Dream Theater – Octavarium

I have to agree with those who say this is not a great pressing. The music sounds compressed, and I have a fair bit of surface noise. Not clicks or pops but just a low whooshing kind of sound that's audible in quiet ages. The soundstage is generally quite flat and not as wide as I'm used to hearing.

Musically, I find this album to be a mixed bag. There is great stuff here, like "The Root of All Evil", "Panic Attack", and "Sacrificed Sons". But I find some of the songs to be a bit preachy in the lyrics, with music that is trying to be uplifting but ends up sounding canned. I guess everyone has off days.

Maybe this one could get the Music On Vinyl treatment?

The music itself is spot on and a great listen as is the pressing. It’s very quiet with no pops or clicks. But sadly, not sure if it’s the mixing or mastering, but it sounds extremely…”crunchy” and compressed. (Especially on the Octavarium track). There always was a little bit of it on the cd, as well, but this release amplifies it quite a bit.

This record sucks lol. How did the band allowed this to go through?

Like most of the reviews for this pressing, I have to agree with them that the sound of it is really flat with no dynamics at all. Portnoy's drums are buried in the mix, even Myung's bass intro for Panic Attack sounded really weak.

I had no problem with surface noise on this record, i think it sound really nice.

dmstewart51502112 said it best. Cutting out a significant amount of the between track sound effects was foolish. They should of let it play all the way through then cut it off. The songs themselves (except Octavarium) are decent, just barely out perform the CD counterpart. Only distortion I had was the 2nd half of “Sacrificed Sons”. My favorite songs I felt was the vinyls strengths was “Root of All Evil” and “Panic Attack” those really earthquake my house!

The song Octavarium was an absolute nightmare. Did Rick Reuben snuck in while everyone was on lunch break? Surface noises was so bad I screamed like Crash Bandicoot. Ever drag a inflated balloon on a chalk board? It’s like that. Intro was flatter then A cups and muffled like a pit bull wanted to bark. Keyboards is fogged up with compression. There’s is no color or atmosphere.
James’s vocal sound stage got croak as if the Joker stab his neck with a pencil. Not trying to be funny. It’s that bad.
Overall this is a marginal pressing that should be avoided. It’s collective material for fans. Get the CD and you will be okay.

Edit: I strongly suggest to get the BMG club CD. It’s the best CD version to listen to Octavarium.

Hi! i just buy the vinyl, do anyone knows what the dead zone code means? is there any digital identifier in wich i put the dead zone code, and it gives me back info about the vinyl?

Pretty mediocre sound quality. They also cut out a significant amount of the between track sound effects.
Some else commented that they are there, but they are not. Some are but the most important sections are faded out without you ever getting to hear them… that included the ending of Octavarium.

I get that it’s hard to fit a song that size on an album, but still.
When every other DT album has had at least one great pressing. It’s very very disappointing that one of their best is also their worst pressed album.

Hopefully they reissue a totally new pressing soon because this one is a big step down from the usual DT pressings.

sounds just fine to me, tie breaker puts good press in the lead

Unfortunately, I have to reiterate what others have expressed here. Fairly flat sound, and although there are not many outright flaws like pops, cracks, surface noise, etc., it just does not have much in the way of dynamics. I'd ascertain this was pressed using the same files used for the CD.