Dream Theater's New Producer: John Petrucci

[Kotowboy]

Rick Ruban!

Rick RUIN

[Kotowboy]

Not Rick Ruin please, We all know how Death Magnetic turned out and World Painted Blood is not much better.

[tri.ad]

Let's not forget the sonic aspects - as far as I know, he produced all SOAD albums, and none of them sounds good (except maybe for the debut).

[Summers]

Tuomas Holopainen. 

[Seventh Son]

Billy Anderson would be amazing but I doubt it would happen.

[bodiesinflight]

Why would Wilson produce an album of music he's publicly stated he doesn't like?

I wasn't aware he disliked it...

JJ:
You were playing support for Dream Theater last year... How did that come to be?

SW: They... I'd never heard of Dream Theater, but I got an e-mail from the keyboard player, Jordan, and he said that he was a big fan of Porcupine Tree. He really liked what we do and, by the way, he was in a band called Dream Theater. I'd never really heard of Dream Theater, so for a long time I just filed it away and didn't think anything of it. And then I read... I started to hear a bit more about Dream Theater and I realised that actually they were quite a well known group. And then they announced they were coming to London to play quite a big show. And in the meantime, I'd gone out and bought the Metropolis album and I thought... not really my kind of music, but I thought, for what it was, it was very good. And I thought, you know, very good musicianship, interesting kind of approach to music. And I e-mailed Jordan back and I said, "look I know you're coming to play Hammersmith Apollo. We'd like to come and support you." And I got an e-mail actually back from Mike, the drummer, saying, "well we're all big fans of you. Why don't you come and do the whole tour with us." So that was that. And then we had a great tour and I think we reached a lot of new people. And we became good friends with them. So it was good.

He doesn't DISLIKE it, he appreciates it but it's just not really something that massively appeals to him.

[Mat JB]

Kevin Moore





...







Seriously, though, Steven Wilson or Devin Townsend would be fantastic.

[ResultsMayVary]

JP and Jordan.

/thread

[TheOutlawXanadu]

He doesn't DISLIKE it, he appreciates it but it's just not really something that massively appeals to him.

Dude... He doesn't like the shit. No need to mince words.

[sneakyblueberry]

Not Andy Sneap.  DT's music needs room to breathe, not over-compressed, mid-less drivel.

[King Postwhore]

How about Nick Raskulinecz?

[hefdaddy42]

I think a Rick Rubin production of a DT album would be fascinating.

I wouldn't be opposed to Shirley.

[emindead]

Kevin Shirley saved SFAM, but on the mixing side. I'm not really a fan of his job, tbh.

As for this Andy Sneap and looking at his CV, lol no.

[Fuzzboy]

If it wasn't for Devin Townsend's busy schedule, as was already pointed out, he'd seem like the best choice.
He's very good at producing both stripped down, and wall of sound-y albums.

[ariich]

John Petrucci and Jordan Rudess.

No. An outside ear is crucial.

I agree, but I think that they will continue self-producing the albums. As far as I know, JP wants to keep the producer's position within the band as well.

That'd really suck. As a creative person myself one of the things I look forward to is criticism of my work as I'm progressing. The best end products come out that way.

That works for you, but for lots of people that doesn't work.

I could definitely see JR taking up the other producer role (just having two opinions is already introducing a second ear, even if they are also in the band). If he doesn't then I imagine JP wouldn't do it on his own so they might step up Northfield's role from engineer to producer.

[bodiesinflight]

He doesn't DISLIKE it, he appreciates it but it's just not really something that massively appeals to him.

Dude... He doesn't like the shit. No need to mince words.

There was no need for that comment.

Actually the interview makes it pretty clear that he doesn't particularly dislike it, he just doesn't like it either. It's like me with loads of bands, I don't dislike them but I don't really like them either. I appreciate them for what they are all the same. That's pretty much exactly what he's said there. 

[orcus116]

John Petrucci and Jordan Rudess.

No. An outside ear is crucial.

I agree, but I think that they will continue self-producing the albums. As far as I know, JP wants to keep the producer's position within the band as well.

That'd really suck. As a creative person myself one of the things I look forward to is criticism of my work as I'm progressing. The best end products come out that way.

That works for you, but for lots of people that doesn't work.

And I bet many of those projects don't turn out as well. Aside from personal experience a lot of people I've talked to as well as a lot of things I've read about professional musicians/film makers/etc. have all commented on how hard it is to edit down your own work. You're right, some people can work only that way but DT, at least recently, seemed to have fallen under the initial "wow that sounds awesome!" mindset when you write something and then they would record it without letting it sit for a while. I've come across stuff that I wrote awhile ago and never showed to anyone and at the time I wrote it it sounded awesome. Probably 95% of that stuff has aged horribly.

In fairness though I'll wait to hear a JP/JR produced album myself before really judging if that is the route they're going.

[KISS 76]

Michael 'Elvis" Baskette of Alter Bridge fame gets some mega huge sounds.... Vote 1.

[DarkEternalNight]

How about Nick Raskulinecz?

This would be a great choice. Jens Bogren for mixing!

[wolfking]

SHIRLEY

Good God NO!!

[DarkLord_Lalinc]

Mix-wise, Shirley can do wonders. Falling into Infinity and Live at Budokan are, IMO, the best sounding outputs DT has had. And both were mixed by Shirley.

[hefdaddy42]

Mix-wise, Shirley can do wonders. Falling into Infinity and Live at Budokan are, IMO, the best sounding outputs DT has had. And both were mixed by Shirley.

This.

[Perpetual Change]

SHIRLEY

Good God NO!!

From the guy with an avatar of a very good band that does not have one good-sounding album, this means very little to me 

[emindead]

Meh. Bring David Prater (a.k.a. Havona) back with more triggered snare.

[Seventh Son]

I'd love Billy Anderson, as I mentioned before. He definitely would put Myung back into the mix!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billy_Anderson_%28music%29

There's all he's done, quite a mix of talented bands imo

After all, he's the guy that produced for fucking Neurosis! As well as other bands like Eyehategod, Mr. Bungle, Giant Squid (I know a few people here really like them), Melvins, and The Swans. Granted, that's nothing like DT's normal sound, but I think it would be interesting to shake things up a bit.

[DarkLord_Lalinc]

Meh. Bring David Prater (a.k.a. Havona) back with more triggered snare.

DT will record their drum tracks on a drum machine.

[goo-goo]

JP said in the Q&A he posted that seems that JP will still be involved in producing but he is open to a new producer if they like it.

I would like Townsend, Sneap, Shirley, or maybe Steven Wilson but all of them have a very long shot to be involved due to their commitments. We'll see what happens. I wouldn't like JR as a producer seems since I think there would be more key solos and unisons....

[MetalManiac666]

I'm open to practically everyone except for Rubin and Wilson.

[skydivingninja]

Shirley is an awesome mixer for DT.  I'm not sold on how good he is as a producer, but most of the FII problems were because of studio intervention, right?  Not just Shirley?  Don't see Steven Wilson doing it because he doesn't really like prog metal like DT.  As long as the new producer let dynamics shine and doesn't overcompress the new album, I'll be fine.  If I do see Rick Rubin listed as a producer I will cry.

[Perpetual Change]

Shirley is an awesome mixer for DT.  I'm not sold on how good he is as a producer, but most of the FII problems were because of studio intervention, right?  Not just Shirley?  Don't see Steven Wilson doing it because he doesn't really like prog metal like DT.  As long as the new producer let dynamics shine and doesn't overcompress the new album, I'll be fine.  If I do see Rick Rubin listed as a producer I will cry.

Not studio intervention. Record label intervention, supposedly. The record label wanted them to write singles, so that's what they did.  Shirley's production would have only affected things long after the initial songwriting stage.

[Jamesman42]

Jem Godfrey

THIS x e^infinity^infinity^infinty.

He produced Milliontown, and that album has a fantastic sound. Not to mention JR is a big fan of that album.

[pmigueljr]

Just me, or someone else likes the production/mixing on Pain Of salvation's Scarsick?

Not discussing the musical direction, as I know that lots didn't like that album, but I really love how it sounds. Maybe Gildenlöw could be a name...

[Perpetual Change]

Gildenlow's choice to self-produce is definitely the worst part of Pain of Salvation, and probably the reason why they were never have a decent sounding album, no matter how good the actual music may be.

[TheOutlawXanadu]

He doesn't DISLIKE it, he appreciates it but it's just not really something that massively appeals to him.

Dude... He doesn't like the shit. No need to mince words.

There was no need for that comment.

Actually the interview makes it pretty clear that he doesn't particularly dislike it, he just doesn't like it either. It's like me with loads of bands, I don't dislike them but I don't really like them either. I appreciate them for what they are all the same. That's pretty much exactly what he's said there.  

Dislike probably isn't the right word, I suppose, but the way I see it:

If I'm talking to someone on the street, and I say, "Do you like Radiohead?", and they say, "It's not really my kind of music", then I am going to interpret that, by way of gut feeling, as them thinking, "I don't really like them."

Either way, Orcus's original point still stands. If Steven Wilson has no interest, or like, or excitement, or whatever you want to call it about DT's music, then he isn't going to produce them.

[faizoff]

Just in case anyone missed it James said in an interview they're letting JP produce the album.