hey Chris Liepe here with the studio multitracks or stems for Smells Like Teen Spirit Nirvana I've
done an isolated vocal analysis on this song due to popular request but I feel like there's
a lot more to talk about in terms of production and approach not only on Kurt's vocals but on
this on this recording as a whole not only is this song a complete Masterpiece but the way the parts
fit together is absolutely incredible the way the vocal production in particular sits upon the band
and you can't really talk about that when you've just got the isolated vocals well now we can talk
about it because I have all the different tracks so that's really what we're going to be focusing
on here if you want more about Kurt's singing approach in particular go view that other video
the isolated vocal analysis here we're taking a more holistic approach we're going to enjoy this
if you'd like more help with your singing taking the approach that Kurt Cobain takes
adding Distortion creating angst and emoting truly with your voice click the link below and
join my free voice course and I'll give you the tools to start doing that with
your own voice so let's start by stacking these masterfully built sounds starting with the kick
you see how consistently played this is now yeah there's some compression and
limiting going on but a lot of that is just Dave Grohl's very very consistent
hard-hitting playing he's one of the best and it really really comes out when you look at
the consistency of this kick track I've looked at a lot of kick tracks and they're not that
consistent and this was all recorded to tape so there's not a lot of doctoring going on
love that you can hear the bleed near the base in the background this is a
band tracking in the studio not pieced together oh listen that Reverb on the snare a cool ring
it's actually tuned to the root to the one of the song
it's there that's why it Blends so well and that's why that ring is so awesome
you hear it
you hear it the whole time it's so cool
Bass
as one of my wonderful YouTube commenters mentioned there's nothing precise about Chris's
playing but that's what makes it so awesome it's not precise but it is definitely in the pocket
do you really get a sense for that as they build into the chorus
do you hear how he is behind the beat this would sound very horrible if he
was doing what a lot of beginner bass players do and push the beat the the kick should lead
the base here's the kick track notice how the primary hits are always behind
see this there's the peak here here's the peak it's behind in time just by a little
bit that is a huge part of what makes this band Groove the way they Groove because you've got
Dave who's who's pushing that beat in a very healthy confident way and then you've got the
bass that's laying behind and you've got Kurt right in the middle with his guitar
playing I'm just going to take this little spot here and I'm going to bring a slightly ahead of
the beat which you'll recognize this this is this is amateur base instead of groovy base
if you've ever done any band recording you've heard that happen with a bass
player that doesn't quite get what it means to play in the pocket it doesn't
sound bad but it feels icky one amazing guitar line here
now that extra fizzy sound I believe is a combination between mic'd amps and direct
through a distortion pedal like a DS1 and the the direct sound is Blended with the other sound
from the amp and that's why you get that art both the articulation and the out of control
fizziness Blended in to taste listen to how the vocals we'll do more vocals in a minute
listen to how Kurt's voice gets more and more he builds it over a
very static guitar part so he's got almost this pad going on with his guitar playing
and then he keeps putting more and more girth and grit and intensity into this revolving line
that's what's so genius about this Arrangement is there's nothing that complicated about it
but the way that things subtly shrink and grow I mean this is just very repetitive
hello hello hello you can you can sense the growth even without the bass and drums even without Dave
Dave's drums bringing in that Dynamics the way that the vocals Crescendo is all of it
so interesting to think about with your own arranging if we are so focused on precision
and nailing the take or whatever that we don't think about raw Dynamics and arcs
like how are we going to build into this next section how are we going to make things simple
enough that we can communicate with what we're playing and singing it's not about complexity
it's not about accuracy or goodness it's about communication we've got this going on and this
I have to confess I didn't really process that there was there was
that kind of layering going on until I listened just now
just that nuts
so how dissonant that is
does that fit absolutely it does now let's let's crank these other guitar parts here
oh that's so cool I want to hear this with a little bit of vocals
it totally changes the vibe having those those more uh
more intervals present it's not just power Cordy
very very cool
huh I could listen to that forever all the different implications and like chord
sounds that I never really heard before super cool distortion pedal kick in there
calculated slop
this is a doubled guitar solo
and another lesson in keeping things simple you know this song came out on the very end largely
due to this band of let's show everybody how good I can play and how fast I can play and here Kurt
is playing an accessible Melody that mirrors in many ways uh the melody that's happening
with the voice this guitar is a voice and we really got away from that and in many
ways we've gotten away from that in modern music the production and what we can do because we can
largely goes ahead of the craft itself of the of the the rawness and the communication aspect
the emoting aspect now let's look at some key vocal passages in context like I said at the
beginning I've already done a complete isolated vocal analysis of this song so be sure you check
that out as well these videos complement each other very nicely as you're listening
to this next passage listen to the three different ways Kurt's vocals are presented
they're done in their single tracked dead center they are doubled panned out with
slightly different uh approaches on each side there it's a floppy double and then when we get
into the chorus it is dead center doubled so we go from wide well actually we go from single vocal to
wide to here and what this does in conjunction with the guitars is fill out different mix holes
super cool you'll notice it I'll play it solo but I'll also play it with the isolated guitar
and you can hear him getting brighter right there and they did some things with the eq2
but he's he's getting more intense with the as the guitar just keeps going hello hello
here we are now entertain us now it's dead center we went from wide to Center
so key half is stupid in contagious here we are now entertainers I'm laughing
I'm asking yeah
hey back to single hey
yay single lots of cool Reverb on there and this is fun right here gotta play this
one more time like that's that's in the Final Mix we just don't really hear it
Kurt Cobain in the zone so awesome now I'm gonna play that same passage again
with all the guitars but without the bass and drums and I want you to pay attention
if you're listening headphones which I hope you are I want you to pay attention to how
the vocal placement and the guitar placements complement each other
I know a dirty words
hello hello
do you notice that when we get to the hello when we get to that part
that the mix fills out and we lack a strong Center presence so we're
creating contrast here we have the single Center vocalist with the stereo guitar
but the stereo guitar is super simple here so
we have this this sort of triangle built with Kurt's vocal at the center and then
we have wide vocal and wide guitar the guitar is still super simple and we lose the stereo
image it almost makes us as listeners we're like I'm not fulfilled I there's something
there's something slightly wrong with this picture there's tension which is in the arrangement and
writing but it's also there in the production and then we finally get that aggressive Center
image back in the chorus while the guitars go super wide even wider than they are here
and we're fulfilled so this Arrangement is like pulling us along leaving us
discontented and following the writing perfectly to create moments of I don't
know something's wrong and then oh that's what we wanted so much of this is in the production
and listen to those dissonances I never would have heard that
with that Melody
yeah hey super ugly and pretty at the same time so these three approaches the single Center the
wide out double and the center Double interplay with the guitars perfectly to string us along as
a listener and complement the writing in amazing ways this is when you know production is working
in your favor instead of getting in your way when these things that are so subtle that we don't
think about at all when we're listening to the normal mix these things play into how this song
is internalized and remembered thanks so much for listening and diving in like a nerd into this song
one of my favorite songs ever as I'm sure that's true for a lot of you again if you'd like more
help with your own singing click that link below and join my free course we'll see you for more