If you read interviews, a lot of the band members, especially JP and JM, actually liked the sound. In an interview, Rich said "Getting the sound is a collaborative effort. The main thing going in is, when speaking to John, we shared a similar vision. John has a very specific guitar sound in mind. I was up for the challenge of working with him on sounds. There were some days when we were working on guitar sounds until 2 or 3 in the morning. He kept saying it was like chocolate cake with all these layers."
This was sort of confirmed by JP:
"UG: For the "A Dramatic Turn of Events" album you talked about wanting to do something on a grand scale that was musically interested. Did you continue with that approach on the Dream Theater album?
JP: I think it's building on it but taking it to the next level. One of the things I really wanted to do on "A Dramatic Turn of Events" was to create something that was sonically very rich and high-def and powerful and I think we accomplished that. But on this album [n]I wanted to take that even further.[/b]
In what ways?
Get more cinematic with it and more earthy and aggressive and bigger. I wanted a bigger, more forward in-your-face kind of sound. I think that kind of dictated the sounds we went for while we were writing and recording and then ultimately how it was mixed. So yeah, it was kind of building on that but taking it to the next level. You always need to progress and to try and do something different and kind of have a little bit different take on it and a different perspective. But hopefully make it better as you go.
You talked about how you wanted the album to sound in the mix and for this album you brought in Richard Chycki. What did he bring to the final sound of the album?
From the beginning and the way we set up and started writing and recording this, the concept was to have all of the sounds that would ultimately be contributing to the mix. To have them filed in from day one so while we were writing and building the album we could really hear what it was gonna sound like and how it was shaping up realistically.
That's a very interesting approach.
Yeah, so when the songs were in their early stages, they already sounded like kinda what you hear today. So it was like Rich is so intimately a part of what's going on here from day one and it already sounds the way we want it, so it made sense to move forward with him doing that. 'Cause he was kind of already there.
You actually played the songs with the same guitars, amps and effects that you'd be using on the final recording?
Yeah, and not only the guitars but the whole band. Everybody's instrument was miked and captured while we were writing with the idea that if there were any performances that were great at that point that we'd be able to use them."
John Myung also said this:
"It was a real special record in the fact that it was just this really cool vibe, this real cool energy that was driving the record. I think maybe part of the reason was we started working with Rich Chycki, who’s engineered and worked with Rush a lot. So we brought him in for this record and he was an amazing person to work with. His knowledge of sounds and the things that he did to help improve my bass sound also played into it because a lot of what I played was because of how I was interpreting the sound. The sound has a big influence on how you play, the responsiveness of it and the energy you get from your sound. So it was sort of everything connecting and working out and, for me, it was how to get the sound that I always wanted. I was able to get that with Rich on this record."
If anything, I think JLB's comment is just a sign that they are still learning, and are open to feedback, so even if it is a sound that they liked, their minds can change based on what people who listened to their music said.
Topic: Dream Theater entered the studio in February v. No News is Good News (Read 485581 times)