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Thanks for sharing this.

Alright !!! I was going to get a reissue of Pet Sounds, but now I will wait when these come out...

Thanks for posting them. I'm in for the mono reissues!

Another great update for all of us. Thank you for being strong for us and showing us the way on many fronts.

I keep telling myself I have enough records. I'm excited for Pet Sounds, I bought the Capital reissue and it sounded absolutely horrid. These are fascinating videos. Thanks for sharing.

I wonder which tape was used for pet sounds, and also how it will compare to the DCC LP. Is it confirmed that all chosen stereo and mono titles will be all analog? Because I'd be very interested. The mastering on old capitol vinyl took a major drop off in quality right around the time that rainbow label came into effect - blech. Definitely souped up for the typical gear of the day.

Last week I was intending to order the latest reissue of Pet Sounds. Luckily I discovered this news on one of the online retailers websites. Analogue Productions has the release date as May 1. I wish I didn't have to wait that long, but I'm sure it will be worth it.

Pre-ordered with joy in my heart. Congratulations, Mr. Fremer — as with the Beatles LPs, you deserve at least a little credit for creating the world in which this can happen and be valued and embraced.

Heres hoping this Beach Boys reissues are great. Like the counterparts to the Beatles Mono boxset of this year.
Really cant wait to finally hear this in mono, the way Brian Wilson and the Boys intended them to be heard

I started collecting The Beach Boys music back in 1968, and, excepting "Best of" collections, I have all of the 1962-72 Beach Boys albums(excepting "Surfin' U.S.A.") on original vinyl releases, and of course, I own numerous CD incarnations of these albums(1990 & 2001 editions of the Two-fers), plus rarities compilations("Rarities", "Summer Love Songs", "Hawthorne,Ca","The Warmth of The Sun","Ultimate Christmas" & both editions of "Endless Harmony Soundtrack"), plus boxed sets ("Pet Sounds Sessions", "The Smile Sessions", "Made in California" & the 5-CD & 6-CD editions of "Good Vibrations:30 Years of The Beach Boys") plus a complete collection of "Sea of Tunes" bootlegs, Vigotone bootlegs & a near complete set of "Dumb Angel" label bootlegs...so Obviously I'm a hard core expert Beach Boys collector.

As we go further into the Analogue Productions Beach Boys SACD & vinyl series, it will be interesting to see what Analogue Productions' interpretations of the terms "Original Master" & "Stereo" will be. The choice of tapes for the first 5 albums will be mostly straightforward, but with a few exceptions. For hit singles included on the mono editions of those albums, are the album masters actually copy tapes for those songs? Will "Surfin'" be sped up(as on all pre-CD era editions of the "Surfin' Safari" album) or will it be at the correct speed, as it is in the CD era? (Capitol's reason for speeding up the song in the 1960's was to pretend that their release was a different version than the original independent "Candix" label single). Personally, I prefer the song at its correct speed. As for "Surfin' Safari" & "409" on Capitol albums, they are 2 generations away from the apparently no longer existing original mono master(a tape source for both songs that is one generation away from the original master debuted of "Good Vibrations:30 Years of the Beach Boys", and this tape, the one that Murry Wilson brought to Capitol, has the songs with their unfaded endings).

As we get into 1965-1966 albums such as "Beach Boys Today", "Summer Days..and Summer Nights", & "Beach Boys Party", and 1967's "Smiley Smile", we come to the question of what "Analogue Productions" considers to be the original stereo masters: The echoey fake stereo "Duophonic" versions that Capitol released in the 1960's or the true stereo versions released a few years ago(where the original masters are 88.2Khz/24-bit files, and there are no analogue masters. I would opt for the true stereo versions. "Duophonic" is an abomination.

While the Analogue Productons SACD of "Pet Sounds" will include mono, stereo & surround mixes of the album, it is unfortunate that Analogue Productions is unaware that there is a surround sound mix of the "Surf's Up" album, but it was shelved when Capitol abandoned the DVD-Audio format.(two songs from that mix appeared, in lossy Dolby Digital form, in an audio-only bonus section of the "Endless Harmony" DVD).

Also, while the group's debut album "Surfin' Safari" was only ever offered in mono or Duophonic, that 9 of the 12 songs(the songs recorded on 3-track at Capitol) could be presented in stereo, and four of these songs "Cuckoo Clock", "Summertime Blues", "County Fair" & "Heads You Win, Tails I Lose") have appeared in true stereo on bootlegs.(These were one-pass-of-the-tape mixes made clandestinely by people involved the the "The Beach Boys:An American Band" video program). As for "Surfin"(recorded at World Pacific Studios), Steve Hoffman has stated that it was a strictly one-track mono recording. The same would appear to be true for the group's first session at United Western Studios(the tape that included "409", the second version of "Surfin' Safari", plus "Their Hearts Were Full of Spring" & the original undubbed version of "The Lonely Sea"). For its appearance of the group's second album "Surfin' U.S.A., "The Lonely Sea" was transferred to 3-track, and subject to additional overdubs, hence the song with its later overdubs DOES exist in a stereo mix. United Western Studios had 1-track & 3-track facilities, but it would seem that the first time that a Beach Boys session at United Western used the 3-track, was the sessions for the second album "Surfin' U.S.A.")

And one more thing I'd like to note: "The Surfer Moon"(on the group's 3rd album "Surfer Girl") has always been released (by Capitol) in what is essentially fake stereo, though bootleggers have released it in true stereo. In Capitol's mix, the several tracks of Brian Wilson's multi tracked vocals appear in the center in mono, while the backing track is spread across the stereo picture in fake stereo.

Another relevant question is why Capitol won't license the albums "Wild Honey","Friends" & "20/20" to "Analogue Productions"

Especially the one with Kevin Gray.

Thanks to Chad Kassem for getting the Beach Boys catalogue done right..down to the last detail.

Although it's hard to tell on the video, the photo resoration looks a little too washed out and lacking in color saturation...

Also, for those of us who aren't absolute die-hard fans, but really enjoyed the 'hits', I was wondering if there will be a 2+ LP compilation of the hits from the original masters done the same way? I'd buy that..both mono and stereo.

!!

...and would love to see a documentary for every project. This is why the tangible, physical product has much more value than downloads ever will.

Don't you folks have ANYTHING better in which to invest your money?

It's not surprising, considering Analogue Productions' history of endless postponements that go on for years (for example the situation of the Roger Waters "Amused to Death" surround sound SACD which never gets released no matter how many times Analogue Productions hypes it or plays the new remix for journalists), that the five Beach Boys mono vinyl releases (originally scheduled for this month) have been postponed until some unspecified point in 2015.

As one person posting on Steve Hoffman's forums asked "Why do I feel like Charlie Brown?".

Analogue Productions should cease announcing any releases, unless they have the monetary resources and honest intent to bring these L.P.'s or SACD's to the market. Spare us from further B.S., Chad.

Maybe Capitol & Universal should do the more obvious thing: offer 192Khz or 96Khz downloads of the entire Beach Boys catalog through HD Tracks or other high resolution sellers.

I was considering buying some of the Analogue Productions Beach Boys SACD's, and at least two of the vinyl releases, but now Chad & company have made the decision for me. There are other worthwhile CD's, SACD's & L.P.'s on the market, and I'll have no problem finding other ways to spend my disposable income.

This Beach Boys series looks like vaporware, just like the Roger Waters SACD. Analogue Productions' credibility has gone into the garbage can. Good riddance to them.

1. I cant see the vimeo videos, what the password?

2. anyone know which gloves use the girl in the video: http://youtu.be/3FIyYBRTTj0?t=2m43s I need gloves to manipulate my records, Im sick of get fingerprints on the artworks and labels! my oil fingers! are black latex gloves? or cloth?

3. why if the original artwork is NOT totally white (even the video)... why AP makes totally white artwork? in Surfin Girl.

Though I had watched all but one of the video clips, it is dismaying to report that 3 of the 5 video clips have been taken down, likely by Analog Productions themselves.

Anyhow, I've got several releases of each of these Beach Boys albums. Maybe it would be better to buy some music that I've never heard or owned before. As far as Beach Boys music is concerned, we are scraping the bottom of the barrel on 1960's archival material(as the recent copyright extension download collection "Keep an Eye on Summer" so clearly shows), and, as for ways to repackage already released recordings, few bands have been repackaged as much as The Beach Boys (with the possible exception of "The Doors"!)

Check out the Beach Boys forum www.smileysmile.net, where late 1960's and early 1970's Beach Boys engineer Stephen Desper has denounced the new vinyl series. His viewpoint is that the only authentic way to hear The Beach Boys 1960's & 1970's albums is via original vinyl releases, whose laquer cuts were overseen and approved by Beach Boys guitarist Carl Wilson.

After turning off my computer and home entertainment equipment for a while, and taking a break, I decided to play one of my old original 1960's Beach Boys vinyl L.P.'s("Wild Honey"). It's the actual L.P. that I bought in January 1968 at a local department store for $3.57 (As I recall, I also bought The Rolling Stones' "Their Satanic Majesties Request" L.P. on the same visit for $3.99). Back then, I took the Beach Boys record home and lowered the needle down on my turntable(at a time when most kids had a "phonograph"), and enjoyed a half hour of simple, pleasurable entertainment. My playback equipment at the time was a Garrard turntable, played(via special phono preamp cables which had small boosting boxes built in to them) into the microphone inputs of a Sony stereo reel to reel tape recorder, which had built-in speakers and (what would today be called) 10 watt per channel amplification. It was an impressive system for an 11 year old kid.
So, I played this vintage Beach Boys vinyl record on my present day 1275 watt home theater, albeit at low volume. True, the pressing was far from an audiophile thing. There was a almost no low frequency content(to accommodate the limitations of phonographs of the time), and Capitol's pressings were mediocre, with lots of visible(but not necessarily audible) imperfections that you wouldn't see on more recent vinyl. And Capitol(afraid of alienating stereo music consumers) put the word "stereo" onto the album cover and label of a purely mono (not even simulated stereo) L.P.

But the essence (The Beach Boys music) was still there. And there was a sense of simple, hassle-free fun that is sorely missing in 21st century marketing of music, and the often stressful experiences that we consumers now go through to obtain these "products". There was a better balance between the art of music and the business of music back then.

The loss of a sense of fun in the marketing and obtaining of music will be as much to blame for the demise of the music industry as any "piracy". This whole music consuming hobby has become a deadly serious thing.

My order history from AS indicates that my Beach Boy albums have shipped.

Somebody must be wrong.

Well, I'll just wait and see what happens. When and if these L.P. & SACD "products" are released, the earliest consumers will post their reports on sound quality and which mixes & tape sources are being used, and then the rest of us can make an informed decision whether it is worth buying these albums for the 3rd, 4th or 5th time.

As for the things that people posted on Steve Hoffman's forum(a forum of which I am not a member), my reports on what I read there are accurate. Whether the members of that forum are being truthful, that I don't know.

If the dealer has shipped out the 5 mono L.P.'s to anyone, we'll know soon. Consumers will post their reports about sound quality and manufacturing quality. I'll come back to this website in a few weeks, and hope for the best. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

I ordered my BB's albums earlier this week. If mine have shipped as indicated, I would expect just about everybody else will have their order filled as well.
But in the scheme of things isn't this much ado about nothing of life or death importance?
When they show up, they show up. Listen to something else in the meantime.

I fail to understand how suppressing the promotional videos could benefit either the owner of the recordings(Universal Music/Capitol Records) or the song publisher ("Irving Music" for almost all of the 1960's Brian Wilson ,Wilson/Love, Wilson/Usher, Wilson/Christian, Wilson/Asher or Wilson/Parks songs), because if the promotional videos get more people to buy these products, then the more money will come in for Universal, Capitol & Irving.

Like many, I feel increasingly little sympathy for greedy music corporations.

Mr. Fremer, do you by chance have any suspicion when the Hybrid-SACD's may begin to be released?

Thanks in advance

Obviously, I have no idea what Mr.Fremer's response to your question will be, but elsewhere on the internet it has been suggested that the SACD's will appear after the vinyl releases, perhaps months or seasons later. I'm aware that there are not many pressing plants that can manufacture a hybrid SACD, so that may be an issue.

The five "non-existent" LPs have arrived and they look great.

http://vimeopro.com/brandxmedia/custom

While I'm aware that this comment is somewhat irrelevant on a vinyl-related forum, it still concerns the Analog Productions Beach Boys series. If securing pressing plant time at the one pressing plant that is still equipped to press hybrid SACD's is so difficult (It is the reason why Audio Fidelity had to postpone their SACD reissues of the Quadrophonic mixes of "The Best of The Guess Who" and Blood,Sweat & Tears' self-titled second album), then perhaps Analog Productions should consider an alternative digital format for their Beach Boys reissues. DVD-Audio & Blu-Ray audio can supply lossless, high resolution surround sound PCM that will sound as good as an SACD. And there are many pressing plants that can manufacture the discs. Yes, I'm equipped for SACD, DVD-Audio & Blu-Ray Audio, but choosing an alternative format for The Beach Boys Hi-Rez digital releases is simply common sense. Why struggle to obtain scarce hybrid SACD pressing plant time, when many more consumers are equipped for DVD-Audio & Blu-Ray Audio (versus SACD) ?

I'm taking a wait and see approach. I'm not especially interested in the mono vinyl releases, but I'd like to buy some of the stereo vinyl releases and most of the SACD's. I'm going to wait until the middle of the year and see how many of the planned stereo vinyl titles have been released, and if any of the SACD's have been released.

As you know, many of these same Beach Boys albums were recently reissued (By Capitol/Universal) in Japan in the Platinum SHM-CD & SHM-SACD formats. I was able to "obtain" 4 of the Platinum SHM-CD releases("Shut Down Vol.2", "All Summer Long", "Beach Boys Today" & "Summer Days..and Summer Nights"). These are flat transfers using only original 1960's mixes. In instances where an album had both a mono & true stereo mix, Universal Japan gives you the stereo mix, and where the only 1960's "stereo" version was "Duophonic"(fake stereo), Universal Japan gives you the mono version. Therefore, "Beach Boys Today" & "Summer Days...and Summer Nights!" are in mono(Note:entirely, or almost entirely true stereo versions weren't mixed & released until 2012)
While "Shut Down Vol.2" & "All Summer Long" are presented via the 1960's "stereo" masters, be cautioned that in cases where the so-called "stereo" album masters presented an occasional song in mono("Why Do Fools Fall in Love" & "Denny's Drums") or "Duophonic"("I Get Around" & "All Summer Long") that's what you get in these Japanese discs. "Why Do Fools Fall in Love" & "All Summer Long" would receive true stereo mixes in the 21st Century, after misplaced multitrack tapes were discovered and/or bought from private collectors. A true stereo mix of "I Get Around"(musically identical to the original mono) is not possible, because the organ & the guitar solo were live-during-mono-mixdown overdubs. They are not present on the original 3-track tape. As for "Denny's Drums", Capitol recently obtained the multitrack, but there's seemingly no urgency to give this filler track(a drum solo) a stereo mix.
These pricey Japanese discs provide only 26 to 28 minutes of music each, not exactly a good value. As for the "Flat"(no) equalization, it is a mixed blessing on the two 1964 stereo album. It was Brian Wilson & engineer Chuck Britz's decision to mix the instruments down very low, and if you are accustomed to Mark Linett's heavily E.Q.'d versions on American CD's, when you hear these discs, the instruments will seem to be recessed, further down than you are accustomed to.
I have to wonder whether Analog Productions stereo vinyl(and the stereo half of the mono + stereo SACD's) will present the stereo masters "as is"(with the occasional mono or fake stereo track) or whether later true stereo mixes(where they exist) will be used. If any of you were considering buying the Japanese Platinum SHM-CD's or SHM-SACD's, I would say, wait and see if Analog Productions discs provide a better value. Probably, they will.

Sunflower as he and Carl Wilson supervised the LP mastering and lacquering cutting etc at Artisan back in the day. Stephen also used specific recording techniques (similar to Quad) that if decoded correctly presents a sound stage broader than conventional stereo (see his awesome and evolving study videos over at vimeo - http://swdstudyvideos.com) - and Stephen's comments were to indicate he'd not been consulted re the AS releases.

I suspect (from the writing style and exasperation induced) "Overboard" is a certain poster who was permanently banned from SmileySmile for ongoing baffling comments that displayed a high level of disconnection from reality. If so, Michael F, beware!

Hi there - I am new to this site and just joining int his discussion. Thanks, Mr. Fremer, for your post on these Analogue Productions Beach Boys releases. I am seriously considering purchasing a few of these but am debating whether to get the mono or stereo issues. The stereo releases come out next Tuesday. Any recommendations here? Thanks in advance!

Anxiously awaiting your reviews and take on the Analogue Productions Beach Boys releases. When can we expect these?

I just received the first 5 AP Beach Boys Reissues and they are wonderful, from the sound of the LP's and the record jackets themselves they are gorgeous and sound so good. I wish all albums would be made with this quality, well worth 30 dollars per LP and now I can't wait for pet sounds!

I can't wait for reviews to come in on the Chuck Britz stereo mixes circa 1963/1964. For me, this is ground zero Beach Boys vocal nirvana -- in stereo you get all the effect of the air and the vocal doubling (yes, with mistakes but I don't mind them) when their voices were young, their balance was tight and Brian Wilson's angelic falsetto was in its best form.

Yes, I know there are tunes where the stereo mix is kind of out of balance, or Britz faded out the song too early compared with the mono mix (heartbreaking in the case of Don't Back Down), but still, if push comes to shove and I can only pick one, in those true stereo cases I always pick the stereo.

Oh, in the case of the mono mix of Don't Back Down and Drive-In, both off the All Summer Long lp, since master tapes are being used I guess we can assume the out-of-phase, muffled and swishy sound from the original Capital vinyl presses has been corrected? Been bugging me for decades...