New Icon Fetch Interview with Mark & Alan

[pobbard]

I don't know, I don't get either the "everything must be in stereo, even if it results in inferior quality" or "everything must be folded down to mono, even if it results in inferior quality" camps. Two or three mono tracks in your Smile mix won't kill you, and any sane set of ears would adjust in a couple seconds at the absolute most, I'd think.

And more than a few albums released c. 1967 mixed mono and stereo tracks, even on their "stereo" versions -- ODESSEY AND ORACLE and VU & NICO come to mind. There's nothing wrong with doing a modern SMILE mix this way.

[Andrew G. Doe]

I highly suspect there's a lot of self-deception going on. The officiality of a product, it being, by nature, available to purchase in stores with a Capitol logo, bearing the names of professionals, plays psychological games with many. I'd be willing to bet that if that 'stereo' GV on youtube had first been revealed to the public with a Linett credit, people would be jumping for joy, and conversely, had the fly-ins (forget getting into all the "technical" stuff) from the Capitol CD been attributed to a fan on youtube, the reaction would most likely mirror the most recent responses in this thread, i.e. "pretty good but not good enough for a professional official product." Don't be taken and influenced entirely by the fidelity of the sources used; listen to the work.

So, essentially you're saying that someone working from the original multi-tracks in a professional studio wouldn't necessarily come up with a better result that someone working in their bedroom using boots ?  Whatever you're on, you need to stop.

And BTW, your premise has been entirely dis-proven by the reaction here to both official and fan versions of the same track. In fact, some seems most irked by the fact that the allegedly crappy "Barnyard" had been officially sanctioned.

[monicker]

I highly suspect there's a lot of self-deception going on. The officiality of a product, it being, by nature, available to purchase in stores with a Capitol logo, bearing the names of professionals, plays psychological games with many. I'd be willing to bet that if that 'stereo' GV on youtube had first been revealed to the public with a Linett credit, people would be jumping for joy, and conversely, had the fly-ins (forget getting into all the "technical" stuff) from the Capitol CD been attributed to a fan on youtube, the reaction would most likely mirror the most recent responses in this thread, i.e. "pretty good but not good enough for a professional official product." Don't be taken and influenced entirely by the fidelity of the sources used; listen to the work.

So, essentially you're saying that someone working from the original multi-tracks in a professional studio wouldn't necessarily come up with a better result that someone working in their bedroom using boots ?

No, i'm not essentially saying that. You’ve been using the same tired line since, i think, March. And now that the box set has been released, your argument doesn’t hold up. This is PRECISELY why i wrote the last line in my last post:

Don't be taken and influenced entirely by the fidelity of the sources used; listen to the work.

To throw another one of your tired lines at you: listen to the music not the signal path (which, by the way, “signal path” is not the technically correct usage there, but let’s not get into that). You’re just as guilty of the type of stuff you accuse others of, only in a different direction: you are listening solely to the high fidelity of the master tapes (or in comparative examples, listening to the low fidelity of bootlegs). From the beginning--and it quite stands out because for all your credentials as an expert on the band, when you’re on here, you hardly ever talk about the actual MUSIC and your alleged love of it, instead taking every opportunity to command your pseudo-authority and correct people on minutiae--you have been wowed by the high quality of the tapes (understandably, as the sound quality is superb) and have focused solely on that. Look past that already and listen to the (reissue) production/engineering work.

Also, before you speak, familiarize yourself with studio technology and its relationship to the times. The point of your rhetorical question only really applies to TRACKING (which in this case was done 45 years ago) and digitizing the audio (tape machines used, board, preamps, A/D converters, etc.). Software is software. Alan Boyd explicitly stated in his first Icon Fetch interview that he edited on FINAL CUT PRO! Does this mean anything to you? It doesn’t f*cking matter anyway because at the end of the day, it’s the person’s ear and producer’s vision/discretion that matters. All i’m saying is that the work done on GV by someone in their bedroom (using official released versions of the song, by the way, not boots, as you claim) does not exhibit the egregiousness of some of the work that made it onto the official CD. I’ve brought this up a few times and it’s been ignored: how can people realistically warn against and preemptively complain about doing things like the GV fake stereo extraction on an official release when vocals from other recordings were, 45 years after the fact, digitally pitch shifted and shoehorned into these tracks for the official release? Can you honestly tell me that the pitch shifted vocals on disc 1 really sound like the Beach Boys? Can you honestly tell me that Barnyard sounds better with the demo piano strangling the backing track? Of course, you’re going to say yes to both.

And BTW, your premise has been entirely dis-proven by the reaction here to both official and fan versions of the same track. In fact, some seems most irked by the fact that the allegedly crappy "Barnyard" had been officially sanctioned.

You didn't carefully read what i wrote. I was referring to the sentiments expressed toward the end of this thread. I acknowledge that some people love what bruiteur did. There's obviously more than one camp here.

I don't understand why or how anyone, including i, argue with you. You are a cinder block. ALL of this argument is pointless and insane, i realize. I am insane.

[Andrew G. Doe]

Nope, not going to say yea or nay. No need. 

[Jim V.]

I know this has been brought up countless times, but why didn't they remove the piano from "Barnyard"? It has obviously been proven possible. They obviously didn't have any problem manipulating the vocals on other parts of the album. I just don't get it. And I think maybe the question wasn't asked on Icon Fetch because Mark and Alan know they should have.

[adam78]

I know this has been brought up countless times, but why didn't they remove the piano from "Barnyard"? It has obviously been proven possible. They obviously didn't have any problem manipulating the vocals on other parts of the album. I just don't get it. And I think maybe the question wasn't asked on Icon Fetch because Mark and Alan know they should have.

I don't know why and haven't read/heard any response from the producers to it, but in the build up to TSS coming out, I actually just assumed that it would have been done and then when it wasn't, it was quite a surprise. I don't think they've synced it poorly, just thought the piano would be removed. Sorry, i'm not trying to fuel this same argument again.

[Jim V.]

Yeah I don't wanna start the same old sh*t either, but it's just weird. And for the record, I think "I'm In Great Shape" works great. It sounds complete to me. And "Barnyard" doesn't sound horrible to me, but I think it could have really worked, and I'm just not sure why they didn't try.

[Sam_BFC]

Maybe they did try and were not satisfied with the results.