My song-based, mono, 'basic' Smile mix [a culmination of 10+ years of Audacity]

[Paul2010]

Dear all,

Long time since I've seen Smile mixes appear on this board. (So if this thread is not at the right place, please let me know..)

Long story short, like many of you I'm collecting and mixing Smile ever since I first heard the music (in my case: Purple Chick's Smile!). Immediately I knew this was music that touched me emotionally, triggered me musically, fascinated me historically and that that would never change. The fact that everyone could have a go at the album and even the songs itself made me feel even more involved.

I've been going through all sort of phases with my mixing and compilation 'intentions', but musical integrity and historical accuracy have always been very up-front. I've now compiled an album which, in my opinion, flows, has momentum, and stays quite true to the original concept of a song-based collection of tracks.

The songs themselves follow my philosophy: stripped down of modern ideas where possible (fly-ins, cross-fades etc), enhanced and 're-thought' (within the most strict borders!) were needed.

1. Prayer (GV Box Set)
2. Do You Like Worms (GV Box Set - TSS)
3. Cabin Essence (20/20 - TSS)
4. I Love to Say Da-da (GV Box Set)
5. Child is Father of the Man (Archaeology - Mark Linett 1988 Smile - TSS)
6. Wind Chimes (GV Box Set - TSS)
7. Heroes and Villains (GV Box Set - TSS)
8. Good Vibrations (GV Box Set)
9. Mrs. O'Leary's Cow (TSS - UM 17)
10. I Wanna Be Around-Friday Night (TSS)
11. Vega-Tables (TSS - GV Box Set - Smiley Smile)
12. Wonderful (TSS)
13. The Old Master Painter (TSS)
14. Surf's Up (Surf's Up - TSS - vocals only extraction - TSS mono mix)

I've got a lot to say about all of the mixes, but for now I'd like to let the music speak for itself. I hope some of you give it a go, and if so, let me know what you think about it!

I've made a WeTransfer link to start with. If anyone knows a better way of sharing (which expires not quite as fast), please hint me in the right direction!

>>>>> https://we.tl/t-l9s8VUwaux <<<<<

All the best

[The Nearest Faraway Place]

I disagree with the song order. Here is my order, with Our Prayer hidden as originally intended by Brian:
1. Heroes and Villains
2. Do You Like Worms? (Roll Plymouth Rock)
3. My Only Sunshine (The Old Master Painter / You Are My Sunshine)
4. Cabin Essence
5. Cool Cool Water
6: Good Vibrations
7: Vega-Tables
8: Wind Chimes
9. You're With Me Tonight
10. Wonderful
11. Child Is Father of the Man
12: Surf's Up

[Paul2010]

Well, I´ve been tinkering with the song order forever and one point I actually forgot to add was that I find that these songs (in these basic forms, all mono etc) actually seem to work in lots of different orders...so the Smile mix I posted here is not so much about the tracklist as it is about the specific mixes itself.

Edit (addition): for a bit of fun this morning I tried out a tracklist that opened with You're Welcome into HAV, and closed with Prayer > Surf's Up...

[Cabinessenceking]

I disagree with the song order. Here is my order, with Our Prayer hidden as originally intended by Brian:
1. Heroes and Villains
2. Do You Like Worms? (Roll Plymouth Rock)
3. My Only Sunshine (The Old Master Painter / You Are My Sunshine)
4. Cabin Essence
5. Cool Cool Water
6: Good Vibrations
7: Vega-Tables
8: Wind Chimes
9. You're With Me Tonight
10. Wonderful
11. Child Is Father of the Man
12: Surf's Up

I also figure this was a better running order than on BWPS.

[JCarson]

Many thanks, Paul2010. Will listen with interest. Been a while since I heard a new Smile mix.

[Paul2010]

Many thanks, Paul2010. Will listen with interest. Been a while since I heard a new Smile mix.

You're welcome, curious to hear what you think of it. I updated the download link today: https://we.tl/t-l9s8VUwaux

As a little appetizer (I hope) here's some more detailed explanations of my ideas/sources for each track. It may make it seem like a very chaotic 'kitchen-sink' Smile mix...but it is exactly the opposite: all the work I did was necessary to make this compilation as straight-forward and flowing as it turned out (in my opinion).

Prayer (mono mix, GV Box)
- nothing altered
Do You Like Worms (GV Box/Bicycle Rider from TSS)
- interesting to note that the GV Box mono mix has the original two different 'Rock, roll, Plymouth rock' choruses, TSS uses the same one twice!)
Cabin Essence (20/20 / Grand Coolie from TSS)
- compiled from either left or right channel of the 20/20 stereo mix. I compared heavily to the 2011 mono mix, and it seems like they did exactly the same.
I Love to Say Da-Da (GV Box)
- nothing altered in any way again. Version without fly-ins.
Child Is Father of The Man (Archaeology, Mark Linett 1988 Smile, TSS)
- I always loved the chorus so much and the 2011 mono mix didn't have it for me The combination of the acetate and multitrack vocals buried a lot of the arrangements (and where they ever meant to go together in the first place?). So I made a 3-minute edit using 3 different choruses, two from sources already available before TSS (although restored and EQ'd by me). Verse taken from the sessions (to avoid crossfade) and EQ'd as well.
Wind Chimes (GV Box, fade-out from TSS sessions)
- this track only really needed some EQ. Sounds lovely open and natural on the GV Box source.
Heroes and Villains (Smiley Smile/chorus and Cantina from TSS)
- of course we have two vintage mixes for this one, but the BWPS combination of them makes for a very complete feeling. To stay a bit more true to possible original intentions I ended on a chorus fade-out, instead of the BWPS style ending. This one can be easily replaced by whatever version one might prefer of course.
Good Vibrations (GV Box)
- 1966 mix
Mrs. O'Leary's Cow (TSS/UM 17)
- so this is one of the tracks where a 'modern' idea (HAV intro at the start) works too good not to use it. The HAV intro just sounds so right combined with Fire. Fire taken from a source without the fly-ins.
I Wanna Be Around-Friday Night (TSS)
- this is one track I cannot leave from my Smile albums. Strange combination of sections, but it works, gives you a moment to contemplate about everything that's happening during this crazy (in a good way) album.
Vega-Tables (TSS/Smiley Smile/GV Box/UM 17 [a tiny bit])
- the structure of TSS is very well thought through and could hardly be bettered. One of the highlights of the 2011 release for me. I lifted the lovely a capella section from Smiley Smile to overcome a cross-fade. The first Sleep a lot (fast version) didn't sound quite right to me, tempo-wise, so I replaced it with the rough piano version from the GV Box Set. (I took this idea from the person who made the incredible 'Alternate Smile Box' not too long ago...)
Wonderful (TSS)
- version from the new box. Still not quite sure if I prefer the version without the yodeling or not..small difference though. I faded out the at the last moment, which seems to me as a very natural ending of the song (instead of the lonely bass notes)
The Old Master Painter (TSS)
- too good to exclude, and a great last 'link track' before the grand finale. Note that I re-edited the intro. The 2011 box used the acetate for the main part of the track (obviously) but chose to use a different take from the sessions as the intro (probably for sound quality reasons...but I didn't quite agree). Then they crossfaded into the vocal (the acetate), but a completely different moment (much too late) than on the finished version! On the session tapes you even hear Brian Wilson pay lots of attention to this timing... So I made the intro crossfade into the 'real' mix at exactly the same as the complete acetate does. Sounds way less jarring.
Surf's Up (Surf's Up/vocals only/sessions/TSS)
- I never liked the idea of flying in Brians vocal, and especially when the timing is not completely right. So I made a new mono mix from the 1971 version, using the left channel for the most part which luckily does only contain a small part of the organ overdub which is now balanced much better. To enhance Carls vocal and the vocal overdubs I used the vocals only 5.1 extraction that floats around. To enhance some instruments (muted guitar and horns in the second verse) I used extractions I made myself from the session tapes. When Brian starts on piano for part 2, I simply use the 2011 mono mix.