La Bête Blooms mixing concepts and process analysis.

When mixing both La Bête Blooms tracks (Low Hummer and Hole in My Head) I felt that it was important to find a balance between the sonic qualities of each reference track. My Bloody Valentine have guitars at the forefront of the mix, the vocals are much lower in the mix than those present in Lithium and Come as You Are. The drums are also much punchier in the Nirvana reference tracks and it was both of these elements that I wished to combine in my mixing approaches.

The drums in You Made Me Realise are particularly thin sounding due to the EQ settings applied. I believe this is so that the drums cut through the wall of guitars effectively, as the guitars are occupying a lot of the low mid frequencies therefore the drums would normally struggle to cut through the mix. I didn't want to take this approach particularly as I feel the recordings for La Bête Blooms would benefit from a punchier drum sound a la Lithium and Come as You Are. In the beginning it was stated that the band were fans of the drum sound on Nirvana's Nevermind, which in comparison is much punchier and more prominent in the mix. I feel that I have met my aims and achieved this balance somewhat and have tried to ensure that the guitars are the main focus of the tracks. I have tried to ensure that the vocals cut through the mix but are not quite as prominent in the mix as I would normally make them, this was achieved by increasing the amount of reverb and compression applied slightly, as well as the overall mix levels. Vocals were also double tracked after referring to White (2009) which added extra texture and power to the takes ensuring that the vocals weren't lost amongst the wall of guitar approach to mixing.


Overall, I feel that the tracks produced for La Bête Blooms were successful in my initial aims. I do however feel that I could have improved upon the end result if planning for the recording sessions was more meticulous. Although the greatest efforts were made to ensure there was clarity in the guitar parts recorded, I feel this could have been improved upon perhaps if I had recorded a Dry signal via D.I. bypassing the effects chains and distortion, as I feel the amount of overdrive applied perhaps contributed to a slightly muddy sounding mix in places. Cleaner guitar takes may have added more clarity, especially for lead guitar parts. The tracks were however relatively new, and La Bête Blooms wished to experiment with various effects and layers of guitars. It was my task however, to use my discretion as to which parts worked and which didn't. I did however cut specific takes that didn't benefit the mix.