Blah Blah Cafe, the Jean-Michel Jarre forum

[Trilex]

Hi there

I have been a fan of Jarre for I think 6-7 years (with pauses), and also a synth freak since the beginning, and have tried to keep track of all the instrumentation used on various compositions, but there are a couple of sounds which are special to me, and I would like to confirm in my assumptions are correct.

First thing is a horn-like sharp pad in Ethnicolor1, in the part where the drums start and the piece explodes toward the end.
I always thought it is Oberheim OBX-a, but It could perhaps be a Prophet 5 too, so does anyone know which one is it?

Then there is the brass lead in Oxygen 8, which I think is Moog 55, but am not sure.

Then the sequence at the start of Equinoxe 4, is that ARP 2600?

Then there is Orient Express chords from China, which I think is possible Prophet 5, but who knows

I can't think of any other, perhaps I will later, but
if anyone has any way of confirming these uses of instruments or debunking ot has any other kind of insight, please help me out.

Thanks

[Jakob BC]

The Oxygene 8 lead was played on the Moog 55 during the Oxygene Tour, but some users on this forum claimed that it was from the Eminent. The Moog 55 has never been stated as used for the oxygene 7-13 album so...

[Trilex]

I seemed to have forgotten that, I just looked at the booklet again, and indeed, no mention of Moog.

[jp8000]

Hmm...
Did JMJ use the JP8000 on Oxygene 7-13(although it is not mentioned on the sleeve), because he had one on Moscow, and it was released on ´96 (the JP)

[Firecobra22]

The Prophet 5 was indeed used for Orient express. And if the lead of Oxygene 8 was created by an Eminent may I ask the person who claims that wich stops I should use to create that sound.

[Jakob BC]

The Prophet 5 was indeed used for Orient express. And if the lead of Oxygene 8 was created by an Eminent may I ask the person who claims that wich stops I should use to create that sound.

It was LeoDav as far as I remember but sadly he has just left the forum. I don't remember if Equinoxe was into this aswell.

@jp8000 - The chances that he used the JP8000 is pretty little I guess. I wasn't stated in the sleeve but I haven't seen it on any of the studio pics from about that time.

[Nico_Noyau]

And moreover, Oxygène 7-13 was an "analog synths" album, so he wouldn't have used the JP8k

About the lead of Oxygène 8, it can be aswell a sound of the XP80...

[Jakob BC]

Still he used the Nordlead, I just don't think he used the JP8000 at that time

[Mogwai]

brass lead in Oxygen 8: Nord Lead is my guess. It would surprise if this was made with the Eminent. I didn't find any sound close to that when I played an Eminent.

sequence at the start of Equinoxe 4: My guess would also be the ARP2600.

Just because I'm bored I have to say that most of Oxygene 7-13 was probably made with Eminent, Nord Lead, Quasimidi Raven and TR-808. I don't think he used the analog synths for that many sounds actually.

[Equinoxe]

Hmm...
Did JMJ use the JP8000 on Oxygene 7-13(although it is not mentioned on the sleeve), because he had one on Moscow, and it was released on ´96 (the JP)

No,in the Future Music interview of Oxygene 7-13,the guy who interviewed him showed him the Picture of the JP8000, on the front cover of the FM mag,Jarre said he was the first in france to get one,but never got chance to use it on the Album,he used a Jupiter 8 anyhow.

[Equinoxe]

It was Leodav who said the Eminent was used for Lead on Part 8,If you can find the thread,he may have posted the Tabs used,in which case I'll do a sound demo,I'm not totally convinced he used the E310 for it,but who knows for studio perhaps,but on stage for Oxy tour the Moog modular was used for sure,you can hear him tuning it on several concert bootlegs on the intro of the song.the JP is almost capable of producing the sound,I made a patch on mine,but doubt it was the real source of it for the track.


Raven was used very little,only Choir and bass sequences Oxy7 and various drum and Percussion parts on part 10/11,I think this as the Instrument Jarre took travelling with him,based on how it works in pattern mode I have an incline he used it to compose majority of the tracks

Looking at the songs and the instruments I don't think he used a hell of a lot of Vintage gear,only for a few elementsmaybe ARP2600 for dubbing Bass parts and VCS for efx,Prophet 5??

The keyboard mag of the time has a scan of the instruments and Jarre talking about them,so anyone care to convert the text??Probably shed more insight to the instruments

Real Mellotron certainly is only really used on the end of Part 7,all other Melly tracks are off the JV/XP intage card sounds(Part 8/9/11)

Youve also got Korg Prophecy Studio Mog bass on Part 8

As for Nord??Most obvious use,the sequences on Part 11,theres also at least one RMI sound going on in there too,Nord maybe the Sequence lead on Part 12??and perhaps the lead on the later part of this track where you have 2 sounds sort of play one after the other(Not the big buzzy saw pad the other sound)


I thought we already had a debate or thread about these Instruments used o nthe Album??

[Trilex]

sequence at the start of Equinoxe 4: My guess would also be the ARP2600.

Now that I think about it it is the most likely explanation.

The only possible instruments (from the ones mentioned on the sleeve) that could be used for that kind of sound would be CS60, Oberheim Two-voice and ARP2600, the rest of them are either effect synths, or string machines or digital.

Out of these 3 synths, Yamaha doesn't have sequencer ability (AFAIK), and Obehreim has only a 8-step sequencer

Now considering that the sequence is 16-step, it would be highly likely that it was APR2600+ARPsequencer
The only other possible solution would be ARP-sequencer+Oberheim, if that is even possible to connect

[Jakob BC]

If you take the Oxygene 11 sequence which is definitely from the Nord, and play it in higher notes, you'll get the Oxygene 12 sequence. The 2600 was used for the other high note sequence in Oxygene 12 according to the videos from the Oxygene 7-13 presskit. Anyway this doesn't really answer the first questions in this thread.

[Jakob BC]

sequence at the start of Equinoxe 4: My guess would also be the ARP2600.

Now that I think about it it is the most likely explanation.

The only possible instruments (from the ones mentioned on the sleeve) that could be used for that kind of sound would be CS60, Oberheim Two-voice and ARP2600, the rest of them are either effect synths, or string machines or digital.

Out of these 3 synths, Yamaha doesn't have sequencer ability (AFAIK), and Obehreim has only a 8-step sequencer

Now considering that the sequence is 16-step, it would be highly likely that it was APR2600+ARPsequencer
The only other possible solution would be ARP-sequencer+Oberheim, if that is even possible to connect

The Matrisequencer could also be the answer instead of the ARP sequencer.

[Trilex]

sequence at the start of Equinoxe 4: My guess would also be the ARP2600.

Now that I think about it it is the most likely explanation.

The only possible instruments (from the ones mentioned on the sleeve) that could be used for that kind of sound would be CS60, Oberheim Two-voice and ARP2600, the rest of them are either effect synths, or string machines or digital.

Out of these 3 synths, Yamaha doesn't have sequencer ability (AFAIK), and Obehreim has only a 8-step sequencer

Now considering that the sequence is 16-step, it would be highly likely that it was APR2600+ARPsequencer
The only other possible solution would be ARP-sequencer+Oberheim, if that is even possible to connect

The Matrisequencer could also be the answer instead of the ARP sequencer.

Checking the sleeve again, I notice "oberheim digital sequencer" ,
now I looked up these things, and they can sequence up to 72 steps and output to
both ARP and Oberheim CV.

Then I guess it expands the list of suspects to Oberheim two-voice too.

So I guess there is a 50-50 chance of being either two-voice or 2600