The Smiley Smile Message Board

This (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xGVchltcl0Q) is (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bbMBi04xLhA) the (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hu22cxYnTLo) single (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYLtQaIP3T4) most (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Yr1k04KaIA) creative (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8h82hQQqfgE) arrangement (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f5OxIhn6AmE) of (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Foff-Tk81hA) Smile (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z2JMukjnksE) I've ever heard.

It really captures the spirit of the album's concept, you know?

I don't understand how the person who mixed this got the audio to sound so AMAZING.

'Look' in the Cycle of Life is a sonic masterpiece (for some reason the audio mix of 'Look' in AlternateBrianWilson really reminds me of the song 'Pet Sounds'). It has the best mix of 'Surf's Up' I have ever heard (the 'auld lang syne' part is FANTASTIC).

I listened to the entire 'album' and was blown away. The Americana section is outstanding, the cycle of life is soooooo captivating, and the elements are just spectacular.

It is my favorite mix of SMiLE.

Same here. I prefer it to Purple Chick, even - that pitch shifting really fecks me off sometimes. This captures the freewheeling creativity of it all too, i suppose.

I laughed out loud the first time i heard the 'can't you move the mic a little bit closer?' bit....

I love that 'move the mic closer' part - such a kick @$$ lead in to a blast of musical awesomeness.

I liked the intent of the Purple Chick version, but you are absolutely right: this version really captures the true fun/spiritual spirit of SMiLE....whereas BWPS just seemed too clean to me....but still awesome to listen to.

I have to say, that part in the 'Cycle of Life' where Murry Wilson says "Brian, forget who you are, will ya?" REALLY creeped me out....then I wondered how Brian would react to that segment if he ever listened to this version....which in turn made me wonder if Brian listens to any of the bootleg versions of SMiLE.

I wonder how he got such a long version of "false barnyard"(part 3, I think)? The version I have heard fades after two or three of the "dum be do be do" chants. I wish somebody could help me out...,.

This is the SMiLE mix I love the most. Purple Chick comes in second... but I think that one was too tied in to BWPS to really make its own mark. For what it tried to do, it did marvelously. But this one is better in so many ways. It's the only one I've heard that makes the chaotic fragments seem cohesive, as if they're actually part of the same record.

AlternateBrian Wilson?
(http://i53.tinypic.com/2r3jl7k.jpg)

:lol !!!

Wow - just came across this post while looking in the media section for a hi-res version of the Brian in a robe rolling stone cover photo for the bathroom.  This is my mix - although to be fair, it contains elements (or at the very least ideas based on) purple chick, mok, and pretty much every other mix I've ever heard.  I sent a cd to Warnakey a couple of years back and he graciously posted it.  I'm glad to hear it has some people who appreciate it. I just wanted to do the cleanest stereo mix possible, since I figured that if the BB's finished it, Brian's definitive mix would be in mono.  I should probably get it somewhere in lossless, since the version available is strictly mp3.

By the way - Wrightfan & Warnakey's mono mix is fantastic.  My own personal favorite.

And to be fair, I lifted the Surf's Up/Auld Lang Syne idea from an Artist named Stephen Necombe's cover of the song.

The vocal lead into "Dove nested towers..." is phenomenal with a good pair of headphones on....the audio mix of Surf's Up is the best I've heard.

Thanks.  I always felt that part of the released version began too abruptly (although let's be honest - who am I to judge?) so I wanted it to seem a bit less so.  I added a little doppler-type effect on it and faded it in a bit more slowly than the album version.

If you do manage to secure a lossless copy, I'd very much appreciate getting a hold of it as well. 8)

It's now up on Demonoid.

In that case if anyone has an invite I would be in their debt forever.

The end of Cycle of life/Love to say dada - so exotic, love the instrumentation!

BTW, wonder what the executives of Capitol (1966/1967) are saying today, with the success of Smile, Gershwin etc!!!

/b

Just wanted to say that I've listened to quite a few mixes of SMiLE and this one is my personal favorite.

It's really fantastic! It sounds complete and cohesive while still maintaining a lot of the wackiness that I always thought the album ought to have. I also love the bits of studio banter you've included-- really imparts a lot of character and charm to the album.

Great job!

Just got this...can't wait to hear!

Thanks for the recommendation! I have ALWAYS wanted to hear a proper 35 minute SMiLE album....Jeesh, now I understand Priore's theory that SMiLE was almost completed...just a few more vocals and (for at least the Warnakey/Wrightfan version) this album would have been complete!

GREAT version...perhaps the definitive Smile sessions ordering. What great work! :)

Definitely the most fun Smile and better than the 2004 one imo.

It's so good! I keep playing this.  I love the way that everything was done. The studio chatter added in was excellent. This is now the definitive Beach Boys Smile for me. Won, won, wonderful job!

Hey Don - thanks for starting this thread.  I really had no clue until a few days ago people were listening to and discussing my mix.  It just hit 100 downloads on demonoid since it was posted 0n 9/19.

If it matters, I found out about it via Warnakey's Beach Boys Blog and have been listening to it regularly ever since. Seems like I end up pointing out something new with each listen-- again, great job on the mix!

I hate to keep going on, but this is really great. I love the Van Dyke bit about the mic needing to be closer right before "la la la la..."

so awesome. you rock so hard, alternate B-dubs.

it's all true. This is a fantastic mix and it sounds like a Smile should.

First SMiLE I've listened to in over a year, and like everyone's been saying, defiantly the best. I noticed on songs like Look and Surf's Up your track and vocal mix is better than any I've heard before . How'd you achieve this? Layering of the isolated instrumental parts, lots of EQing, or what? And what program for the editing? Anyways, brilliant job, you deserve a co-production credit on it.

For both Look and Surf's up eq'ing was they key.  Look is just the stereo mix of the track edited and eq'd.  The beginning section of Surf's Up is PurpleChick's sync with some extra vocals flown in from the 1971 album sessions, again re-eq'd.  I spent hours (and occasionally days) working on each songs nalance and added effects (usually some reverb or a short delay) where I thought it was needed.  Mostly it was a lot of trial and error.

I used Adobe Audition 2.0 for the whole thing, although I have since updated to 3.0.  Also, I searched for literally years for the best quality versions of every track and used only lossless downloads or actual cd's. 

I am working on a short description for what I did for each song's mix and will post it here when I finish.

I'm eagerly looking forward to a dissection of your mix. I listen to it daily.

Then today's your lucky day.  Or at least part one of your lucky day...


Why AlternateBrianWilson?
At the time, I had a MySpace account (remember when we had those?) to post the various remixes, mashups, etc.  that I did under the “PancakeRecords” moniker.  I wanted to have a separate place for Beach Boys/Brian Wilson fans to hear the SMiLE mixes as I completed them.   So in the interest of getting as many views as possible, I posted them as “AlternateBrianWilson”.  Not nearly as cool a handle as “DJ Mic Luv”, but sure to come up under a casual search for the actual artist responsible for these recordings.
 
Why Stereo?
Why not?  If Brian Wilson had completed SMiLE when he originally intended to, he probably would have supervised what I’m sure would have been a stellar mono mix.  A stereo mix may have also been completed, but it would probably have been an afterthought.  I’m no Brian Wilson, so I figured it was best not to even try to recreate what he might have done.  So stereo it was.  I found the PurpleChick mix while trolling the interwebs for as many lossless quality SMiLE fan mixes and outtake collections as I could get my hands on.  It was, and remains, an inspiration.  In fact, in my own iTunes playlist of Beach Boys (and solo) favorites, it is the PurpleChick remix of Good Vibrations (in stereo, with the original lyrics) that I selected.  No small compliment, that.
 
All Beach Boys, All the Time.
Every bit of every recording here is from original Beach Boys recording sessions, although not everything is from the actual SMiLE dates.  The earliest bit is from the Beach Boys 1964 version of “Auld Lang Syne” and the most recent is from the Surf’s Up sessions in 1971.  But no additional music was recorded for this, and nothing was used from the 2004 re-recording, or from any live performances from that era.  This is all classic Beach Boys, with the noteworthy help of the indispensable Wrecking Crew and the inimitable Van Dyke Parks.
 
SMiLE Promo
Not really a part of the album, this is the teaser I posted for my all-stereo mix.  Intentionally over the top, with the narrator’s voice leaping from left to right every time there’s a pause in between words.  An interesting little tidbit: the stereo mix of Good Vibrations used as a music bed is an early mix of mine and not the one that eventually made it into the finished product.
 
AMERICANA:
 
Our Prayer/Gee
Having decided to use Brian Wilson’s 2004 SMiLE tracklist, I thought it would be fun to start things by lulling the listener into a false sense of security by sticking as close to the opening of that album as I could (after allowing a youthful Mr. Wilson introduce things, of course).  Our Prayer is a mix of the original recording as presented (in mono) on the Good Vibrations collection and the isolated overdub recorded for the 20/20 album.  Pretty much one in either channel.  This, as in BWPS, leads right into an acapella portion of The Crow’s 1953 doo-wop classic “Gee”, which transforms from sounding like it’s playing on a magic transistor radio, to full-fledged stereo beauty.  So far, nothing unfamiliar.  Until the singing ceases and you hear someone (I’m honestly not sure whether it’s Brian or Carl) say, “That was for you, punk.”  Which leads us to…
 
Heroes & Villains:
By many accounts, the SMiLE version of “Heroes & Villains” was to be epic.  The quantity of unused material recorded for it seems to support that opinion.  I love the H&V single, as well as the alternate version released on the Smiley Smile CD.  But with all of this content at my disposal, it would have been downright irresponsible for me to keep it simple.  “Perhaps,” I thought to myself, “I could bookend the main body of the H&V track with short bursts of the various chants recorded for the album.  Something evocative but tasteful.”
 
Then I told myself to get bent and went over the top.  Way over.  Although believe it or not, several longer early mixes do exist.  One of them was so long I split it into two parts with the intention of placing a reprise between “Cycle of Life” and “The Elements”.  Instead I cut some bits, moved others around, and decided that one chorus, placed at the very end as a bridge between H&V and “Do You Like Worms”, was enough.  The finished product represents everything that SMiLE is to me.  It has bits of American folk music, some humorous spoken-word passages, great vocal harmonies, and a brilliant backing track.  All-in-all a satisfying 5 minutes and 41 seconds.
 
I used the stereo single mix for the basis of the track, along with stereo mixes of the chanting sections.  Where a stereo mix was unavailable for a part that I wanted to use, I created one using multiple takes.  Like nearly everything on the album, I re-eq’d pretty much every second of this track, as well as occasionally adding a bit of reverb or delay where it seemed appropriate.  I couldn’t find a stereo mix of the “at three score and five” section, so I did a somewhat clumsy mix of the mono version of that track with an instrumental stereo version of an entirely different take.  The tempo gets a bit wobbly, but since the original recordings were made using only the natural sense of time provided by the musicians involved, I tried to stay away from any type of digital time manipulation whenever I could.  The result is sloppy, but hopefully more human.
 
You may notice that throughout this album, I have tried to shoehorn the voice of Van Dyke Parks (or references to him by others) in as often as possible.  I make no apologies for this.  Before I had ever heard a second of the SMiLE sessions – even before I had ever listened to “Pet Sounds” in its entirety, I was a fan of “Song Cycle”.  Brian Wilson is quick to give credit to VDP for his contribution to SMiLE, and making his presence known here is my way of paying homage to him.  The first example of this occurs here.
 
Do You Like Worms?
The H&V chorus gives way to the tribal timpani of DYLW.  Not much to discuss here, really.  I assembled the stereo “Bicycle Rider” sections from various takes so I could get the mix I heard in my head, with the ooga-chaga’s way up front, where they belong.  Since no verse vocal was recorded (at least not one that has ever surfaced) I tried to make each of the verse sections at least slightly different to keep things interesting.  I double tracked Brian’s vocal during the Hawaiian section and used the guttural grunting “Swedish” section underneath the solo piano towards the end. 
 
He Gives Speeches
The only song here that didn’t make BWPS (unless you count the bits and pieces of other Beach Boys tracks I’ve used here and there), “Speeches” was the predecessor to “She’s Going Bald” from Smiley Smile.  Whenever I though I was getting too bizarre during this project I would step back and listen to that track and “Little Pad” from the same album and think, “They got way weirder than I have”.  This gave me the license to take things further, so I put together this mashup of “He Gives Speeches” and “She’s Going Bald”.  I pieced together the backing track from various overdub sessions, and put the original vocal at the beginning and end.  For the middle I used the “vocals only” version of “Bald”, which I double tracked. In order to get them both in the same key, I did have to manipulate the vocal track’s time and pitch a little bit, but not so much you’d notice immediately.
 
Side note – I love the Smiley Smile album.  It is twisted and odd and occasionally downright creepy.  So several snippets from that album appear here.

Barnyard
This section begins with a full length stereo mix of what is now referred to in SMiLE-lore as “False Barnyard”.  Other than some eq, I pretty much left that section alone.  Following some “woo-woo’s” from the H&V sessions comes PurpleChick’s sync of Brian Wilson’ solo performance of the song and the backing track.  I sliced and diced it a bit and added some vocals, but this is essentially PurpleChicks baby with some makeup slapped on it.
 
The Old Master Painter/You Are My Sunshine
As “Barnyard” fades you can hear Brian Wilson reciting the lyrics to “The Old Master Painter” to the assembled musicians.  I did my best to sync the one line he sings (far away hills) to the appropriate musical passage.  I also chose to use an earlier take of the track which includes a percussion part that was quickly abandoned.  This segues into a sync of the stereo backing track to “You Are My Sunshine” with the mono vocal take (I’ve yet to come across a stereo one).  I first heard this executed (masterfully, I might add) on MoK’s SMiLE (which he was gracious enough to send me years ago before I had the ability to download gigantic FLAC files).
 
Cabin Essence
This is one of those tracks on the album where the arrangement is pretty much etched in stone, at least to my ears.  Unlike H&V, CIFOtM, etc., there wasn’t a ton of different parts recorded for this song.  Just the verse, the iron horse bit, and the Grand Coulee Dam ending.  So it was very tempting to just slap the officially released version on here.  But that would have been taking the easy way out.  Instead I gave it a complete eq overall, just to make it sound different (since I knew it wasn’t going to sound better).  I also played with the second “Iron Horse” section in an attempt to bring Dennis Wilson’s “Truck Drivin’ Man” vocal to the fore a little bit.  I then extended the end section using outtakes from the original instrumental session.  Finally, as a tribute to Brian Wilson’s love of getting people to sing “Shortnin’ Bread” and/or “Row, Row, Row The Boat” in rounds, I added another vocal “echoing” Mike’s “over & over” part.

Anybody have a link to an mp3 version of this? I can't use FLACs, and can't find it on the web :(

your lucky day...  :)

I loved the dissection! I read each word. I must go to work and can not comment more thoroughly... but I am looking forward to the next posting covering the later sections!

Will be checking it out shortly :)

A quick note about the mp3 version - when I sent the physical CD to the blogger who initially posted it online, the tracks were not separated - only the three "movements", bookended by the SMiLE Promo and You're Welcome.  The lossless version now available out the tracks listed individually, although they still flow into each other without pause.

I re-sorted the individual FLAC tracks into three movements in FLAC, and re-rendered them as the highest-quality FLAC files Audacity could give me. Would you mind if I posted a download link to that, pancakerecords?

This thread is boardering on getting crushed down by the "powers that be".  :p

I would not mind - its out there for people to mess with, listen to, or discard as they see fit.

Even if you do think my mix of Cabin Essence sucks, Don. :p

-pulled by The Man-

You might get some moderator flac for that one Don.

(http://img33.imageshack.us/img33/8682/whatyoudidthereiseeit.jpg)

I've been shut down by the man before, but never the stork.  Or whatever fowl that is.

If it's not too much to ask, can we get a breakdown of the elements of other two sections like you did with the Americana section? Or is that already a work in progress?

I'm working on it.  I should have the Cycle of Life one up tonight or tomorrow.

Showed this to friends as we drove back from Seattle to Portland. You had a hand in their first non-Help Me Rhonda-esque BB listening. Thanks!

Glad to be of some assistance!

If you're in the Seattle area, you should check out my friend's band - Dicky Moe - at the 2-bit Saloon on Friday 12/10.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Dicky-Moe/103233493065589 (http://www.facebook.com/pages/Dicky-Moe/103233493065589)

We now return to your regularly scheduled programming...

I just want to pop on and say that I discovered this mix on Warnakey some time ago and I do have to say that it is by far the most well-done mix I've ever heard. The sound is out of this world unbelievable and some of the choices were really daring. There was only one risk you took that bugged me but the rest of them worked one hundred percent. In fact, when I heard it, without even considering the superb sound, I thought to myself, how the hell did whoever did this manage to synthesize all those parts and make it work. Yet it really does.

You are a SMiLE assembly genius...or maybe just a hard-working guy.

Thanks.

I will now dwell on the one risk that bugged you until you tell me what it is.

No, no, no. I don't want to criticize what's a valid choice in the context of your mix. It's really, really great. Dammit, I'm going to listen to it right now.

C'mon!  Now you GOTTA tell me!

Round 2...  If there's any questions you have the I don't address here, let me know. 

CYCLE OF LIFE:
 
Wonderful
Not too much going on here.  Stereo mix of the completed track, with a little intro from Brian Wilson and a snippet of H&V background vocals at the beginning, and a mix of the “Wonderful” tag and Mike Love’s “Rock with me Henry” vocal from an aborted take of the song at the end.
 
Look
A listener posting about this track on a Beach Boys message board noted that this mix of “Look” reminded him of “Pet Sounds”.  Although I didn’t consciously go for that, I think it’s probably the thud of Hal Blaine’s drums and Carol Kaye’s picked bass guitar part (which I tried to highlight in the mix) that’s responsible for that.  I also left the bit of “12th Street Rag” that Brian Wilson chose not to use in 2004, along with a piece of dialogue from his attempts to record comedy bits to either use on SMiLE or release on a spoken word album.  If you’ve ever tried sitting through these “comedy” sessions, by the way, you’ll know how cringe-worthy they can be.  I know – in preparation for this project I sat at my desk and listened to all of it.   When I found something interesting I would hit the pause button, take note of the time the bit occurred along with a description of the quote and the song I thought it mike work in (if any).  I did this so that you, the listener, never have to.  You’ll thank me for it one day.
 
I also included a bit of the “legendary” “George Fell into His French Horn” track to lead into the next song.  This was an idea (like another one coming up in the next song) that I picked up from MoK’s SMiLE.  He trimmed the original track quite a bit, and I’ve knocked it down to about fifteen seconds, which is all I can take.
 
Child is Father of the Man
Here we start with another idea lifted from Mok, with the vibes leading into the piano/vocal “Child is father of the man part”, which I’ve edited down considerably. 
 
This is followed by something I pulled from the infamous “Help Me Rhonda” vocal sessions featuring the many moods (most of them bad) of Murry Wilson.  Initially, I thought I was going to use the “I’m a genius, too” quote.  But something about the elder Wilson imploring his son to “forget who you are” struck me as poignant, so that’s what I decided to go with.  To me, it adds something emotional (and somewhat creepy) to the track that wasn’t there before.
 
After that, it was just a case of putting my favorite sections of CIFotM together in an order that was pleasing to the ear.  Several sections were vetoed for poor sound quality and/or lack of a stereo mix.  The little piece of dialog at the end is meant to imply the “full circle” concept of the songs title.  Not so sure I managed to pull that off though.
 
Surf’s Up
How to you try to put your stamp on a masterpiece without screwing it up?
 
That’s a question I came face to face with throughout my work on this album, but never more than on this track.  In fact, I saved this mix for last because I had no idea what I was going to do.  The temptation to just drop in Brian Wilson’s piano/vocal performance and leave it at that was pretty good.  Then I heard a cover version of the song that gave me an idea – not one of my own, but an idea nonetheless.
 
The basis of the first part of the song is once again lifted from PurpleChick.  I tried to do a better job on the mixing of Brian’s solo piece and the backing track, but it wasn’t happening.  So why spend hours working to improve what’s already damn good to begin with?  The only things I did (aside from my ever-present eq) was to add a bit of the vocal from the Surf’s Up album version on the word “domino” and the second “canvas the town and brush the backdrop”, which created a nice harmony since Brian and Carl sing that line differently.  For the choir-type vocal that leads into the middle section, I used the same “vocals only” version of the track that I pulled the extra vocals in the first part for, and added a swirling stereo effect to the so they travel around your head when your wearing headphones.  For the middle section, I used Brian’s solo version again along with the Surf’s Up version. The “Auld Lang Syne” line that shows up in the appropriate place was inspired by (or stolen from, whichever you prefer) Stephen Newcomb's cover of this very song (http://thewrongbutton.blogspot.com/2008/02/surfs-up.html (http://thewrongbutton.blogspot.com/2008/02/surfs-up.html)).   
 
The whole thing leads back into PurpleChick’s edit again, although I think I did a little sweetening, cutting, and pasting with the “vocals only” track for this too.

Awesome! Thanks for the info!!!

Hate to be annoying but is there any hope for run-through of the 3rd part, "The Elements"? I really enjoy reading about all of the work that made this excellent version of SMiLE possible!

Soon - maybe this weekend.

THE ELEMENTS
 
I’m in Great Shape
Not much going on here, just a sync of Brian playing it solo on the piano and the stereo backing track.  I actually used the version without the sax, just because I like it better.  The piece of music preceding it is from “Can’t Wait Too Long”, I think.  At least that’s where it is on the “Smiley Smile” CD.
 
I Wanna Be Around/Friday Night
Eq’d and mixed to make the construction noise just a little more subtle.  To be brutally honest, I’ve never cared about this track one way or another.  But it just isn’t SMiLE without it.
 
To properly introduce “The Elements”, I used a short bit of Brian Wilson’s “Smog” rant that seemed appropriate.  This leads into quick bursts of the actual released versions of “Vegetables”, “Wind Chimes” “Cool, Cool, Water”, and “Fall Breaks…”.  Originally I had a much longer part of “Smog” here where Brian’s voice leapt from one end of the stereo spectrum to the other throughout the whole thing, like you were being shouted at by some lunatic on the street who kept circling you as he spoke.  In the end, though, I felt like it slowed things down too much.
 
Vega-tables
I was in the car, on my way home from work, when I realized that the faster version of “With Me Tonight” that appears on the “Hawthorne, CA” CD was essentially the same as the verse melody of “Vega-tables”.  I am sure that others figured this out before me, but this “eureka” moment sort of opened up the proverbial floodgates for me concerning Brian Wilson’s recycling of material.  He Gives Speeches/She’s Goin’ Bald was obvious (though this mix came first), but there was also the Fall Breaks/Mrs. O’Leary thing, Wind Chimes/Can’t Wait Too Long and so on.  I decided I would take advantage of as many of these as I could.
 
So – “With Me Tonight” mixed with the “scat” verse of “Vega-tables” kicks things off here, followed by the “cornucopia” verse, which I fattened up with the piano and vocal from another take.  The two vocals are actually slightly off-key, but I liked the way they sounded so I did absolutely nothing to fix that.  Plenty of off-key Beach Boys vocals made it to official releases, so who am I to judge?  The song progresses in what seemed to me a logical and pleasing manner until we reach the final “sleep a lot, eat a lot” portion.  After doing my original mix for this track, I dropped it on a CD and spent the next day or so listening to it – living with it a little bit to see if it passed muster.  The first couple of times I listened to this, in my car, I made a note to edit the aforementioned section down.  Then a listened to it a few more times at my desk at work, in headphones.  I was probably half-a-dozen listened into it when it dawned on me that each time this part played, I completely zoned out.  Something about the repetition and Mike Love’s bizarre background vocal (which always sounded like Huttese to me) just forced my mind to go blank.
 
So I left it there.
 
Hal Blaine brings you back to reality, imploring you to buy your own vegetables.  This little section was my opportunity to try George Martin’s “Being For The Benefit of Mr. Kite” trick of cutting a section up, tossing it in the air, and putting the pieces back together at random.  Of course, I did this digitally- but my heart was in the right place.  I sat through what seemed like six or seven hours of vegetable-themed comedy bits and chose the phrases I liked best.  Then I randomly adjusted the volume and stereo balance of each sound bite, and dropped them over the backing track.  My personal favorites?  “Those aren’t carrots, those are dildoes” and, of course, “filthy turnip”, which I think would make a great, if obscure, band name.
 
 
Holidays
So far as I know, no actual stereo mix of this track has ever circulated.  So I faked it.  What I did what take the song and break it down into separate tracks, with each track eq’d to highlight specific audio frequencies.  Then I mixed those together panning them in different directions to give it a stereo “feel”.  The reverb used in each channel is slightly different too.  The only other thing I did was drop in a little vocal exclamation in a couple of spots and that’s all she wrote.
 
Wind Chimes
This starts with the stereo track featuring a little cameo form the “Smiley Smiley” version of the song during the verses.  I tried to eq it so that the drums stand out a bit more during the second part.  Other than that I essentially left well-enough alone, until we get to the piano solo towards then end, where the acapella vocal from “Can’t Wait Too Long” appears as if by magic! This ushers in a quick appearance of that “Wind Chimes” inspired track.

MRS. O’LEARY’S COW
Stereo intro into the stereo track, eq’d to get the most out of Hal Blaine’s drums.  Vocals from “Fall Breaks…” flown in and (kinda) synced.  That was a big pain between isolating them as much as possible and trying to get the timing right.  The first “ooh” was the hardest, it seems to fall into place a bit more after that.  I dropped a bit of the version with the crackling fire effects at the end.
 
I LOVE TO SAY DADA
The “Water” section is rebuilt from the ground up, starting with the organ.  I used a half-dozen different sections from one of Brian Wilson’s comedy experiments here too, with people chanting “swim”, “fishy fishy” etc., then gave them an active stereo mix.  Pretty sure nobody’s used that before, but I can always be proven wrong.  The stereo track for “Dada” isn’t as clean-sounding as the mono, so I did some work on this, trying to make it cleaner without sacrificing too much of the top end.  A couple of flute bits were added from a separate take.  I had to grab my favorite Mike Love vocal ever and drop it in here too.  Brian Wilson’s isolated “Cool, Cool Water” vocal makes an appearance too.  This track can get a bit repetitive without a lead vocal, so I cut it down.
 
GOOD VIBRATIONS
There is absolutely nothing I can do to this track that doesn’t make it pale in comparison to what was released.  Every change made is a step backwards.  So what we have is here is an alternate track with the scrapped lyrics sweetened up a bit and in stereo.  I used the stereo track from the “Good Vibrations” anniversary single as my basic guide and laid over Brian Wilson’s rough vocal, doubled in places.  For the chorus portion, I used a few different versions, finishing with the released version.  The middle section includes the “hum deed um” vocals, and the whole thing comes to a close with more cellos than ever before.  (I got a little “more cowbell” with them actually, but can there ever be too many?).
 
YOU’RE WELCOME
Enhanced, doubled, sweetened, and remixed.  A suitable ending, as someone once commented.

Awesome. Thank you for everything.

Also, in case anyone else is wondering, the other instrumental bit in ABW's "You're Welcome" is from the Good Vibrations sessions.

I knew I'd forget something...

And that's Hal Blaine telling Brian to go home.

If there's anything you're curious about that I've failed to explain, please feel free to ask.

Well, since you offered...  :)

What exactly is said at the end of "You're Welcome"? I've never really been able to make it out completely and it seems like, at least in the version I downloaded anyway, it's sort of cut off.

Sounds like...
"Well?"
"Well."
"Look-"

Maybe? Was there more after that?

I can answer that:

The clip was cut off. In the full clip, he says "Well...look, I'll see you guys later."

Yeah, i was wondering about that - it's from the 'Psychedelic Tapes' isn't it?

Ah, that clears it up. Thanks! So... should that be in my version (and it just got cut out accidentally?)

It should be there - followed by a short piece of music and a snippet of dialogue.

Hm... odd. Hate to belabor the point, especially since you've done so much (making the mix, doing the full writeup of the work entailed, etc... I really appreciate it all!  :)) but what I downloaded has essentially this for You're Welcome: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z2JMukjnksE

Sorry - I was mistaken - the only thing you (and the youtube poster) are missing is the "I'll see you guys later" line followed by a short giggle.

Would it be possible to...er... "acquire" the missing bit of dialogue?

Hmmm...I've recently discovered the joys of FLAC...anybody want to helP Me out a little bit...I mean if it's not too much trouble.

Marvelous, in many places perfect, SMiLE version. Awesome job!

Wow. Just ... wow.

I just downloaded the mp3 version and cannot get over how fantastic this is. Awesome work!

Would be pleased very much to find a FLAC version.

Hi everyone, I'm new here.  8)

Just wanted to say that this Smile mix is incredible! Great job! Definitely one of the best ones out there. There are a couple of things that bother me a little bit though.

In the end of "Wind Chimes" when it goes to "Can't Wait Too Long" (at 13:27 on the elements), the vocals seem out of place, they're in a different key than the instruments which sounds weird and dissonant to me. "I Miss you darling, I miss you so hard" sounds strange and out of key here. But the rest of Wind Chimes/Can't Wait Too Long is the best I've heard.
A similar thing happens in "Good Vibrations" in the first chorus (21:10) where Brian for a few seconds sings a different key from what the instruments are playing.

Those are pretty much the only things that I don't like about this mix. I'm using your mix as a template for my own mix, which I'm currently working with.


Once again, great job!

I made a concerted effort not to use pitch or time correction on the tracks, just to make it as natural sounding as possible.  I kind of liked the dissonance between the Wind Chimes/can't Wait vocals, and the Good Vibes piece was close enough for rock & roll, as far as I was concerned.  There are a couple of places where it was far enough off that I had to fix things (She's Goin' Bald/He Gives Speeches was one), but in general I kept it "au natural".

For me, the short Wind Chimes/Can't Wait part that I was talking about doesn't really sound "au natural" where different chords/harmonies are played at the same time, creating new chords, but I also think it's very enjoyable and interesting.
That Good Vibrations part is a little bit frustrating though because it's probably the best Good Vibes-version I've heard.

I have another question, what program did you use making this mix?

Adobe Audition.  Started with 2, finished with 3.

love this! great job. 

actually my favorite part might be using van dyke chatter during heroes and villains.  love how that flowed. 

I gotta admit that out of many many various "SMiLE" bootlegs I've heard, this one is my favorite by far! :)
The only thing that sometimes puts me off a bit is that the songs are mixed into 3 large pieces and it's hard to "navigate" through this version. But on the other side I believe this mixing creates some of its grandeur. Anyway, great job :)

Navigating is a good way of putting it; but I don't necessarily think it's a bad thing. I find Purple-Chick's SMiLE to be very flat - if that makes sense. Whereas AlternateBrianWilson is full of so many nooks and crannies. It has humor, spirituality, adventure....it is like navigating a whole different world...unlike any other recording I've heard. Love it.

Purple Chick's "SMiLE" is very conventional as it borrows the whole scheme from the 2004 Brian's rework, and I'm glad someone's intended to reconstruct it this way from the original tapes. It seems more down to earth though. I'm not sure about "flat", but there's definitely something to it. I enjoy it on a different level than the "AlternateBrianWilson Presents Smile" which is more dimensional, complex, and adventurous. At least I feel adventurous listening to it :-D

The "lossless" version has the tracks separated, if that's any help at all.  It's available on some bittorent sites.  I split it up because having it in lumps annoyed me too.

Thanks for the kind words.

I can't get any of the links to load, could someone help me out here please?

Never mind!  :)

If pancakerecords is still around, you did an absolutely phenomenal job! I'd say it's my favorite Smile fan mix!

Thanks!

I've heard such great things about this mix and I really LOVE all versions of SMiLE.

Can anyone suggest a way that I can get this...either a trade, download or torrent?   I am grateful for any help.

Thanks very much in advance.

You can listen to it here, but the tracks haven't been separated though:

http://grooveshark.com/#!/album/AlternateBrianWilson+Presents+SMiLE/4630608

After briefly listening to some of it, there's some count-ins, speech etc. (during songs like H&V for example) so in that way it has a demo-ish/outtake type quality about it.