Recording February 2022 - 36

A View from
dream theater hq
super-smooth thanks to the big fat transformer.
Those were in an A/B pattern right over
the snare, with everything phase aligned. I
also spot miked the cymbals; when they're
clustered close together, I'll position a single
mic to capture everything. A big part of
the drum sound is your overheads defining
the kit as a whole and then adding in those
close mics as needed.
John Petrucci: Many of the effects and the cool ear candy moments are things
that we worked a long time on during the writing and tracking processes-it all stays.
In this case, the material was delivered to Andy Sneap, who mixed the record. He
said, " Give me all the stuff you like. " He didn't have to try to reinvent anything or
wonder what our vision was.
How many tracks on average were you working with?
Jimmy T: We were probably pushing an average of like 65 tracks. Most of the
sessions are consistent for the drums, guitar and bass. Some songs have a few more
guitar overdubs than others. Where it becomes more variable is with the keyboards;
sometimes we can get through a big chunk of a song on one patch, but sometimes
the sounds change every eight bars-then you have to decide whether or not two
sounds can coexist on the same track, or if they need to be split onto multiple tracks.
For drums, it was a decision to use a smaller kit. We were at like 28 inputs on the
drums, which is not much for Mike. In the past, we've gone as high as 44 drum tracks.
Then a few bass channels, a handful of guitars, vocals, plus the reverb, delay and FX
returns that I would send in the mix session.
Since Andy works in Pro Tools as well, I could send him a session and say, " Here's
where I left off. " I remove the channel processing like EQ and compression because
I want to give the mixer that freedom. But all the creative things stay, and this keeps
Andy focused on our intent.
There's an incredible sonic tightness to the drums.
Jimmy T: As mentioned, the room lent itself to a tight sound, and everything was
close-miked.
Can you highlight some of the drum mics?
The inside kick was a Shure Beta 91 with a Mojave 301 on the outside, and there was a
custom sub-kick mic that Maddi built out of a woofer wired into an old Pearl drum shell. On
the snare top I had an Audio-Technica AE2500, which is a condenser and a dynamic mic
in one enclosure, and the snare bottom was an Audio-Technica ATM450 small diaphragm
condenser. Then I put up an Audio-Technica AT5047 large diaphragm condenser as a
mono overhead about 54 " above the center of the snare drum. It has an incredible side
rejection that ignores most of the cymbal harshness and helps support the center image of
the drums and the snare. For the toms, I brought in some Audio-Technica AT5045 condensers,
which are side-address, kind of like medium diaphragm mics. The low-end response is
ridiculous, and the clarity of the top-end stick attack is really punchy. Then there was a gong
drum on which I used a Shure Beta 52 placed underneath, and two Pearl Rocket Toms.
The overheads were sE Electronics Rupert Neve RN17 small diaphragm mics which are
36 RECORDING February 2022
Any room mics?
Jimmy T: A couple of ribbon mics
spaced wide to add depth and a sense
of the room. Then I use a mono front-ofkit
mic, a Shure KSM313/NE dual-voice
ribbon mic that sits at waist height about
four feet off the kick drum. I'll hit that
with a lot of compression on the way in
through a tube preamp. I'll tuck it in super
low in the mix and crank the top so
that it is disgusting sounding on its own,
with a 20:1 ratio on the compressor that
adds an attitude underneath it all that
just makes the drums pump.
What was the bass chain?
Jimmy T: JMX has a new Artist Series
Bongo 6 bass with Ernie Ball. It's got a
split fretboard with two different kinds of
wood, and the guitar itself sounds amazing.
We took a direct signal through a
Rupert Neve Designs RNDI, and that was
multed into a 1073-style EQ and a DBX
compressor and then into a 500 Series
Suncoast B-500 bass prep module which
gave us some grit and saturation. I've
miked up a bass amp in the past, but we
really liked the sound we were getting on
this record during the writing sessions, so
we did not think to add an amp.
Does Jordan give you a
line out of a submixer?
Jimmy T: I took everything individually.
He would play the master performance on
his Korg Kronos, and then we would fire
that MIDI back out to the different synths
and patches and layer the sounds.
John, what's in your guitar rig?
John Petrucci: I've been fortunate
to develop signature gear with the companies
that I've played my whole life.
So, the amp is my Mesa Boogie signature
JP-2C, basically a modernized reissue
of the old MK IIC+. It's the greatest
stamp on the planet. For guitars, I have
been with Ernie Ball for 20 years, which
is insane. The guitar I use most often

Recording February 2022

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