Editing Pet Sounds (section)

===Mixdown, studio effects, and anomalies===

Tape effects were limited to [[slapback echo]] and reverb. [[Mark Linett]], who engineered Wilson's recordings after the 1980s, states that the reverb resembles [[plate reverb]] units more than [[echo chamber]]s, explaining that the album's distinctive sound stems from reverb being applied during live recording sessions rather than added afterward, as is common in modern music production.<ref name="Stromoff1996">{{cite magazine |last1=Smotroff |first1=Mark |title=Pet Project |magazine=[[EQ Magazine|EQ]] |date=June 1996 |volume=7 |issue=6 |url=http://lukpac.org:8080/~lukpac/public/EQ%20decrypted.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141203195535/http://lukpac.org:8080/~lukpac/public/EQ%20decrypted.pdf |archive-date=December 3, 2014}}</ref> Wilson often isolated reverb on the timpani, a technique audible in "Wouldn't It Be Nice", "You Still Believe in Me", and "Don't Talk".{{sfn|Everett|2008|p=24}}

{{quote box
| align = right
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| quote = It was full of noise. You could hear him talking in the background. It was real sloppy. He had spent all this time making the album, and zip—dubbed it down in one day or something like that. [When we said something to him about it] he took it back and mixed it properly. I think a lot of times, beautiful orchestrated stuff or parts got lost in his mixes.
| source = —Saxophonist [[Steve Douglas (saxophonist)|Steve Douglas]] recalling the album's draft mix<ref name="Douglas1997">{{cite AV media notes |chapter=Musician Comments: Steve Douglas |title=The Pet Sounds Sessions |others=[[The Beach Boys]] |year=1997 |publisher=[[Capitol Records]] |type=Booklet |chapter-url=http://albumlinernotes.com/Interview_w_Brian_Wilson.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220427191939/http://albumlinernotes.com/Interview_w_Brian_Wilson.html |archive-date=27 April 2022}}</ref>
}}

Late overdubs, such as strings for "Don't Talk" (April 3) and a final adjustment for "I Know There's an Answer" (around April 17), completed the album's principal recording.<ref name="PS2016"/> Mixing occurred within days in a single nine-hour session,{{sfn|Doe|Tobler|2009|p=20}} initially planned for vocal overdubs on "Let's Go Away for Awhile" before Capitol redirected it to mixing.{{sfn|Doe|Tobler|2009|p=24}} Most time was spent blending vocals with the pre-mixed mono instrumental track.{{sfn|Granata|2003|p=179}}

The original mono mix featured numerous technical flaws that contrasted with its refined arrangements and performances,{{sfn|Granata|2003|p=179}} alongside countertextural aspects emphasizing its recorded nature.{{sfn|Lowe|2007|pp=38, 219}} Among the most prominent examples: an audible tape splice occurs in "Wouldn't It Be Nice" between the chorus and Love's bridge vocal entrance, while a distant conversation was accidentally captured during the instrumental break of "Here Today" amid a vocal overdub.{{sfn|Granata|2003|p=180}} Biographer [[David Leaf]] characterized these imperfections as "not sloppy recording, [but] part of the music".{{sfn|Leaf|1978|p=82}} Wilson's mixing process faced technical constraints, such as simultaneously recording overdubs while mixing existing tracks and combining multiple recordings into a single mono channel in real time, which risked unintended artifacts like noise or oversights due to limited monitoring. Granata posits Wilson "felt that performance and feeling outweighed technical perfection", akin to Spector's production ethos, and may have overlooked minor anomalies that were less noticeable on 1960s playback systems.{{sfn|Granata|2003|p=189}}

A true stereo mix of ''Pet Sounds'' was not pursued in 1966 due to logistical constraints. Wilson deliberately mixed in mono, as Spector often did, believing it offered greater control over sound reproduction, unaffected by variables in speaker placement or playback systems. At the time, most consumer audio equipment and broadcasts were monophonic.{{sfn|Granata|2003|pp=126–127}}<ref name="Linett1997" /> Another factor was Wilson's near-total deafness in his right ear.{{sfn|Wilson|Greenman|2016|p=138}} The unprecedented production costs totaled $70,000 (equivalent to ${{formatnum:{{Inflation|US|70000|1966|r=-4}}}} in {{Inflation-year|US}}).{{sfn|Gaines|1986|p=146}}