Nirvana - Smells like teen spirit (HIDDEN GUITAR TRACK)

For such a simple song, hearing the buried guitars makes you realize it wasn't really all that simple.

Kurt: clears his throat then proceeds to moan

I'm a mixing and recording engineer, and all the people here saying the guitar track isn't there in the album version obviously have no idea what they are talking about. Honestly, you would be hard pressed to find a song that is professionally recorded and mixed that DOESN'T employ this sort of technique ALL OVER THE TRACK. It's what we get paid to do, and why so many bedroom producers can't seem to get that "radio quality" even though it sounds good. There are little psycho-acoustic gems all over which add depth to the mix so 1) the song sounds larger than life and 2) there aren't giant gaps in the frequency spectrum. With a band like Nirvana, where you've got only a drum kit, bass guitar, and an electric guitar, there is a LOT of space to be filled. A lot of times, we will take a guitar and use a process called re-amping, which is where you record the guitar BEFORE the amplifier, then route it into the amplifier the band uses to record that sound as well. Once it comes time to put it all together, that "clean" track can be played back into a different amplifier, creating a different sound. When you consider that we get 3-4 GOOD takes for each part, the depth that YOU usually here is take 1 through amp 1, panned mostly to the left; take 2 through amp 1, panned mostly to the right; take 3 through amp 2 panned mostly to the right, take 4 through amp 3, panned mostly to the left. But the parts that are not the MAIN part are turned down fairly low. This 'hidden" track was probably in the background of the sound, and you won't hear it if you are looking for it. With things like this and vocal reverb, that's exactly how I know when I have the levels set right... I can't hear it when it's there,but when I mute the track, everyone in the room can hear that something is missing. Believe me, it's on every single song you've heard in the last 20 years. Even though Kurt didn't want his music appealing to the masses, someone was putting their name on it, and probably made a career out of mixing this song. If you come to get it professionally mixed, this is what we do. If you don't want that, feel free to do it yourself. I get the artist/band's input and work toward bringing their vision to life, but their input stops at creativity. If you don't want me to change it up or make it sound over-produced, I won't. But I'm going to make it sound good by any means necessary. If you want another example of how hidden tracks are snuck into this song that you never heard, carefully listen to the "Smells Like Teen Spirit isolated vocal track, vocals only" video here on YouTube. You never heard all that reverb on his voice in the original album either, but listen to how it sounds like he's in a giant room. He's not, that's reverb, and that's why it's on the end of some lines, trailing off into the silence, and completely non existent at the ends of others. Like I said, we do this all over the track to trick your mind into staying focused on the song. No two measures of any song are the same, even the choruses have slight variations that you can't hear that keep your brain locked into them.

The "secret guitar" you can hear is a layer to add depth to the main guitar sound you hear on the record.  If you have seen the numerous Nirvana documentaries the producer of nevermind explains they used around three or four layers to add a deeper, grungier sound

I was about to comment it’s the bass till I read the description

2:56 its main riff but better....

what's with Kurt clearing his throat at 1:45

The throat clearing at 1:45 is very grunge. Thanks for sharing this

This is one of the reasons why Nevermind sounds so deep and polished, it's a real radio album. I love it.

I always thought there was another guitar layer on this track, guitars sounds way too full (in a good way) in the chorus. Glad you solved the mystery, thanks!

I actually prefer this version, it's like listening to the song again for the first time

Almost 30 years on and I'm still discovering amazing things about this song.

in an interview the guy who produced Nevermind said that he would get Kurt to redo the guitar parts (by pretending that something went wrong each time or that he wanted to record it differently) so that there were multiple layers of guitar on the tracks

2:58 is so f*cking strong

This genuinely increases my appreciation for this track.

Incredible. I always knew the song had this haunted almost frightening feel to it, but I could never recreate it when I play it on my own. Now I understand why.

Kurt clearing his throat made me giggle X3

Kurt's moaning though.

Stumbled across this video during a brief, nostalgic few days of revisiting Nirvana. I’ve had the pleasure of meeting Butch, Recording with Steve Albini (and also attending a yearly party he throws,) and have met and spoken with Dave Grohl fairly in-depth. He and the rest of his crew in the Foo Fighters chose one of my hometown friend’s bands to join them on tour (Mariachi El Bronx.) Anyhow, The audio in this video is clearly made up of the dry tracks from the Sound City sessions. Vig and other engineers have released the session files to friends and there are quite a few people out there who have them in ProTools form, who can isolate any tracks they wish to make videos like this. Vig himself released several videos where he describes the production of Nevermind, and isolates certain tracks to show you the layers and discuss his experience working with Nirvana. A lot of people don’t realize, however, that Nirvana members were not pleased with Vig’s mixes of the songs he tracked for them. It was Andy Wallace who mixed the album. He ran a lot of the tracks through outboard gear, including stereo outboard gear for mono guitar tracks. The drum tracks you hear in this video are also missing the parallel compression he added that gave it that huge sound we hear on the album. He would’ve removed the clearing of the voice sound you hear during mixing as well while cleaning up the tracks. So, there you have it. The real man to ask about any of this would be Andy Wallace, and he is the one party involved who I’ve never met. Regarding the hidden guitar track you hear in this video, it was added as a sustaining guitar layer, to detract from the repetitive staccato nature of the primary power-chord riff, in order to help the vocals sit better in the mix during the choruses.

if this was the main riff. The song would still kickass