The Smiley Smile Message Board

Seems to me, especially on Vegetables, Fall Breaks, Wind Chimes, I've heard much better stereo renditions elswhere.

I'd love to hear these supposedly superior mixes....

I laughed, then cried, then laughed again at the title of this thread.

Disappointed isn't the word.

can't please 'em all

Disappointed? No. I've loved Smiley Smile ever since I bought the SS/WH two-fer nearly 6 years ago but hearing the stereo mix was an absolute revelation. I'd always found Gettin' Hungry to be the weakest song on the album but now it has been released in glorious stereo it sounds immense.


Of course, some people will be disappointed and you can't please everybody, especially not Beach Boys fans.

Nope. It sounds fantastic!

Big fan.

I don't think the new mix is revelatory, but there are lots of pleasant surprises -- the bass vocals in "With Me Tonight" are completely delightful -- and it's very faithful to the original mix's spirit (the Hawthorne mixes of "Heroes and Villains" and "Vegetables", by comparison, sound a little glossy.)

I will say that I was disappointed with the GV stereo extraction mix when I first got it -- partially because I wanted extracted vocals over the true stereo track, but probably mostly because I was dumb enough to pay for the Japanese import without listening to any previews. That's a minor complaint, though; now that I've sat on it for a couple months, it's perfectly listenable, and the rest of the album is excellent.

I thought some tracks were kinda iffy, Gettin' Hungry in particular. The acapella bit at the end was ruined by a crossfade that sounded like ass.

Agree about Gettin' Hungry and Smiley Smile in general.  In fact I have finally "gotten" Smiley Smile and years of not figuring it out.  All the songs work in their sequence (exactly like Sgt. Peppers by the way) and I love the ebb and flow between the 2 big band numbers and the lovely, lovely bare bones ones.

God love Carl Wilson, but this album was not a "bunt".

Were there not people around at the time with alternative tastes to appreciate this?

Listen with headphones!!!

The voices now envelope the listener rather than sounding flat and distant. Each Beach Boy sounds so distinct now, you can almost hear the expression on their faces as they sing...... If that makes any sense....

Somebody buy this guy some cotton buds. I bought it yesterday an.
d it is fucking superb. Way beyond my expectations.

"Little Pad" blows my mind in stereo

I like the mix but it blows my mind that the timing of the edits and snapping in Little Pad aren't correct.  How hard is it to sync to the mono mix?  Why would you not take the time to make the edits as close as humanly possible to the mono?

There were some moments that stuck out to me. Things I had never heard before.

Did you see that small clip on this board of the guy who mixed the stereo GV? sounds like there's a version using stereo vocal extractions. I'll be they're saving it for another release, perhaps to make more ppl buy the upcoming box

here is that clip btw: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hyk9GKFasjY

I was around. I was 14 and writing songs. I understood its magic. It's hard to understand what people don't get about this album. To me, it fit in perfectly with what was going on at the time, though the BB5 were definitely on their own little trip island. But, I couldn't share my love of this record with anyone; my friends and the guys in my band were into other garage and psychedelic records that were more direct and rockin' and not so hokey.

Smiley Smile my 2nd all-time favourite Beach Boys album and it sounds great in stereo - not necessarily better, but great. (Although i am confused as to why the edit at the end of Vegetables seems to have been altered (for the worse) on the stereo album??)

Mark just had to get that ringy melody line in there but didn't have the track for it, so he (probably) placed the mono fade over the stereo.

Who cares that it sounds worse? It's there! ::)

I'm disappointed.....








.......that it still sounds like stoner music!

Oh whatever

It literally* blows my mind that people still can't get this album. I love the new stereo mix by the way. I was a huge fan of the mono mix, and that hasn't changed, but I love hearing all the intricities of the arrangements that are buried in that mix. I feel as if I'm inside Brian's head when I'm listening to the mono mix, since it's not only  a brilliant reflection of his state of mind at the time, but what Brian with his deafness would have heard. I guess it goes without saying that the stereo mix doesn't really have that same effect on me since I know that's not Brian would have heard, however, with the voices coming from all different areas in the stereo spectrum, I feel like I've been transported to Brian's swimming pool and the guys are all around me.

*I literally mean literally (figuratively).

No.  You're on your own.  :-)

Well said. Very well said.



Well said. Very well said.

I enjoy the new stereo mix much better than the old mono mix. It's as faithful as can be even retaining the bad edit on "Gettin' Hungry". Wasn't the original mono mix made in one evening?

Great job, Mark! Don't let the detractors detract you, you are doing one hell of a fine job!

Yes!  Exactly!!!  This is what I was trying to say in the Remasters thread, when I said it "makes more sense" now.  I could not hear them before, but now I can hear subtle expressions and emotional cues that in some instances change the "reading" or meaning of some songs and passages.

I can't remember specifics, but I remember thinking "oh, they're doing a parody of this here..." which before just sounded like they were being silly or goofy.  There were a lot of things like that.  And then there were things like the speeding up section of Goin' Bald...that sound more wildly, intense and more manic.

I am so knocked out by this, I cannot adequately express!!!  Layers of dust have been removed here...and it's like seeing the colors of Van Gogh for the first time.

Bring on Wild Honey... Friends... (but I'm not expecting anything to top the wild ride of Smiley Smile!!!!!)  So to the OP, I guess I'm firmly in the NO column!   ;D

Stuff like this breaks my heart.

Kinda.

I kinda liken it to this:

(http://i.i.com.com/cnwk.1d/i/tim/2012/08/23/AP367373754354_610x460.jpg)

Exactly.

I don't understand what the down syndrome monkey on the right has to do with the stereo Smiley Smile.

that painting/fresco illustrates perfectly how religions taint over time, and then someone tries to fix it resulting in the image being further from the original. This is true for Jesus but untrue for Smiley ^^

Much that I disagree with you about the new stereo mix, that is a fantastic analogy!

Wouldn't this:
(http://www.fileden.com/files/2007/2/20/800088/stereosux1.jpg)

versus this:
(http://www.fileden.com/files/2007/2/20/800088/stereosux2.jpg)

Be more accurate?

AMIRITE?

I like the stereo mix of Smiley a lot.

I don't mind having any the albums in stereo. I like having alternatives when I hunker down to listen to The Beach Boys.

But the mono kicks the stereo's ass, whether it's a vintage stereo mix or a newfangled one.

That said, there will be times when I will feel like listening to stereo Today, Party and Summer Days. It's nice to have both options.

If it takes a new stereo remix of Smiley Smile to convnice the hard-headed fans to give it another chance, well....that's good. I just hope that someday they go back to the mono and realize that the beautiful album they've just fallen in love with was there all along.

I agree Bubba, I like having the option for any given album/song.  I do think there are instances where a stereo mix blows away the mono (i.e. most of Pet Sounds, for me anyways), and other cases where the exact opposite is true (a lot of the Today! tracks, in my opinion).  With Smiley, I found things to appreciate about both mixes, as others have said here. 

The coolest thing about Beach Boys stereo mixes in general is hearing little things that you couldn't hear before.  These are all over Brian's tracks, even the sparsely arranged Smiley tracks.  Those are what blew me away the most.  I have a feeling that if/when we get a Wild Honey stereo mix/master, the reaction will be similar.

I think that is more the duophonic version or something like that.

(http://www.fileden.com/files/2007/2/20/800088/duophonic.jpg)

???

So, wait, the GV stereo mix was done, not by extracting the vocals from the mono master and overlaying them on the true stereo backing track, but by extracting the whole mono master? Is that really so? Why would they do that when the backing track multis exist? Surely there must be another reason besides purposely withholding a better extraction for the box set.

The thing is there are better fan extraction mixes on youtube that utilize the stereo master.

then just listen to those if you think so. who cares if something is official or not? either way it's done by some random guy that's not Brian Wilson.

   

      Just love the stereo SS. Although I too was dissapointed with the GV mix. If only Wild Honey could sound this good.

Links plz. This Derry fellow's mixes impress me because they're not marred by heavy phasing and overuse of reverb which you hear pretty often on fan mixes (the former more than the latter).

I'm disappointed by the stereo Good Vibrations. It's not nearly as enjoyable as the mono version because of the phasey extracted vocal. They shouldn't have even bothered.

Why not? The mono is still there, eleven tracks back, for you to enjoy. That's one great thing about these releases - doing an extraction when necessary is ok, because you still have the mono version ON THE SAME DISC.

I for one am very much liking the new stereo Smiley Smile.  I think it really is stunning all spread out.  Love the little details off to the sides.  "Fall Breaks" now intrigues me again, no longer sounding like just a "Fire" rewrite.  I like a lot how Mark Linnett psychedelicizes it with the odd bit of cross-channel ping-ponging.  I agree the "stereo extraction" of Good Vibrations is a bit strange though, it doesn't offend but you can hear the artificiality of it.

Sorry Ian.  Two men say they're Jesus, one of 'em must be wrong...