Just checked out 'The Shattered Fortress' from BtFW, and yeah, that snare is great. I hope they use something like that for the new album.
Although, I sincerely hope JP doesn't use that mess of a guitar tone. Those lower notes are basically indistinguishable.
Yeah. Give me BTFW's drums and Train Of Thought's guitar, along with audible non-muddy bass and...well, I can't say I've ever really had issues with how Jordan's been produced.
Yeah, I also hope for a better drums sound this time around. I've had my opinions of Mike Portnoy but one thing I always thought he brought to the table was GREAT sounding drums, at least from Awake and forward. Always really clear, massive and you can hear every little nuance in his playing.
Not so much with Mike Mangini. A lot of the brilliant things he's doing gets lost and I can only hear them if I'm really trying to listen for it.
Couple things here:
Agreed, MP generally sounded good. Every now and then, he'd have something off on an album (the ACOS snare is too thin, sometimes the kicks had too many overtones), but the clarity and nuances were quite clear. One of the very few drummers who I can immediately pick out, just on cymbal sound alone. The only drawback with MP's sound was the toms, which always seemed a little...punchless? Maybe that's not the right word. They always came off a bit trebly and muffled to me compared to the kick and snare. But I'm guessing that's more a matter of taste than oversight on his part, especially given how consistent that sound was.
The second thing, of course, is that a big difference between MP and MM is that MP produced while MM didn't. Part of the reason you can hear every nuance in MP's playing is that his production was designed to bring out those nuances. With all due respect to JP and Chycki, it's hard to imagine MM's parts are given the same scrutiny on the production side. When they finally got it right on BTFW, I don't think Mangini's any less clear than Portnoy. If anything, he's clearer, I'd think, though I'd have to do a side-by-side comparison to stand behind that claim with authority.
Was the awful DT12 snare a result of the drum itself or the production?
It has little to do with the drum itself, with proper setup and production, even a 'cheap' snare can sound great (conversely, a hi-end, top of the line snare can be made to sound like a tin can, as it so often happens). I'd say tuning is the most crucial factor when it comes to the DT12 snare. It was tuned really low, thus it doesn't have the crispness and crack that snare drums usually do. It was also muffled a lot, so it's really dry, with a short attack, no ringing and no overtones. Overall, I don't have much of a problem with it, but it's kind of dull, in the end. A really nice example of a crisp, organic and lively snare (with some pleasant overtones and lots of dynamics) is the FII snare, it's especially conspicuous at the beginning of Trial of Tears. I'm really hoping for a FII sounding album next time around.
Thanks for clarifying--this was basically what I thought but I wasn't fully sure. So clearly it's more a production thing than an equipment (or even playing) thing--hence the massive sound difference between BTFW and ADTOE/LALP/DT. So overall, to place the blame on Mangini for the sound issues with the drums on the two studio albums, while not completely erroneous, seems to be a significant overreach at the least. And I do like the FII snare as well. MP also had good snare sound on Awake and from ToT through his exit. It got a bit dry in the SFAM-SDOIT era and ACOS was an odd misstep, but otherwise (I&W samples disregarded, since that's not really him), he was pretty consistent with the snare. Not my favorite snare sound by any stretch, but comfortably above average.