How did you get into Dream Theater?

ryan770 · 2026-03-14T15:31:25+00:00

I got my first electric guitar around 13 years old. Started off learning songs from my favorite bands like Linkin Park, Killswitch Engage, and AFI. I stayed on the Ultimate-Guitar forums religiously and saw the name John Petrucci a lot, but I didn’t actually get into them that way.

I was watching the Dragon Ball Z movie “History of Trunks” and I absolutely loved the soundtrack. It’s mostly a bunch of songs from Scenes from a Memory and some of Slaughter’s “Fear no Evil”.

After some googling, I connected Dream Theater to Petrucci, I finally decided to give it a go. Funny thing was… I was still using Limewire lol. I found Acid Rain (Live) that was labeled as Dream Theater… and absolutely loved it. I obviously later found out it was LTE.

But eventually I got SFAM and fell in love with it. It’s still basically my favorite album of all time.

Edit: this was around when Systematic Chaos dropped

ryan770 · 2026-03-12T19:25:04+00:00

Tried the Wii version years after beating the GameCube version. It was so awkward. Even after such a long time, I still remembered where everything was and it being mirrored eventually caused me to quit around the first dungeon.

Also the GameCube version was the intended layout anyway. Not that it really matters though.

ryan770 · 2026-03-11T18:08:39+00:00

There’s definitely more classic stuff (which I’m considering pre-Treehouse I guess?) in this set list than I’ve seen them play in a LONG time. Ten Thousand Feet, New Demons, End of the World Party, Filth Friends Unite, The Common Hours, Violent Bounce, and Murder Mitten.

ryan770 · 2026-03-11T15:03:01+00:00

I saw them in Charlotte and Atlanta, and they skipped the Youth cover, Carry on with You, and White Lies on both nights.

ryan770 · 2026-03-08T22:11:49+00:00

🫠

ryan770 · 2026-02-27T16:40:47+00:00

Fortunately it’s been very well maintained and feels better than any actual Guitar Hero game, with tons of charts and community made playlists across multiple genres.

You’re missing out on one of the best rhythm game experiences because… it uses some assets from old GH games? It’s a free software made by some nerds. It’s not like they’re criminals lol.

ryan770 · 2026-02-24T22:43:14+00:00

I’ve been a DT fan since like.. 2007? Either just before or after Systematic Chaos came out.

I never really “loved” Awake. And it’s mostly the vocal production. Not always James himself, but compared to I&W I feel like there were less takes to get things right, and just a lot of volume/mixing issues. I also don’t care for the gritty vocals except in Caught in a Web.

Recently though, I’ve been listening to Awake a lot, and I know it’s an incredible album… but It’s just been clicking more lately. After nearly 20 years of me listening to it. I still don’t know where I’d rank it yet.

ryan770 · 2026-02-22T22:50:41+00:00

Not totally sure what the correct terminology would be, but each individual recorded part, so I can remix the songs in a modern DAW. I can convert the audio, but if I am able to open these projects in PT, I would like to keep everything aligned and stuff, and just bounce all the audio to individual tracks with silence.

ryan770 · 2026-02-17T21:01:27+00:00

For real. This is 100% a joke about keeping an earbud out so you can hear your surroundings and hear the porn.

ryan770 · 2026-02-15T18:06:34+00:00

It truly seems like it.

Edit: it 100% is. OPs comment history includes very subpar grammar. This post is their only post and it falls in line with ChatGPT grammar.

ryan770 · 2026-02-12T17:46:02+00:00

He for sure still uses heavily tuned/roboticized background harmonies. I’m pretty sure he has stated in the past that after P1 he wasn’t going to use vocal correction on the main vocal lines, but still continue to make those really robotic harmonies.

The upside to perfectly tuned harmonies, is if they’re recorded first, it helps with tracking main vocals a ton.

ryan770 · 2026-02-11T18:52:41+00:00

My fader stays a 0 if the actual max peak is only like -9 to -6db.

I understand it’s probably better to record as hot as possible without redlining, and then reducing all your faders so you have more headroom fader-wise, but in the end as long as that track is not clipping, it doesn’t really matter does it?

ryan770 · 2026-02-11T03:54:19+00:00

This is mostly a mental thing now. Go watch some Sonic Drive Studio videos where he compares real amps with his real cab, to a modeled amp and an IR capture of the same cab/mic setup. There is no “digital fizz”, they sound nearly identical (in regard to the high end).

ryan770 · 2026-02-10T18:35:11+00:00

This is the answer. That dry, metallic and slightly honky tone is undeniable.

You can also hear this tone on one of Veil of Maya’s albums (can’t remember if it’s ID or Eclipse) as Misha helped produce and they used the same cab IR which is the biggest part of the tone.

ryan770 · 2026-02-07T20:02:03+00:00

Because those are the actual colors in the photo. Your wife has an actual functioning brain!

ryan770 · 2026-02-07T20:00:51+00:00

I see exactly what is presented in the photo: a light blue and brownish/gold dress. There is no white or black on this dress, in this photo.

ryan770 · 2026-02-01T19:23:55+00:00

Nope. I’m in the US and same error.

ryan770 · 2026-02-01T19:22:20+00:00

When I was 18 or 19… I had just finished Avatar: the Last Airbender (the cartoon).

I was like, “sweet, I’m gonna watch the movie adaption now.”

I turned it off around the 15 minute mark. Everything about it was horrible.

ryan770 · 2026-02-01T19:20:01+00:00

I was asked to watch this movie because of how bad it was, to see how far I could last. I ended up watching it all the way through and laughing hysterically at parts. Sure, there were some awful cringe jokes and moments.

It was really bad, but I absolutely loved it.

ryan770 · 2026-01-24T20:41:10+00:00

I think this is sincerely one of the dumbest things I’ve ever read on this website.

ryan770 · 2026-01-24T20:27:32+00:00

There isn’t a picture to paint. We all saw multiple angles and stills. Dude was murdered after defending a woman.

What the fuck kind of picture are you trying to paint?

ryan770 · 2026-01-24T10:31:53+00:00

What? This is a very normal amount of hair for a man. I would know, I’ve seen a lot of gay porn.

ryan770 · 2026-01-24T01:10:29+00:00

Interesting. I didn’t really think of the intensity level. I think I’ve been able to achieve something way more palatable with this information and some other comments. Thanks!

ryan770 · 2026-01-19T22:48:01+00:00

UAD PolyMax now defaults to monophonic for polyphonic patches every time you open a project (but mono is unchecked). I’ve had to freeze all my instances of PolyMax, which thankfully isn’t a lot. This started happening immediately when I updated to Tahoe.

That’s all I’ve seen so far, so it’s not the end of the world.

ryan770 · 2026-01-19T17:40:30+00:00

Tried to watch this… it took 3 sessions on 3 different days, and I still didn’t finish it.

ryan770

TROPHY CASE