The legendary guitarist’s pursuit of his perfect tone has led him to collaborate with Ibanez, Peavey and many more over the years and his most recent liaison – with Vox to create a signature line of pedals – has seen him as involved in the design stage as ever.

With three of the new pedals now under its belt, Vox was able to bag Satriani for a special Q&A session at Frankfurt Musikmesse 09 – and MusicRadar was invited to record proceedings.

In this first part of the Q&A, Satriani takes questions from the crowd on his Vox Satchurator distortion, the first of his Vox pedals, and talks us through his reasons for wanting a custom distortion, why distortion is important to guitarists and why the Satchurator is special.

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While much of Frankfurt Musikmesse 2009 was caught on video, sometimes it’s a single picture that can paint a thousand words. So here’s an entire book’s worth: a gallery of gear, rock stars and, er… pizza.

Musikmesse in pictures

Coffee fail: what happened to the humble kettle, bag of unidentified brown granules and fully-meltable plastic stirrers you used to find in hotel rooms?

A Stoneboard leopard-skin keytar? 30 minutes into the show? Only in Frankfurt…

Akai Miniak synth: photographed, filmed, wanted…

Fender Custom Shop… mmmm, Fender Custom Shop

The Reactable. It’s going into production, don’t you know?

When Peavey met Jaws…

Alesis DM6 electronic drum kit…

…and the e-Practice Pad

The Marshall limo arrives – this is how Dave Mustaine rolls in Frankfurt…

And believe it or not, that is Dave Mustaine demoing his new signature Marshalls… it was loud. And dark

Intrepid reporter Chris Wickett says “sleeping is cheating.” Is that TWO empty glasses?

Klanginitiative cube kit: they’ll be all the rage next year (maybe)

A row of sheer Raw Power courtesy of the Gibson stand

While checking out Open Labs’ DBeat, we couldn’t walk past this Opensynth without snapping

Ludwig Liverpool 4 drums: a faithful recreation of Ringo’s 60s kit

A wall of Orange

More Orange. But then again, not orange

This pizza was called The Fire. It was very hot. There was no tomato in it. Just cheese and Jalapenos. And black olives

Green pedal, red pedal, orange trainers. It can only be…

…Joe Satriani at the Vox Q and A. Notice MR’s Chris Vinnicombe stage left

Yamaha NX: nylon strings are all the rage, you see

Here’s a picture of a Roland Ax-Synth. Just because…

A Vox Phantom: a proud member of MusicRadar’s Guitar Porn Series

Spooky fireball guitar thing

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Delays used to be one sound, analogue or digital and then one fixed delay time. The TimeBender does just what the name implies – bends time. Featuring 10 delay types including Analog, Digital, Moving Head Tape, Fixed Head Tape, Dynamic (ducking delays), Reverse and Time Warp, the TimeBender goes where no delay has gone before.

Further advancements include full-time tone control, modulation, multiplier, tap tempo and repeat ping-pong patterns on all delay types. For the first time you can get a Fixed Head Tape delay sound with tone rolled off, modulation and set to repeat in triplets.

The TimeBender goes beyond normal delays to create custom repeat rhythms or patterns on the fly by simply strumming the guitar. Up to 6 taps can be set to quickly create delays that would normally take a rack of effects and hours of programming. For instance; a 6 tap moving head tape delay can be created where the delay taps are not equally spaced but fall on beats set by the guitarist.

Topping off the TimeBender is the ability to add intelligent harmonies to the delays. Choose from over 100 different voicing’s including octaves, 5ths, 3rds, etc. When the repeats are turned up layers of singing angelic tones are created to form never heard effects.

The TimeBender offers more than a full rack of delay effects topped with intelligent harmony and the ability to quickly set the repeat rhythms – never has a delay so advanced been this easy to use and packed in a pedal. The TimeBender is the delay that all other will be judged by.

The DigiTech TimeBender is available from all good guitar retailers at an RRP of £299 inc VAT.

For more information please call Sound Technology on 01462 480000 or visit www.soundtech.co.uk.

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Our Frankfurt-based reporters are back in Blighty, and they’ve brought back the highlights from the final day of Musikmesse 2009.

If you’re a (very) late-comer to the party, never fear: here are day one’s, day two’s and day three’s highlights to get you back you on track.

Show floor highlights: day four

Orange Crush Series
Brand new updates on the popular entry level Crush Series of guitar and bass combos. Full spec TBC but much more power is expected

Ludwig Liverpool 4 Ringo Starr Kit
A loving recreation of Ringo’s 60s kit, a shaky camera and a whole lot of drool…

Klanginitiative’s Cube Kit
Upgraded from a day one basement entry to a full video demonstration. File this under cool/mental…

Peavey PXD Series
Caught a glimpse of these back in NAMM 2008, so it’s about time we got them down on film. Tom from Peavey provides the skinny…

From the basement…

Chicks On Picks

Spooky fireball guitar thing

When is an Orange not an Orange?

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Jody Wisternoff’s influence and contribution to dance music cannot be overstated. Between breaking through to the DMC Hip Hop finals as a fresh faced 13 year old in 1986, and putting the finishing touches to his band’s fourth studio album in 2008 a lot has happened. His early 90’s act Sub Love were one of the largest draws on the UK Rave festival circuit and his hook up with Bristol dj Nick Warren in 1994 gave us the hugely successful Way Out West.

Within this expertly crafted collection of sounds and samples you will find over 740 wav samples, 275 Loops and over 300 ready to play patches for Kontakt, Halion, EXS, SFZ, NNXT and Ableton Samplers.

In detail Jodys Future House sample collection weighs in at an impressive 900+ Mb, and includes 118 Deep and Chunky Drumloops, 22 Breakbeats, 23 Club Beats, 73 Percussive Beats, 51 Low End Bass Loops, more than 100 inspirational Music Loops, 74 Bass Stabs, 140 Single Drum Sounds, 160+ Instrument Chords, 39 Special Fx sounds, and 47 Stab Hits.

Jody’s reason for doing this sample collection for Loopmasters was that he wanted to present to other producers a very usable collection of loops and samples that he hopes would be inspiring to anyone making contemporary house music and that they present as broad a scope of styles as he has been lucky enough to be involved with himself.

Multiple formats available all priced at £24-95

Find out more at the Loopmasters website.

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Welcome to day three of Frankfurt Musikmesse 2009! After a sleepless night of video editing and over-peppered pizza (don’t ask) we’ve managed another glorious lap of the show floor.

While backing-up some of yesterday’s top picks with hands-on video demos (hello, Akai Miniak), we’ve found fresh highlights in the shape of Yamaha’s NX series nylon acoustics and Gibson’s Raw Power Series.

Be sure to check back on Monday when we’ll be welcoming home our Frankfurt heroes… by making them post even more videos, hidden treasures and trade show tales. Until then…

Show floor highlights: day three

Exclusive: Joe Satriani talks Vox pedals
Satch’s signature pedals have come a long way in six months – get the skinny from the man himself here

Gibson Raw Power Series
Brand-new stripped-down, all-maple electrics make their worldwide debut. The series includes SGs and Les Pauls…

Carmine Appice signature ddrum kit
Huge kick, regular toms: “this is the same kit I had in 1967,” says Carmine Appice. We’ll let the drumming legend himself explain the rest…

Yamaha NX guitars
Nylon string, pre-aged wood electro-acoustic guitars break conventions, but don’t disappoint. Just ask Rodrigo y Gabriela…

Doepfer Dark Energy
A standalone analogue synthesizer with USB and Midi interface, Sounds cool, looks cooler…

Vox ToneLab ST
The most compact TomeLab yet, this Valvetronix, tube-powered do-it-all unit offers 33 different amp models and an array of cabinets and effects

Nord C2 Combo Organ
The C1 had evolved! Baroque pipe organ, rock solid key action and a bunch of new accessories make the C2 well worthy of its dedicated video demo

Yamaha Absolute Series drum kit update
New finishes, new “next generation” YESS tom mounts and a promise of greater sound projection. We are intrigued…

From the basement…

Hand-shaped cymbals

The Wholigans

Vintage guitar porn

Red pedal, green pedal, orange trainer…

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Despite new Fender products being somewhat thin on the ground at the show this year, the Custom Shop collection on display is as drool-worthy as ever. Earlier today, while I stood gazing in awe and wonder like the world’s poorest kid in an extremely voluminous confectionary emporium, Mike G got snappier than several crocodiles enjoying a rudimentary card game.

Here are the results… click to zoom.

Check out www.fender.com for more.

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Eastwest’s Complete Composers Collection PLAY Edition is a compendium of the company’s high-quality PLAY-powered virtual instruments, brought together into one great value package.

The Complete Composers Collection features seven of the Eastwest’s most popular virtual instrument collections along with their 64-bit (with 32-bit compatibility) PLAY Sample engine for about 50% off the separate retail price.

Virtual instrument libraries featured in Complete Composers Collection PLAY Edition include:

Eastwest/Quantum Leap Symphonic Orchestra Gold PLAY Edition

Recorded in a 125 million dollar concert hall by Grammy-winning classical recording engineer Prof Keith O Johnson, this virtual instrument edition eclipses all others with the highest level of fidelity and realism.

Now with the PLAY sample engine, users have access to features such as an intelligent performance section – including portamento, repetition, and legato – round robin reset, state-of-the-art convolution reverb with pre-delay, and an intelligent release trail engine that follows note-on samples volume at all times.

Eastwest/Quantum Leap Symphonic Choirs PLAY Edition

The first virtual instrument to offer complete control over a choir’s words and sound. Symphonic Choirs is the first choir virtual instrument to include three simultaneous stereo mic setups (close, stage and hall), so users can mix any combination of mic positions to control ambience.

With Eastwest/Quantum Leap Symphonic Choirs PLAY Edition running off of PLAY, users will be able to experience perfect harmony between PLAY and the collection’s WordBuilder software. PLAY aids with the setup process of WordBuilder, making it easier for users to take full advantage of this feature.

Quantum Leap Goliath

The sequel to Colossus, Quantum Leap Goliath encompasses the entire Colossus collection plus 8 Gb of new content. Users now have more than 180 high-quality instruments and more than 600 patches including drums and percussion, guitars, basses, acoustic and electric pianos, keyboards and mallets, pop brass, orchestral instruments, choirs and vocals, ethnic instruments, new age ensembles, morphing atmospheres, synth basses, synth leads, and synth pads.

As part of the additional content, Goliath features the full collections of sounds from the EW/PMI Bösendorfer 290 Piano collection.

Quantum Leap RA PLAY Edition

One of the largest and most detailed collections of ethnic instruments from six areas of the world: Africa, Americas and Australia; Europe, Far East, Middle East and the Turkish Empire; and India. Every instrument and ensemble was sampled extensively so that the character of each instrument is preserved.

For the first time with Quantum Leap RA PLAY Edition, users will have more control over the sounds offered in the collection along with the ability to load even more instruments than ever before. These options allow for additional expression – a key element when working with ethnic instruments.

Quantum Leap Stormdrum 2

The sequel to Stormdrum. Packed with over 12 Gb of percussion, SD2 – The Next Generation draws from the secret collections of three world-class percussionists, offering some of the most amazing multi-sampled percussion imaginable.

For the maximum customisation without sound degradation, SD2 – The Next Generation delivers MIDI performances created with Roland V-Drums and Zendrum percussion controllers.

Eastwest/Quantum Leap Pianos Gold PLAY Edition

The most detailed collection of the world’s finest grand pianos. More than half a million dollars’ worth of pianos are included in this collection, all meticulously recorded by Eastwest/Quantum Leap producers Doug Rogers and Nick Phoenix.

These include a $225,000 Bechstein D-280 Concert Grand, the same kind of piano engineer/producer Ken Scott used to record Elton John, David Bowie, and Supertramp. Eastwest invited Scott to engineer the Bechstein’s close-miced recordings to provide users with a cutting, dynamic pop/rock piano sound, in addition to the variety of other piano sounds included in the collection.

Other pianos featured in the library include a Steinway D Concert Grand, a Bösendorfer 290 Concert Grand and a Yamaha C7. This new Gold Edition includes one mic position, and will run faster on slower computers than the full three-mic version.

Quantum Leap Voices of Passion

A virtual instrument of female vocalists from Wales, Syria, India, Bulgaria and America. Voices of Passion features five outstanding professional female artists singing vowels, words, morphing vowels, effects, phrases, calls, whispers and breath noises.

“The Complete Composers Collection PLAY Edition spans many musical genres and instrument sounds making it an affordable way for users to round out their sound collection,” says Eastwest Founder and Producer Doug Rogers. “With all virtual instruments in this bundle incorporating our PLAY sample engine, users will also have access to the highest in sonic quality and performance.”

The Eastwest/Quantum Leap Complete Composers Collection PLAY Edition retails for €1,195. For more information about Eastwest products, please visit the company website.

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The Q&A lasted 45mins and we’ll be bringing you the highlights of this later (including just why distortion is red and delay is green…). However we thought we’d share our exclusive chat with Joe which happened straight after the Q&A. We chatted what Vox products are in the pipeline next, how Satch used the new Vox pedals on the new Chickenfoot album plus how he had to adapt his style when playing alongside fellow Chickenfooter and lead singer, Sammy Hagar. Enjoy the video – we did!

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Orange always seem to have one of the coolest and certainly most distinctive stands at any show, and Frankfurt Musikmesse 2009 is no exception. Nestled amongst the iconic valve stacks, we noticed brand new updates on the popular entry level Crush series of guitar and bass combos.

Full specifications were still TBC at the time of writing, but for now, here’s some up close and personal shots of some of the new Crush combos’ control panels (click to expand):

Crush 35LDX

Crush 20LDX

 Here are the bass amps:

The Crush series bass amps are more powerful than ever

Crush 50BXT

Crush 100BXT

For more information, visit www.orangeamps.com.

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