The Smiley Smile Message Board

First, Hi everyone, I'm just a guest here and I'm fairly new to the Beach Boys, I started to listen to them more seriously thanks to a good friend of mine. I like to do little experiments in editing and mixing, nothing proffesional, and I wanted to share a new stereo mix that I made to one of my favourite songs in Pet Sounds. It doesn't differ much from the original, I just centered Brian's double tracked vocals because I think that they're more powerful and effective that way, and added a nice bonus in the second verse.
Great board, by the way, one of the best that I have seen on the net. Your discussions are just fascinating to read, well, most of them  :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39X6pY4ywSc (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39X6pY4ywSc)

Greetings and thanks for sharing. Enjoyed the added vocals immensely!

That is magnificent...... wish they'd done that originally.

its crazy how much those vox sound like  a stack-of-brian recorded sometime in the last 25 years (think 'one for the boys' or rhapsody in blue).
really well done.

I had done a similar mix a few years ago, yours sounds good too  :thumbsup

The challenge is matching the tempo of the vocal snippet with the rest of the song. Just superposing it doesn't really work, even after stretching the whole snippet. I had to cut the snippet in various different parts and stretch each part by different percentages, before "reconstructing" the snippet and adding it...

Well done!  I, for one don't wish they'd done that originally, but well done nonetheless.
And welcome!

Did anybody ever insert "Unreleased Backgrounds" from the 1990 Pet Sounds CD into "Don't Talk"??  Always wondered where Brian intended that part to be and what it would sound like.

Good job, MasterPainter!

The one posted on this thread sounds a million times better than the mix I made about a year ago (which is up on youtube as well). I had so many obvious cuts and stretching some of the parts really made it sound terrible.

I recently did a version combining the vocal snippet and the strings-only track (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PIBZEhUuIc0 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PIBZEhUuIc0)) which I posted here a while back. The vocal-snippet still noticeably suffers from the time-stretching.

@TheOldMasterPainter

What program did you use to slow down the audio of the vocal snippet? Or did you even slow it down?

Wow, very beautifully done!  As others have said, making the backing vocals match so perfectly is no easy task.  I like the sound of the double tracked lead being centered too, it works really well.  Thanks for sharing!

Great job, sounds like it should have always been there!

Isn't that what this is?

Too bad the multitrack and session are missing for this--unfortunately, putting the lead vocals in the center, make most of this just a cleaner mono mix, since the instruments can't be spread out.

Welcome to the board! I loved adding the backing vocals...now the finished version sounds unfinished :lol

Well, that's what I thought it was, but didn't wanna look stupid by asking! Only reason I hesitate is that I don't really hear Brian's high part in the mix. We're talking the "Unreleased Backgrounds" part - the bonus track from the 1990 Pet Sounds disc.

MasterPainter, can you confirm this?  Would be cool to hear the whole thing in stereo....

Thanks everyone, I'm really appreiciate your compliments!  ;D Yeah, Brian's harmony piece is so magnificent and gorgeous, it's just too tempting to mix it into the song. I think it really benefits it. Of course I had to slow it down, and even to cut it into parts and slow each one down differently. As I'm not a proffesional by any means I use Audacity (I'm inteding to upgrade in the near future. Any suggestions?), but I have a lot of experience in home recording and editing, so now I am quite trained in it... If you know how to do it right, it's easy to make rough edits and time shifting sound smoother and more natural. And yes, I am guilty of making my own SMiLE mixes (I guess almost everyone here is...  :lol)

Dang, I used Audacity for my first 'Don't Talk' mix and it didn't sound that good.

If you are thinking about upgrading I highly recommend Logic Pro 9 - though this is if you have a mac. However, if you don't have a mac, I highly recommend getting an Imac - fast, reliable, Logic works smooth as a whistle on this computer - even when I have over 40 tracks (with effects) going at once.

Again, great smooth mix.

I thought that, too! The Gershwin song is a good example, I also thought some of the Lucky Old Sun studio demos. His multitracked voice really didn't change much over the years, and he certainly hasn't lost his amazing sense of harmony.

Yes, that's the one, you can find it in stereo in the Pet Sounds sessions boxset (along with the a-capella track and backing track), and also in YouTube under various names. It was actually not meant for the track itself, but recorded by Brian as a sort of a demo to get the session musicians into the right feel. Wish we had more treats like it...

Thanks, I'll consider it (doesn't own a mac...) If everyone is interested, you can find in my YouTube channel my attempt to sync the original Surf's Up with the video from the SMiLE dvd. A really wierd one, not sure if I like it or not.... but the instrumentation matches perfectly! (except for the strings, of course).

Really? I didn't know that. Thanks.

All parts are Brian, so he's definitely in there somewhere! :)

And this is the best attempt at marrying the two I've heard so far - really well done.

Glad you're still alive eacher - we don't here enough of you round here these days.

Me neither. I could have sworn that I read somewhere that that acapella piece (formally called "Unreleased Backgrounds") was intended to be part of the song "Don't Talk" on Pet Sounds. Maybe I dreamed it......Masterpainter are you sure it was a separate demo for musicians? Maybe I'll go read the Pet Sounds liners again!

And I never realized that all the parts on that piece were Brian's!  You learn something every other day. I just don't hear his high part on this mix like I'm use to hearing. I'll go clean the wax out of my ears and see what happens.

The best evidence I've read about who it was intended for was an interview with Carol Kaye who describes hearing it and being blown away - the studio musicians wouldn't have heard anything vocal for the album, so it stands to reason that he recorded it for them and played it to them for a reason.  Besides, if it was intended for the track, we would be able to hear headphone bleed.

That being said, I do think there's a chance that he at least considered recording that vocal section with the Beach Boys for the second verse before he decided to go with strings - if I recall correctly, the string overdub session took place a lot later than the original tracking date (not that that in itself proves anything). 

Indeed. Apparently he recorded it to show the session musicians the mood he wanted for the song.

"During Pet Sounds, one time, Brian played this multi-track a cappella voice track he had done -- it was all him. As we listened to it, our mouths dropped. Barney Kessel, who was a great kidder (and a great jazz legend), said 'I take back everything I ever thought about you.' When Brian realized it was a joke, he laughed. His tracks were truly amazing, and when we finally heard them with the vocals, it proved his genius...the kind of tracking foresight he had."
- Carol Kaye, interview booklet from The Pet Sounds Sessions.

More info on it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WIETb-6n1M8 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WIETb-6n1M8)

That vocal-snippet is my favorite part of the Boxset - just one little 15 second gem of pure vocal bliss.