SMiLE Sessions box set!

[Aegir]

I was just gonna post that someone should make a duophonic mix. I'd love to hear it. you should send me a Private Message.

[Micha]

I see I'm not the only modest person here! 

I am more modest than the rest of you put together. 

That's a good one for the delibarate irony in it, Andrew!

[over and over]

I went on a journey............it was beautiful.

[drbeachboy]

bsten - the only difference between the stand-alone and box version of the vinyl is there's a different photograph used in the gatefold or something....same audio content.

Different inner sleeves:

Sleeve 1 has brians note on one side and the picture of him behind the hour galss, and Sleeve 2 has the lyrics (no drawings).

And while I'm here, is it bad that I made a Duophonic Mix of SMiLE just for the hell of it?

Nah, you're just trying to be historically accurate. Pray tell. how did you accomplish the dirty deed?

[SMiLE Brian]

bsten - the only difference between the stand-alone and box version of the vinyl is there's a different photograph used in the gatefold or something....same audio content.

Different inner sleeves:

Sleeve 1 has brians note on one side and the picture of him behind the hour galss, and Sleeve 2 has the lyrics (no drawings).

And while I'm here, is it bad that I made a Duophonic Mix of SMiLE just for the hell of it?

Nah, you're just trying to be historically accurate. Pray tell. how did you accomplish the dirty deed?

Duophonic lives!!!!! Duophonic Summer Days is stuff of nightmares. SMiLE in Duophonic would be interesting for historical purposes as it was going to be either mono or duophonic.

[37!ws]

Duophonic is easy to do -- just create two identical mono tracks, and offset one of the tracks ever so slightly. It's not too different from artificial double-tracking.

BTW, Wild Honey sounds AWESOME in duo. Seriously.

[Dr. Tim]

Another easy-peasy way to do it:  load the mono files into Sound Forge or some such, then block out all of one channel and slide it over a few frames (to taste) until you get that lovely boxy slap-echo sound.

[drbeachboy]

Duophonic is easy to do -- just create two identical mono tracks, and offset one of the tracks ever so slightly. It's not too different from artificial double-tracking.

BTW, Wild Honey sounds AWESOME in duo. Seriously.

Today doesn't sound too bad in Duo either, but Summer Days sounded awful.

[Tristero]

That 10 from Pitchfork is probably helping a lot.

Indeed.  Say what you will about Pitchfork, but that was a pretty great review and I imagine it will help to shift some units with a younger crowd.  I was pleased to see the Onion's A/V club give it an A recently too.  Aside from a few outliers, the new set has been winning rave reviews.  It's up to a 97 on Metacritic now.  I guess the critics do get it right now and then.

[Freddie French-Pounce]

The one problem is that the 'flowing' tracks have tiny gaps in them when i made my Douphonic Mix. By the way, Child sounds amazing for some reason!

[anazgnos]

Did Duophonic processing always entail adding delay or time offsets between channels?  I was under the impression that the Wild Honey LP was just EQ'd to stereo - like bass on the right, treble on the left, mids, in the center.  And thus, summing the channels results in something basically identical to the true mono mix.

[buddhahat]

That 10 from Pitchfork is probably helping a lot.

Indeed.  Say what you will about Pitchfork, but that was a pretty great review and I imagine it will help to shift some units with a younger crowd.  I was pleased to see the Onion's A/V club give it an A recently too.  Aside from a few outliers, the new set has been winning rave reviews.  It's up to a 97 on Metacritic now.  I guess the critics do get it right now and then.

Welcome Tristero!

It's great to read such glowing reviews, and see the Smile Sessions fairing so well on Metacritic. Still not beating U2 though 

Hopefully they'll add Mojo's 100 whilst neglecting to include Q's rating, and it might be pushed up to 98.

[Freddie French-Pounce]

Did Duophonic processing always entail adding delay or time offsets between channels?  I was under the impression that the Wild Honey LP was just EQ'd to stereo - like bass on the right, treble on the left, mids, in the center.  And thus, summing the channels results in something basically identical to the true mono mix.

Yeah, my 'stereo' Wild Honey and Smiley Smile have very little done to them at all

On the Duophonic Cabin Essence, the 'Fire' from 'fire mellow' centralises in the mix. Was this one word artificially double tracked at one point and now I have undone the deed?

[Dr. Tim]

My Wild Honey pressing says stereo on the cover, but it's mono anyway.  But since Duophonic is the slap-echo split, if yours is rechanneled (as opposed to duophonic) it's highs to one side and lows to the other. 

 What you describe on that version of Cabinessence may be the two lead vocals, for that one word, match so closely they sound like one voice centered.  But if you mean the 20/20 album version, that one is in true stereo so no duophonic.

[Freddie French-Pounce]

Is my Heroes And Villians Verse Edit Experiment (Disc 2 Track 18) mant to go
'In a town full of AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAHHHHHAHHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA'?

[37!ws]

Here's the thing, though...I KNOW I've heard a duo version of Wild Honey. On vinyl. My OWN vinyl. I have two vinyl copies of Wild Honey, both say "Stereo" but suddenly they're both the high-on-one-side, low-on-the-other kind of fake stereo....wtf?!!?

[Dan Lega]

I'm very behind in my reading, so please forgive me if some of this has been gone over already....

A few quick thoughts on the release of the Beach Boys SMiLE...

Of course I was hoping there would be some major revelations, such as printed or sung lyrics that I've never heard, but that didn't really happen.  However, that being the case, Mark and Alan did somehow find different takes of previously bootlegged sessions that had not appeared, yet.  So I give them big, big kudos on that accomplishment!
 
My biggest disappointment with what we are presented was the mix of "Child Is Father Of The Man" on disc 1.  I'm really disappointed with the way they put those sections together.  That lonely piano and trumpet section needs to go after the verse/chorus/verse/chorus -- not before it!  It totally ruins the impact of that great piece of music for me.  They should have left it as it was on the contemporary mix by Brian, which was the same template he used for SMiLE in 2004.


The other thing that I'm everyone noticed is that the LP's and 45's have things written in the run out groove.  What was written on the "Heroes & Villains" 45 had me confused at first. 

Side A has what looks like... "A+  2 score". 

And side B has.   "and 5".


Well, it eventually hit me that "2 score and 5" is a take-off of the "H&V" lyric of "3 score and 5".  And that "2 score and 5" equals 45, which is the number of years since SMiLE was written!

But I couldn't figure out what the "A+" meant... until I was writing this email just now.  Perhaps it's not "A+", but the word "At", and is the lyric "At three score and five, I'm very much alive."


Long live SMiLE,   Dan Lega

[pixletwin]

Nice catch. Well done on ya. 

[drbeachboy]

Here's the thing, though...I KNOW I've heard a duo version of Wild Honey. On vinyl. My OWN vinyl. I have two vinyl copies of Wild Honey, both say "Stereo" but suddenly they're both the high-on-one-side, low-on-the-other kind of fake stereo....wtf?!!?

Maybe the Brother/Reprise LP? The LP was released in fake stereo of some kind. I haven't listened to it in close to 20 years and I cannot remember.

[Andrew G. Doe]

Here's the thing, though...I KNOW I've heard a duo version of Wild Honey. On vinyl. My OWN vinyl. I have two vinyl copies of Wild Honey, both say "Stereo" but suddenly they're both the high-on-one-side, low-on-the-other kind of fake stereo....wtf?!!?

What's the big deal ? That's how they were originally released, in mono and "electronically rechannelled stereo" (which is basically DuoPhonic with knobs on and still sounds like feces). I've had an ERS copy for something like 35 years.

[Tristero]

Welcome Tristero!

Thanks, B.  I know I’m late to the party here, but I’ve been lurking since the big announcement earlier this year rekindled my fascination with all things SMiLE and it’s been fun to read all the reaction and analysis here.  I thought that I’d sort of closed the book on all of this after absorbing BWPS, seeing it performed live, but the new set has given me a whole new perspective on how this brilliant music was constructed, how the different pieces fit together.  Just when I thought I was out, it pulled me back in.  SMiLE is a one of a kind work of pop art, a seemingly inexhaustible source of joy and mystery, and while every fan has their own ideas about the album that might have emerged in 1967 or how it should be presented today, we all have reason to celebrate.  I’m thrilled just to see that iconic artwork out on the shelves.

[juggler]

A few semi-interesting comments from BW, Hal Blaine and Jeff Foskett in this new article:
http://www.mydesert.com/article/20111113/LIFESTYLES0101/111120361/mood-vibrations?odyssey=nav|head

[SMiLE Brian]

Interesting comments from Jeff, Brian, and Hal.

[doinnothin]

For awhile around 2006/07, "Unreleased Backgrounds" was higher than 409.

I feel like I was probably a major contributor on that one.

[guitarfool2002]

Is my Heroes And Villians Verse Edit Experiment (Disc 2 Track 18) mant to go
'In a town full of AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAHHHHHAHHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA'?

Maybe they sent you the "Screamo Bands Cover Smile" tribute version by mistake...such a vocal wouldn't be too far out of place on such an album.