One more observation: If you watch American Band there is maybe 10-15 seconds of footage which this clip we're discussing does not have.

Among them:

Two shots of Mike pretending to smoke and dancing, wearing the same firehat as everyone else, and it looks like Western's backdrop.

One shot of Carl sitting in front of the Scully rack units that looks like it came from a lower-quality 8mm film.

A final shot of the studio door being closed on Brian, as he's standing behind the board in the control room still wearing the firehat.

I wasn't able to find any new details in those clips, but it's odd that this version of that film which I thought was the most complete and clear I had ever seen is actually missing a few pretty cool shots. For whatever reason.

Hence my comment about it not being a mix session as two other band members are there. Or... those shots are edited into the main footage... 

To sum up...

It's at Western 3 - fact.

Therefore it's not a "Fire" session - fact.

There's a Scully 280B 8-track that just shouldn't be there - inconvenient fact.

Very inconvenient!   

The shot of Brian at the studio door at the end in AB is a shot I never noticed, in many repeated viewings of American Band (specifically that clip). I'm still surprised the footage of Mike isn't in the longer clip we've been watching...it clearly looks like the same day or session.

Andrew, you or someone mentioned the firehats in the Good Vibrations film clip: Offhand I don't know the date, but were there any sessions at Western held the same week as that clip was filmed? The firehats appear to be exactly the same. Of course those same firehats pop up several times, so maybe Brian just had a supply of them which he'd whip out on a whim for people to wear.

[Pet Sounds]

I've often wondered whether they might have had it on premises as early as April. Where were the Pet Sounds songs recorded on 8-track at Columbia mixed down and by whom? I wouldn't think they'd have been done at Columbia, as reportedly Brian got in trouble for touching the board there and I doubt he'd have trusted the mixdowns to an engineer he hadn't known and worked with for some time. And Columbia being such a strict shop, I don't think he could have brought Chuck over from Western to do the mixdowns. So where were they done and by whom? If at Western, they had to have had an 8-track at that time.

Very interesting, I'd like to break this down even further.

1. Start with the assumed fact at the end of the process: Chuck Britz and Brian mixed Pet Sounds at Western.

2. According to Mark Linett, at the time of Pet Sounds, Columbia had the only 8-track machine in town.

3. Let's assume Brian would take his four-track reel containing the instrumental tracks from Western or Gold Star over to Columbia, they'd transfer the instrumental mixdown to one track on Columbia's eight track, and Brian would add his vocals and vocal overdubs on the open tracks.

So we have a 8-track tape now in Brian's possession from Columbia, with instrumentals and vocals. Even taking into account any bouncing of tracks and sub-mixes and all of it, the question becomes:

Exactly what tapes were Brian and Chuck Britz working with when they mixed Pet Sounds at Western? If, according to Mark, Columbia had the only 8 track in town, how would Brian do as much as a playback at Western if there was no machine there to do it?

This is before Wally Heider had his for-hire 8-track machine being demoed in use at those Sinatra sessions in fall 1966, and as Beach Head suggested in his post, something is missing from this story. How did they play an 8 track reel of tape if they were not mixing at the only studio which had an 8 track machine?

There is a simple answer for this, I know, but I'm just not getting it...

Sometimes the simplest, most obvious explanation is the answer - they mixed at Columbia, not Western. Is there any hard evidence they mixed Pet Sounds at Western ?

After reading and re-reading articles like Mark Linett's mixing notes for the Pet Sounds box, as well as the Mix magazine article when he mixed it in 5.1 and others, I'm not much closer to an answer    ...other than to say it seems Chuck Britz mixed the instrumental tracks he recorded at Western down to a single mono track, in effect bouncing three tracks into one, so Brian could then add the vocals to that one mono backing track which he would put on an 8-track at Columbia. That's been reported so many times, though, it's not really new info. With Good Vibrations they apparently did multiple versions of this, many times over, where they recorded, then bounced the tracks onto one mono track, copied *that* track onto another 4-track tape, and kept repeating the process to layer new tracks. Just like Les Paul in the 40's and 50's, bizarre, quirky, unorthodox, but damn the results were amazing!

The only references I can find of Chuck "mixing" Pet Sounds were for a stereo release in another country, four songs mixed in primitive stereo. Brian mentions him time and time again, actually so does Mark Linett, but given the scenario of the 4 and 8 track reels I think crediting Chuck Britz with mixing Pet Sounds is only partially true...if all he mixed were the instrumental backing tracks.

So an anonymous, uncredited engineer at Columbia actually did the final mixes of Pet Sounds, is that what we're suggesting? Unless someone can clarify the role Chuck Britz actually played? That would be quite a blockbuster as well...

One more observation: If you watch American Band there is maybe 10-15 seconds of footage which this clip we're discussing does not have.

Among them:

Two shots of Mike pretending to smoke and dancing, wearing the same firehat as everyone else, and it looks like Western's backdrop.

One shot of Carl sitting in front of the Scully rack units that looks like it came from a lower-quality 8mm film.

A final shot of the studio door being closed on Brian, as he's standing behind the board in the control room still wearing the firehat.

I wasn't able to find any new details in those clips, but it's odd that this version of that film which I thought was the most complete and clear I had ever seen is actually missing a few pretty cool shots. For whatever reason.

[Summer Days]

I can only think of two possible solutions to the dilemma:

(1) Before leaving Columbia, Brian mixed the 8-tracks down to some kind of 4-track submasters, then had Chuck do the final mixes from those at Western. However, I've never heard anybody who's dealt with BB master tapes indicate that such submasters existed.

(2) The accepted story of Chuck Britz doing all the final mixes for Brian during that era is simply wrong. And for at least two of the group's most important albums, Summer Days and Pet Sounds, Brian had some unheralded staff engineer at Columbia doing many of the final mixdowns. Could we really have gotten the facts so wrong all these years?

Maybe it's not a case of getting the facts wrong, but rather not getting the full story when maybe a less complex version of what really happened made more interesting reading in liner notes and band histories. I've heard of the bouncing of tracks done at Western during Good Vibrations to free up tracks on the 4-track tapes, but it seems like adding so much more work, cost, and time to have to reduce 8 track mixes at Columbia for every session Brian was there...and did they reduce to a 4 track tape after recording on 8 just for Brian to take to Western? I doubt that mainly because it doesn't seem logical, but who knows.

My mind is still blown from seeing that the tape machine is an 8 track in this firehat video - after years of thinking there was no 8 track then at Western. 

[Pet Sounds]

I've often wondered whether they might have had it on premises as early as April. Where were the Pet Sounds songs recorded on 8-track at Columbia mixed down and by whom? I wouldn't think they'd have been done at Columbia, as reportedly Brian got in trouble for touching the board there and I doubt he'd have trusted the mixdowns to an engineer he hadn't known and worked with for some time. And Columbia being such a strict shop, I don't think he could have brought Chuck over from Western to do the mixdowns. So where were they done and by whom? If at Western, they had to have had an 8-track at that time.

Very interesting, I'd like to break this down even further.

1. Start with the assumed fact at the end of the process: Chuck Britz and Brian mixed Pet Sounds at Western.

2. According to Mark Linett, at the time of Pet Sounds, Columbia had the only 8-track machine in town.

3. Let's assume Brian would take his four-track reel containing the instrumental tracks from Western or Gold Star over to Columbia, they'd transfer the instrumental mixdown to one track on Columbia's eight track, and Brian would add his vocals and vocal overdubs on the open tracks.

So we have a 8-track tape now in Brian's possession from Columbia, with instrumentals and vocals. Even taking into account any bouncing of tracks and sub-mixes and all of it, the question becomes:

Exactly what tapes were Brian and Chuck Britz working with when they mixed Pet Sounds at Western? If, according to Mark, Columbia had the only 8 track in town, how would Brian do as much as a playback at Western if there was no machine there to do it?

This is before Wally Heider had his for-hire 8-track machine being demoed in use at those Sinatra sessions in fall 1966, and as Beach Head suggested in his post, something is missing from this story. How did they play an 8 track reel of tape if they were not mixing at the only studio which had an 8 track machine?

There is a simple answer for this, I know, but I'm just not getting it...

I'm sure there is an interview with Brian or Chuck where they mentioned synching up two 4 tracks for Good Vibes or other sessions of that period in place of a "real" 8 track.

People have been mis-interpreting some session chat to mean that - in fact what Brian actually says during a "GV" session (first aired on the 1976 US radio special "The Best Summers Of Our Lives") is "we're recording this on two 4-tracks so we only have to do it once", i.e. we're recording the verse section twice, but at the same time. No synching of machines.

yes, there is no way they were syncing 2 4-tracks in those days.  2 scully 280s would not have matched up perfectly and those machines did not have vari-speed or sync capability.  i think George Martine made a big deal about manually syncing two 4-tracks for "a day in the life", but this was very difficult and certainly out of the ordinary (and those were not scullys).

I recall reading somewhere, decades ago, that the engineers use one track for some kind of sync pulse, and even then I thought "don't think so", especially as the Abbey Road recorders at the time were, as I recall,  BTR (British Tape Recorders - honestly) 4-tracks, or at best Studer 4-tracks.

Ah, here we go:

"On 10 February 1967 during the recording of "A Day in the Life", Ken Townsend synchronised two machines so that extra tracks were available for recording the orchestra. The technique that Townsend used was to record a 50 Hz tone on the one remaining track on one machine and used that tone to control the speed of a second machine. Townsend thereby effectively used pilottone, a technique that was common in 16mm news gathering whereby a 50/60 Hz tone was sent from the movie camera to a tape recorder during filming in order to achieve lip-synch sound recording. With the simple tone used for "A Day in the Life", the start position was marked with a wax pencil on the two machines and the tape operator had to align the tapes by eye and attempt to press play and record simultaneously for each take.

Although the technique was reasonably successful, Townsend recalled that when they tried to use the tape on a different machine, the synchronisation was sometimes lost."

So after all that, they visually and manually synced the two 4-tracks. Not so impressive, then.

Yes, that is another Beatles story which got inflated through the years beyond what actually happened. The above account is what Geoff Emerick said as well: The tone recorded onto one track of the second machine (Studer) was only to control and match the speed of the two motors. It had nothing to do with synching the machines.

I have also seen an account which said George Martin "went ballistic" or something of the sort when they were unable to sync the orchestral overdub to the other tracks. It's still audible just after the wordless vocals post-bridge, and just before the final verse. The orchestra is out of time with the rest of the track. This really upset George Martin! But it goes to show that a "mistake" like that gets lost and forgotten in the brilliance of a great song and great performance.

I know someone who can lip read. I will get them to watch this "firehat" movie and see what they're saying.

Excellent! You read my mind...Seriously, after July 4th I was going to contact a few lip reading services to see what they'd charge to transcribe the dialogue in the film. If you know someone, I and everyone else would owe you big time if they can pick out what they're saying in the clip. That would be a *huge* benefit in dating this film.

It's a wild way to draw a paycheck but they actually have services for people who have silent home movies and wish to find out what their family members or whoever is saying on the old films. And they do legal work as well, transcriptions and whatnot for court cases. Had it not been for this discussion I'd still think such services were mostly for the hearing-impaired.

is it possible to ID those as Dynatrack or not just by what's visible?

nope, in fact, that actually looks like a 3M M23 4-track.  you see, you can't tell if the lower portion has 4 additional channels or not.  the 4-track looks the same as the 8-track from above.  and to confuse matters even further, it could be either a regular 4-track or a 2-track with Dynatrak.  no way to tell as far as i am aware; i don't think a dynatrak machine looked any different than a regular M23.

here you go, a 3m m23 4-track:

http://auxsend.net/tapemachines/2011/06/06/3m-m23/

High price tag, but what a neat item to have! I'll bet that machine, as is and 45 years old, works better overall than the Chinese-made Marshall guitar amp I just bought used which does nothing but hum loudly and will soon collect dust...

I can see after what you said how it's impossible to tell which machines are which in the photos, since they both looked alike.

So when it's a Scully machine, with 8 tracks, at Western, why has it been reported for years that Western only worked on 4 track into the Good Vibrations time period and beyond? I'm sure there is an interview with Brian or Chuck where they mentioned synching up two 4 tracks for Good Vibes or other sessions of that period in place of a "real" 8 track. And why did Van Dyke Parks cut Song Cycle at Western on 4 track if they could run 8 tracks, yet he went to other studios and did 8 track recording?

Finding out that tape machine was an 8 track was something of a mind-blower if you're into this kind of thing, because again the accepted knowledge was that Brian cut vocals at Columbia because they offered 8 tracks where Western (and Gold Star) only offered 4.

It's hard to make sense of it all, for me at least, especially throwing in the fact that there is no date on this film, and I think that may be the ultimate goal - to date that film clip once and for all. The 8 track revelation is/was a fantastic detour!

And for more info, anyone can check out the Wally Heider website. That is where I found and pasted the photo of the 3M 8 track machine, and the info about that being Wally's came from Dale Manquen on that site.

yeh man, it's kind of like that tape vault photo thread ... there are certain things that are quite clear that don't match up with the commonly-held beliefs.  like the Scotch tape boxes that no one seemed to believe me about!

The tape boxes told the story, but in all fairness to Chuck and Brian, were they pulling our leg for years about only recording to 4 track? This is a fascinating case where we have photo and video/film evidence of Chuck Britz and Brian working with an 8 track machine, and apparently *no one* ever noticed it in the photos and videos?

Isn't there even an interview with Mark Linett somewhere where he mentioned "Vegetables" on Smiley as the time they switched everything over to 8 track from 4? I guess this is it from the board archives:

"As for Vegetables and Let the Wind Blow on Hawthorne, the latter had all the tracks on one 8 track, but Vegetables did require editing of the sections together to create a complete multi-track to mix from. By this time everything was being done on 8 track and in this case just one generation, no dubdowns as with some songs like "Time To Get Alone" which did require the syncing of a couple of 8 tracks."

So he's talkin' 8 track Smiley Smile, we're talkin' whenever in late 66 or early 67 that film was shot at Western.

An incredible ride so far...

to clear up the confusion with "dyna-trak" -- that is just a 3M M23 1" 8-track.  the Dyna-trak system used twice as many tracks to cancel out noise (sort of an early noise reduction system), so you could use 4-tracks with the noise reduction or 8 tracks without.  not a popular system, and only 20-30 units were ever made with Dynatrak.

This is kind of funny because I think in the UA newsletter it says they ordered and installed 23 of those machines in 1967 in their various locations and operations, though I could be remembering that wrong. Sounds like Bill Putnam was their best customer!

Those photos of Sinatra Jr. and the other B&W shot earlier in this thread...is it possible to ID those as Dynatrack or not just by what's visible?

So when it's a Scully machine, with 8 tracks, at Western, why has it been reported for years that Western only worked on 4 track into the Good Vibrations time period and beyond? I'm sure there is an interview with Brian or Chuck where they mentioned synching up two 4 tracks for Good Vibes or other sessions of that period in place of a "real" 8 track. And why did Van Dyke Parks cut Song Cycle at Western on 4 track if they could run 8 tracks, yet he went to other studios and did 8 track recording?

Finding out that tape machine was an 8 track was something of a mind-blower if you're into this kind of thing, because again the accepted knowledge was that Brian cut vocals at Columbia because they offered 8 tracks where Western (and Gold Star) only offered 4.

It's hard to make sense of it all, for me at least, especially throwing in the fact that there is no date on this film, and I think that may be the ultimate goal - to date that film clip once and for all. The 8 track revelation is/was a fantastic detour!

And for more info, anyone can check out the Wally Heider website. That is where I found and pasted the photo of the 3M 8 track machine, and the info about that being Wally's came from Dale Manquen on that site.

Also: I stand corrected - the two 3M C-401 8-track recorders that Western had installed in May 1967 were the same as the 3M 4-channel Dynatrack rig.

United Affiliates newsletter April 1967

Now while this simplifies one aspect, it makes another more problematic, as the date for the faux "Fire" footage now has to date from May 1967 at the earliest. Unless, as seems entirely likely, what's in the footage isn't an 8-track. Here's my notion, feel free to shoot it down: during the recording of "GV", it's documented that Brian used a pair of unsynched 4-tracks to tape some sections, thus eliminating the need to either do it twice or copy the master take. So... is it possible that the footage shows him doing this ? My reason for thinking so is that the exact same firehats are worn in the GV promo film (shot 10/23/66). If this is the case, the session could be any of these:

May
27 - single session: Good Vibrations

June     
2 - single session: Inspiration (= Good Vibrations) [2 sessions]
12 - single session: Inspiration (= Good Vibrations) (possibly not - band played in New Haven CT previous night)
16 - single session: Good Vibrations [2 sessions]
18 - single session: Good Vibrations

September
1 - single session: Good Vibrations/'He Gives Speeches' ?

Or... it's footage of another session where he used twin 4-tracks, some time post 10/23/66. If so (#2), the earliest date would be December 19.

The two 4-track unit theory seems plausible to me... Though, the Bravo magazine Carl holds was dated to September 24, 1966 by Dancing Bear, so IF this footage was all shot at one session, that would certainly rule out the May and June Good Vibes dates, right?

Also let me throw this out there (just in case the water wasn't murky enough): Though it wasn't directly stated, I took Guitarfool's post to mean Heider rented his 8-track TO Western (please correct me if I'm wrong). So, wouldn't it be possible that the unit filmed was the rented machine? That would allow the session to have taken place before May when Western purchased two 8-track machines of their own.

Wally Heider had one of the first 3 ever rolled off the production line at 3M, and the first one of its kind in LA. Wally would "demo" his new machine at various places, including United/Western and Sunset, and at Sunset Sound Herb Alpert for one later rented and used Wally's 8-track machine to cut a few of his records. Wally Heider easily paid off the cost of the machine by renting it out at a high rate, and it sounds like not only did word-of-mouth get those bookings, but also Wally's demonstrations helped spread the word and other studios were wanting to "book" the new machine. Was Western one of them?

Here's where it gets interesting...

Wally demo'ed the machine at United/Western during sessions for Frank Sinatra's "That's Life" album, held at United in October and November...wait for it....1966.   Those demos most likely led to United/Western "booking" the machine for other sessions because people were asking for 8 track more and more by late 1966 and they didn't have one, as far as we've been led to believe for decades.

So United/Western did *not*, as far as we can tell, have a dedicated 8-track machine at that time. Yet we see one in active use in the firehat film, and we see a few still shots of it on other session dates as well. Which machine is that?

Earlier in a thread we talked about magazines like Teen Set post-dating issues by 2 or 3 months. In that case, a German pop magazine dated Sept. 1966 might hit the newsstands in November 1966, *exactly* the time the Beach boys were in Germany on tour.

The fact that Wally demo'ed his 8 track at United Western sometime in October and November 1966 fits in very well with my earlier estimated timeline...if that machine in the film is in fact Wally Heider's, which I'm not convinced it is because it's not the same configuration as other similar 3M machines we posted photos of (without the Scully units above it). But there is still work to be done.

It's all very confusing, indeed! Why would Heider's have 8 modules when as you said, the Dynatrack was 8 tracks grouped as 2-times-4 tracks? Bizarre.

One more piece of evidence, compare this photo dated January 1967 to the film: Same studio control room Western 3, same people Brian, VDP, Chuck, and there is that same tape machine as the film, 8 tracks. You can see more of the rack units behind Brian's hat.

Question (because I cannot be arsed to get my DVD from downstairs): does the footage show all eight needles peaking, or just four and we're assuming the other four do as well.

All 8 needles are moving/peaking as they would if 8 tracks are being played back.

It couldn't be April 1967 or later because Van Dyke is shown wearing a firehat, and wasn't he already out of the project by then? I'll suggest again November-December-January 1966 as a rough estimate.

If I remember there was a discussion some time ago about who was mixing those records, and where they were being mixed, where Brian would take a backing track from Western or Gold Star to Columbia to add vocals...Columbia having the only 8 track available to him at that time (65-66). The question was how could Chuck mix the 8 track tapes at Western if Western only had 4 tracks, and Brian added vocals at Columbia, yet Chuck gets the credit for mixing?

I'm a little hazy on the details on that one...but for one, I think it's a mixdown session or listening back to a vocal added to a previous session.

Does that look like April 1967? That film looks like November to January to me...besides Van Dyke, the German magazine is another giveaway. The way Brian looks and the firehats are another. When after a certain span of time Nov-Dec did Brian have those firehats in the studio?

Also, this from the Wally Heider dot-com site is Wally's own 3M 8-track from this same time period, one of the first three ever built and delivered by 3M and the first one in LA:



Note the configuration, with the modules stacked vertically over-and-under. This was a "rolling" unit as well which Wally would rent out.

More to come...

Ummm... according to the precambrianmusic site, that's a Dynatrack:

Yes it is, that was Wally's Dynatrack in the shot I posted from his website. Aren't we talking about the same thing? 3M made the Dynatrack, Wally Heider got one of the first three custom made from 3M (as pictured), he showed it off to United/Western and rented his out for a large sum of money, they (United/Western) then ordered more from 3M and got them delivered in mid 1967 (those machines pictured at Western in your B+W shot and the color shot I posted of Sinatra Jr.).

Lightened to show the tape machine...

I have to say I'm fucking shocked to see that *is* an 8-track recording on that tape.

Watch it from 35 seconds into that film clip, and watch closely the needles jumping on the meters behind Brian's head...there are 8-tracks on that reel of tape at Western.

I'm almost convinced now it's a playback/mix session and they're listening to a mix with vocals, hence the 8 tracks making the meters jump.

Fuckin A...

Thanks for pointing that out, Donny L.

Also, this from the Wally Heider dot-com site is Wally's own 3M 8-track from this same time period, one of the first three ever built and delivered by 3M and the first one in LA:



Note the configuration, with the modules stacked vertically over-and-under. This was a "rolling" unit as well which Wally would rent out.

More to come...

[the 3M "4-channel Dynatrack" recorder]

Western had a quasi-8 track:

"But Western studio 1 was a new room; there was a new generation of recording console sitting in the studio 1 control room; there were new, clean, solid-state modular channel amps handling the signal, and, against the wall, the 3M "4-channel Dynatrack" recorder. Did he know what to do with all this? Certainly he knew what good recording was all about. But multi-track was a different animal. Only a few years old, 4-track recording was revolutionizing the music world. A new way to conceptualize the process of composing and producing was now possible with this new multi-track mentality. Some were faster than others in getting into it. Breakthrough 4-track recordings were being produced by many in the new rock world of England and the US, but not everybody got the point. The 3M "4-channel Dynatrack" machine had come to United and Western (all machines were shared between the two studios; the machines-on-wheels scooted back and forth all day and all evening). "Dynatrack" was 3M's scheme to provide more headroom, lower noise in 4-channel recording by using two tracks for each of the four channels - one set at a higher recording level; with the playback signal seamlessly switched (that's the trick) between the two tracks to achieve the desired result. It worked fine. But, since the machine achieved its end by being an 8-track recorder, screw "4-channel Dynatrack". This is an 8-track. And as the Wizard said, this is a horse of a very different color! Work with the best.

http://www.precambrianmusic.com/history1.htm

This is a photo of the 3M Dynatrack, seen between Frank Jr. and the engineer:


It's a totally different machine, and this very tape machine is what the April 1967 United/Western newsletter was talking about. The only 8-track capability Western #3 might have had at the time this "firehat" film was shot would be two 4-tracks linked together, which they say Chuck Britz had done for Brian. I believe that may be what the Scullys are doing in the film.

Are those all compression units above the tape machine?

Those units are the Scully 280 preamps, like this one, for the tape machines:


It looks like two four-track machines installed next to each other. If they had an 8 track machine, those Scully units might look more like this:

actually, it is a Scully 280 8-track (you can see the single transport and 1" tape below); the 8 electronics modules are just arranged differently (this certainly would have been one of the earliest 8-tracks).  Those modules did include mic preamps but they were not likely used.

There is one major conflict though: Western didn't get a proper 8-track until at least Spring of 1967. Wasn't it reported for years that Brian started tracking at Columbia because they had an 8-track machine and Western did not, which made Brian's stacking vocals much easier? Also, I remember reading a similar thing about Van Dyke Parks' "Song Cycle", and how the tracks he did at Western were still on 4 track, before doing additional recording elsewhere. Same with Bones Howe and the Mamas And Papas, at least on California Dreamin.

There is also a United/Western newsletter heralding the arrival of the new 3M 8-track machines being delivered to the studios, that newsletter dated April 1967.

Since the early 90's I always associated Western #3 and Brian's work there with 4-track recording. Dating this film between November 1966 and January 1967 which is the most logical timeline given the details shown in the film, if that is an 8-track machine at Western #3 I think that news might surprise a lot of people who assumed Western #3 was still a 4-track studio at that time. I'd love to be proven wrong, and I'll look for additional photos and shots of that machine.

Bravo Magazine [Germany] (24 September 1966)

I'm stunned...just amazed you came up with an answer that fast! Incredible. I captured that image last night after trying several times to get a semi-clear shot of the cover, hoping for an ID of the issue, and within an hour of posting it not only an answer but also a full-color scan appears on the board.

Thank you very much!

This would make *perfect* sense for Carl to have a German pop magazine, as the Beach Boys had just returned from their November 1966 European tour which included Munich.

Are those all compression units above the tape machine?

Those units are the Scully 280 preamps, like this one, for the tape machines:


It looks like two four-track machines installed next to each other. If they had an 8 track machine, those Scully units might look more like this:

Speaking of Chuck, here he is taking a drag:


Another shot of him at the tape machine:


Can anyone identify this magazine Carl is holding? I don't recognize the cover:



Here's a neat one: Behind a layer of darkness this shot in the film revealed another man sitting in the control room. Does anyone have a guess as to who this guy could be?



Now we have two mystery men from that film: The guy wearing the white shirt and tie (most likely a studio employee), and this guy sitting behind Brian. And note the fire extinguisher hanging on the wall to the right side of the photo.

[Pet Sounds]

Here it is, direct from the piece I wrote in Beach Boys Stomp #52 (12/85) - bear in mind that this was over 25 years ago and I didn't know anything like the detail I do now. I asked him if "Fire" was done here (i.e. in Western):

"Yes, and it was a damned expensive session. Cost us a small fortune in mikes". I pulled a quizzical face. "It was a crazy session. For starters, we had everyone and their dog in here - really. Brian had his dogs, the ones you hear on the Pet Sounds album in with him and they weren't too well trained, ran all over the place. One vanished for about a quarter-hour and just as we were about to send out search parties, back it trots. 'Bout two minutes later someone from upstairs comes bursting through the door, screaming for the dog's hide: turns out this dog had wandered upstairs, into this guy's office and cocked his leg all over him and the desk. Brian nearly bust a gut laughing... anyway, it got worse. I guess you know about the fire in the bucket ?  Well, after a bit it was tricky seeing across the studio, so we doused it, which was a big mistake. The idea took on and about every five minutes or so after that, someone'd let off a fire extinguisher. Like I said, cost us a small fortune in mikes".

Now, isn't there a piece that describes Brian & co having extinguisher fights during the Smile sessions ? I remembered that, oh, maybe 13 seconds ago.

Yes, that fire extinguisher fight is described in one of the Smile articles, Vosse's Teen Set piece. It's an overdub session at Western #3 where Brian was adding multiple pianos to a track featuring a "music box melody". Chuck's name is mentioned.

… it wasn't until I was back at the hotel that it hit me, with almost physical force, that as it was recorded at Gold Star, why was he there, engineering ?  So, unless I totally misunderstood/mistranscribed from the tape what he was saying, maybe there was a further "Fire" session. Go figure.

Could the clip have been from a mixing session, maybe when the crackling sound effects were added? Might explain why everyone's stood around doing nothing, ie, no sign of any instruments actually being played. Presence of Al & Carl etc also… shouldn't they have been touring when Fire was actually recorded?

Other guess would be a session for one of the bells & whistle style variants?

Just shots in the dark…

I'm thinking the same thing. Short of hearing the actual story about Chuck Britz, the first thing I had in mind was asking when did they add those sound effects to Fire, and given that this film was Western I thought perhaps this was that session.

A mix session would be a possibility, but so would a vocal session. Or any number of sessions where Brian wanted the folks around him to don fire hats, and we have no way of knowing exactly how many times he made that request.

I also found it humorous that I wrote above the photos "obviously it's not a film of "Fire" as labeled", only to see the very next response ask about "Fire"... However, in light of this forthcoming information from Chuck Britz, the clip may damned well be "Fire" after all! Ironic.

Bought one locally today for $16.99. Came in a sealed plastic bag, so I guess I'll never actually see the record....

Where's the fun in that?