14 Beach Boys albums coming to vinyl/SACD

[Alan Smith]

Stephen, that Nakamichi turntable is a classic!  I would love to just see one in person, much less own one.

I love it when I see a vintage turntable -- Garrard, Thorens, etc.  They look so beautiful -- and usually sound great.  A few years ago one of the local high-end audio stores had a top-of-the-line 1980's Denon direct drive table that they took on trade-in.  That thing was built like a tank!  A tribute to Japanese engineering and craftsmanship.

Forgive me if I've already posted this, but a few months ago I walked into a used record store in the small town of Boone, NC.  They also sell vintage electronics equipment, and they have a repair guy there who checks and maintains their stuff.  The owner had bought the stock of an old warehouse, and in it was a Technics SL-10 quartz-locked, direct drive, linear tracking turntable, complete with the original box and all accessories, including the rare EPS-310MC low output moving coil cartridge which is considered one of Technics' best ever.  It had been thoroughly checked and serviced by their in-house tech. Unlike the cheap plastic linear tracking tables that were around in the late '80s, the SL-10 was very well-made, and garnered stellar reviews in the trade publications of the day.   I ended up picking the whole kit for less than the cartridge goes for by itself on eBay.  It sounds fantastic!  I picked it up to be the table in my second system, and it quickly was promoted to the main system.

Lee

Drool...nice going, Lee!  A HiFi "swap" shop down this was pedaling an SL-10 for about $450 (AU, probably $$300 Gringo) just before xmas, but in "as is" nick.

I'll keep an eye out should another one turn-up and I have money at the same time.

[LeeDempsey]

Alan I can't believe I picked this one up for $250 US...  And as I posted on the Hoffman board, the weekend before I had been to a casino and walked away $500 richer, so it was bought with "house money!"  That made it easier to justify given that I already had two turntables (a B&O and a Kenwood -- now the Kenwood is back in its box).

Lee

[Custom Machine]

The SL-10 is my preferred type of turntable, in that it's fully automatic. Just from a personal preference standpoint a semi-auto is acceptable, but I've never had any interest in a manual turntable unless I were to use it for recording vinyl or dj use. With a manual table I'm often not in the mood to jump up and pick up the tonearm after playing each side of an LP, and I don't like to sit around listening to the thwack-thwack-thwack of the lock groove. I should also add that I love high quality record changers for stacking LPs and especially 45s. And contrary to popular belief, a well designed changer does not harm records.

For fans of the discontinued manual Technics SL-1200, the good news is that it will be back this summer as Panasonic revives its Technics brand. The bad news is that the price has increased dramatically - to US $4,000. http://www.technics.com/global/introduction/hifi-direct-drive-turntable-system-sl-1200gae/

[Alan Smith]

Alan I can't believe I picked this one up for $250 US...  And as I posted on the Hoffman board, the weekend before I had been to a casino and walked away $500 richer, so it was bought with "house money!"  That made it easier to justify given that I already had two turntables (a B&O and a Kenwood -- now the Kenwood is back in its box).

Lee

Lee, I missed that post over on HOFF, sure to have gained many likes. I must admit you are my hero right now.

If I was served a "please explain additional TT" notice from my wife, and then offered "Don't fret, Dear - bought it with casino winnings" as justification, I suspect things may not have gone well.

 

[Alan Smith]

The SL-10 is my preferred type of turntable, in that it's fully automatic. Just from a personal preference standpoint a semi-auto is acceptable, but I've never had any interest in a manual turntable unless I were to use it for recording vinyl or dj use. With a manual table I'm often not in the mood to jump up and pick up the tonearm after playing each side of an LP, and I don't like to sit around listening to the thwack-thwack-thwack of the lock groove. I should also add that I love high quality record changers for stacking LPs and especially 45s. And contrary to popular belief, a well designed changer does not harm records.

For fans of the discontinued manual Technics SL-1200, the good news is that it will be back this summer as Panasonic revives its Technics brand. The bad news is that the price has increased dramatically - to US $4,000. http://www.technics.com/global/introduction/hifi-direct-drive-turntable-system-sl-1200gae/

Love your observations about the fully automatic - there are many times I'd gladly trade the TD 166 for a quality auto; and the wife and teenagers would be pretty relieved as well.  As you and I have discussed re the current Denon's, the modern autos aren't really cutting it - the current Thorens branded TT's don't get a great rap; I wish Technics or Pioneer would invest invest in a quality fully auto.

BTW, did you hear back from Analogue Productions re the "Party" inserts you were chasing - A

[LeeDempsey]

If I was served a "please explain additional TT" notice from my wife, and then offered "Don't fret, Dear - bought it with casino winnings" as justification, I suspect things may not have gone well.

 

Haha definitely a "lesser of two evils" scenario: "Honey, I made an unnecessary technology purchase," or "Honey, I went gambling..."  Fortunately the latter is a bit easier when you've won and given her a share!  

[Custom Machine]

If I was served a "please explain additional TT" notice from my wife, and then offered "Don't fret, Dear - bought it with casino winnings" as justification, I suspect things may not have gone well.

 

Haha definitely a "lesser of two evils" scenario: "Honey, I made an unnecessary technology purchase," or "Honey, I went gambling..."  Fortunately the latter is a bit easier when you've won and given her a share!  

So, Lee, if you lose $250 next time you're at the casino, does that mean the wife,etc will then be expecting you to put the SL-10 up on eBay?

[Custom Machine]

BTW, did you hear back from Analogue Productions re the "Party" inserts you were chasing - A

Good question, Alan. I received an email stating they'd be getting back to me, but I've never heard a thing from them since. And my new AP Party stereo LP doesn't have the party pix inserts either.

[Alan Smith]

From the latest Stereophile - contains some (great) tech details/insights from from Mark L, also interesting to read that UME/Capitol "offered" the reissue gig to A/P.  Kinda baffling given Capitol then seemingly punched out the rest of the catalogue; although who knows what was scheduled first.  And still no answers as to why Wild Honey has slipped through everyone's cracks.  Perhaps Brian is going to surprise tour it as an encore bonus!

BRIAN’S SONG

Analogue Productions new stereo mixes and LP reissues of pivotal albums by the Beach Boys
by ROBERT BAIRD

Although there was a fall chill in the air, the front windows were open, and the sounds of perhaps the greatest Beach Boys ballad of all wafted into the Massachusetts night.

Perched on the edge of the couch, dear friend and Stereophile contributing music editor David Sokol—former editorin-chief of New Country and Disney magazines, a man who’s written about music for over 40 years and has yet to lose his passion for the stuff— was waxing poetic and weeping, ever so slightly, as the room filled with the intricate mix of voices that is “Kiss Me, Baby.”

One of the great pleasures of having a vast music collection is the ability to fall headlong into a musical obsession on a whim, absorb an entire catalog at once, and appreciate anew the genius of someone like Brian Wilson. Add wine—or, on that night, a few nips of high-end bourbon—and music is once again the most wonderful of the human arts.

That night we focused on the Beach Boys’ catalog, all of which David has in original mono Capitol Records pressings, the jackets and the LPs themselves in remarkably good shape. A large part of why we settled on the Beach Boys, was Analogue Productions’ reissue of much of the band’s Capitol catalog in new vinyl and SACD/CD editions. Most exciting, three pivotal records, all from 1965—Today!, Summer Days (and Summer Nights!!), and Beach Boys’ Party!— were being released on LP in stereo for the first time. These three albums directly precede Pet Sounds, the band’s most mature statement and the apex of Wilson’s genius as producer, songwriter, and philosopher, and in these wonderful new 200gm pressings the road to that landmark album becomes clear. These records also marked the beginning of Brian’s writing more direct, adult songs about subjects other than teen romance, cars, and surfing.

From Today! on, the Beach Boys’ albums were the product of Brian’s early 1965 decision not to tour with the band, and instead stay home in California, working on songs and recordings—a move followed a year later by the Beatles. Using a three-track tape deck, Brian often built up a single instrumental track for a song, sometimes using members of the famous Wrecking Crew of L.A. sessions musicians, then waited for the band to come off the road to record their vocals. In the recent film Love & Mercy, the events of this time, and Brian’s inner struggles as effectively portrayed by actor Paul Dano, are central to the film. Like the Rubber Soul and Revolver period in the history of the Beatles, when the lovable Mop Tops became makers of grand pop art, these records are the sound of the Beach Boys—or, at least, Brian Wilson—evolving from a band who performed in matching striped jackets into something more profound.

“It’s not a news flash,” David Sokol told me later on the telephone, “but unless you know those records, and unless you take the Beach Boys really seriously, you probably don’t think about it, because people think of Pet Sounds almost as a monolithic thing unto itself.

“It came on gradually. [Brian] started off with those goofy surfing songs, but then, in 1963, there’s ‘Surfer Girl,’ which was a gorgeous song that sort of stood out. And then it started morphing from surfing to girls, from much simpler songs and vocal arrangements to much more elaborate songs and arrangements. Plus, he’s becoming this kind of introspective, lonely kid, with songs like ‘In My Room,’ which is also on the Surfer Girl album [1963]. On Shut Down Volume 2 [1964], ‘Fun, Fun, Fun’ was the first single. It came out February 15, the week after the Beatles were on The Ed Sullivan Show. But also on that album were ‘Don’t Worry Baby’ and ‘The Warmth of the Sun.’”

According to Chad Kassem, founder and president of Acoustic Sounds, the parent company of Analogue Productions, his Beach Boys reissue project began when he was approached by EMI, which owned Capitol Records (both labels are now owned by Universal Music). “They came to me with an opportunity, and they asked me if I wanted to do this and would I do this,” Kassem told me in a recent interview. “They knew that I could do it right. They wanted it to be the definitive reissue series. They wanted me to be the one to do the whole catalog.”

The mastering for the new LPs was done by Kevin Gray at Cohearent Audio, in North Hills, California, and the discs were pressed at Kassem’s own Quality Record Pressing (QRP) facility, in Salina, Kansas. The new stereo mixes were created by engineer Mark Linett, at Your Place or Mine Recording, in Glendale, California. Linett, credited on these reissues as “Audio Consultant,” has been in charge of the Beach Boys’ tape archives for 30 years, and was the man behind the digital remastering in 1990 of the band’s entire Capitol catalog, released in the US on CD twofers. Linett is also responsible for the remixed, remastered version of Beach Boys’ Party!, which he calls “the Beach Boys unplugged.” The two-CD set released in November 2015 by UMG features the original album minus the overdubbed “party,” as well as 69 other tracks of music and dialog recorded at the same sessions. A vinyl edition of just the original album, remixed and remastered, was released in December 2015.

When I spoke with Linett, he said, “I literally got the job with Brian [in the beginning] because I booked Ocean Way studios one day for a client, and they mentioned that Brian had booked a last-minute session two days from now and they needed an engineer, and did I want to do it. Of course, the answer was yes.”

One of the keys to any Beach Boys reissue project is the fact that they have control of their tape library. “Back in the day,” Linett said, “if you were lucky they would save the final tape that the master was mixed from, but they would chuck all the intervening masters, dubdowns if there were any, and all the session stuff. Otherwise, they’d have literally needed a hundred city blocks to store everything. And then, of course, nobody ever thought that stuff would be valuable. We’re fortunate—we have close to 90% of everything they ever recorded, including the session outtakes. Without that stuff, we couldn’t have done the Pet Sounds box, for example, or any of these projects where we display the working process.”

Over the past decade, Linett has been bringing the Beach Boys’ entire archive of recordings into the digital realm. This has given him nearly instant access to any part of their extensive recording catalog. In 1995, he made the first stereo mix of Pet Sounds, to celebrate the 30th anniversary of that album’s release, in 1966, and later helmed the 5.1-channel surroundsound mix. In 2012, Linett built stereo mixes of Today!, Summer Days (and Summer Nights!!), and Smiley Smile for a series of CD reissues released that year in Japan, and a year later in the US. He created high-resolution (24-bit/88.2kHz) digital stereo master files for the new Analogue Productions LPs, which were then printed to 1⁄4" analog tape at 15ips CCIR. The new stereo master of Pet Sounds, produced by Linett under Brian Wilson’s supervision, is an assembled digital multitrack master mix in which the original four-track instrumental master is synced with the four- or eight-track vocal overdubs master. The stereo mix was mixed to 1⁄4" tape at 15ips with Dolby SR noise reduction. The new stereo mix for Beach Boys’ Party! was created in 2012 from the original three-track master tapes. The details of all of this are available on the Acoustic Sounds website, as are videos Kassem made about the process of reissuing the Beach Boys’ Capitol catalog.

“When Brian really took control of the albums, he allowed Capitol to do stereo mixes,” Linett continues. “He stopped allowing that with Today! It’s really more about how he started changing his recording techniques, and those mixes were generally dubbed down to three tracks, so you’d wind up with a mono band track and two tracks of vocals. They’re kind of odd mixes. Today! could have been done the same way, but there are a few songs here and there where overdubs were performed as it was being mixed, the most notable one being ‘Help Me, Ronda,’ ( which is on Today! as Ronda and on Summer Days in its single version as Rhonda) where there was a bunch of overdubbing going on as it was being mixed to mono.”

Linett says he can’t remember if he used true mono versions to build the stereo mixes on Today! or, instead, a process known as digital extraction from his 1990 remastering. “Those techniques are getting pretty scary, in terms of, if you massage them, what you can get out of it. If we did the digital extraction, it was because either we didn’t have the tapes, like on ‘Good Vibrations,’ or overdubs were done on the dubdown, like ‘Help Me, Rhonda.’ By the time you get to Summer Days it gets even more problematic, because now he was still cutting his tracks in three-track and then bouncing it down to mono, half of it over at CBS studios, which had the only eight-track machine in town. He locked the mono band track and then used the rest for vocals, so it became even more problematic, as far as a stereo mix. I guess the [label’s] solution was just no stereo mix, and Capitol would do a phonic [as in stereophonic], boxed stereo version.

“[To create a stereo mix now, ] the older ones generally require synchronization of multiple tapes—and again, the fact that we control our masters helps, because if the basic track was recorded spread out over three tracks and then bounced to mono on another machine, if you want to spread out the band track, you’ve got to sync that original three-track to the dub reel, so you wind up with five or six tracks that you can then actually mix in stereo. Over the years, we’ve done that with a variety of formats, most recently using hi-rez digital to transfer them. It takes a bit of time, because no two tape machines run the same. So you have to use the mono band track on the second machine, to get the speed close enough to the first tape that you can hear the two performances “phasing” for at least 30 or 40 seconds. Once you’ve got that, then you can do the transfer, and then move the pieces slightly to keep them in sync to get something to mix from. That’s the way [the stereo mixes] for Today! and Summer Days were constructed. Party! was just a straight stereo mix.”

While Linett is pleased with the results, he’s not really a fan of monkeying with an artist’s original intentions. Calls to Brian Wilson’s manager, to find out what Wilson thought of the new stereo mixes, went unreturned.

“Brian will tell you that one of the reasons people like he and Phil Spector didn’t like stereo is because it would keep the listener from hearing what the producer intended. In mono, you’re absolutely going to hear what he wanted. In stereo, where are the speakers? There’s one behind the couch. Are they out of phase? It interfered with the artistry.

“As a consumer, I have problems with a lot of remixes of older stuff that quite often get it wrong. I worked for Frank Zappa in the ’70s, and I always thought it was unfortunate that at some point in his life he decided to go back to the early Mothers albums and tried to replace the drums. What a waste and ultimately they all been replaced with better remasters of the originals.

“On the other hand, I’m one of those people who think the stereo of Sgt. Pepper’s is way better than the mono, and I think it is because the mono sounds to me like what it was: the one they got involved in and removed a lot of stuff and changed a lot of stuff. The stereo just seems like it flows better. Like all artists of that period, they didn’t pay attention to the stereo mixes. They did after that. I hadn’t listened to it in a long time, and I got the two boxed sets and listened to the mono. That’s all I had when I was a kid. I listened, and I went, ‘Oh God, why is that mixed down so you can’t hear it? What happened to that part?’ Part of it is familiarity. It tends to imprint what you’ve heard, so an omission or a change tends to stick out more. But I didn’t enjoy it as much. It’s funny.”

There must have been a bunch of glitches—differences between the Beach Boys’ session tapes and the mono masters— that couldn’t be reconciled?

“There are always little things that you can’t duplicate. Pet Sounds has two or three instances where there’s something on the mono record that isn’t on the multitrack, usually because it was recorded over. For some reason, Brian would decide to use part of an earlier mix. The most obvious example is Mike Love singing the bridge of ‘Wouldn’t It Be Nice.’ Brian resang the whole thing, and that’s what you hear if you bring up the multitrack now. But he apparently spliced in the bridge from an earlier vocal take that Mike did and used that in the mono mix. We’ve flown that in as best we can on the stereo.

“The other one is the vamp of ‘God Only Knows,’ which has a part missing. I wanna say it’s Brian singing it instead of Carl, something like that, that we couldn’t fix. And for the most part, people seem to have accepted that.

As David Sokol said, “Brian was writing these songs, and Brian was George Martin, too. You can make the argument that Brian was like John, Paul, George, and George, wrapped into one.”

More fruits of Brian Wilson’s labors are due soon from Analogue Productions: reissues of Smiley Smile (1967), Sunflower (1970), Surf’s Up (1971)—and Holland (1973), which will be turned into a double album with extra material. All are due before summer 2016.

So far, Kassem is well pleased with the results. “We searched and tried to get all the masters we could. On the monos, everything was true masters. The old-school tip-on jackets are beautiful. Two-hundred-gram vinyl: they are the highest quality. I think we did a great job. I think the albums look and sound better than ever.”

Back in Massachusetts, the 1792 Ridgemont Reserve bourbon was warming our ears and loosening our tongues. As we played “Kiss Me, Baby” again, this time from a mono 45rpm pressing, David turned the picture sleeve of that single, b/w “Help Me, Rhonda” over in his hands and pondered.

“The lyrics are so introspective for someone as young as he was at the time,” he said. “And the way that he plays the singers, himself and Mike Love, off of each other—it’s such a thing of beauty. It’s such genius that he could not only write for each member of the band as singers, but he also had these narratives in his songs that were just remarkable. It’s beautiful stuff. His songs were just so full of heart.”

[mikeddonn]

Great stuff!  Thank you for posting it Alan.  I was trying to find it last night after reading about it on the Hoffman Board.

[LeeDempsey]

Thanks for posting Alan!

So far, Kassem is well pleased with the results. “We searched and tried to get all the masters we could. On the monos, everything was true masters. The old-school tip-on jackets are beautiful. Two-hundred-gram vinyl: they are the highest quality. I think we did a great job. I think the albums look and sound better than ever.”

I think that passage is as interesting in what it doesn't say as what it does say -- Kassem doesn't even mention the early stereo album masters.  It's my understanding that's where the problematic tapes that i've mentioned in prior posts lie -- incorrectly leadered tapes, etc. that don't appear to be the true first-generation master.

Lee

[Custom Machine]

Thanks for posting the Stereophile article, Alan.

This quote makes me wonder if more albums might be added to the project at a later date:

According to Chad Kassem, founder and president of Acoustic Sounds, the parent company of Analogue Productions, his Beach Boys reissue project began when he was approached by EMI, which owned Capitol Records (both labels are now owned by Universal Music). “They came to me with an opportunity, and they asked me if I wanted to do this and would I do this,” Kassem told me in a recent interview. “They knew that I could do it right. They wanted it to be the definitive reissue series. They wanted me to be the one to do the whole catalog.”

[Alan Smith]

Here is the actual Stereophile review of Today & Summer Days:

EDITOR’S PICK

RECORDINGS OF THE MONTH

THE BEACH BOYS

Today!

Analogue Productions AAPP064 (LP). TT: 27:35

Summer Days

(And Summer Nights!!)

Analogue Productions AAPP065 (LP). TT: 27:44

Both: 1965/2016. Brian Wilson, orig. prod.; Chuck Britz, orig. eng.; Mark Linett, Alan Boyd, stereo mixes; Kevin Gray, mastering. ADA.

It’s a classic case of addition by subtraction. On December 23, 1964, on a flight from Houston to Los Angeles, Brian Wilson had a panic attack—or, perhaps, a full-fledged nervous breakdown. Two more such episodes followed in quick succession, and Brian realized that he could no longer tour with the Beach Boys. At first, Glen Campbell was brought in to replace him in the band’s touring edition, until Bruce Johnston permanently took his spot. In an interview conducted by Earl Leaf, quoted by Tom Nolan in the October 28, 1971, issue of Rolling Stone, Wilson had this to say about his decision:

“I told them I foresee a beautiful future for the Beach Boys group but the only way we could achieve it was if they did their job and I did mine. They would have to get a replacement for me . . . I didn’t say ‘they.’ I said ‘we’ because it isn’t they and me, it’s ‘us.’

“That night when I gave them the news of my decision, they all broke down. I’d already gone through my breakdown—and now it was their turn. When I told them, they were shook. Mike had a couple of tears in his eyes, he couldn’t take the reality that their big brother wasn’t ever going to be on the stage with them again. It was a blow to their sense of security, of course.”

The first product of that decision was Today!, a collection of songs that sound like the first steps toward Wilson’s eventual masterpiece, Pet Sounds. Just as the beginnings of the innovation and creativity that eventually coalesced into the Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band became audibly apparent in Rubber Soul and Revolver, Today! and Summer Days (and Summer Nights!!) are the obvious musical and intellectual predecessors of Pet Sounds.

On Today!, the first sign that things had changed was that not a single tune has anything to do with surfing or hot rods in the title. While the album opens with a take of “Do You Wanna Dance?” done in an obvious Phil Spector–ish wall-of-sound production style, the album’s first nod to a more complicated future is in the lyrics of “When I Grow Up”:

When I grow up to be a man

Will I dig the same things that turn me on as a kid?

Will I look back and say that I wish I hadn’t done what I did?

Will I joke around and still dig those sounds

When I grow up to be a man?

Side 2 of Today! concentrates on Brian’s musical development—as in “Please Let Me Wonder,” in which his trademark shifting vocal fusions interweave and braid with ever-increasing confidence and intricacy. This trend continues with Brian’s soaring lead vocal in “She Knows Me Too Well,” and the towering example of his original and ever-changing vocal alloys and layered production, “Kiss Me, Baby.”

While Summer Days initially feels like a step backward—thanks to filler tracks like “Amusement Parks U.S.A.,” “The Girl from New York City,” and “Salt Lake City”—Wilson’s continued growth, emotionally and as a songwriter, is apparent in such tunes as the near-folk of side 1’s “Girl Don’t Tell Me” (Carl Wilson’s first ever lead vocal on record) and all of side 2 that includes, the sophisticated pop of “California Girls,” and “Let Him Run Wild,” with Brian’s bravura falsetto vocal.

Fans of mono, begin your moaning now: The most astonishing change in Today! and Summer Days are the balanced, lush stereo mixes, available on vinyl for the first time in these reissues from Analogue Productions. Pressed by AP’s own Quality Record Pressing, the mixes are nothing short of a brilliant rejuvenation that all fans of this most American of 1960s pop bands will find entirely essential. They aren’t merely different, or even just better— they’re terrific. And this is one case in which bigger is indeed better. Every comparison to flowers fully blossoming applies: New colors and dimensions in the music abound. Wilson’s grand arrangements are hugely well served by these breakthrough stereo mixes. Constructed by Mark Linett in 2012 for a series of CDs released in Japan, the mixes were converted to high-resolution digital files for these reissues (see “Brian’s Song,” on p.54, for more information).

But Linett, who’s been the band’s tape archivist for more than 30 years, had his reservations about converting these classic mono mixes to true stereo. “It’s tricky. I don’t like the idea of changing history. The only thing that Brian or any of his contemporaries cared about was the mono mix that came out of the AM radio and was on a 45.”

That’s true. But, listening to the stereo mixes of Today! and Summer Days, it’s hard to deny the feeling that these new mixes are a more accurate portrayal, a fuller realization, of everything that Brian Wilson intended this breathtaking music to accomplish.

—Robert Baird

[Alan Smith]

So far, Kassem is well pleased with the results. “We searched and tried to get all the masters we could. On the monos, everything was true masters. The old-school tip-on jackets are beautiful. Two-hundred-gram vinyl: they are the highest quality. I think we did a great job. I think the albums look and sound better than ever.”

I think that passage is as interesting in what it doesn't say as what it does say -- Kassem doesn't even mention the early stereo album masters.  It's my understanding that's where the problematic tapes that i've mentioned in prior posts lie -- incorrectly leadered tapes, etc. that don't appear to be the true first-generation master.

Yeah, agree with what you are saying, Lee, interesting perspective.  I actually found this and a few other bits of the article confounding and a bit wtf - what's a bit sus for me is the original project brief was all about the stereo masters and the inclusion of the mono masters was a later decision (post some kind of discussion with members of the M&B band), as the LP liners would have it.

Perhaps, depending on how you read Kassem's quote, he's implicitly aknowledging they couldn't get complete masters of the stereo (as per the notorious problems with ASL master).  I'm putting words in his mouth, but that may what he was trying to say, by not saying it .

drbb has raised a couple of times the ASL duds sound "correct" on the 2000 twofers - it would be great to hear if these presentations were "new" digital mixes, or whether a now unavailable safety or something was used.

I also found it odd that Mark "Linett says he can’t remember if he used true mono versions to build the stereo mixes on Today! or, instead, a process known as digital extraction from his 1990 remastering."  Really?  (I'm not dissing Mark in anyway, just he's regularly pretty thorough with the tech info).

This quote makes me wonder if more albums might be added to the project at a later date:

According to Chad Kassem, founder and president of Acoustic Sounds, the parent company of Analogue Productions, his Beach Boys reissue project began when he was approached by EMI, which owned Capitol Records (both labels are now owned by Universal Music). “They came to me with an opportunity, and they asked me if I wanted to do this and would I do this,” Kassem told me in a recent interview. “They knew that I could do it right. They wanted it to be the definitive reissue series. They wanted me to be the one to do the whole catalog.”

CD, again, a bit confounding - I'm thinking no to future releases, and it's pure speculation by me - If it was intended for A/P to do the full catalogue, I think that got squashed post the UMe take-over, and they've decided to go in-house.  That aside, I still wondering why the sequence jump post Smiley to Sunflower & SUP.

[zosobird]

All the represses got me thinking, does Pet Sounds (instrumental) exist outside of the PS Box Set... like on VINYL??

[yrplace]

So far, Kassem is well pleased with the results. “We searched and tried to get all the masters we could. On the monos, everything was true masters. The old-school tip-on jackets are beautiful. Two-hundred-gram vinyl: they are the highest quality. I think we did a great job. I think the albums look and sound better than ever.”

I think that passage is as interesting in what it doesn't say as what it does say -- Kassem doesn't even mention the early stereo album masters.  It's my understanding that's where the problematic tapes that i've mentioned in prior posts lie -- incorrectly leadered tapes, etc. that don't appear to be the true first-generation master.

Yeah, agree with what you are saying, Lee, interesting perspective.  I actually found this and a few other bits of the article confounding and a bit wtf - what's a bit sus for me is the original project brief was all about the stereo masters and the inclusion of the mono masters was a later decision (post some kind of discussion with members of the M&B band), as the LP liners would have it.

Perhaps, depending on how you read Kassem's quote, he's implicitly aknowledging they couldn't get complete masters of the stereo (as per the notorious problems with ASL master).  I'm putting words in his mouth, but that may what he was trying to say, by not saying it .

drbb has raised a couple of times the ASL duds sound "correct" on the 2000 twofers - it would be great to hear if these presentations were "new" digital mixes, or whether a now unavailable safety or something was used.

I also found it odd that Mark "Linett says he can’t remember if he used true mono versions to build the stereo mixes on Today! or, instead, a process known as digital extraction from his 1990 remastering."  Really?  (I'm not dissing Mark in anyway, just he's regularly pretty thorough with the tech info).

This quote makes me wonder if more albums might be added to the project at a later date:

According to Chad Kassem, founder and president of Acoustic Sounds, the parent company of Analogue Productions, his Beach Boys reissue project began when he was approached by EMI, which owned Capitol Records (both labels are now owned by Universal Music). “They came to me with an opportunity, and they asked me if I wanted to do this and would I do this,” Kassem told me in a recent interview. “They knew that I could do it right. They wanted it to be the definitive reissue series. They wanted me to be the one to do the whole catalog.”

CD, again, a bit confounding - I'm thinking no to future releases, and it's pure speculation by me - If it was intended for A/P to do the full catalogue, I think that got squashed post the UMe take-over, and they've decided to go in-house.  That aside, I still wondering why the sequence jump post Smiley to Sunflower & SUP.

The quote about the stereo mixes in the article is incorrect. I think what the writer was trying to say was that I referred to the mono mixes when doing the stereo mixes but in the case of Rhonda on Summer Days and GV on Smiley Smile we had to use digital extraction mixes because either the tapes were missing (GV) or overdubs were done during the mix (Rhonda) making a mix from multi-track impossible. This proves why I always prefer to proofread articles for accuracy. Overall a nice one, however.

[drbeachboy]

Hi Mark,

Would you please shed some light on the mono mixes of Drive-In and Don't Back Down on the original and AP release of All Summer Long? Are there better sounding tapes that survive that could have been used? Your mono mix of Don't Back Down sounds great and I am wondering why they couldn't used what you had available. Thank you.

[Alan Smith]

The quote about the stereo mixes in the article is incorrect. I think what the writer was trying to say was that I referred to the mono mixes when doing the stereo mixes but in the case of Rhonda on Summer Days and GV on Smiley Smile we had to use digital extraction mixes because either the tapes were missing (GV) or overdubs were done during the mix (Rhonda) making a mix from multi-track impossible. This proves why I always prefer to proofread articles for accuracy. Overall a nice one, however.

Thanks for taking the time to clarify that, Mark, much appreciated.  Btw, in case you haven't seen, The Today & Pet Sounds stereo mix vinyl editions have people going rather gaga & the some over at Hoffman board - cheers - A

[mikeddonn]

Just received All Summer Long Stereo from Amazon UK.  It cost me £22.75 ordered in July 2015 (I never expected to get it and they cancelled a few others from AP).

The problem is I forgot I had pre-ordered it and bought it from Diverse Vinyl along with the others in the second batch!  Just as well I like to keep stuff sealed.  Now I have one open copy and one sealed!

[The Shift]

Just had a peep at the Analogue Sounds site and the next (final) set of these seems to have been put back until May & June

[Awesoman]

Just had a peep at the Analogue Sounds site and the next (final) set of these seems to have been put back until May & June

Pretty sure I ordered my Holland SACD precisely a year ago...

[buddhahat]

I haven't followed this thread unfortunately so maybe this is old news but just wanted to say:

My AP Stereo vinyl Pet Sounds arrived to day and I'm really surprised at how amazing it sounds. Every stereo version of this album I've listened to has sounded too bright and clinical but this is the first one that has real bass presence and is a pleasure to listen to. I'm not sure if I'm biased as I upgraded my system recently so everything is sounding better, but  listening today, Pet Sounds was the best I've ever heard it! I will have to give my CATP twofer version of the mono a spin tomorrow to compare.

I'm now considering picking up some of the other stereos (Today and Summer Nights) as PS sounds so good. What is the general consensus on these particular stereo pressings of those two albums?

Also, many thanks to Mikeddonn & John Manning who both recommended Diverse Vinyl after I had a bad experience ordering from Scott Nangle. I received the AP pressing of Pet Sounds within several days of ordering so that was a great tip!

[mikeddonn]

I haven't followed this thread unfortunately so maybe this is old news but just wanted to say:

My AP Stereo vinyl Pet Sounds arrived to day and I'm really surprised at how amazing it sounds. Every stereo version of this album I've listened to has sounded too bright and clinical but this is the first one that has real bass presence and is a pleasure to listen to. I'm not sure if I'm biased as I upgraded my system recently so everything is sounding better, but  listening today, Pet Sounds was the best I've ever heard it! I will have to give my CATP twofer version of the mono a spin tomorrow to compare.

I'm now considering picking up some of the other stereos (Today and Summer Nights) as PS sounds so good. What is the general consensus on these particular stereo pressings of those two albums?

Also, many thanks to Mikeddonn & John Manning who both recommended Diverse Vinyl after I had a bad experience ordering from Scott Nangle. I received the AP pressing of Pet Sounds within several days of ordering so that was a great tip!

No problem Buddhahat! 

A nice day to receive the Pet Sounds stereo.  I also recommend Today and Summer Days, in fact all the AP releases are excellent.  You won't regret it, especially in a few years when they're hard to come by.  I'm off for a listen to my Stereo Pet Sounds now to celebrate the big 50!

[buddhahat]

I haven't followed this thread unfortunately so maybe this is old news but just wanted to say:

My AP Stereo vinyl Pet Sounds arrived to day and I'm really surprised at how amazing it sounds. Every stereo version of this album I've listened to has sounded too bright and clinical but this is the first one that has real bass presence and is a pleasure to listen to. I'm not sure if I'm biased as I upgraded my system recently so everything is sounding better, but  listening today, Pet Sounds was the best I've ever heard it! I will have to give my CATP twofer version of the mono a spin tomorrow to compare.

I'm now considering picking up some of the other stereos (Today and Summer Nights) as PS sounds so good. What is the general consensus on these particular stereo pressings of those two albums?

Also, many thanks to Mikeddonn & John Manning who both recommended Diverse Vinyl after I had a bad experience ordering from Scott Nangle. I received the AP pressing of Pet Sounds within several days of ordering so that was a great tip!

No problem Buddhahat! 

A nice day to receive the Pet Sounds stereo.  I also recommend Today and Summer Days, in fact all the AP releases are excellent.  You won't regret it, especially in a few years when they're hard to come by.  I'm off for a listen to my Stereo Pet Sounds now to celebrate the big 50!

Ha! I hadn't realised that I received the LP on Pet Sounds' actual 50th birthday - maybe that's why it sounded so good! What a happy coincidence.

Best,

B

[buddhahat]

I have to bump this thread just to say again how incredible the Analogue Productions Pet Sounds (Stereo) vinyl sounds. It has warmth and bass that I have never heard on a stereo mix of this album.

I ordered the stereo LPs for Today and SDSN - can't wait for these - as well as Smiley but as far as I can see there's still no release date for that one.