The Smiley Smile Message Board

Did some backing experiment with - Where is she - from MIC.
Drums are a bit of and its not finished, is it worth finishing or does it sound
like a pile of crap? need you guys input..

https://soundcloud.com/tombjornebark/where-can-she-be-with-backing

Respect what you're trying To do but I like it as-was… less is more, kinda…

I hear you, preference perhaps. Note that Brian is playing piano on the verse.

Too much happening, too busy and the vocal is almost buried. As John said, some things are best left as they are.

In other words a pile of crap, ah well worth a try, ill torch it and smoke the sound cloud ashes

No, not at all - you know me, if I thought it was a pile of crap, I'd say so. Pull the drums back to about 5, take a few of the other overdubs either out or way down and it'd be more to my taste. I've heard a lot, lot worse.

That said - and this is purely me, not a muso by any stretch of the imagination, so feel free to disregard utterly - I've never seen the point of fans (of any band) doing "remixes"*, or thinking "y'know, this might sound better with a sleighbell overdub". In the case of The Beach Boys, that's BRIAN WILSON you're trying to second guess or improve upon. See that "Mona Lisa" ?  Gimme a blue sharpie.  ;D


[* which aren't of course, unless you've got the multitracks under your bed and a period console in the attic, or your surname is Linnet or Boyd - they're just mashups, is all]

Thanks Andrew, yeah i tried to not do it over the top (the mix is pretty rough). The drums are waltz ala "friends", i think thats sort of how Brian must have imagined it. Cant see any other way. The piano is synced up from the original piano he plays basically the whole thing through. From the piano i got the lead on how i think he imagined  the bass part.

Strings are a cello and a viola and a violin.

I know people have are used to hearing it without backing. But just adding in Brians piano turns it into a real song -> https://soundcloud.com/tombjornebark/where-is-she-strings-and-piano  . I don't think this is intended to be heard with just vocals and a snare now and then, its sort of uncompleted, but guessing the missing parts is not rocket science.

Mixing it will come later, i think it should be built up a little more dynamically, first verse without string and marimba etc..

I like it! It reminds me a little bit of "over the waves" from the old landlocked boot.

I feel sad for Mark Linett when so few can correctly spell his surname. Come on, gang, he's one of the good guys!

Very cool. I really dig your work. I like the vibraphone (or is that xylophone?) and the drum style is appropriate. Synth/strings is nice touch as well. I would suggest you do the piano part yourself as Brian's demo isn't consistent enough when it comes to temp, but some light piano chords would be suitable.

You also made this one
https://soundcloud.com/tombjornebark/where-is-she-strings-and-piano

I like that you didn't put your production all over it. For example the bridge should be left (as you have done) mostly untouched, but ye, get rid of Brian's crappy piano playing ;]

I know, dammit - I always get it wrong.  :-\

Pretty cool effort, a little rough as you noted, but I'd be interested in a 'final' effort.

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I'm glad I'm not the only one! Gah, I even look his name up half the time and still get it wrong.

Sounds like how everyone misspells my name too!

I like this.  I don't think the song needs regular drums.

Yeah im a little split myself when it comes to the drum parts, probably because they are not tight enough (My fault). What speaks for it is the song "friends" which was the approach a was going for. I thought a bit about doing a piano part in the style of breakaway, with that weird harpsichord combination. Have to dive into what depser wrote about that, perhaps a friendly soul could pull that up?

I remember how to spell "Linett" by thinking one-two - one "n", two "t"s.  I hope that helps.

And I hereby duly apologise to Eric as I have a feeling I've always spelled his name with two "n"s. Not the "Erinnc" but the "Aniversario" bit.

THIS. EXACTLY THIS.

In terms of drums, I always hear it more as a 6/8 instead of the regular 3/4, the usual waltz rhythm sounds too happy in my ears. I guess Brian would have put some Pet Sounds style percussion on it rather than a full drum set, or at least simply a bassdrum-snare beat without many cymbals or hats.

Yeah you are right about the happy part, perhaps 6/8 is the way to go....

I like where you are going but as others noted, it sounds a bit busy. I kinda like the whole "one man band" idea with the arrangement.

Here's a rough arrangement I had done. I like the acoustic (though it gets messy at the end) and string parts I did but I think I need a do over for everything else  :lol
https://soundcloud.com/andrewhersh/where-is-she

You might be better off just recording your own cover of the song rather than tacking on other tracks to it. 

Here's a little inspiration:

First, watch the following video.  It is an interview with Paul McCartney where he writes up a song right on the spot called "Shoes":

http://youtu.be/Q_cf19kuNPk

Now check out what this guy does with the song.  Pretty damn awesome:

http://youtu.be/__TToKObzfQ

I don't know why you're so hard on yourself.  This is some cool stuff you're doing!