped.

On all three, "Wonderful" was centred properly with no audible wow or visible radial cartridge movement.

Still, I don't think the wow is resposnsible for the off-key sound of the edit on "Cabin Essence"...




I wondered that too at first (partly since Andrew mentioned it matching) which is why I thought I'd post the clip from the acetate - however, after listening a few times I've come to the conclusion that the acetate matches the others and only the new mono version has this problem.

It's not as if Mark doesn't have some previous in this regard - the circa 1987 edit for the intro of "God Only Knows" is flawed by not having the intro and the rest of the song running at the same speed. If you listen to the sleigh bells they not only change character at the edit but the pitch goes up slightly.

Then, in 2006 he redid the edit for the "40th Anniversary" edition of Pet Sounds and did an even worse job :shake:

So, I'm expecting the worst for the SMiLE Sessions - that way I'll hopefully be pleasantly surprised by some of it...

[drbeachboy]

Here is a part of another quote from Mal:

On the 45 it sounds to me like the last part comes in at a pitch that's somewhere around half a semi-tone sharp - on all the other versions it stays in the same tuning.

[bgas]

Here  is the post from Mal at Hoffman:

The single is off-centre on the "Cabin Essence" side :agree: I've heard 3 of these singles - all were warped, one was even more off-centre on the "Cabin Essence" side while the other didn't sound off-centre but was more badly warped.

On all three, "Wonderful" was centred properly with no audible wow or visible radial cartridge movement.

Still, I don't think the wow is resposnsible for the off-key sound of the edit on "Cabin Essence"...




I wondered that too at first (partly since Andrew mentioned it matching) which is why I thought I'd post the clip from the acetate - however, after listening a few times I've come to the conclusion that the acetate matches the others and only the new mono version has this problem.

It's not as if Mark doesn't have some previous in this regard - the circa 1987 edit for the intro of "God Only Knows" is flawed by not having the intro and the rest of the song running at the same speed. If you listen to the sleigh bells they not only change character at the edit but the pitch goes up slightly.

Then, in 2006 he redid the edit for the "40th Anniversary" edition of Pet Sounds and did an even worse job :shake:

So, I'm expecting the worst for the SMiLE Sessions - that way I'll hopefully be pleasantly surprised by some of it...

Here is a part of another quote from Mal:

On the 45 it sounds to me like the last part comes in at a pitch that's somewhere around half a semi-tone sharp - on all the other versions it stays in the same tuning.

Yeah, the Hoffmanites; they can't post anything negative in any way about anything done by Hoffman himself, so to curry favor and shine their lights, they disparage  the things that "Hoffman should have done".
 No way those threads will ever be deleted!

[Chris Brown]

After listening to it, I do hear something weird there - not sure if it's just the way Mike is singing it or what.  I'm no audio expert so I really have no idea either way, but there is something just a little bit off on that first "over."  I never would have noticed otherwise, but they aren't just hearing things.

[FUN³]

why should we care? these mixes were approved by brian.  maybe his original intention was for mike to sing that part a little sharper? so i could give a shite about a hoffmanite

[Andrew G. Doe]

Andrew, what about the 1/2 step pitch issue with Mike's coda vocal, per the Hoffman-ites? If true, wouldn't that mean that they flew in a different take for the mono coda?

I don't have dog ears, I'm no muso but I've listened to a helluva lot (too much) BB music over the last 35 years... and I don't hear any pitch problem.

And yeah, over on the Hoff it's very Blooish at time - Steve good/everyone else bad. Try mentioning missing Coral/RCA masters and see what happens. Someone even assumed that the Mojo 45 was mastered by Steve, apparently because it sounded so good.

Baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa !

[willy]

We should settle things once and for all with a Celebrity Death Match...... Steve Hoffman vs. AGD. Who would win?

[The Shift]

Bruce has stated on the BBB board at least once that he had a H&V acetate.

I've also read somewhere he had an acetate of "Surf's Up" featuring a full arrangement of the second part. Do somebody know more about it ? Was it from the original sessions or from the 71 remake ?

Hadn't read that before. But Bruce has a sly sense of humour and sometimes it can be difficult to know which statements should be taken with a pinch o' salt.  If you have the quote and the source, a few folks here could give you the benefit of their edumacated speculationing!

[desmondo]

Whose rips are they going on? Or do they all possess the vinyl? Desmondo's, though lovely, are a little slow on pitch, but i noticed it was a problem only on Wonderful....

Sorry 

[tansen]

We should settle things once and for all with a Celebrity Death Match...... Steve Hoffman vs. AGD. Who would win?

You would need celebrities for that

...  'Hard pan' is my own term, meaning balance fully left, or right. Could have said "left channel", but I'm quirky like that: it's part of my charm.

I presume this came out wrong; 'hard panning' is a common sound technology term.

[Andrew G. Doe]

We should settle things once and for all with a Celebrity Death Match...... Steve Hoffman vs. AGD. Who would win?

You would need celebrities for that

True, dat.