DT15: A View From The Top Of The World (Timeline for DT15)

[Lonk]

Wait, how do we know this? I'd find it hilarious if there were a photo of the four guys playing in the studio, and then LaBrie's face looms over on a big screen. 

Found this from December:

"Right now, in Dream Theater lab - we're writing another album. I didn't want to go down to the States, even though I love the States, because it's brought me everything that I have today.

"I'm not saying that and trying to be funny, I'm being sincere when I say that. I've made my career because I met these guys from America and because I'm in an American band.

"I've had an incredible career because of it but I said to the guys, 'Guys, I don't want to come down there; I don't want to fly, I don't want to do anything like that. I want to stay isolated because I'm reading horror stories about people losing their voice box when they get this [Covid], and their lungs are compromised and I can't do that.'

"So I'm coming in every day when we're writing by Zoom, so they have this great big TV on the wall with my big fuck shot on it, and those four guys are in the studio.

"So those four guys are together at the Dream Theater Headquarters - it's our own studio, warehouse, whatever. And so that's how we communicate every day.
together amazingly."

https://www.ultimate-guitar.com/news/general_music_news/james_labrie_announces_dream_theater_is_writing_new_album_without_him_in_the_studio_were_writing_by_zoom.html

[Mladen]

Brilliant. 

[Kotowboy]

k

Either you're not great dealing with contrary opinions to yours (the MM and his playing style "debates" we've had as of recent come to mind) or you just like to be childish in your ways of receiving and responding to such opinions. Take it easy, dude. It's an internet forum.

Octavarium was 24 minutes.

In The Presence of Enemies is 25 minutes

Count of Tuscany is JUST shy of 20 minutes

Illumination theory is 22 minutes

So i'm not sure what YOUR point is... "LOL"

I'm saying I'm glad they mostly ditched the long songs around the 20 minute mark as the 8 - 9 track albums with a huge song at the end template was getting tired.

And that Illumination theory in particular sounded like idea soup with no flow and just riff after riff after riff to pad it out to over 20 mins.

And it even had a reprise of the ambient section from Count Of Tuscany. Although the string section was great - the song didn't need to be 22 minutes long.

[kirksnosehair]

k

Either you're not great dealing with contrary opinions to yours (the MM and his playing style "debates" we've had as of recent come to mind) or you just like to be childish in your ways of receiving and responding to such opinions. Take it easy, dude. It's an internet forum.

Octavarium was 24 minutes.

In The Presence of Enemies is 25 minutes

Count of Tuscany is JUST shy of 20 minutes

Illumination theory is 22 minutes

So i'm not sure what YOUR point is... "LOL"

OK, but you just listed 4 long songs as an "argument" to this:

DT has only had a 20+ minute song on 4 out of their 14 albums

He has a point

[Kotowboy]

 

What is not to understand ? I'm saying *I AM GLAD* they stopped putting the roughly 20 minute song on their albums.

Octavarium, Systematic, Black Clouds and DT12 all have them.

Which is 4 out of the last 7 albums they have put out...

And I.T. in particular sounded like a patchwork of ideas rather than a song.

[Cool Chris]

So I'm coming in every day when we're writing by Zoom, so they have this great big TV on the wall with my big fuck shot on it...

What? Is something lost in Canadian translation here?

[sam1oq]

New to this forum, please be gentle with me . I have some opinions/hopes on the new album.

No matter what happens musically, I just hope DT15 won't suffer from brick wall production and bad autotune like DoT did. I still find it hard to listen to that album because of that even though it's great musically.

[Max Kuehnau]

The album is "motoring along" according to a post by Mike today. (whatever that may mean at this point. Anyway. Nice it goes on really.)

[gzarruk]

I guess keyboards tracks will be finished soon, but then James needs to record his vocals, and I don't think he's finished recording for his solo album yet.

[bosk1]

k

Either you're not great dealing with contrary opinions to yours (the MM and his playing style "debates" we've had as of recent come to mind) or you just like to be childish in your ways of receiving and responding to such opinions. Take it easy, dude. It's an internet forum.

Octavarium was 24 minutes.

In The Presence of Enemies is 25 minutes

Count of Tuscany is JUST shy of 20 minutes

Illumination theory is 22 minutes

So i'm not sure what YOUR point is... "LOL"

OK, but you just listed 4 long songs as an "argument" to this:

DT has only had a 20+ minute song on 4 out of their 14 albums

He has a point

Exactly.  I mean, the math is off because of Six Degrees.  But I'm kinda with Kowtow in that TCOT is "close enough" to count.  But still, in the grand scheme of things, that's five songs over 15 albums.  It isn't really a thing they were doing every album, or even every other album.  So I don't really see it as something they need to "stop" doing.

[IDontNotDoThings]

To be fair, three of those four songs were released on consecutive albums, but in general I agree.

[KevShmev]

And to be fairer, In the Presence of Enemies ended up becoming two songs, neither of which is 20 minutes, so you can't even count that one. 

[Peter Mc]

I think I'm also kind of past the 20 min plus songs.  I don't think any song needs to be that long.  Learning To Live is perfectly epic and is only around the 10-11 minute mark.  I don't think many of those super long epics are amongst my absolute favourites of DT's catalogue, they have their moments for sure but they also have moments where they drag for me.  There's always an exception to the rule however and that would be A Change Of Seasons, the first and still the best.

[Ben_Jamin]

The only reason I don't want another big epic of say >18 min. is the live setlists. What would be great, is if Dream Theater can fit as many songs as they can into the sets and bring back an older Long Epic, like Octavarium. That's one thing they could do that may fill some seats is not have a dedicated set for an album. For me at least, while I enjoyed the anniversary tours, it would be awesome to see a Dream Theater show where there is no guarantee to what they will play for the tour.

Oh no...I'm feeling another Setlist playlist coming on....


Edit: Just thought of something even better, Save the encore for the big epic and switch out which epic will be played each night, and shifting the sets to where you wouldn't know which epic they will play.

[Cool Chris]

I don't think any song needs to be that long. 

Songs should be as long as they need to be, however you want to define that. I do feel many of DT's longest songs are longer than they need to be.

[RandalGraves]

I don't think any song needs to be that long. 

Songs should be as long as they need to be, however you want to define that. I do feel many of DT's longest songs are longer than they need to be.

This is a great way to put it. I was recently watching the DT livestream where ACOS was the encore. Absolutely loved that song 20 years ago. Watching it again recently though...I was just bored. Meanwhile, I think a song like At Wit's End accomplishes what it needs to in less than half the time. Maybe not a fair comparison, as one is newer and the other I played out back in the day, but I would log them both in the "epic" category.

If there's anything that I really loved about The Astonishing, it's that DT was able to cover so much ground in a short amount of time (within a single song). I would love an album with 15 or so songs, personally.

[Zydar]

JP confirms there will be an 8-string guitar song on the new album.

https://www.ultimate-guitar.com/news/interviews/john_petrucci_makes_it_official_dream_theater_made_a_song_with_8-string_guitar_for_new_album.html

[nikatapi]

So yesterday i did an interview with Jordan, mostly about LTE but he gave me a bit of hint about DT.
His comments fall in line with what MM wrote about the energy of the album. Still haven't transcribed the interview so i don't want to give any misinformation, and he told me that it's a bit early to go into detail, but he seemed genuinely excited about it.

Also, he's still working on tracking keyboards.

[Setlist Scotty]

Great to see that news - really looking forward to your interview nikatapi!

[Lonk]

JP confirms there will be an 8-string guitar song on the new album.

https://www.ultimate-guitar.com/news/interviews/john_petrucci_makes_it_official_dream_theater_made_a_song_with_8-string_guitar_for_new_album.html

I know this was discussed last week from that video interview he did, but this stood out for me from this interview:

"When I got my seven-string, I had never played one before and I didn't know what to expect. The way I approached it was that it was just an extension of the range of the guitar...

..."That's the way I approached it. I think that when you hear the first song that I wrote with it, that I recorded with the band, it sounds like Dream Theater, it sounds like me playing what you might expect.

"It doesn't sound like I'm trying to mimic a style or a genre or anything like that. I'm just playing it in my own way, with my own approach. That's the way I did it. It was so comfortable.

Which is what I was hoping for. I know adding an extra string opens up new doors for different voicing and chord shapes, and it would be great if he experimented with that, but I am perfectly fine with him just using it to extend his range.

[gzarruk]

So yesterday i did an interview with Jordan, mostly about LTE but he gave me a bit of hint about DT.
His comments fall in line with what MM wrote about the energy of the album. Still haven't transcribed the interview so i don't want to give any misinformation, and he told me that it's a bit early to go into detail, but he seemed genuinely excited about it.

Also, he's still working on tracking keyboards.

[jonny108]

Recently asked Jordan about the mix for the new album.  He said Jimmy T is engineering it but will not be mixing it. I know MM previously said they were mixing as they go so who knows?

[gzarruk]

Recently asked Jordan about the mix for the new album.  He said Jimmy T is engineering it but will not be mixing it. I know MM previously said they were mixing as they go so who knows?

I'd take Jordan's word, as he's currently in the studio with both JP and Jimmy T

What Mike probably meant is that he (Jimmy) is making the basic tracks and comps that will then go to whoever is actually mixing the album. It's a lot of work anyway.

Now I wonder who's going to mix it. Two names come to mind: Andy Sneap (just mixed JP's album) and Rich Mouser (just mixed LTE3 and did the 5.1 mix for Distant Memories).

[Cool Chris]

I know it is different times, different technologies, and different levels of complexities, and thus the comparisons are not reasonable. But when I read these updates about who is doing what tracking, I recall reading that all the instrumentation for Sloop John B was done in one three hour session (from 12a-3a). I've never had a single 3 hour period in my life that reached that level of productivity.

[nikatapi]

Now I wonder who's going to mix it. Two names come to mind: Andy Sneap (just mixed JP's album) and Rich Mouser (just mixed LTE3 and did the 5.1 mix for Distant Memories).

Really curious as well. Andy Sneap did a good job, but JP's record didn't have so many keys on it, and i found the bass a bit behind in the mix.
LTE on the other hand has a pretty fine mix, so i'd be happy with something on the same level (even though i'm sure there are differences in the drum sounds).

By the way, when i asked Jordan about LTE recording in DT HQ and how the rest of DT were about it, he pretty much cut me to say "yeah everyone is respectful".

[Zydar]

I figured it must be kind of weird for MP to be in the new DT HQ.

(that was a lot of acronyms!)

[TM172003]

Recently asked Jordan about the mix for the new album.  He said Jimmy T is engineering it but will not be mixing it. I know MM previously said they were mixing as they go so who knows?

That's pretty disappointing, the Christmas song sounded great.

[Max Kuehnau]

a new post from Jordan: https://www.instagram.com/p/CL6yiuzgUBS/  his rig seems to be a bit more extensive again (which I like. The entire tour is one for his Patreon people only it seems)

[DarkLord_Lalinc]

He's got a Waldorf Quantum! That's such a cool synth that he hasn't used as far as I know until now.

[WilliamMunny]

Now that I've finally come on board with D/T, I am super excited for this new record. I'm beyond curious to see what direction they go.

[Thoughtspart3]

I am really hoping for continued improvement in production. I would even be satisfied if they released a different master on HD tracks rather than just the same master at a higher bitrate. Having an option would be great. D/T was an improvement but I know they could do even better. I have been jealous for DT to have the same quality as a Stephen Wilson album or even Neal Morse's new releases.     

[nikatapi]

I am really hoping for continued improvement in production. I would even be satisfied if they released a different master on HD tracks rather than just the same master at a higher bitrate. Having an option would be great. D/T was an improvement but I know they could do even better. I have been jealous for DT to have the same quality as a Stephen Wilson album or even Neal Morse's new releases.     

I think we're going to get a good production with this one, they've been improving with each album, after the muffled sound of ADTOE, and D/T was in my opinion one of their finest sounding records.

Comparing with Wilson or Morse isn't really justified though, as with DT you get much more dense arrangements and much more metal riffing, which will make the sound a bit condensed either way.

What i was thinking about, is how awesome Awake was for its time in terms of sound, i still find it to be extremely well produced, with space and separation, and great atmosphere.

[NoFred]

Awake is the one I've never thought about. So clean and DT. I never noticed production until DT12 which to me sounds like it was recorded at a factory inside a microwave with the ac running at full blast. Hurts to listen to tbh.

TA and D/T both sound good to me hope for more of that on this one.

[evilasiojr]

https://www.instagram.com/p/CL-YW0fg9cY/?igshid=1m5xgro467g82

Another cool wizard style pic from Jordan in the studio.

Is it me or the keyboard tracking is taking longer this time around? Not saying that as bad thing at all, it could actually mean either a lot of music or a lot of care and attention (or both).

[Max Kuehnau]

https://www.instagram.com/p/CL-YW0fg9cY/?igshid=1m5xgro467g82

Another cool wizard style pic from Jordan in the studio.

Is it me or the keyboard tracking is taking longer this time around? Not saying that as bad thing at all, it could actually mean either a lot music or a lot of care and attention (or both).

Not a bad thing at all IMHO. I hope both.