Recording 'Nirvana'

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robin watson

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Saw a band the other month at a local open mic night. They were young, full of energy and attitude, with a ballsy front man, obvious Nirvana influence among others not quite so obvious.

I'll be recording these guys next week and wondered about that 'Nirvana sound.' In addition to doing some Web researching, I thought I'd pop a post in here asking for pointers.

Drums are the main issue for me, not sure the best way to go. With our own band, our drummer likes to use mulitiple mics (all excellent quality), but I'm wondering if this kind of band might not benefit from a simpler setup. The room is small and treated, so you might say it's 'focused' but not ambient, if that has any bearing.

The other question is recording mixer (mixdown will be done on a Soundcraft 6000). We use a Mackie VLZ 1604 in the rehearsal room, and while it does the job, it doesn't have the most colourful of preamps (ahem). I'm thinking of trying out the Tascam M-216 I picked up the other week.

By the way, before anyone suggests it, it isn't practical to haul the Soundcraft into the rehearsal room, in fact it's practically impossible, hence the Mackie for tracking purposes.

I even thought of using my Studio Projects VTB-1 pre as a single overhead mic pre, although the reasoning behind this is more to do with the fact that the Tascam M-216 doesn't have phantom and therefore can't do for overhead duties (unless I use my battery powered C1000 - frown).

I'm wondering how the Tascam would fare against the Mackie for recording (heavy) guitars?

Cheers anyone for any input.

Robin.
 
As far as Nirvana goes, the production techniques really depend on which album your talking about. Bleach Era nirvana was really raw and Nevermind was more on the slick side (which they seemed to dislike) and then IN Utero was a trip back to the more raw side but in a totally different way than Bleach. I think there are quite a few production notes floating around for the In Utero album courtesy of Steve Albini. You could probably could google and find out some specifics.
With that said, I think you should just focus on what sounds right for the band and what they like (assuming they are paying you). Mic the drums up if you have the luxury of using more than a few mics. You can always "not use" the tracks but you sure as hell can't get them to tape after the fact.
Im not sure about that particular Soundcraft model but based on your choices and their reputation, I would definitely do whatever I could to be able to track through that board.
 
A few months ago Guitar World did an article with Butch Vig on the recording of Nevermind. It went into detail about how many vocal tracks he used, what tricks he used, equipment etc.... pretty good read.

There might still be a copy on the news stands, or find a guitar player who subscribes or check out their web site.
 
Cool Funkydrummer, gonna have a good ol' read on this. Might even pick up a few tips i didnt know of. :D:
 
Ahhh, thought it might contain notes on recording/mixing etc. Bahhh :(
 
i'm with wireneck, the 3 albums are completely different sounding,
you should choose one as a target, and it should be In Utero.

the only thing i know is that albini loves ribbons, and would never use a sm57 on snare.

man i love how that cd sounds.
 
I remember reading an interview with Kurt where he said they used "a lot of large vintage german mics". funny, I didn't know what that meant at the time...
 
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