A Ten-episodes official web series on the SMiLE Sessions is now on YouTube

[c-man]

One question that bugs the hell out of me, and which may or may not shed more light on the bigger picture, is that of the Wrecking Crew in effect being shunned. Why did Brian suddenly, almost stop-on-a-dime sudden, decide to radically change everything about the way he was making records and recording his music? Why would he decide to no longer use the Wrecking Crew as abruptly and as definitely as he did? There is no precedent for this. It wasn't even a case of calling some of the guys but not others, it was one day he was Brian in the studio and the next time he recorded everything had changed.

I always thought that this had more to do with the installation of Brian's home studio.  I imagine he got used to more of a laid back, family & friends type of scene at that point, after the more labor intensive Smile sessions with the Wrecking Crew, but I could be totally wrong about that.

Interesting theories abound, but having listened to ALL of the existing SMiLE tapes (all of them that exist in the vaults, at least) as part of my contribution to the sessionography, I gotta say I think it might just be that Brian really desired to move away from the heavily-produced stuff to stuff that required less "musicianship" shall we say.  Several of the SMiLE sessions featured just Brian and the Boys banging away on piano, organ, drums, glockinspiel, marimba, miscellaneous percussion, with maybe a Fender bass thrown in...all of which the Boys could play, at least to the extent required...I think Brian decided there was much less pressure doing it that way, while at the same time showcasing the Boys' vocal abilities with his intricate arrangements.  That's why Smiley Smile turned out the way it did.  For Wild Honey, he or they wanted a "white soul" sound, so they got back more to their "garage band" roots (with a few horns & violas thrown in).  Then for Friends, Brian was again in a different mood or mode, and felt like doing some light So Cal jazz, at least his interpretation of it, so the Wrecking Crew guys were once again appropriate.

[♩♬🐸 Billy C ♯♫♩🐇]

Gotcha.

Cool to see BW rockin' out on CIFTM, too! Who would have thought we'd ever see that in promo video?

By the way -- Brian seems really cool in these. He's not at his most incredibly verbal, but he's nice and relaxed.

At about 2:36-2:37 he sounds like his young self!

[JohnMill]

Gotcha.

Cool to see BW rockin' out on CIFTM, too! Who would have thought we'd ever see that in promo video?

By the way -- Brian seems really cool in these. He's not at his most incredibly verbal, but he's nice and relaxed.

Without sounding too cliche I think whenever Brian spontaneously plays this music (such as that CIFOTM bit) you can see the energy just return to him that seemingly wasn't there only moments previous.  It's like one of those "He's Still Got It" moments that we are all reminded of from time to time.

[Cam Mott]

There may have been practical reasons for the different mood and approach Brian chose over SMiLE but I have to believe it was mostly for aesthetic reasons because Brian and the Boys were on the top of the heap and Brian could and did do whatever he wanted.

The Boys weren't the Monkees, they had been playing their own instruments in front of their fans for years. Is there any evidence that it was ever an issue for the Boys? They had been adapting heavily produced recordings for live shows for years.

I see the evidence used for paranoia and mental illness etc. but to me it just looks like a superstitious brilliant mind without baffles.

Again I have to protest [this must be my 10th or 12th year of protest by now] that the evidence is Brian knew before he went into the studio how everything was fitting together [it is noted all over the records and boxes and recordings] and there apparently was not a situation where Brian was recording stuff and then grasping for ideas of what to do with it. To me the evidence is Brian was on top of SMiLE and how it was to be and fit together but as he got it the way he wanted it didn't live up to his expectations for it. Like he said and Craig mentioned, it ended up feeling to him over-elaborate and old fashioned and too arty [especially the lyrics] etc. and all the reasons he actually gave at the time.  

[Wirestone]

I think the box -- which features sometimes the third or fourth released version of these songs (with the fragments in different orders) suggests a less-than-certain approach to the project. You don't spend as much time as Brian did on Good Vibes, for example, if you know precisely what you want at the outset. And you don't record however many fragments of H&V as Brian did without knowing, somehow, that you're just spinning your wheels and putting off making decisions. I think it's pretty clear he didn't know what he wanted all the tme, which is why he recorded so many wildly different versions of things.

[Cam Mott]

Brian recorded several full versions of GV with all of their parts identified at recording. He knew what he wanted and how to get it. Apparently he wasn't satisfied when he got it and then recorded other full versions. In the end he takes the identified parts from some of the full versions and puts them together [with a few additions/revisions] in the identified orders for the final. At least that's the way I remember it.

This is a creative process of someone who is in control of his media and answers to no one and can do as he pleases in pursuit of his vision. Taking a long time and lots of revisions don't mean he was at a loss to pull it together. He took his time [which argues against his possible concern about studio pressure] and created in an organized way just as he was doing with SMiLE.

Alright, well anyway that's the way I see it.

[guitarfool2002]

.

[Nathan Snyder]

Everyone’s comments…extremely interesting.  Many of them, very well thought out.  Some of them, comforting in once again reasoning with the un-release of smile.  But, at times, I can’t help think how strange it is to be trying to psychologically pick apart and make sense of a several month period that now dates back 45 years.  FORTY-FIVE FRIGGIN YEARS AGO!! Yes, I’m yelling this to myself and not belittling others with the importance of this period or quality of music.  It’s just amusing at times to think of the length of time and what’s happened in between.  I truly appreciate Van Dyke’s words when he makes reference to it being such a small period of time in his busy life.  The passing of time also makes it that much more difficult to place yourself in the participants mindset for 1966-67 and not 2011.  What a different world with different ethics and tolerance for things in general. 

[guitarfool2002]

Everyone’s comments…extremely interesting.  Many of them, very well thought out.  Some of them, comforting in once again reasoning with the un-release of smile.  But, at times, I can’t help think how strange it is to be trying to psychologically pick apart and make sense of a several month period that now dates back 45 years.  FORTY-FIVE FRIGGIN YEARS AGO!! Yes, I’m yelling this to myself and not belittling others with the importance of this period or quality of music.  It’s just amusing at times to think of the length of time and what’s happened in between.  I truly appreciate Van Dyke’s words when he makes reference to it being such a small period of time in his busy life.  The passing of time also makes it that much more difficult to place yourself in the participants mindset for 1966-67 and not 2011.  What a different world with different ethics and tolerance for things in general. 

I understand where you're coming from, but at the same time what else does a third-party historian have available when researching a period in history? If it's that historian taking the words of a first-person witness who was actually there, that person's words are weighted quite heavily compared to someone who wasn't there but has access to a document, or some other paper evidence. So the actual person may have thought it was "just another day" while someone with a document or a journal entry may look at that "just another day" and discover it was one of the more significant days of the entire story. In reverse, that first-person witness may say "Hey, I do remember hearing this..." on a day where the documentation would show that nothing significant had taken place, yet the eyewitness account may alter the way the story is told forever.

It's no different that piecing together, say, a Civil War battle using the letters sent by the troops on both sides versus using the maps and battle plans, you're getting both sides - personal and impersonal - yet they're both adding up to better tell the story.

[guitarfool2002]

One question that bugs the hell out of me, and which may or may not shed more light on the bigger picture, is that of the Wrecking Crew in effect being shunned. Why did Brian suddenly, almost stop-on-a-dime sudden, decide to radically change everything about the way he was making records and recording his music? Why would he decide to no longer use the Wrecking Crew as abruptly and as definitely as he did? There is no precedent for this. It wasn't even a case of calling some of the guys but not others, it was one day he was Brian in the studio and the next time he recorded everything had changed.

I always thought that this had more to do with the installation of Brian's home studio.  I imagine he got used to more of a laid back, family & friends type of scene at that point, after the more labor intensive Smile sessions with the Wrecking Crew, but I could be totally wrong about that.

Interesting theories abound, but having listened to ALL of the existing SMiLE tapes (all of them that exist in the vaults, at least) as part of my contribution to the sessionography, I gotta say I think it might just be that Brian really desired to move away from the heavily-produced stuff to stuff that required less "musicianship" shall we say.  Several of the SMiLE sessions featured just Brian and the Boys banging away on piano, organ, drums, glockinspiel, marimba, miscellaneous percussion, with maybe a Fender bass thrown in...all of which the Boys could play, at least to the extent required...I think Brian decided there was much less pressure doing it that way, while at the same time showcasing the Boys' vocal abilities with his intricate arrangements.  That's why Smiley Smile turned out the way it did.  For Wild Honey, he or they wanted a "white soul" sound, so they got back more to their "garage band" roots (with a few horns & violas thrown in).  Then for Friends, Brian was again in a different mood or mode, and felt like doing some light So Cal jazz, at least his interpretation of it, so the Wrecking Crew guys were once again appropriate.

While I don't disagree with these points and they make logical sense, the fact that Brian went from being at the forefront of hi-fi, technology-driven recording to making records which sound worse than those actually recorded in garages, in the span of one record release (!) is still hard to understand, appreciate, or grasp, really.

Contradictions are everywhere: If he and the group were concerned about losing fans and commercial viability of the music, why change the "sound" you have sold to those fans for two years in that drastic a fashion? If your fans had come to expect your music as being at the forefront of recording technology, and some fans were into it for that reason more than others, why drop off so suddenly?

Beach Boys Party was a terrific sounding record, all the instruments played by the band were crisp and clear, they are some of the most high-fidelity acoustic guitar recordings you'll find on a record from the mid-60's, and the record did exactly what the suggestion was made that Brian was going for on Smiley Smile...yet it sounded good and exploded through the speakers, both at home and on the radio. That could have been Brian's "happy medium" for coming down from the heights of the studio scene around the time of Smiley Smile, rather than taking his music from Western #3 down to the living room lo-fi sound with nothing in between. Any band's fans would, I think, react strongly to such a drastic change especially with expectations set that high.

There was much less pressure, sure, having the Boys be a self-contained band. But it's still hard to understand the way he did it so drastically and suddenly, where not only the Wrecking Crew was dismissed but also the notion of recording in a professional environment with professional equipment flew out the window in favor of recording with half-baked, Frankenstein-like studio gear.

[The Shift]

Everyone’s comments…extremely interesting.  Many of them, very well thought out.  Some of them, comforting in once again reasoning with the un-release of smile.  But, at times, I can’t help think how strange it is to be trying to psychologically pick apart and make sense of a several month period that now dates back 45 years.  FORTY-FIVE FRIGGIN YEARS AGO!! Yes, I’m yelling this to myself and not belittling others with the importance of this period or quality of music.  It’s just amusing at times to think of the length of time and what’s happened in between.  I truly appreciate Van Dyke’s words when he makes reference to it being such a small period of time in his busy life.  The passing of time also makes it that much more difficult to place yourself in the participants mindset for 1966-67 and not 2011.  What a different world with different ethics and tolerance for things in general. 

The repercussions of that time, though, continue today and not just for the fans.

[Tristero]

There was much less pressure, sure, having the Boys be a self-contained band. But it's still hard to understand the way he did it so drastically and suddenly, where not only the Wrecking Crew was dismissed but also the notion of recording in a professional environment with professional equipment flew out the window in favor of recording with half-baked, Frankenstein-like studio gear.

Could this be viewed as an extreme reaction to the increasingly frustrating sessions he went through in the first part of 1967?  Maybe when he finally made the decision to pull the plug on SMiLE, he felt a strong urge to start fresh with a whole new approach to the material, abandoning the seemingly fruitless quest for perfection and fully embracing a more rough hewn aesthetic.  Even when he was being half arsed, he went at it whole hog!

[Wirestone]

As pointed out by others, though, Brian wasn't alone in this! The Beatles, Dylan, many others turned their backs on the elaborate studio creations of 65-67 by 68. You had the acoustic-based White Album. You had Dylan returning with the stripped down John Wesley Harding. Basically everyone was thinking the same thing at the same time -- this is too much. Let's strip it back down to the sound of a few musicians in a room.

I tend to think Wild Honey makes this point in a more coherent fashion, but Smiley suggests it (and before some of the others). And in answering "whys" for that record, I think it's always valuable to remember that it was recorded in a very short amount of time for a record label that was demanding product yesterday. It was far from the last time Brian would react to outside pressure by turning in a seemingly shoddy product. The man could have invented passive aggression.

[guitarfool2002]

Agreed on several points, but I've heard the White Album and Dylan comparisons before, and the major issue I have there is The White Album sounds amazing, from an audio perspective, and on more than one track the Beatles and George Martin crafted and recorded full orchestral arrangements for certain songs, in the case of Good Night it is as full and as complex of an orchestration as can be heard on any Beatles song apart from Spector's Let It Be mixes.

The White Album was that happy medium I was hinting at with Brian, a middle point where obviously it's not the ornate psychedelic technicolor Beatles but it's also not a bunch of guys sitting around a bedroom recording songs with sparse instrumentation and lesser equipment. The Beatles did that at George's house and we can hear those demos as the Kinfauns Tapes or whatever that boot is called...but when it came time to record those songs, they went back to a pro studio and recorded the songs "properly". There was no "what the hell?" moment for the fans at least from a sonic perspective where you go from a band recording crisp, hi-fi records to garage tapes in the span of half a year.

With Dylan, if he truly wanted to do the lo-fi thing as Brian had done on Smiley he could have released what became The Basement Tapes the same year he recorded them. That could be the closest Smiley Smile comparison, apart from the Beatles White Album demos, that I could think of.

[Wirestone]

The results were different, but I think some of the aims and motivations were the same. But no, Brian didn't figure out the happy medium that the Beatles did. He didn't have an outside producer, for one thing. And like I suggested, I think the lo-fi nature was almost passive aggressive.

Those late Vege-Tables and Dada sessions where it's pretty much just a piano and bass, along with the elaborate vocals -- but all pristinely recorded -- that would have been the approach of a "dream" Smiley Smile album.

[Roger Ryan]

Yes, what we get with SMILEY SMILE, and to some extent WILD HONEY, is Brian arranging songs more simply and recording them using a less-than-ideal home studio set-up. Had Brian not built the studio in his home, the sound quality on these two releases would have been so noticeably poor. I think concern for the lack of polish took a back seat to Brian being able to record at home, but really, this situation didn't last too long. FRIENDS finds a fairly happy balance between home recording and decent sound quality and by late '68, the majority of Beach Boys releases sound quite good again ("Do It Again" is the one major exception, but isn't that because the master was lost and a mono safety dub had to be used in its place?).

[Joshilyn Hoisington]

Yes, what we get with SMILEY SMILE, and to some extent WILD HONEY, is Brian arranging songs more simply and recording them using a less-than-ideal home studio set-up. Had Brian not built the studio in his home, the sound quality on these two releases would have been so noticeably poor. I think concern for the lack of polish took a back seat to Brian being able to record at home, but really, this situation didn't last too long. FRIENDS finds a fairly happy balance between home recording and decent sound quality and by late '68, the majority of Beach Boys releases sound quite good again ("Do It Again" is the one major exception, but isn't that because the master was lost and a mono safety dub had to be used in its place?).

But here's the rub:  Contrary to the prevailing wisdom, Smiley/WH/Friends was neither recorded exclusively at home nor recorded poorly.  The lo-fi sound people associate with SS in particular and WH to an extent is just not there on the multis.  Who can say what went wrong, I suppose, but I have heard (and the remixes that have been put out tend to agree with this) some rough mixes from SS and WH done recently that are so clean and open that it'll shock you.

But this shouldn't be a surprise, because, when they weren't recording at the studios (which they still were for a few numbers throughout this time period) they were renting the finest remote equipment money could obtain and engineer by a fine old-school engineer.

[c-man]

Yes, what we get with SMILEY SMILE, and to some extent WILD HONEY, is Brian arranging songs more simply and recording them using a less-than-ideal home studio set-up. Had Brian not built the studio in his home, the sound quality on these two releases would have been so noticeably poor. I think concern for the lack of polish took a back seat to Brian being able to record at home, but really, this situation didn't last too long. FRIENDS finds a fairly happy balance between home recording and decent sound quality and by late '68, the majority of Beach Boys releases sound quite good again ("Do It Again" is the one major exception, but isn't that because the master was lost and a mono safety dub had to be used in its place?).

But here's the rub:  Contrary to the prevailing wisdom, Smiley/WH/Friends was neither recorded exclusively at home nor recorded poorly.  The lo-fi sound people associate with SS in particular and WH to an extent is just not there on the multis.  Who can say what went wrong, I suppose, but I have heard (and the remixes that have been put out tend to agree with this) some rough mixes from SS and WH done recently that are so clean and open that it'll shock you.

But this shouldn't be a surprise, because, when they weren't recording at the studios (which they still were for a few numbers throughout this time period) they were renting the finest remote equipment money could obtain and engineer by a fine old-school engineer.

Valid point, and to whit, even Pet Sounds sounds "murkier" than it should; the fact that it sounds "better" than the two 1967 albums is, I'm sure, because of the higher production standards in place during the tracking & mixing.  The "murky" quality is, says Mark L., due to the nature of the mixing consoles used in the day:  Describing the Bill Putnam custom-built recording consoles used at Western during this time (in a 1996 article for
"EQ"), Mark Linett explains why: "One of the failures I've always felt about that console in particular was that it recorded great, but the line inputs were padded down and went back to the mic inputs, creating a real distortion problem. This problem is typical of a lot of consoles from the '60s. The 3-track, 2-track, and live-to-mono stuff always sounded fantastic, but when they started mixing it through the board, they definitely lost a lot of the fidelity."

[Heysaboda]

Could Brian failing to back up Van Dyke be an indication that Brian himself didn't fully comprehend everything? Perhaps it all began to seem a little to weird for him too, but being essentially "the boss", he couldn't let on that it was all becoming a little to much for him to control.

THIS.

Indeed!

[guitarfool2002]

Yes, what we get with SMILEY SMILE, and to some extent WILD HONEY, is Brian arranging songs more simply and recording them using a less-than-ideal home studio set-up. Had Brian not built the studio in his home, the sound quality on these two releases would have been so noticeably poor. I think concern for the lack of polish took a back seat to Brian being able to record at home, but really, this situation didn't last too long. FRIENDS finds a fairly happy balance between home recording and decent sound quality and by late '68, the majority of Beach Boys releases sound quite good again ("Do It Again" is the one major exception, but isn't that because the master was lost and a mono safety dub had to be used in its place?).

But here's the rub:  Contrary to the prevailing wisdom, Smiley/WH/Friends was neither recorded exclusively at home nor recorded poorly.  The lo-fi sound people associate with SS in particular and WH to an extent is just not there on the multis.  Who can say what went wrong, I suppose, but I have heard (and the remixes that have been put out tend to agree with this) some rough mixes from SS and WH done recently that are so clean and open that it'll shock you.

But this shouldn't be a surprise, because, when they weren't recording at the studios (which they still were for a few numbers throughout this time period) they were renting the finest remote equipment money could obtain and engineer by a fine old-school engineer.

Valid point, and to whit, even Pet Sounds sounds "murkier" than it should; the fact that it sounds "better" than the two 1967 albums is, I'm sure, because of the higher production standards in place during the tracking & mixing.  The "murky" quality is, says Mark L., due to the nature of the mixing consoles used in the day:  Describing the Bill Putnam custom-built recording consoles used at Western during this time (in a 1996 article for
"EQ"), Mark Linett explains why: "One of the failures I've always felt about that console in particular was that it recorded great, but the line inputs were padded down and went back to the mic inputs, creating a real distortion problem. This problem is typical of a lot of consoles from the '60s. The 3-track, 2-track, and live-to-mono stuff always sounded fantastic, but when they started mixing it through the board, they definitely lost a lot of the fidelity."

That is very interesting because a lot of people, perhaps erroneously, think that to mix something through those Putnam 610-based modular consoles would be a dream...although maybe all these years it was recording through them where they were at their best and mixing was murky. Very interesting.

Another consideration with Smiley Smile...and this will be addressed, hopefully...with all of these state-of-the-art 8-track machines available in Hollywood for rental, why did Brian choose a Dualux radio console instead?

[Micha]

The "murky" quality is, says Mark L., due to the nature of the mixing consoles used in the day:  Describing the Bill Putnam custom-built recording consoles used at Western during this time (in a 1996 article for "EQ"), Mark Linett explains why: "One of the failures I've always felt about that console in particular was that it recorded great, but the line inputs were padded down and went back to the mic inputs, creating a real distortion problem. This problem is typical of a lot of consoles from the '60s. The 3-track, 2-track, and live-to-mono stuff always sounded fantastic, but when they started mixing it through the board, they definitely lost a lot of the fidelity."

This is interesting. The other day I had a long listen to several 66/67 albums from major bands of those times. At the end, after the TSS LP I put on Sergeant Pepper (I borrowed that LP from a friend for this), and both sounded great though pressed 44 years apart.

Then I put on Wild Honey from an early 70s Brother Records two-fer... and it was absolutely terrible. I turned up the treble full, which I normally never do because I like it a bit murky. But it still sounded so bad that instead I tried 20/20 from that same double album, and that was ok.

While this "special" sound quality fits Smiley Smile, it makes Wild Honey a less enjoyable listen than it could be.

[Cam Mott]

Can any software undistort it? Surely there is some modern magic something. An iPhone app?

[c-man]

Yes, what we get with SMILEY SMILE, and to some extent WILD HONEY, is Brian arranging songs more simply and recording them using a less-than-ideal home studio set-up. Had Brian not built the studio in his home, the sound quality on these two releases would have been so noticeably poor. I think concern for the lack of polish took a back seat to Brian being able to record at home, but really, this situation didn't last too long. FRIENDS finds a fairly happy balance between home recording and decent sound quality and by late '68, the majority of Beach Boys releases sound quite good again ("Do It Again" is the one major exception, but isn't that because the master was lost and a mono safety dub had to be used in its place?).

But here's the rub:  Contrary to the prevailing wisdom, Smiley/WH/Friends was neither recorded exclusively at home nor recorded poorly.  The lo-fi sound people associate with SS in particular and WH to an extent is just not there on the multis.  Who can say what went wrong, I suppose, but I have heard (and the remixes that have been put out tend to agree with this) some rough mixes from SS and WH done recently that are so clean and open that it'll shock you.

But this shouldn't be a surprise, because, when they weren't recording at the studios (which they still were for a few numbers throughout this time period) they were renting the finest remote equipment money could obtain and engineer by a fine old-school engineer.

Valid point, and to whit, even Pet Sounds sounds "murkier" than it should; the fact that it sounds "better" than the two 1967 albums is, I'm sure, because of the higher production standards in place during the tracking & mixing.  The "murky" quality is, says Mark L., due to the nature of the mixing consoles used in the day:  Describing the Bill Putnam custom-built recording consoles used at Western during this time (in a 1996 article for
"EQ"), Mark Linett explains why: "One of the failures I've always felt about that console in particular was that it recorded great, but the line inputs were padded down and went back to the mic inputs, creating a real distortion problem. This problem is typical of a lot of consoles from the '60s. The 3-track, 2-track, and live-to-mono stuff always sounded fantastic, but when they started mixing it through the board, they definitely lost a lot of the fidelity."

That is very interesting because a lot of people, perhaps erroneously, think that to mix something through those Putnam 610-based modular consoles would be a dream...although maybe all these years it was recording through them where they were at their best and mixing was murky. Very interesting.

Another consideration with Smiley Smile...and this will be addressed, hopefully...with all of these state-of-the-art 8-track machines available in Hollywood for rental, why did Brian choose a Dualux radio console instead?

Not sure, but since the multi-tracks sound GREAT, it apparently didn't make too much of a negative impact clarily-wise.  Al Jarinde, in his Goldmine interview a few years back, decried how poorly "Heroes And Villains" sounds in terms of dynamics compared to "Good Vibrations", and blames it on the lack of production values, and the implication I got was he meant production values at the mixdown stage: "Good Vibrations" was mixed at Columbia, where they probably had a different mixing console, more "state of the art" than the Putnam design still used at Western...not sure, but "Heroes And Villains" was possibly mixed at Wally Heider's Studio 3, which was designed to be an exact replica of Western 3, meaning they would have had the same model Putnam console.

[guitarfool2002]

Yes, what we get with SMILEY SMILE, and to some extent WILD HONEY, is Brian arranging songs more simply and recording them using a less-than-ideal home studio set-up. Had Brian not built the studio in his home, the sound quality on these two releases would have been so noticeably poor. I think concern for the lack of polish took a back seat to Brian being able to record at home, but really, this situation didn't last too long. FRIENDS finds a fairly happy balance between home recording and decent sound quality and by late '68, the majority of Beach Boys releases sound quite good again ("Do It Again" is the one major exception, but isn't that because the master was lost and a mono safety dub had to be used in its place?).

But here's the rub:  Contrary to the prevailing wisdom, Smiley/WH/Friends was neither recorded exclusively at home nor recorded poorly.  The lo-fi sound people associate with SS in particular and WH to an extent is just not there on the multis.  Who can say what went wrong, I suppose, but I have heard (and the remixes that have been put out tend to agree with this) some rough mixes from SS and WH done recently that are so clean and open that it'll shock you.

But this shouldn't be a surprise, because, when they weren't recording at the studios (which they still were for a few numbers throughout this time period) they were renting the finest remote equipment money could obtain and engineer by a fine old-school engineer.

Valid point, and to whit, even Pet Sounds sounds "murkier" than it should; the fact that it sounds "better" than the two 1967 albums is, I'm sure, because of the higher production standards in place during the tracking & mixing.  The "murky" quality is, says Mark L., due to the nature of the mixing consoles used in the day:  Describing the Bill Putnam custom-built recording consoles used at Western during this time (in a 1996 article for
"EQ"), Mark Linett explains why: "One of the failures I've always felt about that console in particular was that it recorded great, but the line inputs were padded down and went back to the mic inputs, creating a real distortion problem. This problem is typical of a lot of consoles from the '60s. The 3-track, 2-track, and live-to-mono stuff always sounded fantastic, but when they started mixing it through the board, they definitely lost a lot of the fidelity."

That is very interesting because a lot of people, perhaps erroneously, think that to mix something through those Putnam 610-based modular consoles would be a dream...although maybe all these years it was recording through them where they were at their best and mixing was murky. Very interesting.

Another consideration with Smiley Smile...and this will be addressed, hopefully...with all of these state-of-the-art 8-track machines available in Hollywood for rental, why did Brian choose a Dualux radio console instead?

Not sure, but since the multi-tracks sound GREAT, it apparently didn't make too much of a negative impact clarily-wise.  Al Jarinde, in his Goldmine interview a few years back, decried how poorly "Heroes And Villains" sounds in terms of dynamics compared to "Good Vibrations", and blames it on the lack of production values, and the implication I got was he meant production values at the mixdown stage: "Good Vibrations" was mixed at Columbia, where they probably had a different mixing console, more "state of the art" than the Putnam design still used at Western...not sure, but "Heroes And Villains" was possibly mixed at Wally Heider's Studio 3, which was designed to be an exact replica of Western 3, meaning they would have had the same model Putnam console.

I got this info from the various writings of some of Heider's former employees: As far as the equipment Wally had at his studio, his was perhaps the most new and the most state-of-the-art technology available in LA at the time. He spent a great deal of money buying what was equipment only a few stages above the prototype in some cases, but ahead of what other studios were using by a few years' worth of technology. And he made a killing renting his high-tech gear to other studios so they could offer the "newest" gear to their clients, it was a great business plan, actually, and Wally didn't lose any clients but made a lot of money in rentals!

Wally's Studio 3 was a replica of the exact dimensions of the room and the materials used, etc, but not the electronics or the equipment from what I understand. From what I understand that would be changed in and out to keep up with new items and what clients were looking for, and Putnam was always developing new gadgets like limiters, compressors, etc which would end up in his rooms. The actual gear that Brian would have recorded those classics at Western 3 wound up in John Phillips' home studio after Western upgraded.

It's still very interesting to read about the limits of those Putnam modular boards, because again the reputation is so high and so many people think those boards have the element of magic in them...it's good to read a reality check from an actual owner of a board like that!

I'm thinking it could be a case of pushing the board to mix in a way they were not designed to mix: By 1963 standards of live-to-2 or 3-track recordings, they were amazing, but pushing all that Brian had on Pet Sounds...it could have created problems.

And you simply cannot get the acoustics and the quality of sound from a bedroom or a home studio that hasn't been designed with acoustics and reflections in mind that you can in a professional room. Each wall panel is placed a certain way for a reason, the ceiling is a certain height for a specific reason, and each room has its own live sound. With haphazard equipment and a room not designed for recording and not acoustically prepared to capture the sounds, you'll most likely get a dull and muffled sounding recording if you record there. Friends sounds like such an improvement, perhaps because wasn't there a "proper" studio built at the house by the time that album was recorded, with improved acoustics and better, permanent equipment?

[c-man]

Sounds reasonable!  I do recall (without taking the trouble to dig it out) that in the Goldmine interview Al said the limiters they used in studios like Columbia were top-notch, compared to what they used in Brian's home studio (and later in other "makeshift" studios as he called them, in Holland and at MIU).  For the home studio, Brian rented one of Heider's state-of-the-art 8-track reel decks, but used the (supposedly inferior) Dualux radio console and less-than-the-best limiters...but still managed to produce clean-sounding multitracks.  The mono mixes were probably done at Heider's Studio 3, using the best technology then available...and I have it on very good authority that the original mono master of Smiley Smile sounds great...so perhaps the sonic problems occured in the mastering phase (when extra EQ and limiting would typically be added), as opposed to the mix?