The Smiley Smile Message Board

My apologies if this has been answered already, but I couldn't find it anywhere.

What are the percentages for "Soul Searchin'" and "You're Still A Mystery" to be slowed to match the speeds on Made In California?  I'm working off the recordings from the 15 track Landylocked album. I'd like to have "Soul Searchin'" at the correct speed with a clean Carl Wilson bridge.

And, what is the percentage to speed up "It's Over Now" from the Good Vibrations box set to match the mix on Made In California?

Thank you for your help!

Ah, I'd love to have all the 90s stuff like the Paley sessions all speed-corrected.

I just did this for my Adult/Child thread.  The GV versions runs half a step slow; it's in Gb, it should be in G. 

So, I did a little bit of work on this and the closest I got was to pitch and tempo correct "Soul Searchin'" by 95% (which decreases the speed by 5%).
And "You're Still A Mystery" by 94%, a decrease of 6%.

Its not an exact, as my program doesn't allow for intervals between numbers, but these are extremely close to the speeds/pitches of the mixes used on Made In California.

And thank you to soniclovenoize for having already done the mix of "Its Over Now!" Great work on all your projects.

Sorry to bump the old thread but I figured it was better than starting a new one. Am I right in reading that the Made In California version of "It's Over Now" runs at the proper (corrected) speed?  Thanks in advance.

Yep! You are correct!

On a related note, after seeing this thread bumped, I went back and replaced the bridge to "Soul Searchin'" from the Made In California version with the one from Landylocked. It's not perfect by any means, as the version from Landylocked is practically in mono. But, it sounds preeetty good.

Also, does anyone else prefer Brian's original vocal on "You're Still A Mystery" to the one released on Made In California!?

Sure. :)

Depends on what you define as "proper." Mark Linett swore up and down that the speed he mastered it on for Good Vibrations was the speed specified on the tape box. This puts it in the exact same key as Brian's piano demo.

Having said that, at that speed, Carl sounds weird, and I swear I never knew that was a woman singing the "Heaven" couplet until I heard the bootlegged Adult/Child version at the faster speed.

Having said THAT...my guess is that the backing track was recorded at the slower speed/lower key, and the vocals were overdubbed with the tape set at the higher speed to make sure it was in both Marilyn's and Carl's ranges, and there was no notation as to any adjustment needing to be made to compensate, which is why the Good Vibrations version is at the slower speed and lower key.


I don't. Not a fan of Brian's harsh early-90s vocal style. It's terribly evident on both the Paley recordings and Orange Crate Art. Brian smoked until 1995 -- and Orange Crate Art was already in the can by 1993 -- so that might have something to do with it...his vocals from 1998 through the present sound much smoother. I prefer smooth Brian over harsh Brian.

Might be an interesting thread to mention this on.... did you know that the older jukeboxes almost consistently played the songs at the wrong speed?   I work on vintage jukeboxes, and the wurlitzers in particular run too fast.  It's annoying as hell, but it's how they were designed... I guess they thought it would make them sound more exciting, but to anybody who knows the songs or has played music they all play off key! 

I suspect the reason is actually that if you play the track faster, it finishes quicker, and then the customers have to put more money in...

EXACTLY what I was thinking. Jukeboxers were smart folks. There was even a record called "Three Minutes of Silence" which was just that: three minutes of silence. That way if you wanted to force some quiet in the room, you could pop some money in the jukebox to play nothing. Brillliant: jukebox owners making money for people to play both something AND nothing!