We had the honour to check out Steve Vai's Live Guitar Rig together with him and his 2 great techs, Doug and Thomas, during their 2022 Inviolate European tour. The rig is a form of art in itself - The sound integrity and cable management - including the Hydra routing - is pretty impressive.
Steve Vai uses the following gear: https://bit.ly/3yzKzGi
Recorded and mixed with Universal Audio: http://tho.mn/uadx1
Monitors optimised through Sonarworks: http://tho.mn/sonar
Interesting bits and pieces:
0:00 Introduction
0:18 Intro Playing
0:54 Steve's guitars with Doug
2:50 Playing John Scofield Hollowbody
3:28 More guitars!
6:51 Expensive magnets
8:04 Playing Bruno
9:00 Whitesnake Era Guitar!
10:11 Why a Hollowbody?
11:07 On stage with Thomas Nordegg: Rack and Board
11:24 Mindblowing schematics from Thomas Nordegg and Eddie Clothier
12:26 Hey, that's Steve Vai!
13:17 Synergy modules: The jewels
13:38 Fractal Audio Axe-FX III: The workhorse
14:11 The pedalboard
15:04 Steve's most important switch
15:53 The Synergy control surface: RJM Mastermind
16:13 Axe-FX control
17:13 Actual tube preamps
17:51 The rest of the signal chain: Real cabs on stage!
18:18 First time with In-Ears!
19:21 Interlude Playing
19:51 The Hydra Routing
22:44 The Hydra is heavy! Teeth of the Hydra videoshoot stories
23:59 The Hydra will be back!
24:33 The synth in the Hydra and its sounds
25:20 More John Scofield Hollowbody Playing
26:33 The back of one of the most tidy racks you'll ever see
27:37 The struggles of touring with that big of a rig
29:18 A screen to stay in sync
29:34 How to keep that rig easy to troubleshoot
30:17 Thanks Thomas, Doug and Steve Vai!
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