BlahBlahCafe - Jean-Michel Jarre forum

look this :

this one is the biggest that i have

Cheers Radek

I still don't get, how he made that glide in the bass!
I have listened to it a 1000 times in slow and analyzed it note for note, and the glide effect
changes aprox. in 80-100ms, this way: The note is hit in Bb, 90ms after it glides very fast to C, 90ms back to Bb, 90ms it glides to C and stays there.
But the time and notes are not the same every time, the notes lenghts are sometimes not the same, the velocity is note stable and in the bas solo in the beginning of EQ7, the glide and notes are very very complex.
Two times in the normal bass in EQ7, when it is changing from G to C, the first two notes stay in G, and one of the times the upper note makes a glide up to D

I have always thought that is was played with legato portamento or what you call it, where the bass is monophonic and portamento is made when two notes are played at the same time. It is possible to play the part with this trick, but no way with that precise timing!

So it must have been made using the MatriseSequencer, but I'd like to know how that glide works.

BTW. Are you sure that the sequencer is not working like an arpegiator, so he can make a loop, like the sequencer in EQ4 or the simple bass in EQ5, and play it via the keyboard? It was controlling the ARP2600, so it should be possible.


Thomas H. - www.thhe.dk

Perhaps he's just switching on and off the portamento, or bending the notes manually. That can be done on the ARP keyboard.

thhedk wrote:...a lot about EQ7 bass

I think it was done with an Envelope Generator routed to pitch... then the 'attack' amount was tweaked 'live' during the recording

Jakob BC wrote:Perhaps he's just switching on and off the portamento, or bending the notes manually. That can be done on the ARP keyboard.

I am pretty sure that it is not bent manually, it is much too precise, it is some kind og Legato portamento, because of the notes hunting each other.

But I think I have solved the mysteri now!!
I will do a little video playing in Reason 4, then you guys will say: Why didn't we think of that??

Will be back later!

This is my idea, and I am more and more sure that this is the way!:

Equinoxe 7

I can't get the portamento to work as I want to in Reason 4.0, but I am sure the MatriSequencer and ARP 2600 is able to do it


--
Thomas H.

thhedk wrote:This is my idea, and I am more and more sure that this is the way!:

Equinoxe 7

I can't get the portamento to work as I want to in Reason 4.0, but I am sure the MatriSequencer and ARP 2600 is able to do it


--
Thomas H.

Sounds great really!

But could you please post in just in one thread? It's not necessary to post it everywhere...

GeeJee wrote:Sounds great really!

But could you please post in just in one thread? It's not necessary to post it everywhere...

I know the bass sound is not that great, but this is the way it is done, i am sure.

Sorry, I just posted it where this was disscused

The best example of the start of Equi 7 bass was made by Chrisbern. It is at the end of his Part 6 cover. The modulations are as close as I imagine one could get them.

thhedk wrote:

GeeJee wrote:Sounds great really!

But could you please post in just in one thread? It's not necessary to post it everywhere...

I know the bass sound is not that great, but this is the way it is done, i am sure.

Sorry, I just posted it where this was disscused

you're right. m geiss said that arp 2600 was sequenced by matriseq and jmj was making modulations with arp keyb

You're right Radek, i read it somewhere too.

And it confirm what thhedk say about the imperfection of the glide (and don't forget it's analog stuff, so nothing is very precise ^^)

Actually, i've played all the glide and modulation with keyboard simply with mono portamento in Reason.

3 Solutions for that :
- arpeggiator (very hard to play live with modulation !)
- program the pattern with sequencer and then play on keyboard for note changes and apply modulation live.
- Playing it all live with portamento, but you firts need a medic to add a very accurate metronome in your arms...

Don't forget to that JMJ is a master of cutting, pasting magnetic tapes , so don't ever think the whole sequence as been played in one shot ^^

Minimum, there's 3 cut (first fade at the end of Equi5, second at the end of Equi6, and last at start of the second part of Equi7 with mistress and small tone). Plus graphically we can see phase inversion.

And i'm sure there are many other things that i can't ear or see because i'm not a specialist !

I think thhedk is absolutely right.
Sadly the Equinoxe 7 Bass discussion is spread over several threads here, so it's not easy to track every comment.
Some monthes ago I posted mine on another topic about "ARTURIA PRESETS/G Forse presets" and I was guessing a similar approach.
The point of the legato thing is related to how the ARP 2600 reacts to trigger signals.
In modern VA or Polyphonic Synthesizers it's obvious that when you play a note the envelopes shape the sound following the ADSR logic and as the note is off no sound is heard.
On the 2600 the thing is more complex. You may do it as you expect, but as soon as you let an external trigger generator (like a sequencer) control the envelopes, the note you play on the keyboard may only affect the pitch, giving the impression of a "legato".

As far as I know it was very common to transpose the sequences created on Analog Sequencers in realtime just adding a CV signal (hence pressing keys like thhedk does in his cool video). It makes working on them creative and inspiring. Otherwise, not having memories on the Sequencers like the ARP 1601, you would have needed to record a sequence for each key and than cut and paste every piece of tape... crazy

Being lazy, I "CTRL+V" from my previus post
The 2600 receives both CV and GATE from the sequencer and the envelopes are triggered whenever a TRIG/GATE signal is received from it.
If you play a note from a CV Keyboard (like the 3620 pictured before) over the sequencer without adding another gate signals, the result is a "legato" effect, since the pitch changes, but the envelopes are not triggered until they receive the trig signal from the sequencer; actually any note played between sequencer triggers make this sort of "legato" rather than a portamento. Fast playing notes may be added to the sequence introducing nuances for a constantly changing sequence.

there are few places in eq5 where tape was cut. m.geiss told me also that he has modified 8 track recorder into 16. also there's funny story. when eq1 and probably 2-3 were recorded sth bad happened to tapes and they were trying to fix em using table with no success. so those tracks had to be recorded again