Blah Blah Cafe, the Jean-Michel Jarre forum

[Edd]

Does anyone know how to make the robot voice sound in rendez vous 4. It looks like a vocoder sound but jarre did not use vocoder in rendez vous 4.

Thanks

[Blatman]

Maybe a talking pedal ? Some covers inclue this sound so it should be possible to recreate it.

[Wax Mango]

Yep - It's the talking pedal causing the vocal robot effect. The thing with the Talking Pedal, however, is that the source material/sound is also important.

JMJ mentioned the talking pedal in an interview related to that effect and the same effect used in Chronologie Part 2.

[Wax Mango]

This is an example of my Talking Pedal being used on a track. You can hear it's the same sort of sound.

[Blatman]

I have a heard a cover of this track yesterday by thedk and it seems it didn't use a pedal.... Maybe it could be à talking pedal effect inside a synth ?

[Finaero]

I used the AyyAyy patch from the KORG Legacy Collection MS-20 VST for my unfinished Rendez-Vous 4 cover to have some rudimentary robot sounds

[Jote]

I recreated somewhat successfully the talking pedal effect in my Chronologie 2 using a Motif XS. I think I used detuned saws as input.

studio
live

[Wax Mango]

The Rendez-Vous album was pretty much made using the Elka Synthex, but clearly there are other synths there. So, to achieve the robot vocal effect without a Talking Pedal, there are only really two ways to achieve it:

A vocoder

A synth with dual filtering to allow for formant, vocal style effects

The Talking Pedal has been pictured in several studio shots and JMJ has talked about using it in interviews. The talking pedal is essentially dual filters that provide the formant vocal effects - and based on the time period, the original talking pedal was available.

So if you doubt that it’s not talking pedal and instead another synth, then you will need to find a synth of that era with dual filters that allowed for formant shaping.

A third way to achieve the effect is by advanced EQ-ing, which is essentially what a vocoder is doing in some respects creating bandpass/comb filters.

But as a Talking Pedal owner and having read a JMJ interview where the talking pedal was mentioned, I’m pretty certain it’s the EHX Talking Pedal. But do remember, the Talking Pedal needs a sound to process, the pedal will just change the formants of the sounds to give it the vocal effect. The sound going in will also have an effect on the final vocal sound.

For other demos by other people, as above, the effect is easy to achieve on many modern hardware and software synths and effects plug-ins with bandpass/comb filtering/EQing.

[Finaero]

I also like how the Talking Pedal forms a hidden link from the beginning to the end of JMJ's Golden Age (most of the megaconcert era) from 1986 to 1993 due to it being featured in RV4, Calypso I and Chronologie pt. 2.

(The vocoderish bits in Brick England could also serve as a callback to all that)

[Carlendy]

I used the AyyAyy patch from the KORG Legacy Collection MS-20 VST for my unfinished Rendez-Vous 4 cover to have some rudimentary robot sounds

amazing! was very similar. what configuration did you apply to avyavy patch m20?

[Finaero]

I used the AyyAyy patch from the KORG Legacy Collection MS-20 VST for my unfinished Rendez-Vous 4 cover to have some rudimentary robot sounds

amazing! was very similar. what configuration did you apply to avyavy patch m20?

Mostly just shortened the sustain/release values (and added a slight FL "Vocodex" effect to it) - check the AyAy.zip for pictures and the .fxb patch file

(Also, here's a link to the full cover https://soundcloud.com/virtualstudioabuse/cover-rendez4 )

[Carlendy]

I used the AyyAyy patch from the KORG Legacy Collection MS-20 VST for my unfinished Rendez-Vous 4 cover to have some rudimentary robot sounds

amazing! was very similar. what configuration did you apply to avyavy patch m20?

Mostly just shortened the sustain/release values (and added a slight FL "Vocodex" effect to it) - check the AyAy.zip for pictures and the .fxb patch file

(Also, here's a link to the full cover https://soundcloud.com/virtualstudioabuse/cover-rendez4 )

Thanks, Your files will help me a lot on my journey to build a cover of Rendez vous 4. It's a tribute I'm doing to my mom who likes this song a lot. Thank you very much. Ah! And I'm listening to your cover a lot as a reference, thanks again for the example.

[gwb74]

Amazing!. does anyone have find out how to create the sort of "spring" sound ? Look like the Quiha from the Korg Minipops, but it has to be something else.

[Finaero]

Amazing!. does anyone have find out how to create the sort of "spring" sound ? Look like the Quiha from the Korg Minipops, but it has to be something else.

As far as I know, it actually is the Quiha sound from the Minipops through a heavy (chorus?) filter, but I don't know further details about the filter/effects used (which is why in my cover the sound only appears briefly at the beginning since I'm 0% satisfied with it )