Brian's Home Studio

[Andrew G. Doe]

did they mix the record on the Gates or was a "real" studio booked?  those types of radio boards don't usually have echo sends, EQ, etc ...

Looking at the session details, my impression is that they cut the basic instrumental tracks at Brian's house, then used commercial studios for the vocals and, I'm presuming, mixing, at least until a pukka 8-track board was installed in late 1968..

[Jay]

they were "assembled" as well; mixed in sections and copied and dubbed (modular recording).

What an odd method of recording music. I sometimes wonder how ANY work at all got done, working in this manner.

[guitarfool2002]

did they mix the record on the Gates or was a "real" studio booked?  those types of radio boards don't usually have echo sends, EQ, etc ...

Looking at the session details, my impression is that they cut the basic instrumental tracks at Brian's house, then used commercial studios for the vocals and, I'm presuming, mixing, at least until a pukka 8-track board was installed in late 1968..

Were these Smiley vocal sessions booked/listed at Wally Heider's? Or Sunset, or somewhere else?

The engineers remember hanging microphones above shower stalls and there is the talk/legend of the emptied pool being used for vocals and as an echo chamber...I admit I don't hear that kind of thing on the released tracks but it sounds like they tried experimental vocals at the house (and shower, and pool, etc...).

There is a non-studio feel to a lot of the vocal tracks, and you can almost hear the room sound of the house at times...but I think they did do a lot of finishing up at Heider's as the album's numerous reels were being put together.

[guitarfool2002]

did they mix the record on the Gates or was a "real" studio booked?  those types of radio boards don't usually have echo sends, EQ, etc ...

As far as I know Smiley Smile was given the final mix entirely at Wally Heider's studios, in a marathon session. I could be wrong...But deferring to Stephen Desper's knowledge of the board since he actually worked with it, I'd say a radio board like that Gates would probably have some kind of a send/return as well as some kind of EQ. A big part of top 40 radio at that time was an individual station's "sound", which would include some stations compressing more heavily and boosting bass more prominently than others, which made them stand out on the AM band. Some AM stations sounded terrific for what they had to work with, and others sounded thin as hell in comparison. So that was the station engineers' work on how they EQ'd their broadcasts.

And, another disc jockey schtick in the 60's was the use and over-use of gimmicks like reverb and echo on their voice, again sometimes stations could be identified by the echo or reverb they were slapping on the DJ's voice. So I'd think any broadcast board would have to include at least some kind of send/return circuitry to give the DJ's and engineers that option during a broadcast.

I'd seriously love to hear Desper's thoughts on the Gates board, if he hasn't posted something in the past on the topic.

[Joshilyn Hoisington]

Desper said that Jimmy performed some alterations on the dualux, at least it had a stereo buss situation, and Desper said they would bypass the board whenever possible, using outboard pre-amps.

[TdHabib]

aeijtzsche I don't know if you've already heard them, but someone on YT posted the backing tracks to "Slip on Through" and "This Whole World," which I'd never heard before. It made me mildly excited

[Joshilyn Hoisington]

Those are, thank goodness (from my point of view), simply elaborately OOPS-ed, and not actual lead-down mixes.  Still, very revealing way to listen to those tracks.

[guitarfool2002]

Desper said that Jimmy performed some alterations on the dualux, at least it had a stereo buss situation, and Desper said they would bypass the board whenever possible, using outboard pre-amps.

There are several different models of the Dualux, including one where you could apparently switch between an AM broadcast on one half of the board and an FM broadcast on the other! This was in the 60's, I guess when FM was still experimental and when some AM stations were doing a simulcast on both AM and FM.

I'm wondering if there is any more specific information on which model of the Dualux they were using in summer of '67, since there were several different models with different features. I ask because there are still collectors and hobbyists who collect, repair/refurbish, and use the Dualux as an example of a classic radio board.

I'd also like to know why the decision was made to use one for recording Smiley Smile, other than it could have been a rush job and nothing else was available in LA.

Remember these same people crated up and shipped a Baldwin theater organ to Hawaii for two shows, recorded those same shows on what was at the time *very* high-tech mobile recording equipment, yet couldn't find a simple board other than a radio board to record an album 2 months earlier...I don't get that.

[Joshilyn Hoisington]

Good questions.  I feel like the Dualux is merely indicative of the nature of what they were trying to do; that is see if home recording would work.  Why spend money, or even put forward a coherent effort, when it's tentative?  You know, just find a cheap board, throw up some Neumanns, and see if Brian is into it?

[DonnyL]

it sounds like they were using it primarily for monitoring while recording if outside preamps were used and the record was mixed elsewhere.  keep in mind there were really no mass produced mixing boards in those days, so the idea of putting together a console at this stage wouldnt make sense.  a radio board would really be the only way to go. 

[exposedbrain]

I seem to remember there being a detailed account of the mix down sessions for Smiley Smile in the Byron Preiss book

[guitarfool2002]

I seem to remember there being a detailed account of the mix down sessions for Smiley Smile in the Byron Preiss book

This is true, there are bits from an interview with Jim Lockert and although it's only a few entries long, he describes how he mixed down Smiley from reels of tape and other details. That book is also where I got the info posted earlier about hanging a microphone over the shower stall to record vocals.

As much info as the book leaves out, there are small details like that hiding in there to make it worth owning. Great photos and artwork too!

[guitarfool2002]

it sounds like they were using it primarily for monitoring while recording if outside preamps were used and the record was mixed elsewhere.  keep in mind there were really no mass produced mixing boards in those days, so the idea of putting together a console at this stage wouldnt make sense.  a radio board would really be the only way to go. 

The boards Brian was working with at Western just prior to recording Smiley, the Bill Putnam designed modular boards, were a series of preamps, meaning the "board" wasn't as much of a board as it was individual preamps in each of the modules which could be swapped out. The heart of the design was Putnam's 610:



...which would be built into a chassis where the 610's could be interchanged and replaced more easily than standard designs, a chassis such as this one which also had a history of recording a load of now-classic live albums and concerts (notice the row of 610 amps):



This is the kind of custom-built board Wally Heider's business had available to record on location, and this particular one after recording live and location gigs in the 60's was bought by Neil Young and later was used to record the Harvest album:



So these boards were the standard, go-to mobile recording rigs available to artists around LA in the 60's, they were available and intimately known by engineers like Jim Lockert who was a UA staff engineer and had worked every day with Putnam's 610's, Brian knew the 610 having mixed with it for the past few years, there were as shown above more than one 610-based mobile rig available, yet they rent a radio board to record what could have been Brian's most anticipated album? Remember, Beach Boys fans were still high on all the Smile hype as work on Smiley was beginning on the Dualux.

Unless the 610 was the preamps they were using, but if that were the case they might not need the Dualux since the 610 was the channel strip of the board...hmmm.

I guess a decision like that is indicative of the chaos around the band in the Spring and Summer of 67...a lot of their decisions simply made no sense at all.

[Joshilyn Hoisington]

Hmm.  I could see some situation like the following:  They decide to record at Brian's house.  They call Heider:  "Sorry, my boards are booked for the next month."  Oh.  "I've got a couple of spare 610 strips you could cobble together, but you'd still need something for foldback."

Total speculation.

[Andrew G. Doe]

I seem to remember there being a detailed account of the mix down sessions for Smiley Smile in the Byron Preiss book

This is true, there are bits from an interview with Jim Lockert and although it's only a few entries long, he describes how he mixed down Smiley from reels of tape and other details. That book is also where I got the info posted earlier about hanging a microphone over the shower stall to record vocals.

As much info as the book leaves out, there are small details like that hiding in there to make it worth owning. Great photos and artwork too!

Dug out the Preiss book yesterday, and Lockert's description is most confusing (OK, to me anyway) - he starts off by stating Smiley Smile was mixed in one marathon session at Wally Heiders (5pm-6am), then starts talking about wiping vocals from the 8-track and recording new ones. Now, is it just me or do I accurately get the impression that while the tracks were recorded at Brian's house, all the vocals were cut in that single session at Heiders as they were mixing down the album ?

[guitarfool2002]

I seem to remember there being a detailed account of the mix down sessions for Smiley Smile in the Byron Preiss book

This is true, there are bits from an interview with Jim Lockert and although it's only a few entries long, he describes how he mixed down Smiley from reels of tape and other details. That book is also where I got the info posted earlier about hanging a microphone over the shower stall to record vocals.

As much info as the book leaves out, there are small details like that hiding in there to make it worth owning. Great photos and artwork too!

Dug out the Preiss book yesterday, and Lockert's description is most confusing (OK, to me anyway) - he starts off by stating Smiley Smile was mixed in one marathon session at Wally Heiders (5pm-6am), then starts talking about wiping vocals from the 8-track and recording new ones. Now, is it just me or do I accurately get the impression that while the tracks were recorded at Brian's house, all the vocals were cut in that single session at Heiders as they were mixing down the album ?

This is an interesting point, and after going over the book again it is very confusing: In one quote Lockert is describing recording in the shower, and in another he mentions the process of recording over a vocal which had already been tracked, seemingly at that marathon session at Heider's. So which was it? It's impossible to tell with the quotes scattered around the book like that with no context.

He also describes tracking "You Are My Sunshine" with the cello players late night, and if we read it in the context of the Preiss book we might assume Lockert was describing a session at Brian's house, but we know exactly where and when that session happened, and I didn't even think Lockert was involved with Smile at that time Sunshine was cut...unless he was assisting.

Taking any available vocal session outtakes from Smiley Smile, from SOT or elsewhere, do those tapes tell the same story of mixing section-by-section as Lockert described in the Preiss book? I'm guessing Lockert may indeed have wiped vocals and recorded verse-by-verse as described, but perhaps only on a few of Smiley's tracks which had to be finished. To say he did this for the whole album as the Preiss book excerpts could be doing, I think it can be disproved by listening to the tapes and the sessions. A few songs? That would make sense.

A quick observation...if the vocals were cut at Heider's, or cut partially at Heider's and partially at Brian's house, or mostly at the house, it is a tribute to Lockert and Desper as engineers that the final vocal tracks sound so damned good on that album! Or a tribute to them that the vocal tracks have the same sound quality from track to track, except the obvious cut-ins from the original Smile tracks.

If I remember there are little items that show up on a few tracks from 64-66, things like a guitar solo or a vocal break, that were added in the final mixdown stage of the song, and are technically "missing" from the session tapes because it was done live during the mixdown itself. Isn't "Help Me Rhonda" a case of this, where a solo or something only appears on the final mix? There is a precedent for Brian mixing that way.

[C.Miller]

On Vega-tables, there is a keyboard part (sounds like a key setting on Brian's organ) in the last section of the song (I know that you'll feel better, after the aca break). It's missing from the Hawthorne mix, and I'd guess because it was punched in live as you said.