The Smiley Smile Message Board

this may have been discussed in a book (which Ive obviously havent read)...

but what was the vocal setup for the albums pre-pet sounds? I assume that all the vocals were recorded at the same time, and that the lead was on a seperate mic from the group all in the same vocal chamber. Does anyone (im assuming our beloved Josh would know) have any idea how this was setup? Am I wrong and the group record the group vocals first and then the lead afterwards? Were they placed in seperate vocal chambers with whoever is doing the lead in one room and the rest of the group in another?

I always wondered how they did this in their first few albums....I know as technology advanced and with more tracks being added to their tape machine they were able to do them seperate...but for the first few recordings I wondered how they were able to control the volume from the lead and backing vocals....besides the obvious placement of the members from the group.

It was pretty similar all the way through the Beach Boys career, how they set up, even into the modern era.  They seemed to have a sense instilled in them that it was good to sing around one mic and they did that for their whole recording career a lot.

There was really not a difference in set-up from the very early days through Pet Sounds.  The slight changes were on account of more tracks.  But you've got Surfin USA, and When I Grow Up, and it was pretty much the same deal, the whole group around one or two mics.  We know that very early on, it was determined that Mike needed a seperate mic for his bass vocals.  I don't know exactly when that was determined.  But as for the rest of the group, it would be pretty normal for them to stand around a single Neumann U-47 in omni or figure-8.

There weren't really "vocal chambers", like the vocal booths of today, or at least the Boys didn't really use booths.  Just strategically placed sound baffles that look kind of like big floor screens to manage the reflections of the sound.  There was not any attempt to isolate singers from each other, and you really couldn't anyway since they were all singing into the same mic.

I was under the impression that the U47 was incapable of figure-8.  I thought it could only do omni and cardioid, while the U48 could do omni and figure-8.

Yeah, I think you're right.

Thats what I wanted to know, thanks!