Triumph36
All-Star
- Joined
- Jun 24, 2008
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albini is a regular on another forum i frequent and did an AMA before they became a "thing" due to reddit.I would say Steve Albini had more to do with Nirvana's sound than Nirvana themselves. Steve Albini is quite an impressive producer/engineer - he will be the first to say he is more of an engineer than a producer. He refuses to have any credits on albums and does not take royalties - he only charges a flat fee (rare/unheard of!). Albini was used by Nirvana because, Albini recorded The Pixies, which was a huge influence on them. Albini's approach is doing all the recording live and not on seperate tracks individually. He finds the best sound from the room through creative mic placements and not necessarily on the instruments themselves. That is how Nirvana got "their" sound.
Disclaimer: I am not a Nirvana fan but, more of a fan of Albini (look him up, he is a legit cat). I hate how a band like Nirvana gets so much credit for "changing music" and ushering in a "new sound". They ripped off The Pixies, Stooges and Bad Brains and got all the credit for this "new sound" when it was all being done but, not in front of a pop audience. Nirvana did not bring back the Neve console - it was used before them and still used today along with digital and analog recording platforms. It is a staple of any recording engineers analog/outboard gear. It is timeless and incredibly expensive (for a good reason).
there is still an archive available and it's a really interesting read. link here
ctrl+f 'electrical' and it's an easy read