# Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence Drum Setup — Mike Portnoy's Double Album Masterwork (2002)

> Complete breakdown of Mike Portnoy's drum gear on Dream Theater's Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence (2002). Discover the Tama Starclassic Maple kit, Sabian cymbals, DW pedals, and the polyrhythmic techniques behind the 42-minute title suite and 'The Glass Prison'.

**Type:** Album Drum Setup
**Drummer(s):** [Mike Portnoy](/llms/drummers/mike-portnoy.md)
**Band / Album:** Dream Theater — *Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence* (2002)
**Genre:** Progressive Metal

## Overview

Released on January 29, 2002, *Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence* is Dream Theater's most ambitious studio statement — a double album spanning nearly 100 minutes of music, anchored by a 42-minute, 8-movement title suite that explores the inner lives of six characters living with mental illness. The album bridges the emotional depths of *Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes from a Memory* (1999) and the crushing heaviness of *Train of Thought* (2003), occupying a unique position in Dream Theater's discography where prog complexity and heavy instinct coexist in equal measure.

For Mike Portnoy, *Six Degrees* was pivotal on two fronts. Musically, the double album format demanded an unprecedented range of drumming approaches — from the relentless, autobiographical intensity of "The Glass Prison" (the first chapter of Portnoy's career-long AA suite) to the delicate, narrative-sensitive passages of the title suite's quieter movements. Personally, "The Glass Prison" marked the first time Portnoy addressed his alcoholism recovery through Dream Theater's music, setting the template for a multi-album autobiographical thread.

The album was recorded at BearTracks Studios in Suffern, New York — the same facility that had produced *Scenes from a Memory* three years earlier — with John Petrucci and Portnoy self-producing for the first time. The return to BearTracks gave the sessions a familiar acoustic environment, but Portnoy's playing style had grown more aggressive since SFaM, and a double album required him to sustain peak performance across two full discs.

Disc 1 opens with "The Glass Prison" — 13 minutes of autobiographical intensity — and continues through "Blind Faith," "Misunderstood," "The Great Debate," and "Disappear." Disc 2 is dedicated entirely to the 42-minute *Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence* suite in eight movements. The drumming required a player capable of serving both a metal album and a prog symphony within the same recording project.

## Gear Breakdown

- **Drums:** Tama Starclassic Maple (Midnight Blue Sparkle finish)
- **Snare:** Tama Starclassic Maple Snare, 14" x 6.5"
- **Cymbals:** Sabian — Artisan / HH Series
- **Hardware / Pedals:** DW Double Pedal; DW 5000 Hi-Hat Stand; Tama Power Tower Rack; Tama 1st Chair; Vic Firth Mike Portnoy Signature sticks
- **Heads:** Remo Ambassador Coated (batter), Remo Ambassador Snare Side (resonant)
- **Snare tuning:** Medium to medium-high tension — authority with dynamic sensitivity

### Mike's 2002 Studio Kit: The Tama Starclassic Maple Evolved

By 2002, Portnoy had spent several years with the Tama Starclassic Maple platform, and the *Six Degrees* sessions found him deepening his understanding of what those shells could offer. The midnight blue sparkle finish distinguished the configuration from the cherry fade of the *Scenes from a Memory* era — a visual marker of an evolved setup while the maple shell architecture remained constant.

Maple shells were the correct choice for an album with the emotional range of *Six Degrees*. The warmth and sustain served both extremes: the pounding double-bass patterns of "The Glass Prison" needed the shell's low-end mass, while the measured passages of the title suite required the same warmth to give quiet moments genuine weight. The double 22"x18" bass drum configuration carried over from SFaM, and the six-tom layout — from 8" rack tom to 16" floor tom — provided the melodic fill range necessary for the suite's eight movements.

The Star-Cast mounting system's isolation of each drum preserved shell resonance across the full configuration, ensuring that even with complex mounting arrangements for the double bass and extended cymbal positions, every drum sounded like itself.

### Snare for a Double Album

The Starclassic Maple snare continued from the SFaM sessions — matched tonally to the kit and calibrated for the album's dynamic range. At 6.5" depth, it provided body to cut through dense arrangements while retaining the sensitivity needed for the ghost-note work defining the title suite's quieter movements. The snare on "The Glass Prison" is tuned for authority; the same drum adapts throughout the double album, with ghost notes in softer passages requiring the drum to speak at low velocities without forcing overcompensation. Tuned in the medium-to-medium-high range, it balanced maple warmth with the tension to deliver decisive attacks on the album's most aggressive passages.

### The Sabian Artisan/HH Setup

For the *Six Degrees* sessions, Portnoy maintained the Sabian Artisan and HH series configuration from the *Scenes from a Memory* era. The Artisan line's dark, hand-hammered character was the right sonic palette for music with the emotional complexity of a concept double album — brighter cymbals would have fought against the title suite's most introspective movements.

The 14" Artisan hi-hats delivered warm articulation that the title suite required. Portnoy's hi-hat technique is compositional across the eight movements — half-open positions create texture rather than simply marking time, tight closed patterns provide pulse without aggression, and open positions mark the emotional peaks of aggressive passages. The Artisan's complex, layered voice made this expressive variety possible.

The Artisan 20" ride remained central to quiet passages. Its warm bell tone — used throughout the title suite's gentler sections — provided the shimmering, sustained quality serving as sonic punctuation between characters and movements. The HH Chinese added aggressive punctuation capability for the heavy passages of Disc 1 without requiring a full cymbal change.

## Key Facts

- Double album: Disc 1 (five tracks) and Disc 2 (42-minute title suite in eight movements)
- Recorded at BearTracks Studios, Suffern NY — same facility as Scenes from a Memory (1999)
- "The Glass Prison" opens Portnoy's career-long AA suite — autobiographical and personal
- First Dream Theater album self-produced by John Petrucci and Mike Portnoy
- Tama Starclassic Maple platform continuing from the Scenes from a Memory era (midnight blue sparkle finish)
- Sabian Artisan/HH cymbal series — last Dream Theater album before transition to AAX (Train of Thought 2003)
- Six-tom range (8" to 16") served the melodic fill vocabulary of the title suite
- Double 22"x18" bass drums maintained from the SFaM configuration
- Hi-hat technique varies movement by movement across the 42-minute suite
- Estimated kit value: $4,500-7,000 (2002) / $5,500-9,500 (vintage today)
- Estimated cymbal value: $2,400-3,100 total (2002 Sabian Artisan/HH setup)
- Bridges the narrative prog of Scenes from a Memory and the heavy pivot of Train of Thought

**Source:** https://metalforge.io/articles/six-degrees-drum-setup

**More LLM resources:** [Site index](/llms.txt) · [Full database](/llms-full.txt) · [Master FAQ](/llms/faq.md) · [Drummer index](/llms/index.md)

*Last updated: 2026-06-27 · Source: [MetalForge.io](https://metalforge.io)*