The Smiley Smile Message Board

I was wondering, out of the Beach Boys catalog how many lead vocals aren't double-tracked? Im pretty sure that She Knows Me Too Well isnt double-tracked but what else (if there is too many to list - just say so! :-D)

Right, that's one...also I believe "Don't Worry Baby" is another.

"Don't Worry Baby" IS double tracked (good to hear in the fade out). Brian was a really good double-tracker.

You've got that right. See, I was trying to think of some others and theres not many (besides the obvious ones like Surfin' etc..)

"Leaving this town"?  Maybe a few things on Holland? 

Blue Christmas is a fine example of single tracking. Brian's young voice wasn't as strong as we sometimes think -- that double tracking made him sound almost superhuman.

I think there was significantly less double tracking once Brian stopped being as involved.  Backing vocals were almost always double tracked into the 80s, but there are a lot of leads from about 69 that aren't doubled.  Plenty on Sunflower, Surf's Up, CATP:ST, Holland. and so on.

I wonder--and I mean that literally, as in I do not know but I wonder--how much of the reason for that may have been influenced by increasing studio technology to get fuller sounds in one pass, as opposed to having to physically double-track. For example, what I'd assume were the increased use of delays or other effects and more control over other conditions, etc.

Of course, maybe the reason is that more people were going back to a more natural sound.

And of course, maybe the reason is just that they didn't want to double track it anymore. (Doesn't have to be any more complicated than that, does it?)

Funny too -- Brian has continued to double (even quadruple) track his leads to the present day, even though his voice sounds significantly better now on its own. His tone has thickened and coarsened, giving his voice a much more idiosyncratic character. Problem is, when that kind of voice is double-tracked, it's almost too much. Some folks have called it the robot voice. Don't agree with that characterization myself, but it does sound a bit odd.

I'm not quite sure, but is it true that to double track in the 60's required actually singing the verse twice as opposed to now when a push of the button will accomplish that for you?? It seems to me that the latter produces a cold, inhuman product, where the former is warmer, more personal. If a double track lead vocal is EXACTLY the same it sounds too perfect, almost like a cold shhet of metal; but the little waverings of two voices recorded live seperatley is much more accesible to me.

First of all, yes, absolutely: the original term of "double-tracking" meant recording your voice doing the part, then re-recording the same thing on a different track. It still means that to most people, although there are various other effects that you'll see labeled as "doubling," such as slight delays. What that means is that the signal is copied and played a very short time after the original, sounding like two of the same part being done just barely not quite in sync--in other words, theoretically as if it were doubled. People also use chorus and flanger effects for the same basic idea: slight detuning or slight delay to sound like the imperfect copy that a natural "doubling" would create.

My personal opinion on the subject--and keep in mind, I am a champion of technology and believe it has brought many of us access to things we otherwise would never have been able to do--is that natural doubling is more fun. Frankly, my favorite part of doubling are the slight imperfections between voices. A perfect doubling can be done easily and electronically, but I like when one consonant hits just barely before the other, etc., especially when they are panned to opposite sides of the stereo spectrum.

Does anybody know who influenced Brian's "doubling" technique? He was doing it before Spector hit it big wasn't he?

According to Brian, it was Gary Usher.  Here's a quote from an interview Brian did for Westwood One Radio in 1985 (as printed in STOMP! No. 53, February 1986): (discussing his learning of studio technique) "I had a friend, Gary was a really nice guy, he took me to a studio and he showed me ALL about how to record...He taught me a thing called dual-track where you sing a song once and then you'd go ahead and sing it again with your first voice so the record is two of you on it instead of one.  And that makes a real good sound."

That's exactly what I was looking for. Thank you very much!

I read somewhere that the common thing in the early 60s was to use an echo effect in the studio. But when Brian discovered doubling he liked that a whole lot better.

I wonder how much the BBs doubled the lead with 2 different singers. I know that Brian sang with Dennis on In th Back of My Mind.

I've heard people debate on who is singing "Turn around and raise em baby, that's all there is to the coast line craze..." on CAW. Some thought Mike, others Dennis. I wonder if Dennis was singing with Mike on that.

I was convinced it was Dennis, until I hard the session tapes. That's Mike, with a really bad cold. Same for "Hawaii". But yeah - it does sound awfully like Dennis.

I know Jon Stebbins has said that its Mike on Hawaii, but I cant believe that. I mean I do believe it because you historians would know better than me, but I just find it hard to believe. I think some bits sound like Mike but then others just said so much like Dennis

That's what I thought. I just wasn't sure if mabye Dennis overdubbed or something.

I always thought it was supposed to be the first bit of the verse which people mistakenly thought was Denny. Denny and Mike sang in similar ranges, I think, so a cold-ridden, raspy Mike is bound to sound like Denny a bit.

It never occured to me that it was Dennis singing that, because... well, why would he?

I think Brian triple tracked Mike on California Girls, I remember reading. I also remember Brian talking about double tracking the harmonies, that the miniscule pitch differences is what makes them shine, you can certainly hear this in the All Summer Long- Pet Sounds era.

I have to respectfully disagree. Yes the double tracking technique makes a falsetto voice fuller, but before 1975 Brian was one of the most expressive singers I ever heard.

Though Brian was obviously a brilliant singer early on, his singing in those days was in some ways quite 'straight', his singing post Smile was quite different, less projected and more natural sounding.
By the time of the mid 70s his voice obvioulsy had the damage and less control but I think he was equally if not more expressive in some ways if only racked with pain- Back Home, Still I dream of it, Lets put our hearts together etc.

You're right his singing on say Friends is a lot more adventurous then something like the 64 Xmas LP. Though a lot more erratic from 75-81, he still could really emote when he felt like it. Night Bloomin Jasmine, Still I Dream etc. One of the problems I have with his post 81 stuff is the (like someone said) somewhat robotic sound of his voice. It's notable when he speaks too since then. Yet I do think he is a much more polished singer since the mid 90's (say the Paley Demo's on) then he was in the late 70s.

Yes, I was listening to Orange Crate art the other day and I love his singing on that, I think its very expressive. The Paley sessions too, not so much Imagination or GIOMH though.

I think one of the best vocals Brian has put down in the last 30 years was the 95 version of Love and Mercy on IJWMFTT documentary/album. In fact, his singing on the whole documentary was pretty emotive.

And -- virtually all single tracked.

Isn't Brian singing with Carl on GOK? At least in places it sure sounds like it (and I don't mean at the end...)