This video goes behind the production of the song Naked Thoughts from Lexene’s 2023 EP Misadventures in Love.
Interviews with Co-producers Robert and Alexa detail the recording process going from acoustic demo to full production.
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Acoustic Guitar
Naked Thoughts began as an acoustic piece. it was really important that the acoustic guitar part be simple enough for Lexene to play live while singing, but also have an interesting shape for the record.
The technique chosen was ‘Travis picking’, an old style of country picking famously used in ‘Dust in the Wind’ by Kansas.
The acoustic guitar was recorded in stereo using a spaced pair of Advanced Audio CM414s.
These Large Diaphragm Condenser’s provided a wide guitar sound with a full frequency response to surround the lead vocal. But I wanted to use another mic, a Shure Sm7B (mainly as an experiment) which ended up being perfect for the single note arpeggios.
The dynamic mic really fit those single notes, and it’s narrow pickup helped to focus in on the string nuance. This mono mic was only used on the arpeggios.
Acoustic Bass
We recorded Evan Klick playing upright Bass at Back Burner Studios. This was done as an overdub, after most of the other tracks had been recorded.
We used a Mojave MA200 Tube Condenser Microphone ~8″ away from the F-hole to capture the body of the bass.
In addition, I used an Electro-Voice RE-15 dynamic microphone, pointed at the fingerboard to provide string and finger noise. (super necessary on upright bass in my opinion)
Drums
Drummer Zac Gabriel was recorded at Auratone Productions, in Kelowna BC.
We really put Zac through the ringer, because this wasn’t a session where he was playing a beat all the way through.
Each section is very different and we had a strong vision of the sound we wanted coming into this recording session.
Once we got Zac on the right track he was able to provide some ideas that really contributed to the final arrangement of the percussion.
Most of the drum mic setup was pretty standard. Even though we kept it minimal in terms of the number of microphones, every mic we used was a condenser which felt pretty ritzy.
We used tube mics on the Kick and Floor toms.
On the Kick we used a CM49 from Advanced Audio.
The kick drum was tented with an acoustic blanket to prevent cymbal wash from getting into the kick microphone.
For the Floor toms we used a CM 67 from Advanced Audio. This microphone features a 9 point polar pattern so that you can select between the standard cardioid, omni, or figure-8 patterns.
I switched the pattern one close to omni to create a ‘wide cardioid’ pattern that would accept both toms. I would have loved to have a mic on each, but inputs were a limitation on this session.
Despite this, I am satisfied with the result! I hope this trick may help you out if you find yourself in a similar position.
Naked Thoughts Drum Patch List:
Drum Kit – Sonar Pro-lite 5 piece
Kick – Advanced Audio CM49
Snare Top – Samson C02
Snare Btm – Samson C02
Rack Tom – Advanced Audio CM414
Floor Toms – Advanced Audio CM67 (wide cardioid)
Overheads – Shure KSM32
Hi Hat – Advanced Audio CM1084
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BG Vocals
There’s a Vocal ‘ooh’ section thats probably my favourite part of the song.
To record this, I set up a Blumlein of Advanced Audio CM414s on the main floor of Auratone Productions. The open concept design, and high ceilings allowed for a big room sound in place of reverb.
My reference for this technique is the chorus of ‘Stay with me’ by Sam Smith.
I got Lexene to sing each part from various positions around the room. Then we combined them together to produce a choir like effect.
We wanted to push the haunting nature of the vocal production each further on this song, so we enlisted to help of Ian Small.
At 8:17 in the video, Vocal producer Ian shares his vocal production process in Ableton, as well as his thoughts on the role of a producer.
Final Thoughts on The Production Process
There were a lot of pieces from the Naked Thoughts demo that made in into the final album version.
The Lead Vocal was recorded in one take at Back Burner Studios with an Advanced Audio CM414.
Lexene wasn’t feeling enthusiastic about recording the vocal that day, but I insisted, in order to be able to continue fleshing out the arrangement of the demo.
Once we went to Kelowna to record the beds, it didn’t matter what room or which mic we used. We couldn’t get T H E V I B E of the original scratch vocal.
So we kept it! After all, why make silver out of Gold?
At 13:34 in the video, Lexene explains how the spur-of-the-moment performance allowed her to forget about the expectations of the project, and clearly communicate the energy and message of the song.
Check out Naked Thoughts and more on the MISADVENTURES IN LOVE EP by Lexene.
This EP was produced by the team at Back Burner Studios.
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