The Beach Boys - Surfer Girl - Hybrid SACD

hybrid SACD "What I can say is that Kevin Gray has been able to extract every last bit of information from whatever tape is in the box, and present it in a way that is pleasing and natural to the ear. ... in my opinion, the Analogue Productions pressings are now THE definitive issue of each Beach Boys album, and will be my reference copies until if and when something better comes along — which may be never." — Lee Dempsey, Endless Summer Quarterly, Summer 2015 Edition "Like the normal CD, this contains both the mono and stereo mixes of the group's third studio album and it's where the killers really started. ... the harmonies were well-tuned by this stage, and the self-penned songs were classic surf epics: the smoochy title track, 'Catch A Wave' (which became Jan & Dean's 'Sidewalk Surfin'), the utterly majestic and introspective 'In My Room' and the irresistible 'Little Deuce Coupe' — quite simply the coolest song ever writen about cars. This SACD is super-clean sounding and it's a great single-disc opportunity to compare mono and stereo. But, no, I won't tell you which I prefer." — Sound Quality = 86% - Ken Kessler, HiFi News, August 2015 A musical legacy that began in Hawthorne, California and went on to conquer the world. Analogue Productions presents the ultimate pressings of 14 essential Beach Boys albums! Mastered by Kevin Gray, most from the original master tapes, now presented on Hybrid Stereo/Mono SACD, these are awesome recordings to experience. For the early part of the Beach Boys career, all of their singles were mixed and mastered and released only in the mono format. Hits were made on AM radio in mono. And the mono of those times worked well for Brian Wilson — famed co-founder, songwriter and arranger — who suffers from partial deafness. The mono mixes were where Wilson paid intense attention, and the dedication paid off! We’ve taken 10 of the most classic, best-sounding Beach Boy titles ever and restored them to their mono glory! Still, there’s no disputing that the close harmonies and one-of-a-kind rhythms of hits like “Surfer Girl,” “In My Room,” “Little Deuce Coupe” and more lend themselves naturally to stereo. So we’ve got your 2-channel needs covered with prime stereo mix versions as well. The stereo editions of Surfin' USA, Surfer Girl, Little Deuce Coupe, Shut Down Vol. 2, All Summer Long, Beach Boys Christmas Album and Beach Boys Concert were all mixed in stereo by their own preferred engineer, Chuck Britz, ostensibly under the group's supervision. "Brian may or may not have been present for those mixing sessions — evidence suggests that he trusted Chuck's skills enough to let him prepare those mixes on his own — but the group held onto their multitrack tapes and delivered stereo masters to Capitol, rather than allowing Capitol to prepare their own stereo versions. Later, when Brian was only delivering mono masters, Capitol would prepare the Duophonic pseudo stereo editions for the stereo market," says Alan Boyd, producer and Beach Boys' archivist. The Beach Boys' practice of double-tracking their vocals really lends itself to stereo mixes. Split left and right, as they are on a lot of those early stereo versions, those doubled vocal parts can really envelop the listener, surrounding them with Wilsons, Loves and Jardines!