Comparing The Mixes: Nirvana 'In Utero' [Scott Litt Mixes vs. Steve Albini Mixes] [HD]

A comparsion of the key differences in the Scott Litt/Steve Albini mixes for the Nirvana album 'In Utero'.

1) Heart Shaped Box (A/B) 0:00
a) Heart Shaped Box - Guitar Solo Effects
i) Scott Litt 2:46
ii) Steve Albini 3:07

2) All Apologies (A/B) 3:28
a) All Apologies - Codas
i) Scott Litt 5:19
ii) Steve Albini 6:23

3) Pennyroyal Tea (A/B) 7:35
a) Pennyroyal Tea - Codas
i) Steve Albini 11:46
ii) Scott Litt 12:14

Sources

Heart Shaped Box
Scott Litt - In Utero (Official CD)
Steve Albini - In Utero (Needledrop of German Vinyl)

All Apologies
Scott Litt - In Utero (Official CD)
Steve Albini - In Utero (Needledrop of German Vinyl)

Pennyroyal Tea
Scott Litt - Nirvana (Official CD)
Steve Albini - In Utero (Official CD)

Category:

Music

Tags:

• nirvana
• heart
• shaped
• box
• all
• apologies
• pennyroyal
• tea
• Scott
• Litt
• Steve
• Albini
• mix
• mixes
• record
• production
• sound
• audio
• in
• utero
• kurt
• cobain
• krist
• novoselic
• dave
• grohl
• 1993
• 1994
• single
• edit
• 2002
• best
• of
• eq
• mastering
• producer
• fighters
• foo
• jam
• live
• remix
• recording
• engineer
• LP

[tommymacluckie]

It's not vabrato SIC (vibrato) but TREMOLO.

[paulisdead]

@tommymacluckie Cheers.

[lordschleife]

These are poor copies of the Albini mixes & do not do them justice, they sound compressed! The ones I have are far less muddy. In some spots on your video the drums sound more quiet on the Albini mixes, but they're much louder than the Litt mixes in reality. The quiet guitars are more quiet and the loud more loud on the Albini mix (ie more dynamic range) and the vocals a bit dryer & lower in the mix. I much prefer the Albini mix, but on this video the Litt sounds better most of the time :(

[paulisdead]

@lordschleife I do argee that comparing a needledrop of a bootleg to an official CD rip is unfair. This is why I mention the original source in the review and tried to focus more on the balance of intruments and effects rather than the overall sound. At the time, these where the best copies I could find of the Albini mixes. In the future (maybe 2013?), I hope Steve's original mixdowns of 'Heart Shaped Box' and 'All Apologies' can get a fair mastering job to be released offically.

[whipchops]

@lordschleife your right dude. I'd say it sounds like he just turned the volume down for the albini mixes

[paulisdead]

@whipchops This is the thing with using different masters. Albini's version (whether officially mastered or not) is considerbly quiter than the official CD because a CD has more "headroom" than an LP (which is what Albini's mix is taken from). Meaning it can be made louder than an LP (see: Loudness Wars). Therefore the officially realeased version would have had more limiting/compression than the LP.

[paulisdead]

[cont.] I tried to keep the levels of Albini's stuff as similar as I could to the CD version without peaking and without adding extra compression/limiting.

[Vincecouk]

Litt's just sound louder and a bit more compressed and brick-walled to give an illusion that it just sounds better when in fact its getting compressed to fuck (see Pennyroyal Tea)

[Organonfire]

people don't like my music either.

[Organonfire]

wow!! thank you so much uploader!!

[PitchfeverAcademy]

Higher fidelity doesn't make a song better or worse especially with Nirvana. Litt is amazing no doubt but I think the record label wanted that pro 'sheen' on the album that you could only get with major labels at the time.  Would have been great either way.

[theleecarter]

what do you mean when you say codas?

[PivotMakeranimations]

@RideMyBMW that lyrics were written in 1991

[RideMyBMW]

Cobain was killed for In Utero...its the most ANTI-Illuminati record in history..."In the Sun I feel as one, in the sun I´m married, buried". The Sun = Cult of Horus.= Sun god= Illuminati