Blah Blah Cafe, the Jean-Michel Jarre forum

[Trilex]

Oh boy, this just keeps getting more complicated

The ARP in this picture is not the same one from the picture on Oxygene remaster sleeve.
This one has rectangular "matrix" of holes on the speaker, while the one in the other pic has the corners chopped off.

This seems to be an old gray one in this pic, while the one on Oxygene sleeve pic is a later model I think.

It is possible the one in the oxygene sleeve pic, has the new 4072 filter (if it was purchased after recording of oxygene)

[Mogwai]

Why his father should pay for synths? I tought he left to USA...

Those synths weren't cheap and by that time Jarre was a student (student = broke).
Maybe he rented them - I don't know.
I don't know either why Maurice would pay for those - maybe because he had the money and also because he lived in the states and didn't see Jean Michel very much? A guess of course. But it's not too uncommon that parents does that.

The arp is also something else. I guess his music would have sounded more simple wit a minimoog.

The sounds he made with the ARP2600 on Oxygene/Equinoxe are pretty simple.
To me his strength as a composer and programmer is not in the sounds themselves but in the arrangements and how he combine them. The Minimoog would have given him a nice bass and leads.

[(Unknown)]

Argh Ok I give up, I just consider the minimoog in general to be a lot more simple than the ARP.

Oh boy, this just keeps getting more complicated

The ARP in this picture is not the same one from the picture on Oxygene remaster sleeve.
This one has rectangular "matrix" of holes on the speaker, while the one in the other pic has the corners chopped off.

This seems to be an old gray one in this pic, while the one on Oxygene sleeve pic is a later model I think.

It is possible the one in the oxygene sleeve pic, has the new 4072 filter (if it was purchased after recording of oxygene)

The 2600 in the Oxygene remaster booklet looks to be the "red" one according to "ARP2600" that is written in the middle of the right speaker, so yes it must be the one with the 4072 filter.

[Trilex]

It is most certainly a ARP2601

but the first 2601 was gray, so it could be a gray one too, and it had a moog filter still.

Although, since it is mentioned that Jarre had both a moog and arp type filter ARP,
It is most probably that it is indeed an orange 2601

But the question I'm interested in is, which one did he use to record Equinoxe.
My guess is the one from the above picture (the moog filter gray one)

[Analog-Umph]

The sounds he made with the ARP2600 on Oxygene/Equinoxe are pretty simple.
To me his strength as a composer and programmer is not in the sounds themselves but in the arrangements and how he combine them. The Minimoog would have given him a nice bass and leads.

True they are simple, but I don't see many people recreating them, even all these years later, with much success.

So I slightly disagree with that. He did use some rather unique sounds, which neither Klaus Schulze nor TD nor Vangelis used. I mean listen to Vangelis's stuff from that period, his sounds are even more 'meat and potatoes' than the rest of the gang. TD and KS liked alot of modulated sounds yes, but in listening to their entire body of work from that period, not one sound strikes me with a 'wow'. Sure I like some of their modulations they did (Rubycon 1's mute atonal organ sound and Wahnfried 1883's wild phasing) but all in all I wasn't blown away with any particular sound.

Whereas with Jarre I was. From the first phasing strings, to the bass drone in Oxygene 1. Than the ingenious use of the Oxygene 2 sequence and an even more ingenious use of AKS sounds, they weren't there just to fill the background, they made that track in some ways.
The Oxygene 5 water burbling effect, the percussion sequence.

Those are the sounds that stand out, and this is just Oxygene. Where as with KS and TD all I remember is sequences and yet more sequences with the mellotron and lots of organs.

Jarre's first two albums strike me as much more creative in terms of both timbre creation and composition than the first 7 or so KS and TD albums combined.

[(Unknown)]

It is most certainly a ARP2601

but the first 2601 was gray, so it could be a gray one too, and it had a moog filter still.

Although, since it is mentioned that Jarre had both a moog and arp type filter ARP,
It is most probably that it is indeed an orange 2601

But the question I'm interested in is, which one did he use to record Equinoxe.
My guess is the one from the above picture (the moog filter gray one)

Hmm what is actually the story about 2601? It doesn't say so on the unit itself. In fact I have never heard about ARP 2601 except for on VSE. Btw the picture is B&W but it's the orange/red model. You can see it on the logo as I mentioned, which is in the same style as the Orange Odyssey, Axxe, Avatar. Just a minor detail

[(Unknown)]

edit:

Ok, mistery solved, here it is:

http://www.siliconbreakdown.com/images/arp2600_8.jpg

this is the version1 2061, and here is how it looks like:

http://www.siliconbreakdown.com/images/arp2600_1.jpg

It seems only orange 2061's have that other shape of the logo, which means
it is 100% sure that the one on Jarre pic is orange.

[(Unknown)]

The orange one came out in 1977 (don't know which month), but it is unlikely that he used that one when recording Equinoxe, The pic is probably shot after Equinoxe came out.

[(Unknown)]

I mean listen to Vangelis's stuff from that period, his sounds are even more 'meat and potatoes' than the rest of the gang.

Vangelis is a different kind of cat. While later on Jarre's richness of chord progressions and harmony did come up to a decent composer standard, I think back in 70's Vangelis
was much more of a composer than Jarre, because if you listen for equinoxe, for example, it follows only the most basic harmony found in a pop song.
He was no John Williams in composing.

I adore Oxygene and Equinoxe, but that's because of warm analog textures and sounds,
I don't think it's a music masterpiece in notes. I think it's all about the way it sounds.

[(Unknown)]

The sounds he made with the ARP2600

True they are simple, but I don't see many people recreating them, even all these years later, with much success.

.

One simple contrast in Jarre's music is that it deals more with textures and layers and the interactions of noises more than sequences and clever composition.

Zoolook is a prime example of this,so far removed from the Typical rolling textures of Oxygene,yet still shows that Textures work more than actual compostional value

Vangelis or TD music is more Technical dealing with the Mathematics rather than the sound aspect.If you compare them side by side Jarre is pretty basic in structure,but works more with layers of noises and rolling sequences

His sounds especially off Oxygene/Equinoxe are stock sounds for at least 85%,pretty straight forward to create,with most tracks using almost the same set of instruments,he worked them together to create something not really associated with a traditional sound aspect of a song,but a Sound and texture Value,
You can see that after Oxygene 7-13 He became more engrossed in the technical aspects of music,thinking about it more in a sterile way of presenting music in much the same way as all the others dealing more with clever compositional techniques more than texture.

You can see how the texture and sound value works,with the few of his albums which contain variations on his themes,like Equinoxe 5/8 RV1/2 Chrono 4/5,they are the same music ,but different textures of sound,works well because it focused more on the sound aspect that unless you analyze them you wouldn't think they're the same compositions

[(Unknown)]

True they are simple, but I don't see many people recreating them, even all these years later, with much success..

True. But not many of us owns the synths he used. With analog synths it's also hard to re-create sounds exactly. We also have to consider what outboard gear he used together with the synth.

He did use some rather unique sounds, Whereas with Jarre I was. From the first phasing strings, to the bass drone in Oxygene 1. Than the ingenious use of the Oxygene 2 sequence and an even more ingenious use of AKS sounds, they weren't there just to fill the background, they made that track in some ways.The Oxygene 5 water burbling effect, the percussion sequence.

I agree with you. I never said that all of his sounds were simple. For the most part I think that they are simple (and by that I don't mean "bad"). But he also have some sounds that are totally amazing.

As I was saying - Jarre's way of combining and arrange his sound to make these soundscapes that Oxygene/Equinoxe concist of is what I admire him for. Nobody has done that better than he did.

[(Unknown)]

Why his father should pay for synths? I tought he left to USA...

Those synths weren't cheap and by that time Jarre was a student (student = broke).

As far as I know - those EMS synths weren't expensive at all by the time of the release. I heard/read somewhere they were ridicilously cheap compared to price tags of today. I don't know about the ARPs though. In those days it was pretty common to go to a recording studio that was equipped with certain synths. This and that studio was known to have that and that synth, etc..

[(Unknown)]

the price was just under £1000 of VCS3, when they released the synth at the first time

Info from Wikipedia

[Mogwai]

That was very cheap compared to the pricetag of a Minimoog!
It's also pretty cheap in compare to what the cost brand new today.

But...the economy has changed since then. How much is £1000 in 1970 value worth today?

[AnDrOiD]

How much is £1000 in 1970 value worth today?

Dunno, but it's a lot more back then than today, that's for sure.