Joe Satriani – Live in Paris: I Just Wanna Rock

Used for the robot vocals and talkbox on "I Just Wanna Rock", as can be seen the mini-documentary of the recording of Professor Satchafunkilus and the Musterion of Rock starting at 3:52 and 4:41 respectively. Satriani explained the recording process in this September 25, 2008 Guitar World interview.

GW Tell me about how you recorded all of the voices on the soon-to-be audience-participation favorite “I Just Wanna Rock.”

SATRIANI [laughs] It wasn’t as easy as you would think. People assume recording large groups of people is no biggie: you just gather everybody ’round a mic and—boom!—you’re done. Not so. After three or four passes, if you’re trying to record a crowd, or if you’re trying to make what sounds like a crowd with multiple tracks, the vocals can get in the way of the music.

GW And the voice of the robot on that track?

SATRIANI That’s my voice, recorded three times and heavily distorted, going [in a robotic voice]: “What is your purpose?” That’s what the robot is saying to the crowd. I was using low-fi distortion, a SansAmp and a couple of different plug-ins to change the intensity of my voice. But on the part where the robot is getting into it and saying, “I wanna rock! I wanna rock with you!” I used my Talk Box. I’d been threatening to use my Talk Box for years, but I couldn’t remember how to position the tube in my mouth. So I called ZZ in the room and said, “You gotta help me figure out how to work this thing.”

GW I’m trying to imagine what goes through a 15-year-old’s head: “Aw, jeez. I gotta help my dad with his damn Talk Box!” Are you “cool dad” when this happens, or “dorky dad”?

SATRIANI [laughs] Dorky dad, definitely! Face it: the human race has to progress, and that means that the younger generation will always be cooler than their parents.

GW Even if their parents are in the next room playing with a Talk Box?

SATRIANI Especially if their parents are in the next room playing with a Talk Box! [laughs]

Used on "I Just Wanna Rock", as can be seen the mini-documentary of the recording of Professor Satchafunkilus and the Musterion of Rock starting at 4:37. It is also mentioned in this November 15, 2008 Ultimate Guitar interview. Satriani explained the recording process in this September 25, 2008 Guitar World interview.

Guitar World

GW Tell me about how you recorded all of the voices on the soon-to-be audience-participation favorite “I Just Wanna Rock.”

SATRIANI [laughs] It wasn’t as easy as you would think. People assume recording large groups of people is no biggie: you just gather everybody ’round a mic and—boom!—you’re done. Not so. After three or four passes, if you’re trying to record a crowd, or if you’re trying to make what sounds like a crowd with multiple tracks, the vocals can get in the way of the music.

GW And the voice of the robot on that track?

SATRIANI That’s my voice, recorded three times and heavily distorted, going [in a robotic voice]: “What is your purpose?” That’s what the robot is saying to the crowd. I was using low-fi distortion, a SansAmp and a couple of different plug-ins to change the intensity of my voice. But on the part where the robot is getting into it and saying, “I wanna rock! I wanna rock with you!” I used my Talk Box. I’d been threatening to use my Talk Box for years, but I couldn’t remember how to position the tube in my mouth. So I called ZZ in the room and said, “You gotta help me figure out how to work this thing.”

GW I’m trying to imagine what goes through a 15-year-old’s head: “Aw, jeez. I gotta help my dad with his damn Talk Box!” Are you “cool dad” when this happens, or “dorky dad”?

SATRIANI [laughs] Dorky dad, definitely! Face it: the human race has to progress, and that means that the younger generation will always be cooler than their parents.

GW Even if their parents are in the next room playing with a Talk Box?

SATRIANI Especially if their parents are in the next room playing with a Talk Box! [laughs]

Ultimate Guitar

What is your purpose? I couldn't tell what he was saying. Sorry.

I know, me neither. [laughs] It's very distorted. I recorded that at home, first. It was the first thing I recorded to see if it would be funny enough, you know? Once I got that I thought, Oh, that's cool. Then I thought, Well, then what happens? So I thought, Ok, he goes to a rock concert and it starts to humanize him and he wants to rock but he doesn't know how. So he starts to say, I wanna rock, I wanna rock, I wanna learn how to rock with you. And I looked around my room and I'm thinking, I need something to plug into that makes him less of a robot. And my eyes caught the Framptone talkbox, which I had been desperately trying to use for three records and I could just never come up with anything creative that was better than Peter Frampton or Richie Sambora or Joe Walsh, you know? [laughs]

But then I thought, Ah, ok, its not me it's the robot! So I used the talkbox to be that sound of the robot having rock 'n roll change its life. Then I recorded that and thought, Ok, now I can build a song around this. So then I wrote the song actually around those two recorded bits. Yeah, it's crazy.