Smells Like Something(New Mix)

[musicturtle]

Here's my contribution to the project.

Probably needs some tweaks on several areas(levels, etc.), but I laid the vocals down yesterday before school and mixed for a couple hours tonight so my ears are kinda spent.

Tried to emulate the original but took some liberties effects wise on the guitars and vocals.

Any and all feedback is welcomed and considered.

This one brought back some of my metal days from the eighties.

**Ha just listened again and noticed I mixed up mosquito and libito in the last chorus

Teen Spirit Take 1.mp3

Teen Spirit Take 3.mp3

[Tadpui]

This is everything that I love about home recording. The music teacher from down the street absolutely rocking the f out and screaming the lyrics in the chorus. Definitely sticking close to the original and I think it was the perfect choice after hearing it. Nice job on the drums!

[musicturtle]

This is everything that I love about home recording. The music teacher from down the street absolutely rocking the f out and screaming the lyrics in the chorus. Definitely sticking close to the original and I think it was the perfect choice after hearing it. Nice job on the drums!

Thanks Tad, singing the chorus was cathartic. Something I rarely let myself do anymore.

[rayc]

Good one Tony.
Cool bass tone.
I think your liberties are good value - the occasional voice in the distance is an interesting treat too.
Nice work on the solo too.

[Armistice]

I'm betting just at the end of this you wanted to smash your guitar, thought better of it, and kicked a mic stand over instead. But then immediately picked it up again because it's dangerous to have things like that lying around...

Nice work! It does sound cathartic.

So is that it? We've done the entire album now?

[Lt. Bob]

Are you playing drums? They're good if you are.

This is the only one I'd heard before ..... your version sounds great .... gits sound good .....drumbs are really nice ..... voice is a bit raw sounding which is what you want.
Good job on this.

[Bubba]

Hi musicturtle!

I've been away for a while, so I'm not familiar with the stuff you normally do or have shared on here before. This could be the first time I've critiqued your work!

Lately, I've felt a bit of a hatchet man on here, because I always seem to be going against the general tide of approbation in some way, but when we started this forum we decided that honest crits from our peers was the only way to get better. The other side of that is to take the crits in our stride and not get upset or discouraged by them. To me, it's a real shame that Greg declined to take part in this challenge and also declined to critique the pieces, with one exception. It's a shame because we could all do with his straight talking.

With that out of the way, I'm not going to demolish what you've done, lol. But first off the bat, the mix overall sounds like a "I just tracked the last thing on this literally eight seconds ago and I can't fucking take it anymore" mix. My general impression is that you have very little time to indulge your hobby, so lots of takes to get things right and an extended period of reflection and mixing are not things you are blessed with.This shows in the slight pitchiness of your vocal during the verses. You have a good singing tone; you don't sound like a bloke who can't sing, so I'm guessing your monitoring is a bit low, or you could do with singing with one ear partially uncovered? And you need to keep doing takes until it's right, even if you have to do it a line at a time.

Mix-wise, there is a good mix in there. I don't think the sweet reverb on the intro guitar does it any favours at all. It's kind of ballady, and it's a bit too loud because it lessens the dynamic impact of the drums and guitars coming in.
The main guitars are ok, about the right level, but you need more of them. They need to sound denser, almost choral imo. Track four more guitars, immediately . Again, I think this is a function of the time that you had available to spend on this.

The bass is rather too low in the mix- upfront is the way to go.

Vocals, aside from the pitchiness, are a bit too loud and not compressed enough to sit well. Again, it's not a good reverb choice to my ears. Something shorter and harder would suit better in the choruses.

I really hope that you take my comments in the spirit that they're made, and that they don't sour your opinion of me.

Bubs.

[musicturtle]

Good one Tony.
Cool bass tone.
I think your liberties are good value - the occasional voice in the distance is an interesting treat too.
Nice work on the solo too.

Thanks Ray, I started using the foam trick on my bass and it seems to sound much better to me.

I'm betting just at the end of this you wanted to smash your guitar, thought better of it, and kicked a mic stand over instead. But then immediately picked it up again because it's dangerous to have things like that lying around...

Nice work! It does sound cathartic.

So is that it? We've done the entire album now?

Thanks Armi, yeah smashing guitars has never been my thing. Even in my much, much younger days when I played in hard rock/metal bands I was not into destruction. Now that I think of it, when I got to play the lead role in a production of Pink Floyd's The Wall, I felt really our of character when it came the scene where he destroys the room.

Are you playing drums? They're good if you are.

This is the only one I'd heard before ..... your version sounds great .... gits sound good .....drumbs are really nice ..... voice is a bit raw sounding which is what you want.
Good job on this.

Thank Bob, I wish I could play drums like that. But no, I programmed them using Addictive Drums. Still pretty happy with how they turned out.

[musicturtle]

But first off the bat, the mix overall sounds like a "I just tracked the last thing on this literally eight seconds ago and I can't fucking take it anymore" mix. My general impression is that you have very little time to indulge your hobby, so lots of takes to get things right and an extended period of reflection and mixing are not things you are blessed with.This shows in the slight pitchiness of your vocal during the verses. You have a good singing tone; you don't sound like a bloke who can't sing, so I'm guessing your monitoring is a bit low, or you could do with singing with one ear partially uncovered? And you need to keep doing takes until it's right, even if you have to do it a line at a time.

Guilty as charged. I really rushed this mix and I am working on a new one after I listened yesterday morning. You are right I don't have time to track and re-track, mix and re-mix for something like this. I did two takes of vocals and called it a wrap. This is a great example of the performer should know their part backwards and forwards before recording. I never even tried singing this song before last week and had to read the lyrics while I sang, so there was bound to be some pitchy-ness. I also tried to emulate some of the "emo-ness" of Cobain's style which I thing led to me being a bit flat in places.

Mix-wise, there is a good mix in there. I don't think the sweet reverb on the intro guitar does it any favours at all. It's kind of ballady, and it's a bit too loud because it lessens the dynamic impact of the drums and guitars coming in.
The main guitars are ok, about the right level, but you need more of them. They need to sound denser, almost choral imo. Track four more guitars, immediately . Again, I think this is a function of the time that you had available to spend on this.

The bass is rather too low in the mix- upfront is the way to go.

Vocals, aside from the pitchiness, are a bit too loud and not compressed enough to sit well. Again, it's not a good reverb choice to my ears. Something shorter and harder would suit better in the choruses.

I agree with all this, especially after a fresh listen.

Thank you for your honesty and critique.

This was real step out of what I do nowadays so I really was using it a a learning experience working with drum programming and my new amp sim.

Plus it was a bit of fun to yell and scream into microphone again.

I really hope that you take my comments in the spirit that they're made, and that they don't sour your opinion of me.

I did take them that way and I asked for feedback, so no that will not change my opinion of you(good or bad )

No really, I have listened to so little of Nirvana in my lifetime, never really liked them and tried to recreate their most popular song...what could go wrong?

[Bubba]

This was real step out of what I do nowadays so I really was using it a a learning experience working with drum programming.

That's one thing I forgot to mention on the plus side, actually. The drums are programmed really well, expecially if it's something you don't do a lot of. Excellent work, there.

Bubs

[vomitHatSteve]

This song is a really difficult one vocally (well, most Nirvana is). Cobain had so much grit in his delivery but still had really spot on pitch. It's hard to sound like you're barely in key while never actually going off pitch, especially on the iconic song that everyone knows really well

So yeah, for this mix, the vocals are probably the weak spot, but it's good overall.

So is that it? We've done the entire album now?

Except Polly (the acoustic song from the perspective of a kidnapper and rapist, wonder why no one picked it?), Stay Away, and Endless Nameless (which was likely to be skipped regardless since it was always an improv jam)

But unless someone wants to hop onto one of those, I think that is it.

[Bubba]

This song is a really difficult one vocally (well, most Nirvana is). Cobain had so much grit in his delivery but still had really spot on pitch. It's hard to sound like you're barely in key while never actually going off pitch, especially on the iconic song that everyone knows really well

So yeah, for this mix, the vocals are probably the weak spot, but it's good overall.

So is that it? We've done the entire album now?

Except Polly (the acoustic song from the perspective of a kidnapper and rapist, wonder why no one picked it?), Stay Away, and Endless Nameless (which was likely to be skipped regardless since it was always an improv jam)

But unless someone wants to hop onto one of those, I think that is it.

Don't close it down just yet.

[Armistice]

Polly wants a cracker to record it...

[Bubba]

Polly wants a cracker to record it...

[vomitHatSteve]

Don't close it down just yet.

Oooh!

[JD01]

There's a fast punk version of Polly on the Nirvana compilation album that followed Nevermind. I could do that quite easily and it would sound nothing like my rendition of Lounge Act which was pretty close to the original.

[Bubba]

There's a fast punk version of Polly on the Nirvana compilation album that followed Nevermind. I could do that quite easily and it would sound nothing like my rendition of Lounge Act which was pretty close to the original.

You will do nothing of the sort, my lad.

[Bubba]

Sorry for hijacking your thread, Tony.

[Armistice]

Polly wants a cracker to record it...

I'd never actually heard this song, and I had no idea that was how the lyric ACTUALLY started...

[musicturtle]

Sorry for hijacking your thread, Tony.

No worries, I am just gonna throw some auto-tune on my vocal track here and fill up your in box with different mix versions.