Do It Again 2011 - Snippet Unofficially Remastered

[seltaeb1012002]

After hearing the great Do It Again reunion snippet, I decided to throw it into my audio editor.
In an effort to milk the most out of the snippet, I adjusted the volume at the beginning and end so that the fades are barely noticeable (well..very quick now.)
Also enhanced the bass a bit and took out the 18 seconds silence in the beginning.

http://icreateification.blogspot.com/

Download link underneath the video.

 

[Pretty Funky]

The same version on youtube? Just added link to the reunion thread if it is. Nice!

[phirnis]

Sounds very nice!

Just noticed Brian harmonizing with himself on the bridge, good stuff.

[seltaeb1012002]

The same version on youtube? Just added link to the reunion thread if it is. Nice!

Yes sir. Thanks!

Sounds very nice!

Just noticed Brian harmonizing with himself on the bridge, good stuff.

Yeah, definitely a few Brians in the bridge.
Also hearing what might be a Foskett doubling Brian's lead (panned center) as well as the high part
And a possible Al harmony. Kinda hard to tell since it's all been autotuned to death.

[Stegibo]

Definitely Al harmonizing on the bridge too.

[seltaeb1012002]

Definitely Al harmonizing on the bridge too.

I'm with you on that. That last "ahh" that extends is definitely Al.

Anyone notice the "Dit-dit-dit" harmonies sound like they could be from the 15 Big Ones / Love You Era? 

[Shady]

I still think it sounds like a bad cover but that's because I'm such a fan of the original..

On a positive note, the boys sound great, can't wait to hear some new songs 

[Ron]

Sounds very nice!

Just noticed Brian harmonizing with himself on the bridge, good stuff.

Yes.  This.  lol.

Notice Brian's voice is imperfect, and has character.  This version already destroys anything his live band pulls off, sorry! 

[Ron]

Definitely Al harmonizing on the bridge too.

I'm with you on that. That last "ahh" that extends is definitely Al.

Anyone notice the "Dit-dit-dit" harmonies sound like they could be from the 15 Big Ones / Love You Era? 

Yeah man! It's a great sound.  I'm lovin' it, and also this remastered version, thanks to the original poster for that.

Couple other thoughts, questions... did Murry help produce this, I notice Mike is really selling those enunciations. 

Second, am I the only one who REALLY wants to hear if Mike killed the bass part the song's about to go into?  Wonder if he's still got that?

[seltaeb1012002]

Yeah man! It's a great sound.  I'm lovin' it, and also this remastered version, thanks to the original poster for that.

No problem. It's amazing what a little extra bass and compression can do.

I really hope the official version has a nice amount of bass.

It's bad when the bass from some of The Beach Boys' early recordings is killing this 2011 recording.

This is the Beach Boys damnit, they deserve the best sonically! 

[lance]

I hope the final version is brickwalled.

[Stegibo]

Although it's autotuned, it still sound fantastic! Just think of the 'Good Timin: Live At Knebworth' DVD, that's much worse and DIA is way better than some autotuned songs by some new 'singer' from the last years...

[b00ts]

I hope the final version is brickwalled.

Me too, all the autotuning they slathered on still isn't ruining it for me! They need some turntables, also.

[hypehat]

I hope the final version is brickwalled.

Me too, all the autotuning they slathered on still isn't ruining it for me! They need some turntables, also.

What this needs to really push it up to the high standards of Pet Sounds, Friends, or Sunflower, is Nicky Minaj.

[Zach95]

Um, am the I the only person skeptical of what many here have called auto tune?  Guys, this isn't really true auto tune.  It's MINOR pitch correction and a lot of other effects that's making their voices sound that way.  What you're mistaking for auto tune is a lot of other little tricks producers use to make their subjects sound better.  This is the Beach Boys, not Maroon 5 or T Pain.  They're not using THAT much pitch correction, if at all.

[Ron]

Zach, ignore them.  They've got autotuneitis.  They accuse the girl at McDonalds of autotuning her voice on the drive through speaker.

It's a pet peeve of mine.  People learn about something, then they see it everywhere.  So all of these guys, several years back, learned about Autotune.  Now they think they're "in the know" if they hate on it and accuse every band from the beach boys to britney spears of being the same monotonous wash of a pro-tools plugin they downloaded for free off of BTJunkie.com .

[Sam_BFC]

What you're mistaking for auto tune is a lot of other little tricks producers use to make their subjects sound better. 

Like what ? 

[seltaeb1012002]

Zach, ignore them.  They've got autotuneitis.  They accuse the girl at McDonalds of autotuning her voice on the drive through speaker.

It's a pet peeve of mine.  People learn about something, then they see it everywhere.  So all of these guys, several years back, learned about Autotune.  Now they think they're "in the know" if they hate on it and accuse every band from the beach boys to britney spears of being the same monotonous wash of a pro-tools plugin they downloaded for free off of BTJunkie.com .

Ok man...

[PongHit]

That voice does not sound like Mike to me. The only voice I can ID in there is BW's.

[Summertime Blooz]

Zach, ignore them.  They've got autotuneitis.  They accuse the girl at McDonalds of autotuning her voice on the drive through speaker.

It's a pet peeve of mine.  People learn about something, then they see it everywhere.  So all of these guys, several years back, learned about Autotune.  Now they think they're "in the know" if they hate on it and accuse every band from the beach boys to britney spears of being the same monotonous wash of a pro-tools plugin they downloaded for free off of BTJunkie.com .

Back in the 60's they used double-tracking, reverb & other tricks to mask weak vocals. The technology has changed but the intent hasn't. Sometimes things need to be sweetened to achieve a desired effect. A lot of people think that's a bad thing, that it's dishonest or it's cheating, but it's all just tools of the studio to me.

[BJL]

Back in the 60's they used double-tracking, reverb & other tricks to mask weak vocals. The technology has changed but the intent hasn't. Sometimes things need to be sweetened to achieve a desired effect. A lot of people think that's a bad thing, that it's dishonest or it's cheating, but it's all just tools of the studio to me.

Agreed.  A friend of mine who likes the Beach Boys but isn't a big fan or anything was over once, and Hushabye was playing, and she said something along the lines of "it's beautiful, but they don't really sound like humans."  Brian Wilson's golden age records used reverb and double-tracking to make their voices sound absolutely perfect, almost unreal.  Now that the tones of their voices have changed, those techniques aren't really effective anymore, the double tracking especially just sounds odd on modern-day Brian, so they're using different studio tricks.  Reality was never the point when it comes to the Beach Boys. 

[b00ts]

Zach, ignore them.  They've got autotuneitis.  They accuse the girl at McDonalds of autotuning her voice on the drive through speaker.

It's a pet peeve of mine.  People learn about something, then they see it everywhere.  So all of these guys, several years back, learned about Autotune.  Now they think they're "in the know" if they hate on it and accuse every band from the beach boys to britney spears of being the same monotonous wash of a pro-tools plugin they downloaded for free off of BTJunkie.com .

I am psyched for the reunion no matter what - autotune or no autotune - but this post really pissed me off. This is not some minor pitch correction. It sounds like they have run all the voices through autotune as a matter of course. Just because you have cloth ears and can't hear it doesn't give you the right to denigrate those of us who can. Maybe you should torrent a copy of Pro Tools and see for yourself how pitch correction works.

Far from being someone who 'downloaded pro tools and thinks he knows what autotune sounds like,' I am a professional producer and musician. I have used autotune on other peoples' projects where requested for years now, and I know the characteristics of its sound. I can pick it out very easily in a mix when it is slathered on, which seems to be the norm for much commercial production nowadays. When it is used tastefully, it is harder to pick out, as on BWPS and other Brian Wilson albums. Most of the music I listen to does not obviously employ pitch correction/autotune, so when I hear it, it jumps out at me that much more.

One of the reasons listeners don't notice autotune anymore is because almost all modern commercial (top 50) music uses it excessively, not just to fix a few flubs here and there. Even when people can hit the notes, they often run their voices through Antares for pitch correction. It ends up sounding sterile. A colleague of mine knows the musical supervisor for a popular musical TV show - the producers of said show make her run the singers' voices through autotune, even though the cast are all great singers.

I'm not being negative about the reunion - autotune or no autotune, I will be psyched for it - but for those of us who have trained ears and can hear it, the use of pitch correction makes a human voice sound like a computer. It sounds unnatural, and it removes dynamics from the vocal. It is not aesthetically pleasing to many of us who, unlike you, are able to hear it.

This is the crux of why I don't put autotune in the same category as reverb, double tracking, etc. Those things change the quality of the voice, but even when they are slathered on, they don't beat the vocal into submission and make it into a pale shadow of itself. So much of a good vocal relies on feel and nuance, and autotune and its ilk can take those things away.

Of course, pitch correction is a tool like anything else, and can be used for a good aesthetic. I don't choose to use it on my own music, and I sometimes advise clients against it, because in a case like this (where all the voices are apparently tuned/corrected) it removes performance dynamic and makes material instantly dated - in 5-10 years, anyone who hears a song from the past decade with this type of autotune-by-default will immediately be able to place it.

[Autotune]

Funny how 95 percent or so of the posters on this board seem to detect autotune immediately. That subject has been trivialized almost as much as the Jeff Foskett issue.

[b00ts]

Zach, ignore them.  They've got autotuneitis.  They accuse the girl at McDonalds of autotuning her voice on the drive through speaker.

It's a pet peeve of mine.  People learn about something, then they see it everywhere.  So all of these guys, several years back, learned about Autotune.  Now they think they're "in the know" if they hate on it and accuse every band from the beach boys to britney spears of being the same monotonous wash of a pro-tools plugin they downloaded for free off of BTJunkie.com .

Back in the 60's they used double-tracking, reverb & other tricks to mask weak vocals. The technology has changed but the intent hasn't. Sometimes things need to be sweetened to achieve a desired effect. A lot of people think that's a bad thing, that it's dishonest or it's cheating, but it's all just tools of the studio to me.

Agreed. These are all just tools. For me, the proof of the pudding is in the eating, and unfortunately Autotune is often used nowadays on ALL the vocals in a song, for an aesthetic that will be extremely dated-sounding in a decade's time. That's what I hear on this snippet of "Do It Again."

I imagine that they may have run the vocals through pitch correction because the song is not yet finished and they wanted to have a professional sounding mix in time for this promo video. Hopefully on the final product, pitch correction will be used more judiciously, as it was on BWPS.

[seltaeb1012002]

Hopefully on the final product, pitch correction will be used more judiciously, as it was on BWPS.

Agreed!

Edit: And I hope they raise the bass a bit in the mix.