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Author Topic: Wanted: Audio editing tips & tools for a personal Beach Boys related project  (Read 2518 times)
bonnevillemariner
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« on: March 06, 2017, 08:31:24 PM »

As a younger and newer Beach Boys fan, there are very few Beach Boys related topics that I can claim to be an expert on. One of them is Saltair, the abandoned resort near Salt Lake City that the boys visited in 1968(?) with Bill Hesterman and photographer Cyril Maitland.  Here is the article I wrote about that visit:

https://bonnevillemariner.wordpress.com/2012/06/14/the-story-behind-those-beach-boys-photos-at-saltair/

(BTW, I welcome any corrections or new pieces of info on this event that you may be privy to-- I update it as needed.)

It was actually researching the old Saltair site that led me to rediscover the Beach Boys several years ago.  I'm currently working on a book about the resort's history.  You're probably aware that the resort's story is mostly a long, happy ride weaved with tragedy, and I'd like to put together a short audio montage that expresses that.

I'd like to do something a la Atticus Ross's "Black Hole" from Love & Mercy.  Not sure if I'll travel backward or forward in history, but on one end of the montage would be turn of the century ragtime. At the other end would be a Beach Boys track (probably "Salt Lake City"). I'll cut in subtle recordings of Great Salt Lake waves and various amusement park sounds, but the star here will be the music.

"Black Hole" is pretty much exactly what I'd like to emulate here.  Lonely, ethereal. A loving tribute but with darker tinges.  I've dabbled in audio editing before, but nothing halfway serious.  If you're the editing type, what software/tools would you recommend? What tips would you give me? What would make this project epic?
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Seagull Merlin
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« Reply #1 on: March 16, 2017, 10:17:12 PM »

A disclaimer to start, I'm an amateur through and through so everyone has their own ways of doing things.

For any of my editing I've used adobe audition not a bad program but it's pricey unless you can *Ahem* find a way to get it, A big thing in editing and trying to match quality of the tracks as best you can so that it's not too jarring for transitions. Do you have any specific questions because you can DM me and I can try my best to help you out-if you still need it that is. Adobe has a good multitrack view that makes it easy to work on collages such as the idea you have and it'll give you all the tools you need to be able to do it, it just takes time and practice to figure it out (granted I found that to be the most fun part of my early editing!)
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bonnevillemariner
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« Reply #2 on: March 18, 2017, 06:44:35 AM »

Thanks, Seagull! I'll PM you some specific questions. I'm primarily a video producer, but audio is new territory for me.

Since I first posted this request, I've been asked to write, film and produce a short documentary on Saltair by the owners of the current Saltair venue (Saltair III). I'd love to open this film with this audio piece. I'll start with the earliest concert recordings I can find, then end with parts of "Salt Lake City". The final seconds will be the words "Salt Lake City..." from the song, and this is one of the areas I might need help with. I want to pause on the last syllable of "City" and fade out in sort of a ghostly way.

The audio piece will run maybe 45 seconds. The purpose of the piece will be to tell a nutshell story of Saltair's history, ending with the Beach Boys 1968 visit. The resort closed after the 1958 season and sat stagnant and abandoned until it was consumed by fire in 1971.

Yes, I know the Beach Boys never performed at Saltair. In fact, they will be the only act included in the audio piece that didn't.  But it's important to point out that were it not for a perfect storm of sorts, the Beach Boys would have come up playing at Saltair, not Lagoon.  The two venues, which incidentally were both designed by the same architect, had been competing for decades. Lagoon actually started as "Lake Park" on the eastern shores of the Great Salt Lake, but smartly moved inland as the lake receded, while focusing on amusement + concerts rather than swimming + concerts.  Saltair stayed put when the lake receded, a water park without water, isolated on the southern shore.

Moving Lake Park to the Wasatch foothills meant no more sand or corrosive environment-- something that had plagued Saltair from day one. It didn't help Saltair that Utah's population exploded along the Wasatch Front, while the GSL's southern shore is still completely uninhabited. Why ride a train 30 miles to a defunct water park when you can walk to Lagoon? Saltair might have forged on, in spite of the forces against it, had a microburst wind not blown over the Giant Racer roller coaster, an icon of the resort. The writing was on the wall, and by fiat Lagoon became Utah's venue of note.

In hindsight, Bill Hesterman's suggestion that Mike and the boys visit the Saltair site on the day of their Lagoon concert was quite profound.  According to Bill's son, the band was quite aware of Saltair's past prominence and the trip was reverential in that regard. If not for that perfect storm, the Beach Boys would have been a staple at Saltair, and nobody would have ever heard of "the Lagoon."

Wow, that's quite an aside!

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rab2591
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« Reply #3 on: March 18, 2017, 11:27:16 AM »

It involves having to have a Mac, but I use Logic Pro X.

http://www.apple.com/logic-pro/

I made a fan mix album called 'The Beach Boys LOVE' (it was greatly inspired by the recent Beatles album of the same name - but what really kickstarted it was trying to emulate the Atticus Ross soundtrack).

The tools, even the most basic, in Logic Pro X are a dream. You can seriously transform any individual track hundreds of thousands of ways...each effect can be manipulated in any way possible (and though there is a learning curve, it really is easy to toggle these effects as intricately as you want). As an example, the heroes and villains track on my LOVE mix compiled so many elements, effects, transitions, and is put together in a mostly cohesive form.

I used synth MIDI instruments (hundreds of high quality MIDI instruments come with the program) to emulate the Black Hole track from the L&M soundtrack.

Upon searching for my thread on this mix (to show you an example of the editing possibilities) I see you already heard it so I won't bother linking it. But anywho, if you have the funds and plan to do editing work in the future, I highly highly recommend getting a Mac setup with Logic Pro X. I'm running the latest version of Logic on a 7 year old Mac with only 4 gigs of RAM and runs smooth as hell.
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Bill Tobelman's SMiLE site

God must’ve smiled the day Brian Wilson was born!

"ragegasm" - /rāj • ga-zəm/ : a logical mental response produced when your favorite band becomes remotely associated with the bro-country genre.

Ever want to hear some Beach Boys songs mashed up together like The Beatles' 'LOVE' album? Check out my mix!
Sam_BFC
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« Reply #4 on: April 02, 2017, 06:02:54 AM »

rab is there a link anywhere to your 'The Beach Boys LOVE'?

What do you mean about using synths to emulate BlackHole? Isn't that particular track made up of just a collage of samples from BBs session material?

It would be fun to get a separate topic going for the L&M soundtrack, in particular identifying the original session source where BBs samples have been used and how they've been transformed.
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rab2591
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« Reply #5 on: April 03, 2017, 05:27:24 AM »

http://smileysmile.net/board/index.php/topic,23016.0.html

You had actually commented on it so I think you've heard it before. Totally agree about your comments regarding the Wonderful/IJWMFTTs mashup - I had shown some people that mashup prior to releasing and they said the same thing, but I was just floored that most of it fit (considering how crazy the chord progression and melodies are for each song)....so I kept it in.

As for Black Hole - in the beginning of Black Hole there is are little sound effects that could've been created by synths (they sound like a high pitched radio dial) (more likely Ross used some kind of analog sound and just used effects to render the sound he wanted rather than synths). The program I mentioned above has limitless options when it comes to synths, and I was kinda able to reproduce a vaguely similar effect to what Ross got throughout his soundtrack (especially in my Murry Wilson intro to 'Don't Worry Hushabye').

I totally agree about a Love and Mercy soundtrack thread. I hated that the Heroes and Villains pool mashup wasn't included in the released soundtrack. I ripped it from the blu-ray and placed it in my own digital copy of the soundtrack. It just seems missing without it.
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Bill Tobelman's SMiLE site

God must’ve smiled the day Brian Wilson was born!

"ragegasm" - /rāj • ga-zəm/ : a logical mental response produced when your favorite band becomes remotely associated with the bro-country genre.

Ever want to hear some Beach Boys songs mashed up together like The Beatles' 'LOVE' album? Check out my mix!
branaa09
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« Reply #6 on: April 04, 2017, 10:05:33 AM »

So I see Rab's LOVE Mix is coming back into the fold, well here's my remix of it. I removed some stuff and added my own mixes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pcsPPBR11zY&t=57s

Here's Rab's original from Vimeo.

https://vimeo.com/145226253
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adamghost
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« Reply #7 on: April 08, 2017, 12:35:15 PM »

As a younger and newer Beach Boys fan, there are very few Beach Boys related topics that I can claim to be an expert on. One of them is Saltair, the abandoned resort near Salt Lake City that the boys visited in 1968(?) with Bill Hesterman and photographer Cyril Maitland.  Here is the article I wrote about that visit:

https://bonnevillemariner.wordpress.com/2012/06/14/the-story-behind-those-beach-boys-photos-at-saltair/

(BTW, I welcome any corrections or new pieces of info on this event that you may be privy to-- I update it as needed.)

It was actually researching the old Saltair site that led me to rediscover the Beach Boys several years ago.  I'm currently working on a book about the resort's history.  You're probably aware that the resort's story is mostly a long, happy ride weaved with tragedy, and I'd like to put together a short audio montage that expresses that.

I'd like to do something a la Atticus Ross's "Black Hole" from Love & Mercy.  Not sure if I'll travel backward or forward in history, but on one end of the montage would be turn of the century ragtime. At the other end would be a Beach Boys track (probably "Salt Lake City"). I'll cut in subtle recordings of Great Salt Lake waves and various amusement park sounds, but the star here will be the music.

"Black Hole" is pretty much exactly what I'd like to emulate here.  Lonely, ethereal. A loving tribute but with darker tinges.  I've dabbled in audio editing before, but nothing halfway serious.  If you're the editing type, what software/tools would you recommend? What tips would you give me? What would make this project epic?

If you want to get really inside, end it with a zombie chase and something from Jan & Dean's CARNIVAL OF SOUND...
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bonnevillemariner
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« Reply #8 on: April 10, 2017, 11:35:57 AM »

If you want to get really inside, end it with a zombie chase and something from Jan & Dean's CARNIVAL OF SOUND...

That would probably be appropriate! Carnival of Souls will definitely be represented-- if only in tone.  A lot of people base their perceptions of Saltair based on that movie, but what's interesting is that the film itself was inspired by the creepy feel of the place.

Not sure about the Carnival of Sound reference, though. Is there something on that record (aside from the title) that evokes Saltair?
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