Was Nirvana's Nevermind Recorded With a Malfunctioning Bass?

[Rip Van Dan]

Check my following post about punch-ins. There could have been a difference there. It sounds too "timed" for it to have just been the pickup cutting out.

You're right, that could certainly do it.

 

[Rev J]

I'm not going to respond to the general personal attacks on this one. I'm just going to make my observations.

Nirvana didn't revolutionize anything.

The recording industry has always vicariously been run by 14 white year old girls from the suburbs and still is. 14 year old white girls from the suburbs are and always been the largest consumers of recorded music. Nirvana were a part of that. The lead off single from Nevermind was called "Smells like Teen Spirit" name dropping an antiperspirant targeted to 15 year old girls. Cobains whole image/shtick was there to appeal to them too. He wasn't good looking in the movie star way but those doey blue eyes and unkempt appearance were there to make 15 year old girls want to take him home and take care of him like a lost puppy. Sorry sad but true.

As for the revolutionary music. "Smells like Teen Spirit" was essentially a warmed over version of "Louie Louie" from the guitar riff to the unintelligible lyrics. "Come as You Are" was pretty much the riff from "Livin in the 80s" by Killing Joke slowed down to the point where even Cobain was afraid that he was going to get sued for it. As a matter of fact when the Nirvana camp was confronted by lawyers about it they denied ever having heard of Killing Joke. Then Killing Jokes Lawyer produced a hand signed Christmas Card that Cobain sent them.

My original assertion was Bad Equipment+Bad Playing+Bad Performance+Poorly Written Songs=Crap pretty much stands on its own.

The personal "Sour Grapes" comments are just as sorry and clichéd as the "They were revolutionary for so many reasons" that read like they were written by some PR man to over hype mediocrity. I'm assuming that the ones are in their early to mid 20s and weren't there to see what happened first hand. At 40 I'm a little too old to fall for the hype of the industry to sell records by no talent hacks to young people. Learn to read and think critically.

C/S,
Rev J

 

[Bodeanly]

I'm not going to respond to the general personal attacks on this one. I'm just going to make my observations.

Nirvana didn't revolutionize anything.

The recording industry has always vicariously been run by 14 white year old girls from the suburbs and still is. 14 year old white girls from the suburbs are and always been the largest consumers of recorded music. Nirvana were a part of that. The lead off single from Nevermind was called "Smells like Teen Spirit" name dropping an antiperspirant targeted to 15 year old girls. Cobains whole image/shtick was there to appeal to them too. He wasn't good looking in the movie star way but those doey blue eyes and unkempt appearance were there to make 15 year old girls want to take him home and take care of him like a lost puppy. Sorry sad but true.

As for the revolutionary music. "Smells like Teen Spirit" was essentially a warmed over version of "Louie Louie" from the guitar riff to the unintelligible lyrics. "Come as You Are" was pretty much the riff from "Livin in the 80s" by Killing Joke slowed down to the point where even Cobain was afraid that he was going to get sued for it. As a matter of fact when the Nirvana camp was confronted by lawyers about it they denied ever having heard of Killing Joke. Then Killing Jokes Lawyer produced a hand signed Christmas Card that Cobain sent them.

My original assertion was Bad Equipment+Bad Playing+Bad Performance+Poorly Written Songs=Crap pretty much stands on its own.

The personal "Sour Grapes" comments are just as sorry and clichéd as the "They were revolutionary for so many reasons" that read like they were written by some PR man to over hype mediocrity. I'm assuming that the ones are in their early to mid 20s and weren't there to see what happened first hand. At 40 I'm a little too old to fall for the hype of the industry to sell records by no talent hacks to young people. Learn to read and think critically.

C/S,
Rev J

 

[Rev J]

View attachment 816630

Let me fact check your post:

https://www.talkbass.com/search/9551810/

Wow you're right all I do is post about Nirvana. Not!

Having an opinion=/=trolling

Thanks for playing. Don't forget your free gift basket.

C/S,
Rev J

 

[Bodeanly]

Having an opinion=/=trolling

Having an opinion is perfectly fine. I'm glad we've reached an understanding.

 

[denhou1974]

I have posted here some isolated Nirvana tracks of Krist playing his Gibson Ripper. One thing I've noticed is that at random points, the sound suddenly changes and has a lot more midrange and less low end. At first I thought there might be some weird midrange pedal in use, but then I realised: it probably shifts to the bridge pickup.
But how would he do this without someone standing in front of him fiddling with the rotary switch? (Which I doubt happened.) He probably couldn't do it deliberately because it happens often right when he would be picking the strings, and he wasn't strumming, so it would be pretty hard to accidentally clip the switch. It's also funny how the second Ripper in the studio (a black 1979 model, tuned to D standard) didn't do this, from what I can hear.
Owing to the fact that the (probable) Ripper in question was a 1976 model (15 years old with all original electronics) and was never seen again on stage by August, being replaced by by a 1974 model, I believe that it had a defective neck pickup wire and kept cutting out randomly so was either destroyed or sold off. Just listen for sudden bass-frequency drops in these tracks...


Hear the pickup drop out at times like 0:16, 0:38, 1:47, 1:55...


There's a huge tone change at 1:26. You can even hear it on the record.


0:27, 0:40, 0:58, 2:58

In Bloom
0:16 - compressor ducking/boosting the headphones
0:38 - punch in
1:47, 1:55 - nuances from the bass

Stay Away
0:27 - Effects change. These kinds of things breathe life into the track

 

[Rev J]

Someone pointed out on here that those tracks were from either Guitar Hero or Rockband. If it was than it wasn't the original track.

I've read that in the cases of video games it isn't cost effective to use the original tracks. If you license it and re record it you only have to pay royalties to whoever owns the copyright of the song whereas if you use the original track you have to pay the copyright holder of the song, and the copyright to the recording. Then you have to pay another engineer to remix the track 3 or more times to isolate each track and tweak the eqs of that isolated track.

A lot of the tracks that you hear on the Guitar Hero are played by Jazz Fusion/Session bassist Rick Fierbracci (I hope I spelled that right) or Aleck Katunich (Formerly Dirk Lance of Incubis fame).

C/S,
Rev J

 

[A. D. Fairhurst]

Someone pointed out on here that those tracks were from either Guitar Hero or Rockband. If it was than it wasn't the original track.

I've read that in the cases of video games it isn't cost effective to use the original tracks. If you license it and re record it you only have to pay royalties to whoever owns the copyright of the song whereas if you use the original track you have to pay the copyright holder of the song, and the copyright to the recording. Then you have to pay another engineer to remix the track 3 or more times to isolate each track and tweak the eqs of that isolated track.

A lot of the tracks that you hear on the Guitar Hero are played by Jazz Fusion/Session bassist Rick Fierbracci (I hope I spelled that right) or Aleck Katunich (Formerly Dirk Lance of Incubis fame).

C/S,
Rev J

If you listen, you can hear that these are definitely the original tracks. The tone and mistakes match up perfectly with the full songs.

 

[Rev J]

OK whatever read the books on music business then form your opinion.

Using the original tracks is not a cost effective strategy as there are more people to pay in the process. The video game company is not there just to entertain you they are there to make money.

How many songs do you think there are on Rock Band. You do realize that they have to pay to use them. I've known people who've recorded sound alike tracks. You even get a list of equipment to use to do that sound alike. With digital simulation such as the Line 6 guitar and amp simulators it is getting easier and cheaper to do so.

C/S,
Rev J

 

[A. D. Fairhurst]

OK whatever read the books on music business then form your opinion.

Using the original tracks is not a cost effective strategy as there are more people to pay in the process. The video game company is not there just to entertain you they are there to make money.

How many songs do you think there are on Rock Band. You do realize that they have to pay to use them. I've known people who've recorded sound alike tracks. You even get a list of equipment to use to do that sound alike. With digital simulation such as the Line 6 guitar and amp simulators it is getting easier and cheaper to do so.

C/S,
Rev J

Well I can definitely tell it's the same tone and everything matches up perfectly. There's no replicating the tone of a Ripper without a Ripper, and they're pretty rare. I stand by my theory, however I am surprised that they didn't re-record the tracks for the game, so I understand you.

 

[Rev J]

But these are fairly cheap and plentiful:

C/S,
Rev J

 

[Bodeanly]

OK whatever read the books on music business then form your opinion.

Using the original tracks is not a cost effective strategy as there are more people to pay in the process. The video game company is not there just to entertain you they are there to make money.

How many songs do you think there are on Rock Band. You do realize that they have to pay to use them. I've known people who've recorded sound alike tracks. You even get a list of equipment to use to do that sound alike. With digital simulation such as the Line 6 guitar and amp simulators it is getting easier and cheaper to do so.

C/S,
Rev J

"The majority of songs for Rock Band are master recordings, with a handful of cover versions (mainly used in Rock Band's early stages), while all the music from Rock Band 2 onwards are master recordings." This would include the Nirvana tracks.

[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
Rock Band

Also on the wiki, if you dig the wiki...

 

[Son of Wobble]

Anyone ever seen Nirvanettes from Olympia WA? They're an all-girl Nirvana cover band.
Great chops and they kinda look like the original players, as this photo attests:

 

[Bodeanly]

Anyone ever seen Nirvanettes from Olympia WA? They're an all-girl Nirvana cover band.
Great chops and they kinda look like the original players, as this photo attests:

View attachment 821572

At first, I didn't think they looked anything like Nirvana, then I saw a side-by-side comparison:

:

 

[A. D. Fairhurst]

OK whatever read the books on music business then form your opinion.

Using the original tracks is not a cost effective strategy as there are more people to pay in the process. The video game company is not there just to entertain you they are there to make money.

How many songs do you think there are on Rock Band. You do realize that they have to pay to use them. I've known people who've recorded sound alike tracks. You even get a list of equipment to use to do that sound alike. With digital simulation such as the Line 6 guitar and amp simulators it is getting easier and cheaper to do so.

C/S,
Rev J

Plus, Rock Band has loads of paid extensions and with the amount of people who play it, they'd probably be able to pay for the tracks.