Wild Honey Sound Quality/Releases

[MBE]

I love the mono vinyl.

[Mike's Beard]

That "buzzing/distortion" is on the master, so therefore it's on the mono mix and the unreleased stereo mix. It was apparently a problem with the organ.

Cheers for the info. Makes you wonder why they didn't take another pass at it.

[Jason]

Honestly, I think that organ buzzing is part of the charm of that tune, and of the whole album. The whole do it yourself, warts and all thing. No joke, sometimes if I'm humming the organ bit to myself I actually "stutter" it like the buzzing sound...as far as I'm concerned, like the talking on Pet Sounds, it's part of the record.

[brother john]

That "buzzing/distortion" is on the master, so therefore it's on the mono mix and the unreleased stereo mix. It was apparently a problem with the organ.

Cheers for the info. Makes you wonder why they didn't take another pass at it.

Until I read that it was distortion related to the keyboard I always assumed it was a sound effect of bees, and as such always made perfect sense. Knowing it was a mistake deliberately left in doesn't make it any less attractive.

[brother john]

I read that the 2001 twofer of SS/Wild Honey had superior sound, as opposed to the original 1990 release.  It always seemed very muddy and hissy to me.  Perhaps I had a low quality disc.  I went trolling online and got a release from Argentina.  The difference in quality is astounding!  It's like hearing Wild Honey for the first time.  Is this normal for a release to differ so greatly between countries?  Both bear the exact same barcode and Capital numbers.  They both have HDCD 24 bit remastering.  The Argentinian disc only bears the year 1990, but has David Leaf's comments from 2000.  The American disc bears both 1990 and 2001.  It's a bit perplexing how they could sound so different.  The Agentinian disc is so much clearer and myriad details show themselves for the first time.

The 1990 release had noise reduction on it and as such it lost a fair amount of its top end. The reason the 2001 releases sound better is because they made the laudable decision not to use it again and just let the tape hiss be. I bought all the twofers again in 2001 and don't regret it as they are genuinely better.

I JUST WISH THEY'D RELEASE AN OFFICIAL STEREO SMILEY SMILE (in case someone important is listening...)

[Andrew G. Doe]

...as far as I'm concerned, like the talking on Pet Sounds, it's part of the record.

One of the funniest moments of the first Pet Sounds shows was when pretty much the entire band yelled "TOP PLEASE !" at the appropriate moment in "Here Today". 

[brother john]

...as far as I'm concerned, like the talking on Pet Sounds, it's part of the record.

One of the funniest moments of the first Pet Sounds shows was when pretty much the entire band yelled "TOP PLEASE !" at the appropriate moment in "Here Today". 

I didn't remember/realise this, so thanks for sharing. I nice touch. 

[Mahalo]

Until I read that it was distortion related to the keyboard I always assumed it was a sound effect of bees

I like that interpretation...worx perfectly.

[Boiled Egg]

...as far as I'm concerned, like the talking on Pet Sounds, it's part of the record.

One of the funniest moments of the first Pet Sounds shows was when pretty much the entire band yelled "TOP PLEASE !" at the appropriate moment in "Here Today". 

Is it time to introduce that as a protocol here? Say, when a thread has been sufficiently derailed?

[Jason]

99% of threads would end up having it!

[Bicyclerider]

I read that the 2001 twofer of SS/Wild Honey had superior sound, as opposed to the original 1990 release.  It always seemed very muddy and hissy to me.  Perhaps I had a low quality disc.  I went trolling online and got a release from Argentina.  The difference in quality is astounding!  It's like hearing Wild Honey for the first time.  Is this normal for a release to differ so greatly between countries?  Both bear the exact same barcode and Capital numbers.  They both have HDCD 24 bit remastering.  The Argentinian disc only bears the year 1990, but has David Leaf's comments from 2000.  The American disc bears both 1990 and 2001.  It's a bit perplexing how they could sound so different.  The Agentinian disc is so much clearer and myriad details show themselves for the first time.

The 1990 release had noise reduction on it and as such it lost a fair amount of its top end. The reason the 2001 releases sound better is because they made the laudable decision not to use it again and just let the tape hiss be. I bought all the twofers again in 2001 and don't regret it as they are genuinely better.

I JUST WISH THEY'D RELEASE AN OFFICIAL STEREO SMILEY SMILE (in case someone important is listening...)

Even with the noise reduction I think the 1990 release sounds better than the 2001 which has boosted high frequencies that hurt the ears when the volume is cranked up and compression so that there's digital limiting and loss of frequency range.

The best sounding is still the Japanese Pastmasters IMO.

[Mikie]

The best sounding is still the Japanese Pastmasters IMO.

Agreed.

[Pinder's Gone To Kokomo And Back Again]

The Warner two-fer (with 20/20) vinyl sounds significantly better than my Capitol original!

[drbeachboy]

The Brother/Reprise 2-fer has the duophonic Wild Honey, I believe.

[Pinder's Gone To Kokomo And Back Again]

What???

Gotta go check that when I get home!

A Wild Honey Duophonic is something of a Beach Boys Holy Grail for me!! (there's no accounting for taste )

[Shane]

Hey, the last time I listened to Wild Honey, it was on my newly acquired Muntz 4 track tape in duophonic, no less!

[Mikie]

Damn,  you're old!

[David Kennedy]

I just ordered the Wild Honey SVLP-219  EMI import,anyone have any opinions on its sound quality?

[David Kennedy]

oops,wrong catalog number.

[hypehat]

The Brother/Reprise 2-fer has the duophonic Wild Honey, I believe.

I keep seeing that about and passing on it, because I want my glorious mono WH. But then I also want a copy of Friends.... It's hard to walk away from it each time

[drbeachboy]

I haven't listened to that LP in ages, but I don't recall it sounding terrible. If it is not too expensive, I'd take a chance and get it. Also, Smiley Smile is in glorious Duophonic on the Brother/Reprise 2-fer with Friends.

[grillo]

It's the Duophonic with more bass in one speaker, more treble in the other. Not the best way to hear that record. Anyone have the more recent mono re-press?

[GuyOnTheBeach]

I don't think the duophonic Wild Honey is so bad.. It's not as great as a full stereo mix would have been.. I guess when time travel is invented, we'll have to go back and try and talk Brian into approving a stereo mix, so we don't have to wait all these years... I mean it's obvious someone goes back there, that distorted sound that's on Country Air sounds too like when I have my mobile phone too near the speakers..... 

[c-man]

I don't think the duophonic Wild Honey is so bad.. It's not as great as a full stereo mix would have been.. I guess when time travel is invented, we'll have to go back and try and talk Brian into approving a stereo mix, so we don't have to wait all these years... I mean it's obvious someone goes back there, that distorted sound that's on Country Air sounds too like when I have my mobile phone too near the speakers.....  

See, that distorted sound on "Country Air" has never bothered me, 'cause I always thought it was a trumpet note where Brian had the player purposely held the note as long as he could, until he started running out of breath and the note began to sputter.  I always thought it was kinda a cool idea, just playing with sounds the way he did for SMiLE for instance.  Kinda like on The Beatles' "Long Long Long", at the end, where the bottle of Blue Nun wine starts to vibrate on top of the organ speaker, and you get a really cool distortion effect.  So knowing now that the "Country Air" sound is really a Mellotron, or Chamberlain, or organ note distorted, I prefer to think of it in the context of that sound on "Long Long Long", and it still doesn't bother me.

[GuyOnTheBeach]

I don't think the duophonic Wild Honey is so bad.. It's not as great as a full stereo mix would have been.. I guess when time travel is invented, we'll have to go back and try and talk Brian into approving a stereo mix, so we don't have to wait all these years... I mean it's obvious someone goes back there, that distorted sound that's on Country Air sounds too like when I have my mobile phone too near the speakers.....  

See, that distorted sound on "Country Air" has never bothered me, 'cause I always thought it was a trumpet note where Brian had the player purposely held the note as long as he could, until he started running out of breath and the note began to sputter.  I always thought it was kinda a cool idea, just playing with sounds the way he did for SMiLE for instance.  Kinda like on The Beatles' "Long Long Long", at the end, where the bottle of Blue Nun wine starts to vibrate on top of the organ speaker, and you get a really cool distortion effect.  So knowing now that the "Country Air" sound is really a Mellotron, or Chamberlain, or organ note distorted, I prefer to think of it in the context of that sound on "Long Long Long", and it still doesn't bother me.

I guess as far as accidental noises go, it's pretty good, like the glider that files across on the 'promo' for Piggy In The Middle by The Rutles, according to Eric Idle that wasn't intentional.