Recording February 2022 - 33

What is the most surprising thing about
how Dream Theater works in the studio?
Jimmy T: Dream Theater is still a band that sets up in a
JIMMY T.
room together, writes a record in a very organic way, and just
sees where it goes.
John Petrucci: We weren't supposed to be in the studio.
We were shut down because of the pandemic, and we weren't
sure when we would be touring next. So, let's go make a record!
Typically, as the producer, I'll try to get everybody on the
same page about the type of record we're making so that people
can prepare and get things ready. In this case, we very
blatantly said, let's just see what happens and not put any limitations
or rules on this one.
Tell us about the new studio.
John Petrucci: Having our own space has been something
we wanted for a long time-one central location where we can
record, rehearse, and have storage and offices. The story of this
studio starts with the previous album, Distance over Time that we
recorded at Yonderbarn Studios in upstate New York.
Jimmy T: Yeah, it's a barn that was once a studio. Essentially,
its guts remained, the cabling and the infrastructure, but
the gear was no longer with the studio. So, for Distance over
Time, it was used basically as a really great rehearsal room. I
had set up a little 16-track Behringer console that was feeding
their ears, and multi-tracking to Logic, and then the band sent
me sessions of what they were writing, and I spit back reference
mixes. Once approved, I would move it into Pro Tools as
a template to record against for final tracking.
We were then going to move to Cove City Sound Studios
on Long Island where Dream Theater has done a few records,
but there were scheduling issues. John called me one day and
asked, " Can we pull it off here? "
The room is beautiful, and a big advantage is that if you
have a drum set that gets to sit for a month in a room, it starts
to speak with the room and sound good. It's not like loading in
a kit and trying to tune it, and the drums are all out of whack,
and you spend hours on just the floor tom.
What additional gear did you bring to Yonderbarn?
Jimmy T: We had about 48-54 inputs for that record. We
got a lot of gear from Rupert Neve Designs such as the RMP-D8,
a remote control preamp over Dante, Shelford Channels, and
we scrounged and frankensteined together all our equipment. I
disassembled my studio and moved a desk up there. The band
had monitors. I had monitors. We brought that place back to
its initial intent, a recording studio.
John Petrucci: The modular mobile rig that Jimmy T built
for the Yonderbarn sessions is what started our new DTHQ.
Maddi, [Schieferstein] my guitar tech, was diligent about working
with real estate agents and trying to find the right space.
Jimmy T: We didn't know how much of a red flag it is to a
landlord when you say we're a rock band looking to move in.
When this place came on the horizon, it was just office space
in a warehouse.
What was most important for you
to have in your own space?
John Petrucci: Vibe is really important. We spent a lot of
time on the look of the space, the furniture and the colors of the
walls; it turned into a mini Dream Theater museum with photos,
fan posters, awards and whatever. We wanted a great system
to sit and listen to records on, and we wanted a great vibe in the
control room. The only thing that wasn't fully realized when we
moved in was a big live room space. That's something you don't
necessarily find in an office space that you do get in barns and
studios. We recently acquired the warehouse unit next door. So,
we're going to do that build-out.
Jimmy T: The current 250 square foot live room is
tight-it was tuned and soundproofed and it sounds really
good. You're not going to get that 'big room sound' for
drums, but you can get a great, even sound dialed in and
then process it to be explosive with a big room vibe or just
a great tight-sounding kit.
John Petrucci: My solo album Terminal Velocity, Liquid
Tension Experiment 3, and A View from the Top Of
The World were all done in there, and those drums sound
awesome. It's more of an issue of elbow room.
I heard that singer James LaBrie had
to Zoom with you guys at first?
John Petrucci: He lives in Canada, and at the time, he
could not come to the U.S. because of travel restrictions, but
he has a studio that he recently built in his house. He was
getting a stereo feed from us, he was on a screen through
zoom, and he loved it.
What is the composition process like?
John Petrucci: It is a collective process. We will discuss
the direction and talk about what kind of song it will be.
Then somebody might have an idea to start us off. We are
always making lists and collecting little seeds. Sometimes a
song grows from that seed, and sometimes it doesn't, but
we'll develop another idea that springs off of it.
RECORDING February 2022 33
Recording February 2022

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