cartier and chris have an awkward moment
|
chris sets up the drums
|
robert, gabe and chris on the couch in the control room
|
gabe rocking out at the helm
|
bass rig
|
mike (studio manager) and cartier (producer/engineer) checking out the machine room
|
gabe looking so good
|
robert looking so good (his guitar has googley eyes)
|
chris looks wistful a moment before putting in his earplugs
|
chris sets the mood...
|
robert at the helm in all his blurry glory
|
finally, cartier takes over
|
blinded by the light
|
through the looking glass
|
it's all about the vibe
|
blurry snares
|
rock so fast your eyes can't keep up
|
chris gives a lecture on drumming technique
|
rock in action with chris in the driver's seat
|
rock is exhausting, robert relaxes on the couch in the control room
|
gabe mcelwain kicks your ass
|
yeah, that was pretty funny
|
three hotties practicing their arm folding symmetry
|
cartier listens as duff man tells him he has new email
|
gabe updates the studio log, chris has been described as video games
|
yes, we're nerds. sorry.
|
and... pose
|
bass punches on day 3
|
more bass punches on day 3
|
what did i just say?
|
cartier loves having his picture taken
|
cartier listening for tones
|
robert overdubs
|
nilay and loren drop by to say hello and gawk at the gear
|
nilay can't get enough of the robert, or the live room
|
chris is pondering something you wouldn't understand, and looking so good
|
loren listens carefully
|
he may not be our drummer, but that doesn't mean he can't dream
|
but he doesn't like being caught dreaming
|
travis does guitar overdubs
|
no thanks, i couldn't possibly
|
lenny h does a quick vocal take
|
again, with a little more feeling
|
when we get back to nilay's at the end of day 3, chris and gabe are feeling frisky. loren is feeling crushed.
|
good morning starshine. the earth says hello.
|
drums
|
gabe's headphone amp
|
travis's guitar rig - a fender twin, an akg 414, a royer 121, and a shure sm57
|
did we mention that the amp has a cat and a horseshoe on it? you're damn right it does.
|
robert's guitar rig - a marshal cab, a shure sm57 and an akg 414
|
that's a lot of amps
|
another shot of the bass rig - ampeg tube amp, and a blue mouse (mic)
|
an organ we didn't use and a coles ribbon mic
|
that's a neumann something or other over the crash
|
a neumann something or other on the kick, plus the speaker from a yamaha ns10 studio monitor being used as a microphone
|
racks of gear
|
more racks of gear
|
this is tuesday jan 6th, the day the guitars came down. cartier mic's up the marshall cab that we broke and fixed again.
|
robert, always diligent, multitasking
|
even very late at night, cartier's always ready to rawk
|
robert pours over the menu trying to stave off the shakes
|
i'm not sure who was quicker on the draw, but man we're dorky.
|
robert tunes up loren's guitar
|
can i just say that i really wish i owned this pedal? i don't think we used it, but damn. so many knobs!
|
and of course, being in wisconsin, someone had to have the 'big cheese'
|
this photo was taken at approximately 4am, showing cartier's flagging but still devoted interest in rocking.
|
at 5:30am, we began the drive home. what the hell is that on the horizon? the sun? oh crap.
|
this was taken at sunrise, somewhere around 6:30. i had no idea there was a 6:30 in the morning too.
|
this is what our eyes were actually seeing at about 7:00
|
robert made this face the whole way home, even when he was sleeping while travis drove. it wasn't pretty.
|
welcome to hayloft studios
|
we did all of the vocal overdubs here to save time and travel.
|
travis singing at cartier's hayloft studios. the first time we were here, it was 35 degrees inside, and 2 degrees outside. we sang like angels. frozen angels.
|
oooooh.... can you feel the vibe? i!d!m! can. so can that neumann tube mic.
|
this mofo can edit audio like you wouldn't believe. he'd use it to pick up chicks if his rig was easier to carry around. or if chicks actually cared about those sorts of skillz. dag, yo. it's a cruel world.
|
robert rocks out in the vocal booth. we are going to pretend that this wasn't staged.
|
this wasn't staged either &
|
robert decides he's had enough
|
cartier needs the vibe to edit and push buttons as well
|
but he can still laugh about it.
|
is that a lava lamp? damn, girl.
|
robert relaxes in the control room
|
how many times did we take pictures of each other taking a picture? too damn many. man, we're dorks.
|
always ready to rock, that cartier
|
work continues on the secret track. but you didn't hear that from me. nor did you hear it from neckface.
|
|
|
|
|
this was some really amazing novelty pizza from ian's. avacado, black beans, feta and tomatoes. wow.
|
cartier digs into some novelty pizza too.
|
let me tell you something about nilay. he rides a scooter around law school. that's right. a scooter.
|
nilay's scooter in action.
|
he's not embarrassed at all. i promise.
|
so here's the deal with our time mixing. the computer in the 'a' room broke. after 6-8 hours of not being able to fix it, it was deemed hopeless until hardware could be replaced. we had to move the whole pro tools rig from the upstairs 'b' room downstairs and connect it all in with the 'a' room's deal. what an ordeal.
|
cartier unplugs
|
cartier and mike are putting humpty dumpty back together again.
|
hey, it turns on!
|
finally, we get everything straightened out. the mixing begins
|
we do not swear in idm. seriously.
|
that's a lot of patching.
|
two words: space echo.
|
robert takes a break to play a beautiful old martin guitar
|
can i just say that i love that mixing board? cartier brought his own pair of monitors to supplement the ns-10's and the b and w's.
|
this is the automation on the mixing board. cartier came up with a working title for the album here, if you look closely.
|
mixing down idm onto 1/2 inch tape
|
robert takes advantage of the live room to play with himself. what?
|
cartier knows some smoking tricks.
|
if you flip through these next three pictures, it's almost like being there, watching cartier work his magic.
|
|
|
robert rocks out on the couch. in the foreground you'll see a really really old compressor, and a really amazing modern device we like to call the 'telephone'.
|
you might have noticed that i'm not in any of these pictures. that's because i was taking them. now you get to see several pictures of me taken by me.
|
scrunching my face is fun.
|
looking so good.
|
pretending i'm not taking my own picture. pretty convincing, no?
|
mixing down ace aviatrix. so cool.
|
how many terminal windows can you have open at once, robert?
|
is that a gold record for pisces iscariot in the background? why yes, timmy. it certainly is.
|
checking the mixes in cartier's car.
|
robert didn't get shotgun. he wasn't happy about it.
|
