The Smiley Smile Message Board

Has anyone on the board ever tried to isolate the vocals of Good Vibrations?  Obviously, I know the vocal multitracks are missing, but I'm wondering if anyone on the board has an audio file of (attempted) isolated vocals for GV.  Please PM me or reply here if you can help me out,

Jack

Currently, I don't think there are any vocals-only mixes derived from extraction software, although that's bound to change eventually.

Also, I once read about a pseudo-isolation done by phase-cancelling the mono track with the mono master, but I've personally never heard it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sUaX52GbjSU

well the guy who posted this to youtube certainly succeeded to a large extent, but it could perhaps be done even better. what Capitol says about not having stereo sections -  is bullshit they have almost all and if one can do this to GV then why not make stereo release? (maybe for later to get our money?)

Because amateur approaches to this sort of thing aren't really best suited for a huge release such as this? This guy did a really good job, but it's not perfect and I don't think a perfect one is possible given the limited resources.

The "they're just gonna put it out in stereo in a few years! It's just a plot for our money!" camp needs to go away.

No offense, but folks need to get over this obsessive "But I need independent sensations in both ears!" thing.

This does raise a question I've been meaning to ask for a while though, when asked about a stereo mix a few years back, Bruce (I think) said something which I found interesting, something like there not being enough vocal stems left for a stereo mix, the impression I got from that was that there are some vocal parts surviving, if that is the case and not just a misinterpretation on my part does anyone know what's left and what's not?

The aforementioned video is actually my extraction. The truth is, it's actually much easier to just suppress the backing track and leave the vocals in mono. I imagine a hypothetical official remix would do this, as the quality is much less shifty. Getting it in real stereo is a whole other monster -- fine for something like my demo, but unsuitable for actual release.


There are some things, like the "hum-be-dums". But the vast majority of it appears to be gone, and no one's seen the vocal overdub tape since the original mix down in '66.

Man, that is truth.  People should really learn to divest themselves of interest in stereo for pop music prior to '69 or so.  Stereo simply did not mature as a technique or an aesthetic until 16 and 24-track became the norm.

While that certainly is true, the stereo remix pro se has a lot going for it, and I think that most people, if they are like me, treat it in this way: It's not that I need independent sensation in both ears, or even prefer it. 

But it's really like a junkie pursuing a buzz, I think.  You can never hear something for the first time twice.  I can think of numerous occasions where, upon hearing a piece of music for the first time, I wept.  But then, upon the second listen, maybe I get a lump in the throat, and maybe I still get a lump in the throat, but it's smaller than it once was.  And yet, I crave that feeling again, of my nervous system surrendering to beauty.  And so, hearing something that has moved me before, but presented in a new way, brings me back one or two steps and I get a bigger release of whatever chemical it is.

GV has never moved me on that emotional level, but hearing a true stereo vocal-only mix would definitely release some endorphins...

Very fair point! And definitely a lot of truth to it - finding alternate mixes of Beach Boys songs for the first time is always a revelation of some sort. My protest comes in with people referring to mono as "inferior quality", or people who believe everything should be in stereo even with insufficient resources. Not opposed to stereo at all, but as I've said elsewhere here, I'm glad Mark and Alan took a general "leave well enough alone" approach to this song. If anything on the 1 disc version deserved that, it's "Good Vibrations".

a lot of people on this board have managed to isolate vocals to songs but nobody wants to release their extractions for some morbid reason

CEDAR remastering.   :P