Music Appreciation

...it sounds like it's a pitch transposer up an octave or so. It's a pretty rad sound, that's for sure. The second example (0:11, Satriani) is definitely Fixx-inspired. Those kinds of sounds are fairly easy to get using a DI (guitar through a direct box into the mixing desk, no amp). West-Oram mostly uses active pickups, which also help get that sound. The other tricks used include absolute brickwall compression, EQ, and some kind of modulation effect, most often the Roland Dimension D (especially in the '80s). Another overlooked trick: the Aphex Aural Exciter (yes, they gave it a Spinal Tap name!). That's often where all those high frequencies are coming from.