John Myung

MajesterX wrote: AtLossForWords wrote: Squire and Lee have a great prescence regarding volume, but I find their tones to be nostalgic and awful, they're just too trebly and dirty. *Has a heart attack* . Honestly I think Myung's tone is average at best. He's a great player, but you can't really hear him. I'd rather have the beautiful tones of Geddy and Chris and their melodic lines over Myung playing the guitar part or a 250 bbm solo anyday. His early work is awesome, but their later work where he drowns in the mix and both he and Jordan Rudess play the guitar part is awful. I miss the early days when everyone played a different part and worked together, not them all playing the same riff until a mindless synth lead or guitar solo comes in. Train of Thought was the worst in that respect, you couldn't tell guitar from keys! I miss the melodic chords and progressions of Kevin Moore. When he played a solo it was obviously keys, whereas I've heard my DT fan sister say during a Rudess solo, "this is guitar now". I just wish he would play more melodic things and focus a little less on that awful lead sound. Well, back to Myung. One of the main reasons I'm not a big fan of Metal bass players (excluding myung) is that they play the guitar parts and are low in the mix. You don't see tuba players playing the Violin part, now do you? Sure, it adds to the mass of the music, but the bass player has no room to express himself. Sure they get a 10 second intro or shred solo every album, but that's not enough in my opinion. Riffs and solos get you nowhere in my opinion. BTW- Nostalgic means a longing for something, or homesickness.... Not sure how that relates to bass tones.

Average at best?  On Train of Thought and Octavarium, his tone can be considered average at best, but on Falling Into Infinity and Awake, his tone is the top in the genre.  It's full of depth, attack, and definition.

Beautiful tones of Geddy Lee and Chris Squire?  Squire's tone is alright, but it's far too trebly.  There's no depth into it, and it has an effect on Yes' composition.  The bottom falls out of the band when Squire is playing in upper registers.  Lee just has a bad tone.  It like Squire's is much to trebly, but distorted too.  Myung has a clear bass tone, undistorted, and defined.  The bottom never falls out of Dream Theater song, and that's because of Myung's bass tone.  He can play very high registers, but still have enough depth to his tone to have the tonic of the chord ring out.

I would like you to explain to me how Myung's lines are not melodic.  "Lifting Shadows Off a Dream", "Scarred", "Voices", "Learning to Live", "Take the Time", "One Last Time", "The Glass Prison", and "Blind Faith" are examples of metal's most melodic bass playing. 

If you studied Dream Theater's music, you'll find the bass, guitar, and keys differ very much.  Especially on Scenes From a Memory and Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence.

Rudess has some of the most creative keyboard tones of any keyboardist in any genre.  He's a definate breath of fresh air.  I'd rather listen to a keyboardist using a great variety of tones than one which that brings out the same old analog lead all the time.

Squire and Lee have tones that are very representative of the past, they give some character to the music, but I say awful becuase I'm not a fan of those tones.

Ivan_Melgar_M wrote: sleeper wrote: I must be the only person alive that has no problem hearing John Myung playing. OK he's harder to hear on  Six Degrees and Octavarium but he's more audible than most bass players on every other DT album, whats wrong with you all, I only have cheap systems and I can hear every note on  most albums.   Aren't you a husky?   Now seriously, Portnoy once said if I'm not wrong that he had to follow Petrucci because he wasn't able to hear Myung on stage.   Iván

my favorite DT member can never be heard, making me like Mike Portnoy related projects less

His bass is mixed just right... Wizzie hates it anyway. He thinks John Myung is a guy who works at our local chinese restaurant.

Yes, his bass playing is too low in the mix. You see his live performances and he's moving his fingers loads and yet he's gets drowned out by Petrucci and Rudess, it's a shame really cos he's an awesome bassist.

Edited by mr_johnny_lee - August 30 2006 at 15:58

I think some albums he's present, and on some of the later ones, he's not quite as well in the mix.....Octavarium he was fine though