Dream Theater Score tone

[Bourque]

I am personally a huge fan of it. The dvd doesn't do it justice either. I saw them 2 shows before they shot it and live, JP's tone alone nearly made my head explode.

I guess this thread is pertaining to his rhythm tone specifically. You can check out The Root of All Evil from that dvd on youtube to get an idea. Killer sound in my opinion. I know he was using the 2C+ preamp built for him, the DOD graphic EQ in the loop, into the Rectifier 2:100 but I was just wondering if anyone here has gotten a sound close to that. TONS of bite and bottom end. Mean sounding yet super clear chunk with a lot of upper mids.

 

[reo73]

I don't know where you got your Petrucci gear info but I have never heard of him using anything remotely like that. 2C+ preamp built for him into 2:100 and DOD??? For the Score DVD he was using his same rig that he was using from the TOT tour on...Roadking II for dirty sounds and a Lone Star for clean. He uses an array of outboard gear for effects including an eventide eclipse and TC 2290.

On this last album he has made the switch to the Mark IV. Personally I feel the Budokan DVD tone is better even though it is the same rig basically but I prefer his IIC+ rig the most.

 

[visualrocker69]

I don't know where you got your Petrucci gear info but I have never heard of him using anything remotely like that. 2C+ preamp built for him into 2:100 and DOD??? For the Score DVD he was using his same rig that he was using from the TOT tour on...Roadking II for dirty sounds and a Lone Star for clean. He uses an array of outboard gear for effects including an eventide eclipse and TC 2290.

On this last album he has made the switch to the Mark IV. Personally I feel the Budokan DVD tone is better even though it is the same rig basically but I prefer his IIC+ rig the most.

Nope. Bourque is absolutely right. The green thing in Petrucci's rack is a IIC+ preamp built by Mark Synder. Since it has no GEQ, he uses the DOD graphic eq in the rack and a 2:100 power amp. So it's kinda a hybrid of the Mark IIC+ preamp and a Recto power amp... really unique tone. reo73, this has been discussed to death on the Petrucci forums... Also:

Ultimate Guitar: What amps are you using these days?

John Petrucci:I’ve been using Mesa Boogie for years. I have a few different ones that are my favorites for certain things. On the Octavarium record I used a Road King, as well as on Train of Thought (2003). I was using that on the Octavarium tour for a while, but I’m also a big fan of the Mark IIC Plus, which I actually used on Score with a rectifier power end, so it’s a little bit different sound. It’s not like a pure IIC sound. It’s kind of almost a hybrid of two different ones.

http://www.ultimate-guitar.com/interviews/interviews/dream_theaters_john_petrucci_you_have_to_be_prolific.html

I just found the pic of his Score rig:

The green thing is the IIC+ preamp.

 

[reo73]

LOL...shows how much research I have done on this and how frequent I go to the Petrucci forums. I stand corrected!!!

 

[Bourque]

No bigee. That would explain why you liked the tone on one and not the other though! I knew of that pic, I guess I should have posted it.

Thanks for the info dig VR.

So other than highest boosted bass frequencies you can see on the GEQ, I'm assuming that the low end punch is coming from the Recto? I don't even want to necessarily have that exact tone but the same sort of characteristics I guess. I haven't actually really thought of chasing it until I posted this thread but the Mark IV is not here so I can't mess around with it.

 

[metal190]

So how close do a Mark IV and IIC+ sound? I hear some people say that they're very similar, although I owned a Mark IV for a while, and sound clips I heard of a IIC+ sounded very different.

I wish I could see the dials better on Petrucci's 2C+. While I'm not looking to be a Petrucci clone, that would be a pretty great place to start! :wink:

 

[Octavarius]

So how close do a Mark IV and IIC+ sound? I hear some people say that they're very similar, although I owned a Mark IV for a while, and sound clips I heard of a IIC+ sounded very different.

I wish I could see the dials better on Petrucci's 2C+. While I'm not looking to be a Petrucci tone, that would be a pretty great place to start! :wink:

Here ya go:
This is something I posted a while ago with some IIC+ settings of his.

Try these (rhythm):

And these: (Yes, just read on the setting label on the Green unit, and try both settings. I think one of them is for rhythm and one for lead. Also use the DOD EQ below as guidance for the Graphic EQ on your Boogie. (FYI, The green unit is a custom IIC+ rackmount preamp.))

And these for clean: (Only from the top IIC+, which was used for clean sounds on that tour, the other two below were only used as power sections, so those settings weren't used)