Blah Blah Cafe, the Jean-Michel Jarre forum

[Finaero]

I do like how part 5 sort of tries to veer into Arpegiateur a bit at the beginning.

Part 7 has pretty nice strings in the latter half of the track.

Overall, it's still more like a Sessions 2021 to me

[Synner]

Anyone tried the 5.1 version? It's quite an experience - with everything happening around you - although it feels more natural than the forced panning of the AERO 5.1 mix. Still sounds like 'EON featuring Enigma' but very nice, very relaxing.

On the downside, ITunes doesn't like the file at all - bit of a problem for someone with a home cinema set up built round an Apple TV. Luckily, I've side loaded Kodi, which will play anything. Also - if you buy the album digitally from Apple, you DON'T get the binaural or 5.1 mixes - good job I also bought the CD and vinyl versions, which DO include them.

Odd, as the WTOS 5.1 mix worked fine through iTunes.

[Jote]

TBH I'm really curious as to why it's divided into 9 tracks. I mean each of them throws 10 different ideas at you; I'm just curious why isn't this just one continuous piece instead of being divided seemingly at random.

The album suffers from ADHD: there's a bunch of good moments on the album, but before it lets them breathe (the irony) they just fade out quickly. There's no flow to it and easily could have been. Best bits: "Laura Palmer's theme" in part 7 (that was in the teaser and got me excited), beginning of part 9 and later part of part 9 (reminiscent of Ethnicolor II). There's a bunch of minipops on the album, way more than I expected, but I think it works nicely.

[Dr_Jones]

Anyone tried the 5.1 version? It's quite an experience - with everything happening around you - although it feels more natural than the forced panning of the AERO 5.1 mix. Still sounds like 'EON featuring Enigma' but very nice, very relaxing.

Listening to the 5.1 mix now (technically it's 5.0, because one channel is empty). I converted the WAV to a DVD and I'm playing it on the DVD set.
It does sound a lot more interesting this way. For me this is the way to listen to this album now.

[shadow]

Here's me waiting for Amazon to ship my copy:

[Dr_Jones]

TBH I'm really curious as to why it's divided into 9 tracks. I mean each of them throws 10 different ideas at you; I'm just curious why isn't this just one continuous piece instead of being divided seemingly at random.

Yeah, there's not really a progression or structure enough to differentiate on track from another.

I was just thinking about the parts: since the album is part of the Sebastião Salgado photo-exposition, could it be that each part is one of the exposition rooms? No idea, just speculation.

[Jote]

I think it would be quite possible to assemble one decent track out of the Laura Palmer strings in p7 (fun fact: they are indeed in the same key as Laura Palmer's theme), the opening of p9 and the ending of p9.

[Antonuzzo]

So as has been pointed out before, the 5.1 and binaural downloads are .WAV files, which demands rather a lot from the listener. If your media player can't handle surround WAV files, it's time to roll your sleeves up and get acquainted with Audacity / Final Cut / Handbrake depending on what your target output format is.

Whilst I do appreciate a hi-res uncompressed file, it would have been nice to have also had the option to download an MKV with chapters and imagery or something like that.

But this is Jarre and I guess we're lucky that it didn't come as a MIDI file with a set of Fairlight patches.

(And having done the conversions necessary, I have to say that it's worth it. This is a cracking album, and the surround mix is really good).

[Jote]

But this is Jarre and I guess we're lucky that it didn't come as a MIDI file with a set of Fairlight patches.

Lol. Funny at first, but... actually Jarre supplying anything like this would be great. The bonus content on his releases is very much meh.

[Antonuzzo]

Lol. Funny at first, but... actually Jarre supplying anything like this would be great. The bonus content on his releases is very much meh.

Yeah, right? I remember buying the 12" with Moon Machine on it and having to pinch myself that here was a rare Jarre track.

He did allegedly give away the D50 patches for Revolutions on the coverdisc of a French magazine – although I've never managed to find concrete evidence of that.

[Jote]

I don't think he gave them away per se (they were not exactly his patches to begin with) - I think they just included the banks he used.

[Finaero]

While I haven't been searching for Roland D-50 .syx files in a few years, I don't think I ever came across the bank_frimbert "Live Effect" ones on this site ("Synth Patch/Samples" section): http://jarrologie.free.fr/patchs/index. ... g=en&ver=2

The bankja ones are quite widely available, though (as are the other bank_frimbert ones)

[Jote]

While I haven't been searching for Roland D-50 .syx files in a few years, I don't think I ever came across the bank_frimbert "Live Effect" ones on this site ("Synth Patch/Samples" section): http://jarrologie.free.fr/patchs/index. ... g=en&ver=2

The bankja ones are quite widely available, though (as are the other bank_frimbert ones)

I'm 99.99% sure those "Live Effect" samples are not from D50

[Synner]

OK, sleeves are rolled firmly up - I'm trying to re-encode the 5.1 WAV to a 5.1 M4A file using Audacity - I'm assuming the tracks are in the order of the file name L_R_C_LFE_Ls_Lr - and when exporting them - I export straight across - using the default multi channel mapping - left - channel 1, right - channel 2, centre - channel 3, LFE - channel 4, RR - Channel 5 and RL - Channel 6?

Tried that, and it sounds odd - like the mix has been rotated counter clockwise by one speaker.

Or is 6 the LFE ?

[Finaero]

While I haven't been searching for Roland D-50 .syx files in a few years, I don't think I ever came across the bank_frimbert "Live Effect" ones on this site ("Synth Patch/Samples" section): http://jarrologie.free.fr/patchs/index. ... g=en&ver=2

The bankja ones are quite widely available, though (as are the other bank_frimbert ones)

I'm 99.99% sure those "Live Effect" samples are not from D50

Hmm, yeah, makes sense