Symphony X – The Odyssey

"I used an ENGL on The Odyssey for the rhythm stuff and probably a lot of the solo stuff, but at that time I had been using Line 6 live. It was so easy – you had the head and the pedalboard all contained. So it was easy to bring around.

But I really liked the guitar sound on The Odyssey and then eventually I just brought out all the ENGL stuff live and that’s what I use now. So I have the Powerball as the main head, and I have a Fireball, and I’m using a TC G-System for chorus and delay and all that. It’s split in stereo, so that’s why the two heads. And that’s it – really simple." Michael Romeo

"After hearing the album (The Odyssey) and using the ENGL, the things that I don’t like about all those amps is that you have your clean settings and your distorted settings and for us there’s always a million changes. I need this kind of tone for this, and that kind of tone for that… and with the Line 6, I would have like 8 different sounds for the songs we were doing. Then I didn’t really know what to do… I didn’t want to bring 6 amps out with me, that’s just ridiculous. Then someone told me about the Line 6 Vetta Head. I went…. tried it out….and bought it on the spot. I was a little overwhelmed when I brought it home. It’s not just one amp, you can put two on top of each other… and it can get out of control. You can feel that pump… that air coming out of the speakers. And it has all the switching. For me, that’s just as important. We have to go from clean to ‘this sound’ to distorted to ‘that sound’. And it sounds pretty damn good." Michael Romeo

"I used 3 different amps for the Odyssey - ENGL fireball, Line 6 Vetta head, and Mesa/Boogie Dual Rectifier. The rhythm tracks were mostly the ENGL and the Line 6 Vetta ( for different amp tones, clean, etc. ) and the Boogie and Vetta for the solos. The cabinets were Mesa/Boogie half backs ( 4x12 ). For mic choice and placement, I like to experiment a bit...but usually a Shure SM57 and a Sennheisser 421 - up close to the speaker ( the 57 a bit off axis OR off-center of the cone ) and sometimes an AKG 414 back a few feet for some ambience and space. Then into the Neve 9098s ( preamp & EQ ) and EQ a little to clean up the bottom end and get it sounding tight - I'll double track all the rhythms." Michael Romeo

"I used 3 different amps for the Odyssey - ENGL fireball, Line 6 Vetta head, and Mesa/Boogie Dual Rectifier. The rhythm tracks were mostly the ENGL and the Line 6 Vetta ( for different amp tones, clean, etc. ) and the Boogie and Vetta for the solos. The cabinets were Mesa/Boogie half backs ( 4x12 ). For mic choice and placement, I like to experiment a bit...but usually a Shure SM57 and a Sennheisser 421 - up close to the speaker ( the 57 a bit off axis OR off-center of the cone ) and sometimes an AKG 414 back a few feet for some ambience and space. Then into the Neve 9098s ( preamp & EQ ) and EQ a little to clean up the bottom end and get it sounding tight - I'll double track all the rhythms." Michael Romeo

"I used an ENGL on The Odyssey for the rhythm stuff and probably a lot of the solo stuff, but at that time I had been using Line 6 live. It was so easy – you had the head and the pedalboard all contained. So it was easy to bring around.

But I really liked the guitar sound on The Odyssey and then eventually I just brought out all the ENGL stuff live and that’s what I use now. So I have the Powerball as the main head, and I have a Fireball, and I’m using a TC G-System for chorus and delay and all that. It’s split in stereo, so that’s why the two heads. And that’s it – really simple." Michael Romeo

"I used 3 different amps for the Odyssey - ENGL fireball, Line 6 Vetta head, and Mesa/Boogie Dual Rectifier. The rhythm tracks were mostly the ENGL and the Line 6 Vetta ( for different amp tones, clean, etc. ) and the Boogie and Vetta for the solos. The cabinets were Mesa/Boogie half backs ( 4x12 ). For mic choice and placement, I like to experiment a bit...but usually a Shure SM57 and a Sennheisser 421 - up close to the speaker ( the 57 a bit off axis OR off-center of the cone ) and sometimes an AKG 414 back a few feet for some ambience and space. Then into the Neve 9098s ( preamp & EQ ) and EQ a little to clean up the bottom end and get it sounding tight - I'll double track all the rhythms." Michael Romeo

"I used 3 different amps for the Odyssey - ENGL fireball, Line 6 Vetta head, and Mesa/Boogie Dual Rectifier. The rhythm tracks were mostly the ENGL and the Line 6 Vetta ( for different amp tones, clean, etc. ) and the Boogie and Vetta for the solos. The cabinets were Mesa/Boogie half backs ( 4x12 ). For mic choice and placement, I like to experiment a bit...but usually a Shure SM57 and a Sennheisser 421 - up close to the speaker ( the 57 a bit off axis OR off-center of the cone ) and sometimes an AKG 414 back a few feet for some ambience and space. Then into the Neve 9098s ( preamp & EQ ) and EQ a little to clean up the bottom end and get it sounding tight - I'll double track all the rhythms." Michael Romeo

"I used 3 different amps for the Odyssey - ENGL fireball, Line 6 Vetta head, and Mesa/Boogie Dual Rectifier. The rhythm tracks were mostly the ENGL and the Line 6 Vetta ( for different amp tones, clean, etc. ) and the Boogie and Vetta for the solos. The cabinets were Mesa/Boogie half backs ( 4x12 ). For mic choice and placement, I like to experiment a bit...but usually a Shure SM57 and a Sennheisser 421 - up close to the speaker ( the 57 a bit off axis OR off-center of the cone ) and sometimes an AKG 414 back a few feet for some ambience and space. Then into the Neve 9098s ( preamp & EQ ) and EQ a little to clean up the bottom end and get it sounding tight - I'll double track all the rhythms." Michael Romeo