Hello Smiley Smile Message Board! I've not been around these forums for a while now, since the 50th tour wound down, really. But I wanted to pop back in to say hello and to shamelessly plug my arrangement of the traditional festive tune: Good King Wenceslas, from my new Christmas EP, Here Comes Christmas. It felt appropriate to post it here, since my music is quite heavily influenced by Brian's work (particularly the SMiLE era stuff).

Anyway guys, I hope you enjoy the song. The rest of the EP can be found in the usual places. Spotify, YouTube, Soundcloud.

Good King Wenceslas: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7dcxeCg6ss

Merry Christmas!

Another update: Here's the first stereo mix with vocals for I Just Want To Go Home: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hzXAc_SbTPA

I hope you like it!

Something that really bugs me about Pet Sounds is that I've never heard a mono version that is anything like as enjoyable as the stereo, which is surprising given that all the other BB's albums of that era sound much better in mono (in my opinion). I love a good mono record, I love the punchy-ness off mono, but for whatever reason I can't find a satisfactory mono release of PS.

The monos I've heard always seem somehow... diluted. As if all the instruments just got blended a little too much. Maybe I'm just spoiled by having first heard PS in it's 40th anniversary stereo mix, which reveals a lot of the deatil in the arrangements. It's just a bit annoying, because I am a big fan of the mono sound, to the point where friends think I am some kind of freak for preferring it over stereo, lol.

I don't know. Compared to the double tracked mono, I kinda prefer the single tracked vocal on the stereo version. Even if it's not completely pitch perfect, it does highlight more of the detail in Brian's delivery. He had such a nice tone at that time that frankly it doesn't matter too much if he's not bang on the money on every note.

Nice responses, thanks. Yeah it's really evident that the leveling and 'EQ' of the track was done through mic placement and musical instruction; basically using what they had at the time to get a good blend, and I love that. Listening to the SMiLE sessions is a very rewarding and insightful thing to do as well, as it's evident that suddenly there was a lot more overdubbing and layering going on, on certain tracks; although still nothing like as much as is done today.

I've always thought that the major technical component of Good Vibrations was the fact that it was done in sections and edited together, more than anything else. Not only that, but the way he created different feelings captured in different rooms. I think that was the revolutionary thing about it that gave it a certain freshness at the time. Going from that cool organ with the slight reverb coming off Carl's vocal into that dry cello is still mind blowing to this day.

I'm interested in hearing from anyone with extensive knowledge on the methods that were used to create the final mixes of those epic 60s records (I'm thinking Today, Summer Days, Pet Sounds, SMiLE). Specifically, I'm wondering if my thinking is right on the combining of the instrumental track with the vocal tracks.

Am I right in thinking that the basic pattern was to create a single uncompressed stereo instrumental track, and then simply mix the vocal tracks down with that. What interests me is the idea that working in this way would mean that instrumental track was locked and could not be altered once the vocals were being added, unless you went back to instrumental session tapes and created a new mix. I'm guessing the final mix involved the instrumental track and several vocal tracks, possibly with a track left open for some minor instrumental overdubs.

If anyone would care to add any insights to this whole process I'd be very interested in hearing them.

Just a quick song I did for the spooky season. We got lost in the woods after doing the video and didn't have a torch... it got dark very quickly, hilarity ensured, lol.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sjIZOCoW0ZA

Seems weird seeing him on stage without the rest of The Beach Boys now. Just saying.

Can you imagine Brian ever saying phrases like "Then there was confusion in some markets?"

Battle of the PR Firms! 

Well, obviously this is not written by Brian personally; I don't think they are even attempting to give that impression. But I think it's fairly safe to assume he gave a few points to a publicist and then okayed what was written.

I read Mikes letter and felt like it closed the issue.

Now I read Brian's letter and I'm like.... OMG *popcorn*

Hah. Yeah. I don't play too much with faders in my own production, instrumentally, I tend to build the sound landscape with layered instruments in an ensemble, allowing the quieter stuff to peep in when it wants to, I do a lot of blending with echo and reverb and send it all to a single bus where it passes through a plug-in that simulates analogue tape compression/distortion. I tend to enjoy the warmth that comes with the limiting and compression offered by that plug in.

I can't recall seeing any camera men up on stage, but then I was very far back but I was on one of the higher tiers and had a good view of the stage. But I could easily have missed them if they were lurking more towards the sides.

Thanks for all the awesome insights. Fascinating stuff.

Interesting. And yeah... it's so weird how the industry has shifted from what always produced great natural sounding results, to producing stuff that just sounds so clinical and plastic. I mean... who can fault the sound produced by classic harmony groups?

I record too just not too often with a large group.

Not too sure if this has already been covered but something I always wonder about the 60s Beach Boys records is what exactly was the process involved in recording the vocal harmonies. I know the lead vocal was usually double tracked, but what about individual harmony parts? I'd always assumed those were recorded with the whole group around a mic, and there was no double tracking involved. But sometimes it sounds almost like there might be some double tracking at work in the harmony; did they ever double track an entire vocal section (can't imagine that sounding too good)?

I'm really quite interested in the exact process that was at work with this, down to the tape bouncing and compression. Any rare nuggets of info much appreciated.

SMiLE is brilliant even unfinished but my impression is Brian wasn't making it from the heart like he had PS, he was making it from the head to impress and that eventually was not satisfying to him and he dumped most of it.

Surfs Up.

But yeah I agree there are certain songs that are engineered to the point that they probably lost some raw emotion as a result.

Summer's Gone.

the altar of Brian Wilson

Hehe, an altar of Brian. Now there's a scary thought haha. I am a huge fan of BW but the idea of worshipping and altars is quite disturbing lol.

But here's the thing, I am a big fan of Brian and enjoy some of his solo work almost as much as his 60s master works, but that doesn't mean I can't respect Mike; the two aren't mutually exclusive. If anything I was kind of hoping that the 50th, with all the water under the bridge stuff, would put an end to all that horrible anti Mike Love trash talk you see all over the BBs stuff on line. Maybe it would have done too, if not for the lousy press coverage of the return to normality post 50th.

I really liked Mike's article, I thought it was sincere and thoughtfully constructed. I mean, the guy is obviously aware of all the sh*t that's been stirring online trying to cast him as the bad guy, and that must be really really frustrating to a guy who's simply trying to carry on with his business as previously agreed with everyone involved in the 50th. He obviously enjoys touring with his band, and who cares why... that's his business.

Personally I would rate the Smile Sessions above Pet Sounds, but Pet Sounds is still a mind blowing album. The thing that inches the Smile Sessions ahead for me is the fact that it's an attempt to go further with the music, not just repeat the techniques that worked so well on Pet Sounds. You know, a lot of lesser artists might have said 'that's it, I've perfected my technique and can't do this any better...' but Brian was always looking at ways to expand what he was doing. So you get this wonderful collection of abstract music that is so wonderfully archaic and complex yet simple that it just blows everything else away in my mind. I mean, once you've painted a dozen technically perfect landscapes and protraits, what's left to do other than explore abstract styles... cubism, fauvism and so forth.

The approach of recording these tiny little sections of music and stitching them together, along with all the contrasting room sounds and slight variance in tempo, is so marvellously abstract; it created that extra dimension to the music that Brian was looking for to expand his music beyond what he'd already done. But then there's the fact that the arranging of those sections is so fantastic too. I mean, a lot of the songs on Smile (with a few exceptions) are really quite simple in their chord structure, but it's the way he arranged them that was so marvellous. Layer in those amazing harmonies and... I just don't know how anyone can ever top that. Something, for me, that makes it even more magical, is the fact that it's imperfect... it's incomplete... it's a truly abandoned piece of art, the tapes on the shelves for decades, accumulating mystique, becoming the stuff of legend. When I listen to the Smile Sessions that's a big part of the magic for me.

Again, Pet Sounds is amazing, I love it for it's perfection. It's a total mastery of the art of pop music executed by Brian. But in terms of bold artistic endeavour Smile is the winner to me.

You seem to have located a portal... TO HELL. :/

did not specify that the album is a BB album.

thoughts on this?

Has he actually been quoted as saying he would love to work on this proposed rock n roll album that Brian seems to want to do? The biggest issue I am having with the collective BBs at the moment is the uncertainty about this proposed next project. It'd be nice if it could be a new BBs album, but I kinda get the feeling Brian is just going to continue as before churning out solo albums until he has no energy left.

A very well stated article by Mike. It explains everything that we have discussed here over the past few weeks. It would be nice if Brian & Al put out a release backing the story. Mike really should not have had to take the heat for this mess. It is amazing that one comment by Brian, picked up by the press, blew this whole thing out of proportion.

I guess he just got really swept up in the whole thing. Suddenly he feels like a Beach Boy again, obviously enjoyed playing with Al, David and Mike again, and hoped it could continue.

Wow. After reading this I have a new-found respect for Mr Love. It's a rather nicely constructed explanation of the whole situation and his feelings about it. He seems sincere in his desire to set the record straight.

Well done Mike.

The only thing that springs to mind to me is the way he spoke about Brian sometimes not being 100% on stage and suffering auditory hallucinations affecting his performance. Now this is common knowledge to most people who know anything about Brian Wilson, but I can imagine that sort of comment ruffling a few feathers in Brian's management.

Lovely interview. I like how Dennis simply cuts through the suggestion of resistance to Brian's avant garde songwriting and simply says how they were constantly blown away by the stuff he would play them. How true that is for the entire band, who can say, but of course it's pretty well documented that Dennis held Brian in really high esteem.