Hi Alex, Excellent job trying to explain what we did so many years ago. I will add another reason we did it this way: Joe's guitar parts were all created with a drum machine when he was writing the album. When we tried to use a live drummer, many of those parts just didn't work because the time was much looser. He wasn't going to rewrite the album so we went back to the machine and attempted to make it sound like a human with interesting results. Cheers, John Cuniberti
@@onemic-theminimalist John! Thanks for stopping by. That also makes a lot of sense. The recording certainly has a feel to it because of the computer-precise drums. Whilst you're here, would you mind shedding more light on some of the things I had to assume? Did you make the custom samples from a kit in the studio? Was there a sync pulse recorded with the guide drums to allow for the later replacements? You don't happen to remember what reverb and processing you would have used on the drums, do you?
@@AlexBallMusic A few of the samples used on the album were custom made with drums in the studio. I believe the song "Surfing with the Alien" hand all stock samples with cymbals overdubbed by Jeff. All tracks were recorded via a few Neve 1073 preamps I had pulled out of a console and put in a box. The record was mixed on an API console. I believe we recorded the midi signal on a track so we could redo some of the drum parts later. Reverbs would have been a Eventide 2016, Lexicon 224, or a EMT 250. I think on the song Surfing the drums had gates on the reverb, for that 80s' sound...lol - John
@@onemic-theminimalist Fascinating post! I heard a rumour that they ran out of 1/2" tape for printing the mixes and resorted to splicing bits of gash tape together until there was enough to print the album!
@@elshiftos LOL, not exactly. We mixed in sections and had bits of tape hanging on a coat rack. Someone cleaning the studio tossed some of them out and I had to go to a dumpster, dig them out and splice them together to finish the mix.
It's funny to read things like "the budget was limited so a drum machine was needed" and then reading the comments by John about eyewateringly expensive gear like an API console, the Neve 1073s and three reverbs that together easily cost as much as a car these days. Of course, that was just the studio's gear, but still - what a contrast.
I like reverb and kept using my personal reverb unit until it broke in 1998. I couldn't find anyone to repair it, and tried some other, but they just didn't sound right.
Then they deregulated - or actually “created” - the reverb market. First it echoed over to east-Asia (cheap springs), then there was the 2008 chamber crisis. Now, all we have are cheap plugins…
The hundreds of times that I listened to this album when I was younger and never realised they were using a drum machine! Incredible... The More You Know!
A lot of artists known for exotic and funky rhythms like Miami Sound Machine, Matt Bianco etc used drum machines, and it never occurred to me until recently. And I loved drum machines already when those albums came out.
I never really thought about it. Obviously the focus of the album is the guitar so I never sat back and studied the drums. It makes total sense he would have used a drum machine, and it's a smart move really for a guitarist solo album
Yep! How many times have I listened to that album in the past few decades? Didn't cross my mind until I stumbled upon the fact, looked at my SP-12 and thought, "well, that's a video then".
@@AlexBallMusicthe double kick drum on Circles gave away the drum machine for me. Actually, the first time I heard Ministry Psalm 69, I realised that a lot of stuff I had previously thought was live drums was programmed. It turned my inner snob switch off when I was 14.
This demonstrates to me that people used to know their studio gear intimately. Every knob, every slider and every menu item. I have a studio full of incredibly powerful software and I have barely scratched the surface of what it can do. 😢
Less is more sometimes... I try to stick to stock plugins as much as possible because any time I think about buying another VST, I realise I still haven't mastered the bare essentials of the DAW I'm using
As a cro-mag guitarist of a certain age - who also plays with synths - this was a great trip down memory lane. Performer was my first Sequencer back on an old classic Mac. Good times!
@@AlexBallMusic It was. Just MIDI, plain and simple. The best bit - to me - was that each track could loop independently. It was super easy to set up Steve Reich style (or 80s King Crimson style if you like) “phasing” of melodic figures. I did a few movie soundtracks for some VERY indie films too. Sync to SMPTE and the world’s your oyster!
@@AlexBallMusic I used to use Performer in the 80's and 90's and I found it very easy and intuitive to use. I think being a guitarist, I could relate to the interface more than I can now with most DAW's which usually have a graphic of a keyboard on the left side. For those curious about the process, the way it worked is the first thing you did when recording a song was to record a SMPTE 'tone' I guess you could call it, for however many minutes long the song was going to be (a bit longer actually, just to be safe), to one track of a multi-track tape recorder, and then sync Performer to that tone so that all the live instruments (which were recorded to tape), would be in sync with all the midi instruments being played from Performer. It actually all worked very well. Back in the day, finding Performer was like finding a frigging magic carpet or something like that. It was suddenly almost impossible to believe what you could do in a home studio. Fun days they were!
Thanks for taking time to research and make this video... as an 80's rock/metal guitarist and a tech-electro-music fan you've ticked all the boxes that satisfy my nerdery perfectly! 🙂
Oh that cover at the end, gave me the chills!! I bought an Ibanez guitar (1983 Road Star II series second hand, late 90s, because of that song. Thanks for the amazing trip back memory lane and for the history lesson!
Hi Alex, great performance but a little advice on the live cymbals: Be sure to hit them on the edge with the broad side of the drumstick for the "crash." Otherwise they sound like you are playing a ride cymbal track. Cheers and keep up the good work.
Great stuff, Alex! Watching your videos is not only always fun, but I'm learning so much in the process - and nice to see the black knobbly JEM in action 😛 tasteful cover!
One of the more fascinating effects from Satch would be on the song "Why" from "The Extremist." It can only be created with the Digitech IPS 33B Super Harmony Machine. In Joe's own words, that's not a standard harmonizer and it works of chords instead of scales or pitch shifting. You pick a key and it will supply you with notes it thinks will support the melody. It's also used in the vocal harmonies for the song "Strange" from "Flying in a Blue Dream."
I literally just listened to this album yesterday.. (known Satch's music for over a decade but hadn't ever listened to this album in full).. and today you upload this..
Surfing is an amazing Album, seen me through many a teenage year! It’s interesting to see it in a different light as far as why they used drum machines for keeping the budget for other things, the combination of the electronic drums and phenomenal playing is for me what made the album so special. The first time I heard it was in a car through an alpine cassette sound system that belonged to a co worker of my mother. It blew me away, 14 years old spending countless hours with blistered fingers trying to nail just 1% of JS skills! Great vid as always sir!
Fun fact: Marco Minnemann has the job as Joe's live drummer because of EXACTLY John Cuniberti's comment reply: he comes the closest of anybody to replicating the exacted, quantized straightness of Surfing With the Alien's specific drum programming, as well as being a delightfully nice guy
Mate, your musical and technical level are just plain amazing. I'm into keyboards, samplers and synth (and rock) for almost 30 years now. Far greetings from Chile, South America
Nicely done! I was addicted to that album when it originally came out. At the time, I was mainly a guitar and bass player, but this album prompted to buy my first drum machine (BOSS DR-550).
I had a Casio RZ1 drum machine in 1987. It could sample a total of 0.8 seconds; 1 x 0.8, 2 x 0.4, or 4x 0.2. It saved and loaded the samples from cassette tape which took 2 minutes to load. I made the mistake of trying to load a set of samples during a gig in 1988. First time it ever failed to load. Could have been a disaster had we not had coverage from some link tunes on another cassette deck. Tried loading again and it worked. Disaster and embarrassment averted! 😊
I can only imagine the horrors of loading cassettes live on stage. 😬 I think the worst I had to deal with was samples triggered from pads by a drummer and we'd discover how wrong we'd got the tempo when we reached the bit where the loops were fired off. 😂
@@AlexBallMusic 😀 nightmare! The worst bit was my bandmate coming over every 10 seconds saying, “Has it loaded?”, panicking me even more. This was way before “progress” meters. All I could say was “I dunno! We’ll find out at the end of 2 minutes. Keep playing the link tunes.”
It’s interesting. Joe was one of the first guitarists that got me into more technical guitar music, a few years back I had a revelation of building a home studio when I realized that was how Joe did a lot of recording, now I’m finding that my use of drum machines for my music was likely inspired by Joe too lol
Alex - love your channel! Wicked happy to see you covering Joe Satriani's "Surfing with the Alien" this album was HUGELY influential in my Junior year of High School which is when this actually came out. Loved it then and still do today! Anyway GREAT JOB!!
I don't know why, but I really liked the fact that since you double tracked the rhythm guitars, you included two clips of your rhythm performance. It's like, here's some visuals to reinforce what your ears are hearing 😊
Surfing with the Alien is transformative in my musical life, and I genuinely couldn't tell you why if you held a gun to my head, there's just something about it. I was never a shredder, he's not the kind of guy I would consider an influence, and yet this piece of work marked a mental change in my playing and songwriting. It's almost alien in the effect it had on me, if that makes any sense at all!
Satch is one of those rather rare beasts where his technical chops and his sense of melody are both off the charts. The former never comes at the expense of the latter, and even when he’s shredding the lines are hummable.
I was always hoping Bongo Bob got some mentions for his work on those Joe records because his drum programming alongside Campitelli's work it made for a futuristic vibe that none of the other shred guys seemed to have. Hence why my work has lots of drum machine, synths, stuff like that in addition to the guitar thing. It's weird but drum machines are sometimes easier to communicate with than actual real drummers. Nice rendition of the Joe tune at the end of the video!
In high school, Surfing with the Alien was the indirect cause of a couple speeding tickets. Couldn't drive slowly with that tape on. Saw him and Stu Hamm at the Orpheum in Boston for the Flying in a Blue Dream tour. It was so good.
I made an instrumental guitar album in the late 90s. I had used an RX11 but in the studio we sampled a Kick (from Miles Davis "Tutu"). I had a friend overdub hi hat and cymbals and he pointed out, we could have just done live drums in the same time!
Could you at least do the sequencing at home and not be on the clock whilst doing that? Interesting about the sampling. I get the impression that it was a free for all at the time.
Cheers. Yeah, I've listened to that album for decades and it had never occurred to me until I stumbled upon a reference to the SP-12 being used on the recording. As I have one in the studio, I thought I'd look into it and make a video.
I don't bother to wait until the end to click like any more Alex, I just click it straight away because I just know ALL your videos are gonna be pure gold. Oh and hey? Who WOULDN'T want to see a Batman Movie with him dressed as Spiderman?
Honestly, every video of yours is such a pleasure to watch- it's always interesting, educational and entertaining and your love of music above all else shines through.
Great video. About 10 years ago, I was kindly given a VIP ticket to a Satch gig as someone couldn't go. When I got to meet Joe, I just grinned and shook his hand- I was completely dumbstruck! He did sign the VIP pass and my re-issue CD of Surfing. Lovely performance. Did he also use this machine on Rubina on the previous album? That's quite a striking drum machine part.
Ah awesome. I know the feeling, I met Steve Reich once and just stared at him 😂. Some people are just too legendary. I've not looked into the drum situations on the other albums, so I'll have to find out.
@@AlexBallMusic They say- don't meet your heroes- in case you make a right arse of yourself!! The old VIP thing is a bit of an odd situation too- kind of unnatural, so I'm sure plenty go a bit quiet...
@@thedonal Definitely. I also did the same with Phil Oakey. I saw him about 25 times during the day and evening of SynthFest and I just couldn't go up to him because it's too weird as I idolise them so much.
@@AlexBallMusic It's funny isn't it? The music exists in our heads as a complete entity in itself and sometimes it can be hard to see that and think of regular human beings behind it. OK- not always regular- some are way beyond that, but just people who will say hi and appreciate a thanks or comment. I was playing a gig in Islington in the late 90s and got a tap on the shoulder whilst warming up with a bit of Floyd- "Excuse me, David Gilmour is my friend's dad". I nearly dropped my guitar! No idea what I'd say if I met Jarre or someone of that magnitude. Hopefully just "Hello" and "Nice to meet you".
Alex you've smashed it again 👏 , I've said this before , this is the TV I dreamed of watching back in the 90s , I used to buy future music and think why can't these cd roms have amazing videos showing you how everything works 😀 . I could have watched an hour of this . Can't wait to see your MPC 60 video . Thanks 👌🏻 for the great work Ps you schred on guitar bro 😊😊😊
The 80's have some records that fuse technology over rock music (prog bands playing around with new wave sounds mostly) that ultimately were interesting to people who probably grew up with this stuff and saw it as an advancement on the 60's/70's sound palates and then subsequently saw PCs and the proliferation of home recording replace the need for a lot of this stuff as fast as it came in. The old heads didn't necessarily like it, the kids now think it's antiquated but if you're like 35 to 55 this was the unobtainable sound for awhile. Cool video.
Thank you so much for such a detailed breakdown! Good work always gives more than you expect. I discovered John Cunniberti's channel from your blog at the same time. Thank you!
This one has a special place in my heart. Back in the 90s I did a lot of windsurfing and listened to Surfing with the Alien far too much. There was a Neil Pryde (windsurfing manufacturer) video called Fast Forward and I dubbed this title track over the opening sequence of that film and it fit absolutely perfectly. Recording the video from one VHS tape to another and injecting the audio from my CD player was as complex as it got but the result was utterly triumphant. I still have that tape but sadly no longer a VHS deck to play it on. Great memories though.
I LOVE these kinds of videos. I'm absolutely dying to have someone with your quality of production do something like this for certain industrial acts, specifically early skinny puppy, ministry, or nine inch nails. I feel like there would be so much to pick apart and recreate. But I get that's a pretty niche genre not everyone is as into as me. Still, love these videos, and I'll basically watch anything you put out at this time and enjoy it.
Nice! Cool cover. But I really want to hear you do those fast parts. You could always do them slower and speed 'em up. Not that it would sound artificial or anything... Back in the day we could never have afforded Bongo Bob. Tupperware Tom or Trashcan Terrance, maybe. As an aside, I don't know about Britain, but the reverb law was finally repealed in the U.S. in 1993. One of Clinton's campaign promises that he actually kept.
Well done, great job even without the widdly bits. As always great content, insightful, entertaining, educational and great playing thank you for all you do
Nice. More Reverb! I never thought about the drums on the album as being from a Drum Machine. Good example of getting the most out of the gear you have. Thanks
My dude_ you really are the shiz. You accurately get the sound of an era all the time but I never would have thought you were a shredder??!?! I knew you were a good guitarist, but I mean dang. Super impressed. I would almost ask your age seeing as I was 12 in 87 but then I remembered that you are doing stuff from the 70s all the time and that music is forever. Great job! Cheers
Cheers! I'm not a shredder really, I'm more of a rhythm player and composer, so my lead playing is about as good as you saw here and that's about it. I cut out the fiddly section in the middle of the track as I'd have no hope with that bit. 1987 - I was in school, but I was younger than 12. 🙂
Cheers! Although I did realise how Joe makes even the simpler melodic stuff sound so expressive, so I felt like I was standing in some enormous shoes whilst trying to play even part of that track.
Now I need to dig up that tape and the ep that was after it! Great cover btw! also glad I don't need my own personal reveb unit on my back, it's all on my phone now
Glad you reminded me - I almost left the house without my pocket. shimmer! Overdubbing cymbals it's definitely the trick for when you want your drum machine or drum library to sound real. I could sneak my Yamaha RX11 past the persnicketers with that technique.
I was listening to this album today, and so were the TH-cam bots! Edit: if you take requests, check out Type O Negative. They used a distinct sounding drum machine from October Rust to Life is Killing Me albums
Dear Agogo Al, there is no such thing as 'an offensive amount of reverb'. More is more! Sample is good, reverb is good, even better. There may be offensive prices on Reverb, though. I'll give you that ;) Thanks for bringing back good memories of a great album. Have a reverberated weekend!
Edit Those pinch squeelz are hard to nail consistantly, huh? 😂 This album was my first CD, as well as being the record that made me want to play guitar. Its an amazing record! I still listen to it pretty regularly! Thanks man, this was really interesting.
What! Satch boogie was done on a 12? Hell yeah, baby. Edit: hahah, actually watching the video and reality just deflated my excitement for a song I haven't listened to in a lifetime.
Yet another top quality video, I'm not in the position to give you tips however you should definitely Put SP 1200 in your title and description because that sampler is trending. There has been a recent rise in popularity and interest of the SP 1200 because of the Rossom Remake and the EA Ski limited Edition.
You are just THE guy to make this kind of videos... You can do fuck all! And just that "The future is disappointing..." vocal earned you a like already.
Bongo Bob Smith was a great percussionist when I knew him back in the 1980s. At that time, he lived in Sacramento and would drive down to San Francisco to play on my sessions at Hyde Street Studios. Great guy! Eventually lost touch with him.
Yes Alex! Joe satriani is a master of guitar melody. And so this is a video for me. I love Satriani. Big inspiration for me. This is not my music channel and is my every day one. So this isn't a comment for my own promotion or anything. Thanks for the content brother. :).
Most people dont know how many 80s and 90s pop album have there drum sampled and sequenced not only with this drum machine but also Synclavier, Akai MPC 60 or even Linn drum for most of Prince and Billy Idol pop record ! Even ZZ Top use a brand new Fairlight sampler for the drum on Eliminator album since they able to play that live Frank Beard was also playing stuff with DDrum trigger and some sample they made, because at the time the album must have a crystal clear sound with very precise drum play it was sometimes more cost friendly and faster to replace the drummer play and sound with MIDI ajustement and selected sample of drum hit for more impact.
Hi Alex, Excellent job trying to explain what we did so many years ago. I will add another reason we did it this way: Joe's guitar parts were all created with a drum machine when he was writing the album. When we tried to use a live drummer, many of those parts just didn't work because the time was much looser. He wasn't going to rewrite the album so we went back to the machine and attempted to make it sound like a human with interesting results. Cheers, John Cuniberti
@@onemic-theminimalist John! Thanks for stopping by.
That also makes a lot of sense. The recording certainly has a feel to it because of the computer-precise drums.
Whilst you're here, would you mind shedding more light on some of the things I had to assume?
Did you make the custom samples from a kit in the studio?
Was there a sync pulse recorded with the guide drums to allow for the later replacements?
You don't happen to remember what reverb and processing you would have used on the drums, do you?
@@AlexBallMusic A few of the samples used on the album were custom made with drums in the studio. I believe the song "Surfing with the Alien" hand all stock samples with cymbals overdubbed by Jeff. All tracks were recorded via a few Neve 1073 preamps I had pulled out of a console and put in a box. The record was mixed on an API console. I believe we recorded the midi signal on a track so we could redo some of the drum parts later. Reverbs would have been a Eventide 2016, Lexicon 224, or a EMT 250. I think on the song Surfing the drums had gates on the reverb, for that 80s' sound...lol - John
@@onemic-theminimalist Fascinating post! I heard a rumour that they ran out of 1/2" tape for printing the mixes and resorted to splicing bits of gash tape together until there was enough to print the album!
@@elshiftos LOL, not exactly. We mixed in sections and had bits of tape hanging on a coat rack. Someone cleaning the studio tossed some of them out and I had to go to a dumpster, dig them out and splice them together to finish the mix.
It's funny to read things like "the budget was limited so a drum machine was needed" and then reading the comments by John about eyewateringly expensive gear like an API console, the Neve 1073s and three reverbs that together easily cost as much as a car these days. Of course, that was just the studio's gear, but still - what a contrast.
I remember in the 80's when Reagan and Thatcher signed the "Reverb Accords Agreement".
I like reverb and kept using my personal reverb unit until it broke in 1998. I couldn't find anyone to repair it, and tried some other, but they just didn't sound right.
Cavernous times.
It all changed with the fall of the Berlin Hall...reverb.
Then they deregulated - or actually “created” - the reverb market. First it echoed over to east-Asia (cheap springs), then there was the 2008 chamber crisis. Now, all we have are cheap plugins…
Its making me want to shimmer..❤
The hundreds of times that I listened to this album when I was younger and never realised they were using a drum machine! Incredible... The More You Know!
A lot of artists known for exotic and funky rhythms like Miami Sound Machine, Matt Bianco etc used drum machines, and it never occurred to me until recently.
And I loved drum machines already when those albums came out.
I never really thought about it. Obviously the focus of the album is the guitar so I never sat back and studied the drums. It makes total sense he would have used a drum machine, and it's a smart move really for a guitarist solo album
same, i never really thought about the drums there coming from a drum machine.
Yep! How many times have I listened to that album in the past few decades? Didn't cross my mind until I stumbled upon the fact, looked at my SP-12 and thought, "well, that's a video then".
@@AlexBallMusicthe double kick drum on Circles gave away the drum machine for me. Actually, the first time I heard Ministry Psalm 69, I realised that a lot of stuff I had previously thought was live drums was programmed. It turned my inner snob switch off when I was 14.
This video was totally unexpected. Joe Satriani in a Synth channel? the world is going to explode.
Engines of Creation is really going to tip you over the edge, then!
Guitar will always be my first love. 😀
Is this a synth channel?
@@jeffh8803 Damn, I thought it was a Light Music channel :)
Shhhh. All Synth guys are failed guitarists... we just don't say it
Listening to Joe Satriani while cruising through the mountains of Arizona is an out of this world experience.
I bet! It's even good on the streets of Wolverhampton.
My comment has reverb on it.
erb on it.
erb on it.
@@jeffh8803 ttttt
erb on it.
..b on it.
This demonstrates to me that people used to know their studio gear intimately. Every knob, every slider and every menu item. I have a studio full of incredibly powerful software and I have barely scratched the surface of what it can do. 😢
Muscle memory mate!
@@GudieveNing Yeah! I used to own a DX7 and they were a pain in the arse to use, but I think I could probably pick up where I left off 35 years ago 😉
Less is more sometimes... I try to stick to stock plugins as much as possible because any time I think about buying another VST, I realise I still haven't mastered the bare essentials of the DAW I'm using
@@rorz999 I try to do the same, but with UAD plugins, but there's a load of "under the hood" stuff I'm not vaguely familiar with.
I guess there were limited options and they were all useful, plus it all cost an arm and a leg, so it was worth learning for that reason too!
I searched Facebook for Agogo Al, and that name’s taken. 🤪
Also: MOTU (Digital) Performer FTW! My DAW today. 😎
That cover is rockin'! The phrasing is spot-on. I love that Joe is still putting out new stuff 35(!) years on. Thanks!
I wish I kept my personal reverb unit from the 80's
@themadsamplist: You should be able to find one on a flea market or something. They are everywhere. ;-)
Great performance at the end, and appropriate use of an Ibanez :D
Joe Vai-triani.
Satriani and vai first records have drum machine. They still sound fresh as hell
Oh , the vicarious thrill factor on this one is enormous 🎉
😀
As a cro-mag guitarist of a certain age - who also plays with synths - this was a great trip down memory lane. Performer was my first Sequencer back on an old classic Mac. Good times!
Was it easy to use?
@@AlexBallMusic It was. Just MIDI, plain and simple. The best bit - to me - was that each track could loop independently. It was super easy to set up Steve Reich style (or 80s King Crimson style if you like) “phasing” of melodic figures. I did a few movie soundtracks for some VERY indie films too. Sync to SMPTE and the world’s your oyster!
@@horizontalblanking Fascinating!
@@AlexBallMusic It was a simpler time
@@AlexBallMusic I used to use Performer in the 80's and 90's and I found it very easy and intuitive to use. I think being a guitarist, I could relate to the interface more than I can now with most DAW's which usually have a graphic of a keyboard on the left side. For those curious about the process, the way it worked is the first thing you did when recording a song was to record a SMPTE 'tone' I guess you could call it, for however many minutes long the song was going to be (a bit longer actually, just to be safe), to one track of a multi-track tape recorder, and then sync Performer to that tone so that all the live instruments (which were recorded to tape), would be in sync with all the midi instruments being played from Performer. It actually all worked very well. Back in the day, finding Performer was like finding a frigging magic carpet or something like that. It was suddenly almost impossible to believe what you could do in a home studio. Fun days they were!
Thanks for taking time to research and make this video... as an 80's rock/metal guitarist and a tech-electro-music fan you've ticked all the boxes that satisfy my nerdery perfectly! 🙂
Oh that cover at the end, gave me the chills!!
I bought an Ibanez guitar (1983 Road Star II series second hand, late 90s, because of that song.
Thanks for the amazing trip back memory lane and for the history lesson!
Top stuff! Spot on cover.
Cheers!
OH MY F*CKING GOD YOU HAVE NO IDEA HOW I WANTED TO LEARN ABOUT THIS !!!
Thank you.
Great to know! It's why I do it.
Hi Alex, great performance but a little advice on the live cymbals: Be sure to hit them on the edge with the broad side of the drumstick for the "crash." Otherwise they sound like you are playing a ride cymbal track. Cheers and keep up the good work.
This is such a great video. That record still stands strong. It may be my favorite album to listen to in the car..
Great stuff, Alex! Watching your videos is not only always fun, but I'm learning so much in the process - and nice to see the black knobbly JEM in action 😛 tasteful cover!
Love these short vids Alex! Good dinner/snack watching material, get to learn about stuff and get some banging tunes at the end!
A sandwich with a side of samples and reverb? Excellent choice.
One of the more fascinating effects from Satch would be on the song "Why" from "The Extremist." It can only be created with the Digitech IPS 33B Super Harmony Machine. In Joe's own words, that's not a standard harmonizer and it works of chords instead of scales or pitch shifting. You pick a key and it will supply you with notes it thinks will support the melody. It's also used in the vocal harmonies for the song "Strange" from "Flying in a Blue Dream."
That drum machine is one of the pillars of classic Hip Hop production.
It is indeed. Which is why I thought it would be interesting to do a video about one of its more surprising employments. 😀
Loved your cover at the end, well done!
I literally just listened to this album yesterday.. (known Satch's music for over a decade but hadn't ever listened to this album in full).. and today you upload this..
You nailed it ! I was not ready for this perfect guitars rendition, clap clap.
Surfing is an amazing Album, seen me through many a teenage year! It’s interesting to see it in a different light as far as why they used drum machines for keeping the budget for other things, the combination of the electronic drums and phenomenal playing is for me what made the album so special. The first time I heard it was in a car through an alpine cassette sound system that belonged to a co worker of my mother. It blew me away, 14 years old spending countless hours with blistered fingers trying to nail just 1% of JS skills! Great vid as always sir!
Fun fact: Marco Minnemann has the job as Joe's live drummer because of EXACTLY John Cuniberti's comment reply: he comes the closest of anybody to replicating the exacted, quantized straightness of Surfing With the Alien's specific drum programming, as well as being a delightfully nice guy
Mate, your musical and technical level are just plain amazing. I'm into keyboards, samplers and synth (and rock) for almost 30 years now. Far greetings from Chile, South America
That’s one hell of a rig you’ve got in there brother 🙌🏻
Great video. Looking at all the equipment and gear you've got, the most surprising thing I noticed was a wedding ring. Bravo!
live cymbals is genius, way easier Mic setup!Grate work GOGO!
Nicely done! I was addicted to that album when it originally came out. At the time, I was mainly a guitar and bass player, but this album prompted to buy my first drum machine (BOSS DR-550).
And on "Flying In a Blue Dream" Joe used an HR16. I'd been demoing for a year (1989) with one so when I heard the album I immediately knew.
I’m a massive fan of Satriani’s work but I did not except this. EXCELLENT!!
I had a Casio RZ1 drum machine in 1987. It could sample a total of 0.8 seconds; 1 x 0.8, 2 x 0.4, or 4x 0.2. It saved and loaded the samples from cassette tape which took 2 minutes to load. I made the mistake of trying to load a set of samples during a gig in 1988. First time it ever failed to load. Could have been a disaster had we not had coverage from some link tunes on another cassette deck. Tried loading again and it worked. Disaster and embarrassment averted! 😊
I can only imagine the horrors of loading cassettes live on stage. 😬
I think the worst I had to deal with was samples triggered from pads by a drummer and we'd discover how wrong we'd got the tempo when we reached the bit where the loops were fired off. 😂
@@AlexBallMusic 😀 nightmare! The worst bit was my bandmate coming over every 10 seconds saying, “Has it loaded?”, panicking me even more. This was way before “progress” meters. All I could say was “I dunno! We’ll find out at the end of 2 minutes. Keep playing the link tunes.”
It’s interesting. Joe was one of the first guitarists that got me into more technical guitar music, a few years back I had a revelation of building a home studio when I realized that was how Joe did a lot of recording, now I’m finding that my use of drum machines for my music was likely inspired by Joe too lol
Alex - love your channel! Wicked happy to see you covering Joe Satriani's "Surfing with the Alien" this album was HUGELY influential in my Junior year of High School which is when this actually came out. Loved it then and still do today! Anyway GREAT JOB!!
Thanks! I was hoping that the album meant something to people and they'd enjoy a video about it, so that's great to hear.
I don't know why, but I really liked the fact that since you double tracked the rhythm guitars, you included two clips of your rhythm performance. It's like, here's some visuals to reinforce what your ears are hearing 😊
Surfing with the Alien is transformative in my musical life, and I genuinely couldn't tell you why if you held a gun to my head, there's just something about it. I was never a shredder, he's not the kind of guy I would consider an influence, and yet this piece of work marked a mental change in my playing and songwriting. It's almost alien in the effect it had on me, if that makes any sense at all!
Satch is one of those rather rare beasts where his technical chops and his sense of melody are both off the charts. The former never comes at the expense of the latter, and even when he’s shredding the lines are hummable.
@@alexgrunde6682 totally agree!
Fantastic job Alex! "Surfing ..." is one of my all time favourite albums.
Thanks man, really cool to find out how it was all done! Awesome job on recreating it and the cover too!
Cheers sir.
I was always hoping Bongo Bob got some mentions for his work on those Joe records because his drum programming alongside Campitelli's work it made for a futuristic vibe that none of the other shred guys seemed to have. Hence why my work has lots of drum machine, synths, stuff like that in addition to the guitar thing. It's weird but drum machines are sometimes easier to communicate with than actual real drummers. Nice rendition of the Joe tune at the end of the video!
In high school, Surfing with the Alien was the indirect cause of a couple speeding tickets. Couldn't drive slowly with that tape on.
Saw him and Stu Hamm at the Orpheum in Boston for the Flying in a Blue Dream tour. It was so good.
SP stands for speeding.
Now we're talkin' mate.
Cant believe i found a perfect cd copy last month. Been listening to it every Monday since
I made an instrumental guitar album in the late 90s. I had used an RX11 but in the studio we sampled a Kick (from Miles Davis "Tutu"). I had a friend overdub hi hat and cymbals and he pointed out, we could have just done live drums in the same time!
Could you at least do the sequencing at home and not be on the clock whilst doing that?
Interesting about the sampling. I get the impression that it was a free for all at the time.
This was a very interesting video and you did a very good job of explaining it all. I never knew the drums were recorded this way on the album.
Cheers. Yeah, I've listened to that album for decades and it had never occurred to me until I stumbled upon a reference to the SP-12 being used on the recording. As I have one in the studio, I thought I'd look into it and make a video.
I don't bother to wait until the end to click like any more Alex, I just click it straight away because I just know ALL your videos are gonna be pure gold. Oh and hey? Who WOULDN'T want to see a Batman Movie with him dressed as Spiderman?
🫵😎
Yes! Love the Satch cover! And all the info on how they did the drums on one of my favourite albums.
That's okay Joe Satriani is going to fill in the solo parts for us and we will never be able to top them
I'm happy to let Joe be Joe, yeah. 😀
as usual , hi tech and old drum machines - thank U 🙂
excellent divulgation video!thank you so much
Honestly, every video of yours is such a pleasure to watch- it's always interesting, educational and entertaining and your love of music above all else shines through.
Thanks!
Great video. About 10 years ago, I was kindly given a VIP ticket to a Satch gig as someone couldn't go. When I got to meet Joe, I just grinned and shook his hand- I was completely dumbstruck! He did sign the VIP pass and my re-issue CD of Surfing. Lovely performance. Did he also use this machine on Rubina on the previous album? That's quite a striking drum machine part.
Ah awesome. I know the feeling, I met Steve Reich once and just stared at him 😂. Some people are just too legendary.
I've not looked into the drum situations on the other albums, so I'll have to find out.
@@AlexBallMusic They say- don't meet your heroes- in case you make a right arse of yourself!! The old VIP thing is a bit of an odd situation too- kind of unnatural, so I'm sure plenty go a bit quiet...
@@thedonal Definitely. I also did the same with Phil Oakey. I saw him about 25 times during the day and evening of SynthFest and I just couldn't go up to him because it's too weird as I idolise them so much.
@@AlexBallMusic It's funny isn't it? The music exists in our heads as a complete entity in itself and sometimes it can be hard to see that and think of regular human beings behind it. OK- not always regular- some are way beyond that, but just people who will say hi and appreciate a thanks or comment. I was playing a gig in Islington in the late 90s and got a tap on the shoulder whilst warming up with a bit of Floyd- "Excuse me, David Gilmour is my friend's dad". I nearly dropped my guitar! No idea what I'd say if I met Jarre or someone of that magnitude. Hopefully just "Hello" and "Nice to meet you".
Alex you've smashed it again 👏 , I've said this before , this is the TV I dreamed of watching back in the 90s , I used to buy future music and think why can't these cd roms have amazing videos showing you how everything works 😀 . I could have watched an hour of this . Can't wait to see your MPC 60 video .
Thanks 👌🏻 for the great work
Ps you schred on guitar bro 😊😊😊
The 80's have some records that fuse technology over rock music (prog bands playing around with new wave sounds mostly) that ultimately were interesting to people who probably grew up with this stuff and saw it as an advancement on the 60's/70's sound palates and then subsequently saw PCs and the proliferation of home recording replace the need for a lot of this stuff as fast as it came in. The old heads didn't necessarily like it, the kids now think it's antiquated but if you're like 35 to 55 this was the unobtainable sound for awhile. Cool video.
Thank you so much for such a detailed breakdown! Good work always gives more than you expect. I discovered John Cunniberti's channel from your blog at the same time. Thank you!
Great break down, interesting use of machines & cymbals, thanks for sharing!
This one has a special place in my heart. Back in the 90s I did a lot of windsurfing and listened to Surfing with the Alien far too much. There was a Neil Pryde (windsurfing manufacturer) video called Fast Forward and I dubbed this title track over the opening sequence of that film and it fit absolutely perfectly. Recording the video from one VHS tape to another and injecting the audio from my CD player was as complex as it got but the result was utterly triumphant. I still have that tape but sadly no longer a VHS deck to play it on. Great memories though.
Thanks for the story. Always nice to hear how these recordings relate to people in different ways.
Yes, I remember carrying around a reverb in the 80s. Compulsory 😂
The lunchbox RMX-16 would have been handy. I remember lugging around the original rack mount.
I LOVE these kinds of videos. I'm absolutely dying to have someone with your quality of production do something like this for certain industrial acts, specifically early skinny puppy, ministry, or nine inch nails. I feel like there would be so much to pick apart and recreate. But I get that's a pretty niche genre not everyone is as into as me.
Still, love these videos, and I'll basically watch anything you put out at this time and enjoy it.
Cheers! Yeah, an industrial synth sound episode would be interesting. Good idea.
Regardless of the tech expertise I actually admire how articulate you are as a teacher. That's coming from an English teacher
Cheers! I don't think I'd be able to hack teaching where there's people in front of me. 😂
Hats off to the hard working teachers like yourself.
Alex, your videos are always a “Ball” to watch
Nice! Cool cover. But I really want to hear you do those fast parts. You could always do them slower and speed 'em up. Not that it would sound artificial or anything...
Back in the day we could never have afforded Bongo Bob. Tupperware Tom or Trashcan Terrance, maybe. As an aside, I don't know about Britain, but the reverb law was finally repealed in the U.S. in 1993. One of Clinton's campaign promises that he actually kept.
Tupperware Tom. 😂
Well done, great job even without the widdly bits. As always great content, insightful, entertaining, educational and great playing thank you for all you do
Thank you!
Legendary! My first album, on casette driving around with on old Acura Legend!
No way! Halcyon days.
Nice. More Reverb! I never thought about the drums on the album as being from a Drum Machine. Good example of getting the most out of the gear you have. Thanks
That was utterly incredible Alex!
Sounds of the SP12 are so distinct.
They do thump on those old machines.
The last track, Echo, is my favourite track for sure. Very interesting harmonic progression too. I used my Linndrum for that 5/4
Damn. I knew you were talented, but i had NO CLUE you could play guitar like this! Well done.
Cheers! Really I only play guitar properly and everything else is blagged.
I remember being disappointed that such good guitar was paired with an obvious drum machine track. Still listened to it quite a bit.
sample "ist gut" perfect German ❤. Once again a great video
My dude_ you really are the shiz. You accurately get the sound of an era all the time but I never would have thought you were a shredder??!?! I knew you were a good guitarist, but I mean dang. Super impressed. I would almost ask your age seeing as I was 12 in 87 but then I remembered that you are doing stuff from the 70s all the time and that music is forever. Great job! Cheers
Cheers! I'm not a shredder really, I'm more of a rhythm player and composer, so my lead playing is about as good as you saw here and that's about it. I cut out the fiddly section in the middle of the track as I'd have no hope with that bit.
1987 - I was in school, but I was younger than 12. 🙂
Phil Collins was a big user of the SP-12 too. It sounds very fat with the reverb and doesn't sound that quantized
I love your performance at the end!! You’re a great guitar player! 😳😀
Cheers! Although I did realise how Joe makes even the simpler melodic stuff sound so expressive, so I felt like I was standing in some enormous shoes whilst trying to play even part of that track.
That's The Sampler I'm saving up for! :D Word now I'm more motivated to grab one :)
Now I need to dig up that tape and the ep that was after it! Great cover btw! also glad I don't need my own personal reveb unit on my back, it's all on my phone now
Love a bit of Satch ❤
Always.
Glad you reminded me - I almost left the house without my pocket. shimmer!
Overdubbing cymbals it's definitely the trick for when you want your drum machine or drum library to sound real. I could sneak my Yamaha RX11 past the persnicketers with that technique.
I was listening to this album today, and so were the TH-cam bots!
Edit: if you take requests, check out Type O Negative. They used a distinct sounding drum machine from October Rust to Life is Killing Me albums
I'll find a long black wig and some stilts and do my finest Peter Steele impression. 😂
Dear Agogo Al, there is no such thing as 'an offensive amount of reverb'. More is more! Sample is good, reverb is good, even better. There may be offensive prices on Reverb, though. I'll give you that ;)
Thanks for bringing back good memories of a great album. Have a reverberated weekend!
One person's 'offensive' is another's 'perfect', I guess. 😀
@@AlexBallMusic Yup! It was the '80s - we added reverb even to our tea and our laundry ;)
Edit Those pinch squeelz are hard to nail consistantly, huh? 😂
This album was my first CD, as well as being the record that made me want to play guitar. Its an amazing record! I still listen to it pretty regularly!
Thanks man, this was really interesting.
I can do pinched harmonics with a 70% consistency, yeah. Haha.
Yeah, a fantastic record that stands alone and unites a lot of people's tastes.
What! Satch boogie was done on a 12? Hell yeah, baby. Edit: hahah, actually watching the video and reality just deflated my excitement for a song I haven't listened to in a lifetime.
Yet another top quality video, I'm not in the position to give you tips however you should definitely Put SP 1200 in your title and description because that sampler is trending. There has been a recent rise in popularity and interest of the SP 1200 because of the Rossom Remake and the EA Ski limited Edition.
Although this is the earlier SP-12. But yeah, definitely desirable units.
@@AlexBallMusic 😀
I kinda wished 'The future is disappointing, so let's pretend it's the past' would be a whole song :D Great video again Alex!
Someone should sample it and do a remix.
Cool, I love Joe and I have an SP-12!
You're an amazing multi-instrumentalist!
Cheers!
That was funny. And....wow John Cuniberti comment!!! Nice.
Great video! I love learning stuff like this. Really interesting! And some damn nice playing too!
Cheers! Yeah, thought it was an interesting nugget of info.
Nice bit of playing at the end buddy! x
You are just THE guy to make this kind of videos... You can do fuck all!
And just that "The future is disappointing..." vocal earned you a like already.
Great performance, we can hear the fan playing. Awzome
Bongo Bob Smith was a great percussionist when I knew him back in the 1980s. At that time, he lived in Sacramento and would drive down to San Francisco to play on my sessions at Hyde Street Studios. Great guy! Eventually lost touch with him.
Ah cool! Was he playing live instruments on your recordings or using samples?
@@AlexBallMusic at that time I used a guy in Los Angeles for my programming needs.
Yes Alex! Joe satriani is a master of guitar melody. And so this is a video for me. I love Satriani. Big inspiration for me. This is not my music channel and is my every day one. So this isn't a comment for my own promotion or anything. Thanks for the content brother. :).
Damn Alex, you're a wicked good guitarist
Thanks for sharing!
Most people dont know how many 80s and 90s pop album have there drum sampled and sequenced not only with this drum machine but also Synclavier, Akai MPC 60 or even Linn drum for most of Prince and Billy Idol pop record ! Even ZZ Top use a brand new Fairlight sampler for the drum on Eliminator album since they able to play that live Frank Beard was also playing stuff with DDrum trigger and some sample they made, because at the time the album must have a crystal clear sound with very precise drum play it was sometimes more cost friendly and faster to replace the drummer play and sound with MIDI ajustement and selected sample of drum hit for more impact.