The Beach Boys: LP versions vs. 45 "hit" versions question

The Little Girl i once knew?

 

Hi Mikey,

Nope ... that's on the Greatest Hits.

 

What's the difference if it's contemporary or original? All in the mix, and who does it ,the tapes have to be there if they managed to whip up a crude mix with instruments left, vocals right...although I would guess you didn't have this one to work with at the time you put together ENDLESS SUMMER and--given the imbalance of the instruments alone--would have been unsuitable, anyway.

Whatever...I don't have much luck discussing the Beach Boys, anyway...it's a frigged up catalog with goodies scattered all over the place and never in one place. By the time the entire WILD HONEY is properly mixed to stereo, I'll be locked away in some asylum, having never heard it. Or maybe I obsess too much, which is actually the truth

ED

 

You understood the question correctly, even though I should have been clearer ... I was talking about a 60's mix ... but I am always interested to know about "re-mixes" ... in fact, I used one for my CD-R ... only because there isn't a Hoffman mix of the song and I wanted it on my comp.

 

That's the problem. Mono and stereo, the Beach Boys catalog is a complete mess....still, after all these years. It needs an overhaul, it needs no NR and other nonsense, just some TLC and common sense. And since many of the non-stereo cuts to date have multi-tracks, it would be nice if somebody--anybody--finally got around to getting serious about it. It's small wonder the labels cry poormouth all the time: they have great music that simply needs to be properly mastered and presented(and marketed), yet time after time they can't get it right.

ED

 

Steve,

There was a time when I embraced all these "re-mixes". However, after joining this Forum, learning from you about vintage recordings and equipment and then learning to hear the differences, I have become to prefer the original mixes with their original Analog warmth, color and yes, even artifacts. My taping project has, in essence, taken me back to the years in which tracks were popular and re-awakened me to the original sound of vintage hits - the sound that made them sell as hits in the first place. Take those original hit mixes, master them well and they "nail it". The problem today is that we are in real jeopardy of losing these original hits by forces that want to make them sound so pristine that they, for me, lose their original charm. I do not begrudge anyone for liking the more contemporary re-mixes but, these mixes are not historically accurate.

The more I learn about vintage recordings, the more strongly I agree with your statement as quoted above.

Take me back to 1966, please!

Bob

 

I agree with every word, Bob. My post above is directed only at the non-stereo out there that hasn't been remixed yet, and some that has been remixed but not remixed *right*. That's the problem, really--when there are perfectly good mono and stereo mixes and well enough isn't left alone. The novelty of 5.1 is one thing, but the old mixes, for what they are, will mostly be unmatched(well, we'll see about the Dobie Gray ).
Remixes of older recordings with perfectly good stereo masters are fun for what they are but, point being, not the original article.

And yes, a WABAC machine to the mid-'60s would be nice!

ED

 

Hi Ed,

The *only* way to do this is to provide Steve with the original multi-track elements and then have him re-mix and re-master them on the circa vintage equipment in his mastering suite. My point, however, is this expense and sweat equity really necessary? Maybe? The original *hit* mixes are what made those tracks sell as new releases (the historical magic we all talk about).

Someday, I know I will be buying all kinds of vintage equipment....

Bob

 

The Troggs Tape was a cool bonus disc with the Troggs Archeology (1966-1976)
I laughed my ass off when I first heard it!

 

I remember that Troggs tape. It took them hours to get one song down or something. The drummer was having a bit of a problem. We all were laughing so hard while that was playing that I started to feel sorry for those guys. It is hard to record a hit I guess.

Fairy dust is indeed needed!

 

Ronnie Bond was the drummer! Ironically the song they were working on was called "Tranquility"!!!

I may have missed this somewhere in this thread that keeps getting woken up every other week, but are these remixes the ones on the "Greatest Hits Vol 1"? - or are these the original mixes?

 

Speaking of Good Vibrations...has anyone ever noticed an anomaly in the mix? The song begins with "I...I love the colorful clothes she wears/And the way the sunlight plays upon her hair"; When Carl sings "And the way...", it sounds like someone is turning the mono switch on the mixing board. That is, it was mono to begin with, and then sounds like a mono mix being made even more mono(if you understand what I mean). Steve, is this a logical explanation? Or maybe a mono tape played through a stereo board being put into mono.

 

Steve,

On one of the Beach Boys message boards, Brad Elliot talked about this "stereo" mix of ASL being a proposed bonus track on the Little Deuce Coupe/All Summer Long 2-fer rerelease in 2001. It never materialized.

Brian

 

Friends,

Rather than completing contemporary remixes, I would love to see the original mixes including all the "hit" single mixes remastered by Steve. Once completed, the original *fairy dust* of these mixes would have Beach Boys fans in sonic nirvana!

Bob

 

Yeah. As much as I like the Beach Boys sets Steve did, there are a bunch of early tracks that I rarely listen to on those; I usually end up pulling the mono versions on other discs. If Steve could remix a few of them, make them identical but with less compression, that would be really cool.

 

My money says that the "next big set of releases" from EMI on the BBs are Surround Sound Versions of the Lps. They already released high quality Redbooks of the two fers in 2001, so no need to do that again.

They *may* wait till Redbook DVD-A arrives, in an effort to please everybody. The "Pet Sounds" DVD-A will probably come out as scheduled, and get remastered with a redbook layer at some point later on.

In any case, I'm sure that the original 60s stereo LP mixes will be on the disks as well. Makes no sense not to include them, especially with a redbook layer.

 

The compression on the mono Beach Boys mixes are what makes them sound as good as they do. Even if they have overused the analog compression, they are still lifelike sounding to me.

 

Sorry, I should've clarified, I was referring to mono remixes, not stereo remixes. I was thinking about what you did for "All Summer Long."

You think you'd rather do stereo remixes? I just went with mono remixes because I wasn't sure what sort of choices you'd have to make new stereo mixes.

 

Any opinion on the uncut "Party" stereo issue on The Sea Of Tunes Cee Dee?