The Smiley Smile Message Board

Hey folks, here is the upgraded soniclovenoize SMiLE 1967 mix.  The objective is, if you don't know, is to try to make a SMiLE as close as possible to what would have been released in 1967 if SMiLE was finished... 

http://albumsthatneverwere.blogspot.com/2013/09/the-beach-boys-smile-1967.html

UPDATES include:
- new stereo Our Prayer from MiC
- remixes of my stereo "Good Vibrations" and "Child" that raises the vocal track
- new stereo mixes of "Old master Painter", as foudn on my 2004 BWPS mix posted last week.
- new stereo mic of "Cabin Essence" from the re-essembled mastertapes, as per last week.
- a new stereo mix of "Wonderful", improved from last week's update!  (sorry guys)
- new stereo and mono edit of "Wind Chimes", closer to the BW acetates (something I missed when I first did this).
- some other stuff probably
- literally a six page essay I wrote on making this damned thing, explaining the 'SMiLE Sandwich Theory' I had originally thought of here a year back. 

So there you go.  Enjoy!

My reconstruction of Landlocked will be in one week. 

Great! I'm a huge fan of your blog, you do a great job.

I'm excited to listen to this.


Don't let AGD hear you say such things  ;D

(Does this mean next Sunday?)

Very excited to hear your upgrades. I am really excited to hear your take on Landlocked. Thanks for sharing.

Awesome.  I've been listening to this one (before your updates) for over a year in my car.  So, I see you are using Stereo mixes above but is the final product in Mono or Stereo?

Well, my blog is called "Albums that never were", and since he claims Landlocked never was, I don't see what he could complain about.  ;) 

Yep, next Sunday. 

I provide both mono and stereo. 

Got it- thanks!  Didn't realize both were in one folder.

Greta job! Enjoyed listenin' to your recreation!
but, can anyone tell me did anyone managed to do "stereo verses" (early '67 mix with Brian's "stronger" voice")?
Tnx

Downloading now. Can't wait to hear your Landlocked as well.

the 1967 stereo mix really cooks on headphones!! :o Great work! Really looking forward to your Landlocked/Adult/Child mix!  

My only little nitpick would be that I would give CFOTM a proper fade instead of going directly into OMP (and use the original 3 min backing track structure), I think each track would have faded as per Brian mixes of that era...

Thanks for the compliment!  :)

That's a really keen observation of you, and I had thought of that but set the thought aside long ago for some reason.  It is very possible that every song on SMiLE would have had some sort of fade ending (excluding Our Prayer I suppose ) as that's just simply how Brian structured his songs at the time.  Thinking about it, the only ones on my mix here that doesn't have a fade is Child, Wonderful, I'm In Great Shape and The Elements, but all of those could be made to fade without losing much. 

If I ever revise this again, I'll think about that, it's a really good point. 

Question: Why did you leave off "Truck Driver Man" from Cabinessence?

Great essay and mix!

I too had thought about the fades. But given that the Party album has no fades and that Brian was specific about how he wanted the drums to end 'Fire' (showing he was experimenting more with how he could structure the songs) - I just concluded that Brian was starting to steer away from using fades. So there's some leeway there, imo.

Can't wait to hear your Landlocked mix! Will there be an essay with that one as well?

Ah that is also true.  And there was BW acetates of the cold end of "Wonderful", no? 

I try to have a little write up for each of the album reconstructions for my blog, and it seemed that this one just kinda became long-winded in trying to explain my thought process here.  So I don't think it was supposed to be an essay, but it just turned out to be one haha.  For Landlocked (and especially Adult/Child) I don't think I'll have as much to say other than what was done and the sources used, so it probably won't be as long and essay-like. 


Good question...  I chose to exclude it when I was remixing because it would have cluttered up the mix.  It comes down to choosing this more wide spread stereo mix of Cabin Essence without it vs a muddy mix or just the same 'ol album mix with it.  I chose the former. 

The reason it would have been muddy is because I did an Out Of Phase cancellation technique to capture the lead vocals on the album version.  In effect, for that second chorus we have the lead vocals the 'Truck Drivin Man" lyrics AND the "Iron Horse" lyrics AND the backing vocals all combined to one monophonic channel, that also has an increased noise-floor because 1) it's not a very good remaster from 93 and 2) wtf were they thinking when they recorded those overdubs anyways.  So knowing I instead used the perfectly mixed, stereo isolated chorus vocals from the SMiLE vocal montage on chorus 1, if I had used the OOP's vocals on chorus 2, the quality shift would be drastically apparent. 

Does that even make sence?

That makes sense. I seem to remember that someone isolated the TDM part... maybe even then it would sound too cluttered. In any case, it is the best sounding Cabinessense out there.

God bless you.