Blah Blah Cafe, the Jean-Michel Jarre forum

[Jon]

This basically describes the entire handling of this release. The release is amazing in terms of presentation, but the rest?

Reading about the remasters, I'm glad I have all the original released CD's of Jarre's albums.

I have a bunch of them and most of the '97 remaster which are kind of hit or miss but mostly hit. It's a shame that now with the amazing technological improvements and the insane steps made in magnetic tape conversion we end up with such a mess.

This is why I don't bother with reissues and why I opted for Oxy 3 album only and not the set. I have the original 76 Oxy and 7-13 from their original release dates. Now I don't have to worry about glitches. But I can see why collectors who commit to buying these sets expect, atleast, the sets/recordings to be without errors specially when the cost of purchase is accounted for. Listening pleasure is more important than flashy packaging and if you get neither its a costly hobby.

[shadow]

I'm honestly considering just writing a very negative review on Amazon and contacting the Jarre store directly to complain about the terrible quality. There really needs to be a recall and replacement of the current set. It's hilariously awful.

[Dr_Jones]

Just gave the vinyls a listen again, and I didn't dream it. The end of Oxygene 9 is incredibly bad. It just cuts off, right where Oxygene 10 is supposed to start. It's amazingly amateurish.

Can you record a short snippet?

Here -> https://www.dropbox.com/s/9uql6zyie0jck ... 9.m4a?dl=0

I swear, that is NOT me cutting the sound. It's like that on the record.

Wow, I need to check out the 1997 LP now.

[Jote]

Here -> https://www.dropbox.com/s/9uql6zyie0jck ... 9.m4a?dl=0

I swear, that is NOT me cutting the sound. It's like that on the record.

Wow, I need to check out the 1997 LP now.

You can check it here (courtesy of shadow):

https://mega.nz/#!KVUBwRCK!NoKryKPxOl6u ... AGs_c0nEqQ

[ep0ch]

I'm honestly considering just writing a very negative review on Amazon and contacting the Jarre store directly to complain about the terrible quality. There really needs to be a recall and replacement of the current set. It's hilariously awful.

Please do this, there is nothing to lose. If a few of us do this then we may get some kind of response.

I wrote to Sony a few days ago and I have heard nothing back. Nor do I expect a response from them being who they are.

In the UK the box set is £150. It is simply not worth anywhere near this unless you must have 7-13 on vinyl.

I am tempted to write to Trading Standards here as I believe the product is counterfeit

[shadow]

What's the email of Sony? The official store on the JMJ site doesn't support a normal email, just one in case your package got damaged or send incorrectly. It's only for the orders seemingly, not as a general email.

I'll contact Aero itself also on the matter just in case.


But what exactly you mean with counterfeit? General poor quality or a legit fake one?

[ep0ch]

i went with:
reception.enquiries@sonymusic.com


I'm sure you could reply to the JMJ site with "your package got damaged " ? And ask them to forward on to correct person


re: "But what exactly you mean with counterfeit? General poor quality or a legit fake one?"

Counterfeit products are generally a poor copy of the original which this seems to be. How do we know it is genuine if it does not sound like the original? It is a humorous way to get a response

[Jote]

What's the email of Sony? The official store on the JMJ site doesn't support a normal email, just one in case your package got damaged or send incorrectly. It's only for the orders seemingly, not as a general email.

I'll contact Aero itself also on the matter just in case.


But what exactly you mean with counterfeit? General poor quality or a legit fake one?

Please let us know what you end up writing to Sony.

[shadow]

Thanks, I'll send one to that email then soon. My current email directly on the Jarre website is as following:

Hello,

I'm not entirely sure if this is the correct place to do so, but I'd like to give some negative feedback on the recently released Oxygene Trilogy sets. The CD remasters of Oxygene and Oxygene 2 (7-13) are from surprisingly poor quality. On the original there's obvious sound clipping on a couple of spots and on part VI there's a very obvious audio drop at 4:37/4:38 because of what seems a removed drum beat, an error that I first noticed in 2011 on the Essentials & Remasters release and five years later still hasn't been fixed despite multiple remasters since having taken place and all of them also had this mistake.
On the second album, outside of the loudness and sound clipping, there are constant clicks and pops throughout the entire album for some reason. It's almost as if the masters were taken from a dirty vinyl rip.

Now even worse are the three LP's. All three are slightly off center and because of this when playing the albums there's a constant fluctuation in the audio speed making the three albums pretty much unlistenable due to this.

I'm not sure what to do now because I've heard from many other people that their LP's suffer from the problems so asking for a replacement from Amazon will not fix the issue. I'm curious if there will be a replacement for the already released version or that me and many others are now stuck with this clearly and obvious flawed release.

With the kindest regards

[Jote]

Thanks, I'll send one to that email then soon. My current email directly on the Jarre website is as following:

Hello,

I'm not entirely sure if this is the correct place to do so, but I'd like to give some negative feedback on the recently released Oxygene Trilogy sets. The CD remasters of Oxygene and Oxygene 2 (7-13) are from surprisingly poor quality. On the original there's obvious sound clipping on a couple of spots and on part VI there's a very obvious audio drop at 4:37/4:38 because of what seems a removed drum beat, an error that I first noticed in 2011 on the Essentials & Remasters release and five years later still hasn't been fixed despite multiple remasters since having taken place and all of them also had this mistake.
On the second album, outside of the loudness and sound clipping, there are constant clicks and pops throughout the entire album for some reason. It's almost as if the masters were taken from a dirty vinyl rip.

Now even worse are the three LP's. All three are slightly off center and because of this when playing the albums there's a constant fluctuation in the audio speed making the three albums pretty much unlistenable due to this.

I'm not sure what to do now because I've heard from many other people that their LP's suffer from the problems so asking for a replacement from Amazon will not fix the issue. I'm curious if there will be a replacement for the already released version or that me and many others are now stuck with this clearly and obvious flawed release.

With the kindest regards

Good stuff, I would however explicitly reference the 2:40-2:50 part of Oxygene 9 as an example (like with Oxygene VI)

[ep0ch]

Hi Jote,

Feel free to send your own email to them. The more emails they get the more they might take notice...

I doubt Sony will do anything though, they are all about making money and do not care about quality.

Shadow, sorry i didn't respond in full and have updated my previous post.

[shadow]

I've also send the email to Sony through their feedback page. I wonder if we'll ever hear something back about the release.

Counterfeit products are generally a poor copy of the original which this seems to be. How do we know it is genuine if it does not sound like the original? It is a humorous way to get a response

It would most certainly be something if they end up saying it's legit and that this is the final version. That'd be so shameless...


Say does anyone already have a good vinyl rip of the new album? I love it, but the dynamic range on the CD is pretty much non existent...

[docklands88]

Pardon me but when has he blamed Sony for the extreme loudness? I must have missed that.

It's what JMJ said according to Elf who published an interview with him in a Norwegian newspaper.

src: http://www.zoolook.nl/forum/viewtopic.p ... &start=180

"Oh, by the way. All Oxygene albums have been remastered again for the new package, "with an analogue approach (no loudness war!) " and Jarre said he completely agreed with all the fans who have been complaining about the latest remasters. Jarre said they are awful, and that they were done by the record company and was out of his hands.

Ahh, okay. Thanks for the link! It's such a shame when the record company shafts the artist in such a demeaning way.


It's pretty shocking to hear what everyone has said about this so-called 'deluxe' trilogy box set with audio drops and a whole host of other issues. What makes it even worse is that it's price is beyond greedy. When you look at the new Kate Bush vinyl box set thats selling for roughly £50-60 and is nearly the exact same kind of thing to the Oxygene set that costs THREE times more (£150) and is of terrible quality, it just goes beyond all known definitions of the word disgrace. The Kate Bush set is of stunning quality too, just goes to show what a little time and effort can achieve.

[shadow]

What's worse is that for the price, there's still stuff missing. No New Master Recording (rather you want that is up for debate of course), no (remix) singles, no cardboard covers for the vinyls. It's a great presentation when you look at it, but the moment you start actually looking through it it falls apart...

[VinylScratch]

Oh my... I did expect loudness issues with the mastering but this indeed so much worse than expected.
I'm really glad I decided to wait until I forked over that kind of money for the shoddy cash-grab that box set apparently is, but then again, I learned my lesson on the Star Wars vinyl box which was similarly priced and quite lackluster as well.

I mean, come on... if anything deserves the red-carpet-treatment it's Star Wars and Oxygene, and Sony botched both of 'em.

And btw. Sony better watch out what they are doing there, because aside from the PlayStation division that company has been bleeding money for years.
I don't think disappointing customers is the way to go...