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Since many are comparing The Gift of Music to About to Crash, I decided to play them on a loop on my commute to work. They indeed have a lot of similarities. I love how the differences in Portnoy and Mangini's drumming really show when you listen to the two songs. Portnoy loves his cymbals. Mangini loves his bass drums. Portnoy loves inserting fills. Mangini loves going up and down the scale with the other instruments. I am happy that we get to hear two great drummers with different styles in the Dream Theater repertoire.
I want to make the argument that they sound great both natural and triggered. I&W is pretty much perfect, but so is SFAM and they couldn't be on more opposite ends of the spectrum. It's like saying blue is better or worse than red.You could stick an iPhone in the middle of the room and record these guys and they could make art.gift of music is on steroids. Every aspect of their music and career is in there somehow. The musical decisions made, note/register selection is seamless and it's so nuanced on every level. JP and JR are like a singular organism at this point. I think this will be their greatest album, can't wait to see them when they come to NY. I hope they play radio city again!!
Does anyone remember the surveys they were sending out to us on social media about a year/year and a half ago about our favorites / preferences? I think we are going to hear the results of that on this album.
The fact that Octavarium won the epic polls just got me hyped.
My personal assessment is that the drums remain the weakest part in the mix. The snare is indeed gated with a ton a reverb on it, and the bass drum during the instrumental section sounds a bit like a typewriter. Better than on DT12, but still suffering from a lot of the same issues.
Quote from: wideworldofmike on December 06, 2015, 07:16:22 PMDoes anyone remember the surveys they were sending out to us on social media about a year/year and a half ago about our favorites / preferences? I think we are going to hear the results of that on this album.I haven't been following DT social media that long. What were they asking exactly?
Quote from: rumborak on December 06, 2015, 07:13:14 PMMy personal assessment is that the drums remain the weakest part in the mix. The snare is indeed gated with a ton a reverb on it, and the bass drum during the instrumental section sounds a bit like a typewriter. Better than on DT12, but still suffering from a lot of the same issues.I haven't liked the sound of the kick drum on the last two albums and it looks like this one will be the same. It's just too clipped for my taste. Not that it will take away from my overall opinion of the songs. It's just something I notice (with distaste) on the periphery.
Quote from: Podaar on December 06, 2015, 10:34:11 PMQuote from: rumborak on December 06, 2015, 07:13:14 PMMy personal assessment is that the drums remain the weakest part in the mix. The snare is indeed gated with a ton a reverb on it, and the bass drum during the instrumental section sounds a bit like a typewriter. Better than on DT12, but still suffering from a lot of the same issues.I haven't liked the sound of the kick drum on the last two albums and it looks like this one will be the same. It's just too clipped for my taste. Not that it will take away from my overall opinion of the songs. It's just something I notice (with distaste) on the periphery.I think they are going for an Images and Words sound for the drums. If you listen to The Gift of Music back to back with Under a Glass Moon, you can hear the similarities.It would be interesting if they would do a different drum sound (or overall sound) for Empire songs.
Only King could mis-spell a LETTER.
Yep. I think the only party in the MP/DT situation that hasn't moved on is DTF.
Quote from: erwinrafael on December 06, 2015, 11:09:57 PMI think they are going for an Images and Words sound for the drums. If you listen to The Gift of Music back to back with Under a Glass Moon, you can hear the similarities.It would be interesting if they would do a different drum sound (or overall sound) for Empire songs. I don't think there's any intentional similarity between the drum sound on this album and IAW, they just both happen to have snares with zero dynamics. It's not too different from DT12, just without the mastering compression destroying it.
I think they are going for an Images and Words sound for the drums. If you listen to The Gift of Music back to back with Under a Glass Moon, you can hear the similarities.It would be interesting if they would do a different drum sound (or overall sound) for Empire songs.
Ariich is a freak, or somehow has more hours in the day than everyone else.
I be am boner inducing.
Quote from: BlobVanDam on December 06, 2015, 11:15:37 PMQuote from: erwinrafael on December 06, 2015, 11:09:57 PMI think they are going for an Images and Words sound for the drums. If you listen to The Gift of Music back to back with Under a Glass Moon, you can hear the similarities.It would be interesting if they would do a different drum sound (or overall sound) for Empire songs. I don't think there's any intentional similarity between the drum sound on this album and IAW, they just both happen to have snares with zero dynamics. It's not too different from DT12, just without the mastering compression destroying it.My guess that they are intentionally going for an I&W style of drum sound is because Rich Chycki has already mixed Mangini's drums before with quite different results (Elements of Persuasion) and Mangini has gone on record that the EoP sound is an amped up version of how he actually hears his drums (his favorite mix is actually Mullmuzzler 2). If they are still not going with the EoP drum sound that Mangini actually likes, then maybe they are intentionally targeting a particular sound.
That sound is far closer to drums from other non-DT albums than I&W, no idea why you would think they were specifically trying to make it sound like that album but I'm pretty confident they are not.
Quote from: ariich on December 06, 2015, 11:59:48 PMThat sound is far closer to drums from other non-DT albums than I&W, no idea why you would think they were specifically trying to make it sound like that album but I'm pretty confident they are not.What non-DT Mangini albums sounded like the drum in The Gift of Music?
I don't think there's any intentional similarity between the drum sound on this album and IAW, they just both happen to have snares with zero dynamics. It's not too different from DT12, just without the mastering compression destroying it.
But Kotow is right .
Quote from: BlobVanDam on December 06, 2015, 11:15:37 PMI don't think there's any intentional similarity between the drum sound on this album and IAW, they just both happen to have snares with zero dynamics. It's not too different from DT12, just without the mastering compression destroying it.There's more snap in this snare than on DT12.
I cannot get this song out of my head, and that's a good thing.
Here, I isolated the guitar from the synth solo at the end of the track, so you can better appreciate what's going on.GuitarSynth
I think that if were gonna have a nomac vs real music battle, the bebot solo has to make a return
So it is to be assumed that the synth at the end is a NOMAC? I think that's really cool if it was the intention