The Smiley Smile Message Board

Hi all! As a few of you might be aware I have a Youtube channel on which I've attempted to re-create Pet Sounds a few times (I know it sounds a little obsessive doesn't it :-D ). I released a version last year which I wasn't completely satisfied with but it taught me a heap about the production and arranging side of things.

Anyway, I just wanted to share a little project I've been doing over the past 2-3 months. I've been working to make a note for note replication of the instrumental track from "Wouldn't It Be Nice". I tried to get as close as I could to the positioning and mixing of the original track as possible.

Here it is: https://soundcloud.com/joel-koster/wouldnt-it-be-nice-instrumental-track

Here's a little info on how I recorded it

Track 1 Mix: Rhythm Track
Drums, Tambourine, Timpani, Bells, String Bass, Electric Bass, Picked Electric Bass/Guitar

Track 2 Mix: Keyboards and Guitars
12 String Electric Guitars x2, Grand Piano, Upright Tack Piano, Accordions (Doubled), Hollow body electric (mic'd up acoustically),

Track 3 Mix: Horns
Trumpet, 2 Tenor Saxes, Baritone Sax

-The reverb I'm using is actually a sample I made of the Gold Star Studios echo chamber which is a crucial element to the overall sound. There is also room reverb in there to add to the 'live' sound.
-I played the Basses, Guitars, tambourine the Trumpet part however Most of the Instruments I used are actually Virtual Instruments I played in with my Midi keyboard (I can't really afford to own all of them).
-To get the distinctive 'Harp' like guitar sound in the introduction I detuned my electric 12 string a tone down to get a more slacker sound to the strings and played the line high up on the neck. The 2nd 12 string part is playing a melody borrowed from 'It's raining it's pouring the old man is snoring'
-From the bridge through to the end I played a guitar in place of the 3rd bass part an octave higher
-For the 3rd guitar part (chord strumming one which can be heard clearly in the 2nd bridge) I acoustically mic'd up my hollow body jazz guitar instead of plugging it in to get the high end strumming sound
-The 2 pianos play roughly the same part until the 1st bridge where they play some really cool polyrhythms which connect up with the guitars.

Anyway I really hope you like it! :)

Fantastic Joel!  I was listening through my iPad but it sounds great.  There was a big discussion about the intro here a while back and how Brian achieved the sound.  I think you've nailed it, with the right reverb too.  :-D

Love this--sounds so good!  Thanks for sharing, man! :)

Sounds great! Totally nailed the sound on the intro.  Any chance we can get the Gold Star sample to use ourselves?

Fantastic Joel, very impressive. Loved the intro and the accordions. :)

I'm blown away! Amazing job.

Very nice.

Great job! Found myself singing some of the harmonies as it was playing.

Very impressive! Nice job.

You know...at times listening to this I thought this was a LEGITIMATE Brian mix. Kudos. Seriously. You could play this at a convention and some might be none the wiser. That's how good it is.

Oh wow! This is fantastic Joel!

Thanks for sharing!  :)

Solid effort, the love you have for the original tracks come through on your sound-alike recording. Thank you for sharing something so personal, good stuff.

I have a sensitive question here, because I know my own preference when sharing tracks...but are you open to some comments and maybe some constructive criticisms as well on the "public" part of this board, or would off-board be better? I just heard a few things, minor musician-type things that I wanted to mention because that kind of dialogue has helped me with my own stuff in the past. But I don't want to wet-blanket it either...I know what this stuff means to musicians.

Let me know, because I share a love for this track that goes beyond 99% of normal, and know it intimately.

This is freakin' amazing - thanks for putting the effort into it!

Thanks especially for solving (as far as I'm concerned) the mystery of the guitar intro...someone had once suggested slack-key tuning (which, according to its definition, is where the guitar is tuned to sound a specific chord when played unfretted, such as is used in Hawaiian style playing), but I think this is what they actually meant! Simply detuing a whole tone - to, as you put it, get a "slacker" sound quality from the strings when fretting them to produce the desired notes. Right on!

Wow! This sounds great. Are you using the TL Space United Western Reverb?

Superb job Joel! Outstanding...the intro is spot on. I really like your original Lonely Holiday also! Very trippy... :hat

I agree, the intro is terrifically well done on Joel's version. But there's one note missing, and "H" and I will agree to disagree forever on that note... ;D

I think the "slack key" label was a mistake too for the reasons you've mentioned. That's a term specifically from Hawaiian music, in fact there is a whole sub-genre in Hawaiian-style music where the style is labeled "slack key guitar". It's just another term for open tunings as everyone from Robert Johnson to Keith Richards used.  WIBN isn't that.  :)

My take as a guitarist: Many, many (but not all) players of the 12-string acoustic guitar would tune their strings down a whole step, D-to-D, to have less tension on the neck and bridge and prevent warping and cracking and all of that. They'd keep it dropped that whole step and to play standard they'd capo at the 2nd fret. Old-school trade secret that works! On acoustic 12-strings, playing above the tenth fret is rarely done anyway and the real sound of that guitar is in the open and lower positions for the most part.

Now electric 12's like the Rickenbacker were designed to eliminate the need for that with dual truss rods and other reinforcements. BUT - some of the old-schoolers like the guys playing WIBN for Brian may have still kept their 12-strings detuned as they would acoustic 12's for the same reasons. There's no way to confirm that, but if these guitarists detuned their acoustics as standard practice it would stand to reason they'd do it with electrics too out of habit or whatever.

I wanted to add that to head off any suggestion that Brian specifically requested it or it was done especially for this session, when in fact dropping the strings like that was standard practice for many 12-string guitarists before that.

Again kudos to Joel for getting the tuning thing accurate on his version.  :)

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Damn Great!

I hope you feel very proud of your work here.  You should.  Brilliant.  Just so it doesn't appear that I am kissing butt too much, the horns are too loud in the mix!  ;-)

Yeah, that's pretty good, man.  Serious. 

An exceptional recreation, especially the intro and reverb!

Pretty incredible… sounds akin to a remixed session track from '66.

Sounds awesome! Are you going to try and put the original vocals over top? or just keep it instrumental?

No, he says he sampled Gold Star's chamber echo...which would mean he went there prior to its demolision in '84 and used an old school first-gen digital sampler, or maybe a tape recorder, to capture some actual frequencies bouncing against the concrete walls there...? Or does he mean he used one of the custom digital plug-ins available in this day & age?

Either way, that would be authentic, considering Brian's track was cut at Gold Star and not United Western. :)

I'm not speaking for what Joel did but just in general: I'm guessing it was a convolution reverb sample. What some have done to get Gold Star's chamber sampled was to take a session from Gold Star where Brian clicks on the talkback mic, and that click sound acts as the exciter or trigger which hit the chamber and bounced around back in '66 to get the echo/room effect. It's a creative and easier way than using a starter pistol or some other trigger to excite the room, especially if the room has been gone for 30 years!

Again, that's not saying Joel did this but if anyone else wants that Gold Star echo sample to load into their convolution reverb software, that's one method which worked. And of course programs come bundled with a selection of famous rooms these days as mentioned.

So how does one actually use these reverbs (which Joel uploaded an entire folder of in another thread) in their DAW? I have the wav files (from the aforementioned other thread) but, uh, what do you do with them?

It depends on what kind of DAW you're running, some of them now come with the programs necessary to add convolution reverb as an effect. If yours does not, you'll need a plug-in like Altiverb or others available. Once you find either the program in your current DAW or get and install the plugin, check the tutorials or the manuals available online, depending on the program and available instructions it shouldn't be too hard to get it running. Make sure you have enough processor speed and free space available, as usual with reverb on DAW's. You should be able to access whatever samples are in your folder and load them into the program, then shape the parameters of those sampled triggers any way you want with the program.

wow!  Joel, that is way awesome!!!

many pats on the back for getting those sounds and tones........ and as the dr. said, at times I thought I was hearing Brian's track....
yes! that intro!  Perfect man!

Love your work and passion...

RickB

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Very impressive.  Sounds spot.  Only suggestion I'd have is to bring the horns down a tad.  This is otherwise excellent.

Really spectacular. I can't get over how much the intro sounds exactly like the original--I keep listening to it on repeat!

There's one thing that I can't quite wrap my head around. The intro is two 12-strings (one with the moving line, one with the "it's raining" line), but I swear to the heavens above that they sound like 6-strings. I just can't hear that distinctive chorus effect you get from a 12-string. You've obviously solved the mystery of that part, so.. are my ears deceiving me? Are you only playing one of the two strings in each pair? Whatever it is, bravo!

That's very, very good!

I too have a few musician-y quibbles, but it's really quite an achievement.