Rare video of Brian Wilson producing his new album

[Trauma-san]

Brian Wilson has released a new Christmas Album, and it sounds great.  On his site, he has a video somebody shot of him in the studio working, it's pretty much amazing.  If you've ever tried to figure out exactly what a producer is responsible for, here's video of one of the greatest producers ever working in the studio.  It starts off just showing them recording, and Brian singing and things, but about 4 minutes in you start seeing all the little eccentric things he's became famous for.  For instance, he shows the drummer where to put the kick drum in, and then shows the piano players how to play this part, then the guitarist this part, then it shows him layering the vocals and making up these complex insane harmonies just off the top of his head in the vocal booth. 

Even if it's not your type of music, it's unbelievable to watch this guy work, he's a genius... when he works on a song, he hears line after line after layer after layer of music going through his head, and hums and sings them to the other people in the room. 

I imagine Dr. Dre works similar to this.   Another intersting thing is that Brian is a fan of recording an entire room full of musicians recording at the same time, as opposed to multitracking and layering in each sound seperately.  It's insane.

Anyways, the video is located here

http://media.bmgonline.com/jrecords.com/various/video/bwilsonEPK_long_HI.asx

[Trauma-san]

Oh, also notice the hand written sheet music he made for everybody (just like 1965).  Crazy. 

[Maxin in the Shade]

Brian Wilson is amazing

and even after all these years he still has a great voice

[kingwell]

Great video, greater music. 

[Trauma-san]

I like "The First Noel"... they play it like 10 minutes into the video or something, I think his voice sounds flat out phenomenal on that.  Towards the end, he even lifts the lead up into Falsetto on the chorus like he used to do on "Get Around" or "Surfin' U.S.A." or something.  Gives me chills just hearing it.  My favorite Christmas song, by anybody, is now "The First Noel" by Brian Wilson.  It's never been done better. 

Notice them picking the strings on a baby grand piano by hand with the lid open to get the sound for the intro/bridge of the song. 

I like the warmth he gets in the record, it really has a warm full sound... it's amazing to me that when he goes into a studio in 2005, he doesn't single track every instrument like basically every producer alive does now, he records the entire room full of musicians like he used to for Pet Sounds... and doesn't care that the drums bleed over into the guitar amp or whatever, because it just adds to the thickness and the warmth of the sound.  He doesn't single track everybody's harmony vocals, either, he records 6 or 7 people at one time singing harmony around two microphones like he taught the Beach Boys to do (and every other band used to do).  If you single track everything, you can just go back and fix it later, but if you record everything at the same time, you have to work and work until you get the perfect take, and nobody's off key or hits a bad note.  There's one part in the vid where he goes "No, it's not Ahhhh, it's Ooooooh" LOL and they change it from "Aaaaahhh" to "Ooooohhh" and it sounds 20 TIMES better.  Unbelievable seeing what this guy comes up with, he gets a look in his eye (like when he's directing them from the control room) that is EXACTLY what he looks like in old pictures from the 60's.