Only Shallow Part 2      My Bloody Valentine Production Techniques 

by Papas St Germain

MBV had started to get interested in some of the processes more associated with Hip-Hop and dance music productions namely sampling.

 MBV, however, were more interested in sampling their own sounds and textures and putting these sounds back into the mix. This is apparent on the start of the track, Only Shallow, where the sound has been compared to” an air-raid siren”.

 This sound that is achieved is integral to the whole track and could even be looked on as a hook in the track so it is important to understand how this was achieved.

 Again, as with the other guitars, the original recorded signal is important but the processes used to further enhance and shape the sound into what it becomes on record are equally important. Sampling an already recorded sound is an important part of the process.

The following is a quote from Kevin Shields explaining how this sound was achieved

.” We chose organic sounds, that’s why people didn’t immediately go ,that’s a keyboard, even though it is."

 Shields continues.

 “ There are multi-layered parts to some songs like the opening of only shallow, with me playing the same thing 3 or 4 times. It was the usual rock and roll bending the strings type of thing, but I had two amps facing each other with two different tremelo’s on them.”

This explanation shows how a basic guitar sound was achieved but Kevin Shields goes on to explain how this sound is sampled and added to the mix to create the unique sound on record.

” I then sampled it and put it an octave higher on the sampler. ” For us, where the sampler had a great value was that instead of having the option to play things on a keyboard based on some sounds you could find anywhere, we’d sample our own feedback,which instead of just being one tone , could be a tone having bends and quirks in it.”

This way of working,was unique for a guitar band at this time and probably still is but it shows some of the ideas that shaped MBV’S philosophy behind making records and the track only shallow in particular.

 The basic guitar recordings have a distinct sound due to the techniques used in the guitar playing and this allied to the sampling of guitar and putting this in the mix creates a totally unique and distinctive sound.

The vocals on the track are unusual on this track in the way that they are placed in the mix. Instead of being pushed to the fore front of the mix, they are submerged in the mix and are really slightly lower than the level of the guitars.

 It is also quite obvious that the vocals are multitracked and although this is standard in a lot of productions, in the case of MBV there are several tracks of the same vocals with maybe a couple pushed up on the desk to give a bit of clarity to the vocals.

This technique creates a big vocal sound but also an overall ambience to the whole sound which adds to the wall of sound effect.

 Kevin Shields explains the technique.

” We’d take one vocal track that I liked and ever so slightly edge it forward so that the articulation’s coming from that. But then the sound and the whole thickness of it’s coming from ten or fifteen vocals “.

This is a deliberate ploy by Kevin Shields who had a clear idea of how the vocals should sit within the overall sound with the vocals sitting within the track as part of an overall cohesive sound.

 There doesn’t appear to be much separation between instruments at all.

 The bass guitar in the track follows what the guitars are doing and it’s purpose is to provide another texture in the track but it’s presence adds to the feel of the song rather than being a standout element . The whole track is heavily compressed which means that the volume of the track is fairly constant with very little in the way of dynamics even though there is a loud part to the song.

The guitars in particular are heavily compressed at source sound and thereafter. This compression also helps the different elements blend together to create a cohesive wall of sound.

The purpose of this method of mixing the separate elements ,is to create a wall of sound. This technique was popular in the 60’s with producer Phil Spector and also Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys.

 Kevin Shields goes on to explain his ideas behind what he was trying to achieve.

” Basically the art of record making is to create something that sounds the same no matter where you hear it. Most people make records so that they sound the same everywhere but to achieve that, you have to work with a limited frequency range. I wanted to make records that sound really different, the tiny speakers off a computer, or hearing it in a club, it’s still basically what I wanted, which is that the guitar is prominent. It was important to always have the guitars louder than the vocals. It’s largely just the fact that the vocals have a place in the music in a frequency sense and they don’t stick out more than some other sounds”.

It is this idea of a cohesive wall of sound  that has it’s individual elements separated by their frequency ranges which makes this track fairly unique in modern record making and mixing. There is very little left and right stereo separation in the track and it is basically in mono. The main guitars on only shallow are in the middle of the stereo image along with the drums vocals and the “air raid siren” guitar sound also.

This is quite unusual for a rock record in modern times as there is usually a lot of left and right stereo separation to create a wide stereo image. In this case however, everything is in mono apart from the rythmn guitars in the main loud part of the track which seem to be slightly panned but not much.

 Any separation in the track is actually achieved through equalisation and also reverb in order to place the various elements in the mix.

Equalisation in particular, is the main way in which Kevin Shields wanted to layer the individual parts within the mix. The intention , is to give each element of the track a frequency range which it sits in so that you know the presence of the part but it doesn’t immediately stand out or become obvious.

As  hinted at before , the vocals are treated as another sound rather than the lead or main focus for the track so they operate at a mid frequency that sits well within the mix and adds to the whole sound.

 Kevin Shields explains his intentions on how he wanted to mix in general and how his ideas relate to his admiration of 60’s producers Phil Spector and Brian Wilson.

 “ Everything I did is mostly mono- there’s no set area of separation. The bigness just comes from the depth of perception”, he continues” Pet sounds and Phil Spector’s productions were mono as well- it’s more the balance of frequencies that creates a sense of depth than stereo separation.

The drums on Only Shallow , are fairly submerged in the mix and are really not a priority in the way they are treated on the track. With so much going on in the mix, they really just keep a simple rhythm and hold the tempo which works within the mix.

The drummer plays on only shallow but was unable to play on the rest of Loveless so his parts had to be programmed.

 This shows that drums were fairly low on Shield’s list of priorities in making a great record at this time.” We had lost the Who-type influence and were going for something more simplistic, more pure.”

Overall, there were a lot of different studios and engineers used for the making of the Loveless album of which Only Shallow is the opening track. Kevin Shields insists that of all the engineers credited on the album (18 in all), only 3 or 4 made significant contribution to the final product with the main engineer being Alan Moulder ( whom Shields was full of praise for) and significant help from Guy Fixsen and Anjali Dutt.

            The role of Alan Moulder in his role of mix engineer on this track was to make sure that any effects processing added to individual recorded tracks didn’t adversely affect how that track fitted into the final mix. Moulder would also ensure that there is a fairly equal balance of frequencies within the final mix and that there are no obvious clashes of certain frequencies in the final mix.  As mixing engineer, Alan Moulder would also have ensured that the balance in levels between the recorded elements of the song was such , that no individual elements of the final mix stood out too obviously and that all the individual parts of Only Shallow, blended together as a whole. 

 It seems that most of the work on the record was done when Alan Moulder was engineering, with Shields calling the shots on production. There were numerous studios used for recording and mixing the record but the band encountered various technical glitches in these studios so their time in many of them was unproductive. The bands most productive work , took place at Trident 2, Falconer studios in Chalk farm, The Stone Room for mixing work ,Blackwing studios and Protocol studios in Holloway.


The track Only Shallow is a good example of a conventional guitar band stretching themselves and creating a type of music that hadn’t been done in this way  before. By using a mixture of unusual playing techniques, modern sampling, multi-layering of vocals and feedback and almost completely ignoring the idea of modern stereo separation, MBV  created a very unique sound which has gone on to be very influential on the alternative music scene ever since.

Next post in 2 weeks time will take a look at some of the production techniques used by Boards of Canada on The Campfire Headphase.

Links

sampledelicsounds.com