Steve Vai and Joe Satriani relied on plugins for “The Sea of Emotion”

Steve Vai has revealed in an interview with Guitarist magazine, reported by Guitar World, that the guitar tones on “The Sea of Emotion”, his first studio album with Joe Satriani, were largely shaped with amp-simulation plugins. The album is out on 6 November via earMUSIC.

Vai credits Satriani with the idea. He says he was stunned to learn that Satriani had used plugins on 2022’s “The Elephants of Mars”, admitting he had “a very snobbish attitude” about needing microphones. Satriani already worked with a bundle from SansAmp, Tonex, Brainworx and Neural DSP. Vai now mostly uses Neural DSP, though on a couple of parts he still combined his Carvin Legacy 3 amp with his Synergy module. His old method meant two stereo cabinets with three mics on the front of each, one at the back and more at a distance, plus stereo AKG 414 room mics, which he calls a lot of setup and work.

Satriani played his Ibanez JS Chrome Boy signature guitar and its gold counterpart, a Paisley-finish prototype and a Taylor nylon-string guitar. Vai used his Ibanez PIA and JEM models, including Evo and Flo III. The record also features a seven-string sitar custom-made by Sterling Ball.

Steve Vai is an American hard rock guitarist, born in 1960 in Carle Place. His newest studio album is “Vai/Gash” from 2023, according to MusicBrainz.