Leaving aside, for a while, all the arguments about James' voice (which I agree with), I think that one of the greatest issue of DT since 2010 is that they are surrounded by dumbass that deal with their productions, marketing and all that stuff around their music, making always a second-rate works. Dream Theater are professional band, working with very unprofessional people Take you time, because this is a very long list, even if I think you already know many of this things. Sorry for its lenght and for any linguistic mistake :) 1 - Hugh Syme showed all his laziness in the cover art of "A dramatic turn of events", recycling the same image of Circus Maximus "The 1st chapter". Did he thought that nobody would noticed that? Moreover, that image wasn't even an original creation, but came from a stock. Did he was paid for his "work"? 2 - Still Hugh Syme, on "Dream Theater", used some shitty stock images to realize the booklet. Pity he didn't paid for them, because you can clearly see some watermark left on them (there is a post on DTForum where you could see where they are). Then there is also the "black line" on the front cover, but you alreaty talked about it. 3 - Who is the douchebag who thought that it would be a good idea to glue the booklet of "Dream Theater" and "The Astonishing" on the center of the package? Because if you want to read lyrics while listening to the music you can't hold just the booklet, but you have to hold all the package. It's very uncomfortable, especially if you wanna do this on your couch, your armchair or your bed. ThatThat was a shitty idea! 4 - Let's talk about the "Breaking the fourth wall" DVD. When you put the disc on your player, it switch automatically on the "audio setup". Why? When I insert a DVD, I expect to see the main menu and choose if I wanna see the whole concert or just a song. Why did I have to check "2.0" or "5.0" everytime I wanna see that concert? That's very annoying, because every time you need to check that option before to go to the main menu. And it happen on both disc! 5 - Do you remember when they released the trailer of BTWF? They uploaded a video of "The looking glass" where all Petrucci's shots was out of sync wit the music .Many fans imediately noticed it, so the video was deleted the same day and then corrected. It could have been an excusable mistake, if it were not that it required SIX MONTH to make the post-production of the DVD. I know that probably most of the time was needed to re-record and remix James track, because his vocals are clearly overdubbed from the first to the last note. But in all that time, someone should have noticed that error. And yeah....during the DVD (especially in the final section of Illumination Theory) there are some point where you can perfectly see that James lips doesn't sinc with the audio. 6 - The orchestra is totally silent. You THINK to hear it, but also Eren, on a facebook post, said that he can barely distinguish it from the JR strings. And the orchestral interlude of Illumination Theory you hear on the DVD is not played from the orchestra, because is the same track of the album! I'm pretty sure they played it live during that concert, but, for some reason, that sequence was overdubbed with the cd track. What a shame. 7 - Now is "The Astonishing" turn. If you look the "Gift Of Music" videoclip at 0:36 you can see all the Nomacs being cut off from an invisible line at the top of the screen. 8 - Look at the credits of "The astonishing". How the f**k can you read them if they pressed them in white fonts over a light-blue background? 9 - Many people wondered why "A new beginning" ends with a fade out. The answer is simple and ridicolous at the same time: it didn' t fit on the cd! When they needed print the music on the cd, they realize that the music of the first disc exceed the limit of 80:00. And they realize it AFTER all the songs were recorded. WTF? No one took note of the timing before recording all the songs, in order to shorten or speed up some tracks and make them fit? That's very embarassing. But this is even more ridicolous if you think that they could just remove one of the useless Nomac's tracks instead cutting off the end of (IMHO) one of the best tune of the album. 10 - Speaking of autotune: have you carefully listened to the line "Father I will make yo proud, rest in peace"? Why did they use a children choir, if then they make it sound like a synth-voice machine? 11 - I know that you have a very different opinion but I like "The Astonishing" (not a masterpice, but not even a bad album) and I also liked the live show, even if that was anything perfect. Please, don't hate me :) Anyway, what I could not bear is the fact that a band like Dream Theater entrust all the graphics (charachters, backgrounds and animation) to a graphic designer that probably, in the rest of the years, works for software house like Bigfish or Alawar. The design of the characthers was nice, but, for one of them, it was the same image repeated over and over, just with slight modification like mouth and eyes open/closed, arms raised, and a ridicolous "water effect" to simulate movements. The bottom was reached when they showed Faiythe sleeping in bed...using the same frame where she's wearing hood and earphones! Probably you won't agree with me when I say that Dream Theater still write good music (Not their best, but I think that last 3 album were much better than stuff like Octavarium or BC&SL) and this is just my humble opinion. But I think that, not only James is ruining all their work, but also all the people surrounding them.
Thank you for pointing all of these things out! I guess all of this sloppiness is a consequence of Portnoy leaving? He was the "perfectionist" after all. I have also noticed sync issues on Live At Luna Park - James vocals not lining up with what he's singing. I wouldn't "hate" anybody just for liking The Astonishing. What I do hate is, as I call them, the Dream Theater lemmings or Kool Aid drinkers who will never utter a bad thought about the band ever, let alone admit they are showing major signs of rot right now. You at least will admit that much and that DT is being sold short by a lot of bad employees. On my blog, I have horror stories involving Rai Beardsley and Dream Theater's official fan club president, who we'll call Kimmy Boy. The bar is very, very low for what it takes to work for Dream Theater. Another big problem with modern DT which dawned on me while reading your post is that they can't stop emulating their gods Rush. Petrucci wants to follow in Rush's footsteps on everything. Getting Hugh Syme, since he did graphic artwork for Rush. Getting Rich Chycki, who worked with Rush. Copying the plot of 2112 for The Astonishing. Covering Xanadu. Producing The Looking Glass (even if it is one of their best recent songs) and Surrender To Reason which are so obviously derivative of Rush. I like Rush, but enough is enough. Rush themselves wouldn't have gone far if they just kept emulating their gods Led Zeppelin.
I agree with you about the Rush reference, but, anyhow, I prefer that DT try to emulate Rush (going back to the sound they used to get inspired) than try emulate Muse, Metallica, Linkin Park, SOAD like they did when Mike Portnoy was still in the band. :)
Speaking about Rush, you can point out that Neil Peart, when he realized that he can't play anymore like he did on his better days, did the right thing: he QUIT, and he did it before becoming a bad drummer, leaving to the fans a good memory and not giving them bad or embarassing performance. For James it's probably too late, he already did a lot of bad an embarassing performance, but he could still stop them, instead of continue.
Fake. This is not how it is in the album. I hate Asstonishing. I hate the DT money machine these days. Loved DT to death in the past. This is not a fair video and you need to take it down if you want any credibility whatsoever. Be fair and honest in your criticisms.
I remember this part specifically because of the pitch shifting. I don't think it's actually super exaggerated tbh, it was really obvious on the album.
Any audio engineer worth their weight in shit would be able to make a mix that sounded less robotic and more natural than this. Unless of course they band wanted the heavily robotized vocals as an effect.
Please, someone tell me that this video is not the truth because I don't want James to be like every pop "artist" that can't sing and uses the autotune. His voice is just as great as it is and he can clearly sing with an amazing variety of vocal range, why the heck he needs to use autotune nowadays???
Dude, listen to Scenes From A Memory, isolated vocals: HEAVILY tuned. Fortunately, you cannot really hear it in the muddy mix (I never noticed it). And since then, every album and every live album has been tuned/pitch corrected. Except for Chaos in Motion..
0:58 - 1:00 reveals a dramatic failure in the vocal edit. The album is an astonishing quantity of material. But fans would appreciate quality. One of the reasons I lost interest in this music group, despite being completely stunned by Octavarium & Systematic Chaos.
I dunno why people are saying it's fake.. it sounds like this on the album too... well maybe it is EQ'd differently to make it more obvious here I guess.
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This video is a bit exaggerated, but there is an audio glitch audible on the word 'time' on the album.
dream theater will go full T-pain auto tune next album, in order to sell out to the "urban market" while covering up labrie's "vocals"
Leaving aside, for a while, all the arguments about James' voice (which I agree with), I think that one of the greatest issue of DT since 2010 is that they are surrounded by dumbass that deal with their productions, marketing and all that stuff around their music, making always a second-rate works. Dream Theater are professional band, working with very unprofessional people
Take you time, because this is a very long list, even if I think you already know many of this things. Sorry for its lenght and for any linguistic mistake :)
1 - Hugh Syme showed all his laziness in the cover art of "A dramatic turn of events", recycling the same image of Circus Maximus "The 1st chapter". Did he thought that nobody would noticed that? Moreover, that image wasn't even an original creation, but came from a stock. Did he was paid for his "work"?
2 - Still Hugh Syme, on "Dream Theater", used some shitty stock images to realize the booklet. Pity he didn't paid for them, because you can clearly see some watermark left on them (there is a post on DTForum where you could see where they are). Then there is also the "black line" on the front cover, but you alreaty talked about it.
3 - Who is the douchebag who thought that it would be a good idea to glue the booklet of "Dream Theater" and "The Astonishing" on the center of the package? Because if you want to read lyrics while listening to the music you can't hold just the booklet, but you have to hold all the package. It's very uncomfortable, especially if you wanna do this on your couch, your armchair or your bed. ThatThat was a shitty idea!
4 - Let's talk about the "Breaking the fourth wall" DVD. When you put the disc on your player, it switch automatically on the "audio setup". Why? When I insert a DVD, I expect to see the main menu and choose if I wanna see the whole concert or just a song. Why did I have to check "2.0" or "5.0" everytime I wanna see that concert? That's very annoying, because every time you need to check that option before to go to the main menu. And it happen on both disc!
5 - Do you remember when they released the trailer of BTWF? They uploaded a video of "The looking glass" where all Petrucci's shots was out of sync wit the music .Many fans imediately noticed it, so the video was deleted the same day and then corrected. It could have been an excusable mistake, if it were not that it required SIX MONTH to make the post-production of the DVD. I know that probably most of the time was needed to re-record and remix James track, because his vocals are clearly overdubbed from the first to the last note. But in all that time, someone should have noticed that error.
And yeah....during the DVD (especially in the final section of Illumination Theory) there are some point where you can perfectly see that James lips doesn't sinc with the audio.
6 - The orchestra is totally silent. You THINK to hear it, but also Eren, on a facebook post, said that he can barely distinguish it from the JR strings. And the orchestral interlude of Illumination Theory you hear on the DVD is not played from the orchestra, because is the same track of the album! I'm pretty sure they played it live during that concert, but, for some reason, that sequence was overdubbed with the cd track. What a shame.
7 - Now is "The Astonishing" turn. If you look the "Gift Of Music" videoclip at 0:36 you can see all the Nomacs being cut off from an invisible line at the top of the screen.
8 - Look at the credits of "The astonishing". How the f**k can you read them if they pressed them in white fonts over a light-blue background?
9 - Many people wondered why "A new beginning" ends with a fade out. The answer is simple and ridicolous at the same time: it didn' t fit on the cd! When they needed print the music on the cd, they realize that the music of the first disc exceed the limit of 80:00. And they realize it AFTER all the songs were recorded. WTF? No one took note of the timing before recording all the songs, in order to shorten or speed up some tracks and make them fit? That's very embarassing. But this is even more ridicolous if you think that they could just remove one of the useless Nomac's tracks instead cutting off the end of (IMHO) one of the best tune of the album.
10 - Speaking of autotune: have you carefully listened to the line "Father I will make yo proud, rest in peace"? Why did they use a children choir, if then they make it sound like a synth-voice machine?
11 - I know that you have a very different opinion but I like "The Astonishing" (not a masterpice, but not even a bad album) and I also liked the live show, even if that was anything perfect. Please, don't hate me :)
Anyway, what I could not bear is the fact that a band like Dream Theater entrust all the graphics (charachters, backgrounds and animation) to a graphic designer that probably, in the rest of the years, works for software house like Bigfish or Alawar. The design of the characthers was nice, but, for one of them, it was the same image repeated over and over, just with slight modification like mouth and eyes open/closed, arms raised, and a ridicolous "water effect" to simulate movements. The bottom was reached when they showed Faiythe sleeping in bed...using the same frame where she's wearing hood and earphones!
Probably you won't agree with me when I say that Dream Theater still write good music (Not their best, but I think that last 3 album were much better than stuff like Octavarium or BC&SL) and this is just my humble opinion.
But I think that, not only James is ruining all their work, but also all the people surrounding them.
Thank you for pointing all of these things out! I guess all of this sloppiness is a consequence of Portnoy leaving? He was the "perfectionist" after all. I have also noticed sync issues on Live At Luna Park - James vocals not lining up with what he's singing. I wouldn't "hate" anybody just for liking The Astonishing. What I do hate is, as I call them, the Dream Theater lemmings or Kool Aid drinkers who will never utter a bad thought about the band ever, let alone admit they are showing major signs of rot right now. You at least will admit that much and that DT is being sold short by a lot of bad employees. On my blog, I have horror stories involving Rai Beardsley and Dream Theater's official fan club president, who we'll call Kimmy Boy. The bar is very, very low for what it takes to work for Dream Theater.
Another big problem with modern DT which dawned on me while reading your post is that they can't stop emulating their gods Rush. Petrucci wants to follow in Rush's footsteps on everything. Getting Hugh Syme, since he did graphic artwork for Rush. Getting Rich Chycki, who worked with Rush. Copying the plot of 2112 for The Astonishing. Covering Xanadu. Producing The Looking Glass (even if it is one of their best recent songs) and Surrender To Reason which are so obviously derivative of Rush. I like Rush, but enough is enough. Rush themselves wouldn't have gone far if they just kept emulating their gods Led Zeppelin.
And the "Brother Can You Hear Me" melody on The Astonishing is ripped off from "I have passed into Olympus..." on Hemispheres. Forgot about that one.
I agree with you about the Rush reference, but, anyhow, I prefer that DT try to emulate Rush (going back to the sound they used to get inspired) than try emulate Muse, Metallica, Linkin Park, SOAD like they did when Mike Portnoy was still in the band. :)
Speaking about Rush, you can point out that Neil Peart, when he realized that he can't play anymore like he did on his better days, did the right thing: he QUIT, and he did it before becoming a bad drummer, leaving to the fans a good memory and not giving them bad or embarassing performance.
For James it's probably too late, he already did a lot of bad an embarassing performance, but he could still stop them, instead of continue.
Are you seriously saying The Astonishing is better than Octavarium? I think you might suffer from some brain damage.
I completely disagree with you in ever way but Im still subbed because the stuff you post is funny as hell my guy
Fake. This is not how it is in the album. I hate Asstonishing. I hate the DT money machine these days. Loved DT to death in the past. This is not a fair video and you need to take it down if you want any credibility whatsoever. Be fair and honest in your criticisms.
hehhe YES!
i think the joke is that it's exaggerated because it's so obvious in the album
I remember this part specifically because of the pitch shifting. I don't think it's actually super exaggerated tbh, it was really obvious on the album.
Any audio engineer worth their weight in shit would be able to make a mix that sounded less robotic and more natural than this. Unless of course they band wanted the heavily robotized vocals as an effect.
Please, someone tell me that this video is not the truth because I don't want James to be like every pop "artist" that can't sing and uses the autotune. His voice is just as great as it is and he can clearly sing with an amazing variety of vocal range, why the heck he needs to use autotune nowadays???
Bea Magnano It's fake for sure, or at least exaggerated. If you listsn to the original, undoctored album version it sounds much more natural.
Jamie Lange thanks for the answer!
because his voice sucks
Dude, listen to Scenes From A Memory, isolated vocals: HEAVILY tuned. Fortunately, you cannot really hear it in the muddy mix (I never noticed it). And since then, every album and every live album has been tuned/pitch corrected. Except for Chaos in Motion..
LOL! This one aged poorly
ajjaja this is fake
0:58 - 1:00 reveals a dramatic failure in the vocal edit. The album is an astonishing quantity of material. But fans would appreciate quality. One of the reasons I lost interest in this music group, despite being completely stunned by Octavarium & Systematic Chaos.
Seems like "DT has not time for music anymore"
How ironic, how sad.
dude this video is a parody LMAO
check in 0:58 .... how it this possible.... nobody on the production ear that !!! .... is pathetic the auto tune !!!
its fake
Because it's fake. Listen to the album...
I dunno why people are saying it's fake.. it sounds like this on the album too... well maybe it is EQ'd differently to make it more obvious here I guess.
@@robinzuiderveld dude.... no.....
))) you are right!
Why are people saying it's been edited? Go to the official video for this song on TH-cam and it sounds the exact same :/
Nope, it doesn't. This video is exaggerated.