Syntax (Recording and Production)

The instrumental tracks were recorded in Hollywood California on March 10th , 1966 at Western Recorders studio. It took a total of 20 live takes to get what would ultimately become the master instrumental track. The session was engineered by Chuck Britz and later produced by Wilson. As he did with most of his songs, the instrumental tracks were recorded live and played as an ensemble and recorded directly to a four track deck rather than recording each of the instruments separately. Wilson often rode the faders and did live mixing as the recording was going on, making each performance unique and highly un replicable (“Pet Sounds”, “God Only Knows”)
Instrumentally, the song is as advanced arrangement-wise as it is harmonically. For this simple, short pop song over 23 studio musicians have been reported to be used, though only 16 are credited with being used for the final master. And the range of instruments also goes far beyond the pop standard of guitars and drums. “God Only Knows” is known to have the following instruments were recorded but not all were used:
Drums, Precussion, Electric Bass, Upright Bass, danelectro bass, piano, organ, accordion, clarinet, bass clarinet, flute, French horn, baritone sax, violin, viola, cello, harpsichord .
Wilson was known for using a technique where he would often double instrument, mostly rhythm ones like piano or bass, and adding dense reverb and delay to give it the “Wall of Sound” feel. Also, he was inclined to synthesize two instruments into the same track and add reverb to get startling new textures such as organ and French horn. This is now become a standard production trick today to try and get fuller and unique sonic blends. (“Pet Sounds”)
The instrumental tracks were the bounced down to 1 track on an Ampex 8-track recorder, which was the newest technology of the day. And allowed him to use the rest of the tracks for the Beach Boys signature dubbed vocal melodies and harmonies.
For “God Only Knows” this was done at Columbia studios which was the only studio with an 8-track at the time. The rest of the tracks were filled in with Carl Wilson on lead vox, and whose voice was doubled to give is a fuller sound. Brian and his cousin Bruce Johnston filled in the remaining tracks with their backing vocals, Brian doing both the high and low registers while Bruce sang in the middle(“God Only Knows”).
Mastering-wise this song, this song was ultimately mixed into mono, even though stereo was around. Brian is reported to have favored mono because at the time most playback devices where his music would be heard, such as TV, radio, and car stereo were only capable of playing mono. He also felt that in the mastering stage he could coax more out of mix and that by releasing it as such he didn’t have to worry that it wouldn’t sound the not the way he intended because of the speakers or their positioning, which its crucial in replicating a stereo image (“Pet Sounds”).