The Smiley Smile Message Board

Ladies and Gents of Beach Boys fandom, I present to you, SMiLE A.D. 3.0: A Vocal Mix.

Preview and Download: http://beachboyssmilead.blogspot.com

Using material almost entirely from The Smile Sessions (and vocal manipulation software such as Melodyne UNO)
I've managed to piece together the most complete vocal version of the SMiLE album to date - minus BWPS, of course.  ;D

A few differences from previous SMiLE A.D. releases:

This mix is in MONO (mastered with vintage tape emulation + vinyl crackle for added effect).
More HARD EDITS to simulate 60's tape editing techniques.
BRIDGE TO INDIANS added.
HOLIDAYS added - with vocals.
DADA - full vocal arrangement, no BWPS vocals.

Again, thanks to FatherOfTheMan for the great SMiLE A.D. artwork.

There's some cool surprises hidden in this edition.

So sit back, relax, and enjoy!

 :hat

SMiLE,
J

Pretty insane stuff going on in there at times  ;D.  Very well done, however, I almost felt like there was just a little too much going on vocally in a couple spots, notably in Holidays and Dada. Still though, the stuff you've done with the vocals are pretty amazing.  The only time I felt the vocals sounded a little weird (as in noticeable manipulation) was in the "Rock rock, roll, Plymouth rock roll over" part in Holidays at the beginning.  Everything else sounded surprisingly natural to me

After listening to it a few times I feel like I want to like it, but I can't.
First let me start off by saying how much I appreciate this and that I've vastly enjoyed your work up to this point (Especially Surfs Up and Cabin Essense, sh*t was magical) but I do want to give you an honest opinion on this because I realize how much potential you have with this stuff, that being said I do think you made a few mistakes on this mix.

Where you first went wrong is that you forgot that most of your magic comes from the fact that it was stereo, when you put it into mono, and add a (awful sounding) vinyl pop and crackle throughout the song, its almost too hard to focus on your excellent vocal additions, and to be quite frank, it hurt my ears. Holidays needs to go, or otherwise be revised as the "do you like worms" vocals sound awkwardly placed, but I do understand what you were trying to do there. I also think that you should return heroes and villains back to it's full-length glory, much like what you did on your YouTube account. I really do love the new "I Love To Say Dada" mix, and I almost pooped my pants when I heard fragments of "cool, cool water" embedded in the song, maybe you should go further in that direction? ;)

Anyway this is just my humble opinion, really love your work! Looking forward to 4.0!

I have to disagree with Biggus, Holidays was fantastic. However, I have to agree, The vinyl stuff was okay as an intro and closing thing, but as a full fledged thing...


Anyway, LTSDD = Orgasm

Maybe it would've been easier on my ears had it been in Stereo, I dunno.

Hey man, thanks for listening. Yeah, I agree 100%. I tried everything I could to get that part sounding more natural. Actually, you should hear where the tone was before I messed with the formant on that clip. Sounded extremely chipmunk-ish. I managed to bring it back down to a somewhat Wilson-sounding tone, but the trade off was in quality. Unfortunate about that part, but believe me it sounds better in mono than stereo! Haha.


Well, definitely wasn't expecting that one!  ;D


Thanks man. Point taken on the vinyl crackle! I figured if I was gonna mix it down to mono, I might as well add some "vibe" to it as well. It adds to the experience for me personally, then again I was practically raised on bootleg acetate mixes, etc. I'm sorry you all feel that way.


Well, the way I see it, I have to break this stuff down into goals. Mixing it in mono allowed me to do a few things (such as the CIFOTM sync of the 1st & last chorus vocals - which btw, i think I may have lost my masters for. harddrive issues. so thats a big job in and of itself to recreate). I gotta budget my time wisely, and at the same time I didn't wanna wait too long between releases.  However, I tagged on the clean stereo mix of ILTSDD which will undoubtedly be the direction of 4.0 :3d

Appreciate u all listening.  :hat

J

I guess the vocals on Holiday sounded a bit too, hm, how do I put this? Echoy? It just made it really hard to listen to for me, I think it would've sounded mug better had the vocals been clean, but that's just my opinion. Anyway, your version of LTSDD kicked ass, especially in full stereo! Keep it up!

Oh god, the Dada is OFF THE CHAIN! It's amazing!

Where did all those parts come from? I can only really place Gee, and is the last one another H&V chant?... Still, it sounds fantastic!

Listening to it all now, and this mix is so cool! Especially Look, and CITFOTM. Love what the Rock, Rock Rolls are doing in the verses of Holidays too. I know this may be down to artifacts and things, but a lot of your additions are mixed quite low in spots - the piano bridge in Child, say, and it's a shame as the ideas are really cool.


Is there any chance of acapellas?  ;D

LTSDD is amazing! ;D

Just replaced the download files with the non-vinyl crackle mono version. Vimeo preview is updated as well: http://beachboyssmilead.blogspot.com/2012/01/smile-ad-v30-vocal-mix.html

Thanks! I had a lot of fun with that one. The cool thing about the beginning is that you have Brian, Carl and Al singing different parts, together in SMiLE fashion.

There were actually a few more elements in the last section, but it sounded too cluttered, so I kept it as is.


There's a lot of Heroes stuff scattered throughout.

intro: from TSS CCW sessions.

1st section:

- Al's part is from Gee.
- Brian's "doo doo doo" part is from the fast variation w/handclaps.
- Carl's "child, the child" part is from the CIFOTM acetate vocals (not Surf's Up '71 that's used on Look).
- Brian's "ahh" is from the 2nd to last section of Our Prayer. The harmony comes from the same source.
- The BB's "ooh's" and "ahh's" are from the Can't Wait Too Long acapella.

2nd section:

- Brian's "Dada" vocal throughout. I removed Carl's sped up CCW vocal.
- BB's "ooh's" from 1st section of CCW.
- Transition before Villians part: This is Brian's "ahh" from Prayer, on top of the harmony from the unused
  portion of H&V, where they had to raise the vocals dramatically from the session tape (I guess it wasn't directly mic'd)
  Incidentally, I didn't have to restructure the harmonies for that part.
- "Dit Dit Dit Heroes & Villains" from the slow "dum dum dum" section
- "Ahh" transition into last section: This is the "ahh" from the Vegetables verse, on top of Brian's Prayer "ahh" again (handy
BW falsetto sample!)
- "Aum diddy wadda" from TSS Backing Vocals Montage

outtro: intro section with backing track sync'd.


Glad you asked.  :smokin Here are a few clips from Dada & Look: http://beachboyssmilead.blogspot.com/

It really is remarkable what you are able to create out of the thin air. Dada is another masterpiece. I too was disappointed that there was no stereo, though. Thanks for sharing- Great work!

Thanks a lot for your new mix!

A couple of notes for you -

THANK YOU so much for your work, firstly!

I think the magic was in the Stereo SMiLE (specifically the "fixed 2.0" and "Look" mixes), those offered something so unique to the fans here. I would love it if you returned to doing stereo mixes if there is a 4.0

Contrary to some other posters above, I adore what you did with Holidays!!!! Especially the way you modulated the "Worms" vocals into it. Fantastic job on that one.

No prob, glad you all enjoyed it. Holidays is one of my faves, because the parts sound like something they would have done, to me. Only issue there was the pitch shiftiness sound of the Worms vox, but they sort of even themselves out once Carl's falsetto part comes in. What's not to love about Al's "ahh" before the Whispering Winds section?  :smokin



Haha, point taken. I hope u enjoyed the fly-ins anyway. Next release will definitely be stereo.
Thanks again for listening.

I've said it once and I'll say it again, The SMiLE A.D. mixes are the best fans mixes I've ever heard ;D, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE could you release this v3.0: A Vocal Mix in STEREO for us to really hear all your amazing changes you've done since v2.0. :)
Also again another vote on the ILTSDD Stereo mix truely breathtaking. 8)
On a personal note can I say that your mixes bring alot of joy into my life. Without getting too heavy their's been alot of bad times over the past year and at present too. But your mixes really cheer me up and make me SMiLE ;D.
I know how  :-D this all sounds but it's true, It's fans like yourself who are giving up valuable time for the benefit of others, from myself who's just keeping his head above water your mixes are opening my eyes to the beauty of Beach Boys music as if for the first time. Thank You So Much :).

Appreciate it buddy, hope things get better for you.

I'm working on a new stereo version as we speak. Will try to have it done before the end of the month!

These are great! Thanks. Filesonic seems to have disabled file sharing for the 2.0 mix  :(

These are fantastic.

Since you are an audio wizard and inventive, do you think it is possible to do a Love To Say Dada with CCW words over it (somewhat different than what you have) and have it sound as good as what you've done here?

Just re-uploaded 2.0 for ya. http://beachboyssmilead.blogspot.com/2012/01/smile-ad-v20-revised-stereo-mix.html


Appreciated! As far as CCW.. I've been pretty picky when it comes to flying in melodies & lyrics (as opposed to ooh and ahh harmonies). I'm sure it's possible for certain lines. Definitely something to think about.

Make sure to download 4.0 if you haven't yet! http://beachboyssmilead.blogspot.com