Smiley Smile in stereo

[exposedbrain]

so i have been shopping around for a vinyl copy of smiley smile and a lot of the ones i see on ebay are stereo. but to my ears both of the cd reissues i have owned are in mono. are these lp's actually stereo mixes of smiley smile or duophonic ?

[Andrew G. Doe]

Neither - they're 'electronically rechanneled'. if I may quote from my own website (it's OK, I've given myself permission):

From 1961 to 1967, Beach Boys albums were released in three formats - mono, stereo and what can best be charitably described as 'fake' stereo (the situation regarding the singles is much more straughtforward:  up to and including "Bluebirds..." all BB 45s were released in mono only, as was "Cotton Fields". All the rest are in stereo). This was a process applied by Capitol to a mono master tape in order to make it sound like stereo… in theory. In practise, it usually sounded like merda. Just to complicate things further, Capitol used two versions of fake stereo. The first one, used from Today ! up to and including Pet Sounds, was called Duophonic, and consisted of two mono signals with an almost imperceptible time delay (measured in milliseconds) between them. The result was not unlike listening to the mono album in an empty swimming pool (Smile would have sounded like this as well). For Smiley Smile and Wild Honey, a system called electronic rechanneling was used; this was basically Duophonic with knobs on, in that the time delay was augmented by having different frequencies emphasised on each channel, usually bass on one side, treble on the other. This sounded like listening to a mono album at the bottom of a deep well with a bucket over your head (just to confuse things further, the album prefix for these two - ST - indicated that they were released in true stereo. Capitol's prefix system was T (mono); DT (Duophonic); and ST (stereo). This mileage could, however, vary - the electronically rechanneled Stack O' Tracks carried a DT prefix). The reason Capitol was forced to adopt such subterfuge was simple - from 1965 to 1967, Brian insisted on handing the company a mono album master. Prior to this, the stereo mixes handed in were the work of Chuck Britz, not Brian (who apparently tolerated the practise). The first Beach Boys album with an 'authorised' stereo mix was Friends (courtesy of Steve Desper), and it says much for the speed of technological development within the industry that two years later, the band were releasing quadraphonic albums (OK, not exactly quadraphonic... but that's another story).

There, I think that's all crystal clear. 

[Ana-Lu]

The duophonic records sound especially bad if you hit the mono button.  The two channels were out of phase, and it sounded like it was coming out of a phone booth.

Even though there are technical issues with Capitol duophonic, some titles sounded better than others.  I kind of like my duophonic copy of Pet Sounds.

[exposedbrain]

thanks a lot for the information. i think i might stick to a mono copy, though it would be interesting to hear a fake stereo version of Smiley Smile. i never get tired of that album

[?]

I recommend the 1981 mono green label reissue with "Mastered by Capitol" in the deadwax (N-16158).  Sometimes you can spot them by a green sticker on the cover that says "A Capitol Value".  These sound outstanding and come straight from the masters.  Best of all, they can be found inexpensively on ebay in mint condition.  Mine was $14 sealed.  An original pressing will cost you a lot more and won't sound half as good.  My two cents.

[petsite]

Also, in Japan, two boots were released. One was Wild Honey, the other was Smiley Smile. They were mastered from vintage 1967 duophonic (or whatever) reel to reels (which I still see from time to time for sale). Never heard them but people have raved. They come with a Mobile Fidelity Sound Labs type label.

Some one has the WILD HONEY one up for sale now. Take a look.

http://page16.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/u23495881

[Vega-Table Man]

The duophonic records sound especially bad if you hit the mono button.  The two channels were out of phase, and it sounded like it was coming out of a phone booth.

Even though there are technical issues with Capitol duophonic, some titles sounded better than others.  I kind of like my duophonic copy of Pet Sounds.

Some titles do fare better than others ... I have both mono and "stereo" original Wild Honey LPs (the "stereo" of this title too is really rechanneled), and I couldn't believe it, but I found my rechanneled LP (with mono button pressed) beats the actual mono LP sonically! I have no idea why this might be ...

Actually the '80s green-label edition (real mono) beats both. I also prefer the green-label Smiley to the original mono ... AvanTodd is right on about these. They sound better in general and tend to be less noisy than '60s pressings.