Blah Blah Cafe, the Jean-Michel Jarre forum

[Pete]

Hi all,
Last Saturday I found in a shop an ex-demo MC-808 which was in real like-new condition (like the plastic film on the display, all the original packaging, etc.)
I was really tempted by many of its features described in the Sound on Sound review and, of course, also by its contribution (I supposed) to the powerful rhytmics of the Teo & Tea album. The ex-demo price was the biggest factor.....so I purchased it!

First of all I discovered from the manual that Tim Hufken was one of the sound designers involved, and credited with their personal bio, in the sound design for the MC-808 pattern presets.

The first 256 Patterns are multi-timbral, while the other are single instrument patterns.
I didn't browse all the patterns actually, just all the multi and some single part synth. Than I began playing and doing mess with it!

EDIT:

Since my original thread was "The Roland MC-808 official thread" and was intended for discussing about MC-808 without making any debate or complain about its use in T&T album, I think the correct continuation of my original thread is here:

viewtopic.php?t=2399&sid=4e0b83956d73ce ... 92af7a56a0

Cheers

P.

[Dark Shrimp]

Amazing !

He could name his album MC 808 !

[jp8000]

very nice, thanks!

Waiting for Ok, do it fast drum pattern...

[Nico_Noyau]

Ohhh, I thought he had at least created these drumloops himself...
But even worse, these drumloops are GIVEN with ARRANGEMENTS !!

If Tim Hüfken has made them, then on the album, it shoud be written "Teo&Tea, Tim Hüfken with the collaboration of JMJ"

[Jon]

Congrats on your new family member. I have been toying over the MC-808 myself, to replace my RM1x. Your d/l's sound great - however, after listening to them I feel dissopointed now with the T&T album. The albums cool riffs, beats and styles were created by a beat box (for a better word). Which raises a few questions 1/ how much of that album is Jean Michel Jarre own work, and 2/ the more I read and listen, the more this album comes over to me as a 'gap' filler. Meaning, one day JMJ got up, said "not released anything for a while, lets throw together some tracks with the aid of my new toys".

[Jakob BC]

LoL is the only I can do... Thanks for the demos!

I think that Touch To Remember beat was used for one of the Roland US videodemos of the SH-201.

[kubrick]

Shiiit, Teo and tea is just a demo of the Roland mc808. Thank you Roland for composing the album. Thank you Jarre for pushing start on the button of you're groovebox.

[Equinoxe]

This is no slur or insult to Jarre,but you can pick up any digital Instrument he's used in the past and there will be instant preset usage..

Which is no bad thing,the presets are there to be used

[Jarp2600]

This groovebox is on my wishlist, or maybe the 909, because of it's bigger screen

[Jakob BC]

And probably the best alternative to the original TR drummachines plus some more. I would certainly also like to have one of these, they are just a little too expensive for my wallet, but I think it suit my needs for a groovebox.

Regarding the presets used on T&T. If those presets JMJ used were done by Tim anyway, you could also consider it as presets used for T&T being commercialized.

[radek tymecki]

LOL WTF?

Seems that JMJ worked 2 weeks... Sad

I remember early news and photos when Francis mentioned about birds and giving the projects more life, poetry...

But i think when jmj discovered 808 and sh201 [videos] he totally changed the concept of his album and recorded few tracks in really short time...

sad...

Anyway...

I'd like to hear Partners in Crime 2 drumzzz

[Pete]

Hi all,
I think this thread is drifting away from what it was ment to be.
I actually posted these sounds because I think they sound cool and, being a MC-808 owner now, I am happy (or proud?) to know that they contributed to the rhythmic power of T&T album.

I don't think T&T is a MC-808 demo; I think that MC-808 had a strong influence in JMJ work, like the D-50 had for Revolutions, the Synthex for Rendez-Vous, the Eminent for Oxygene and Equinoxe, the OB-X for Magnetic Fields.

The sounds I found are just elements of some songs. I mean, in Oxygene there were rhythm presets from the Keio Minipops, in Magnetic fields preset rhythms from the Korg KR-55, in Rendez-Vous the Laser Harp was a great Synthex preset from Paul Wiffen and I could go on boring you even more...
Then presets in a synthetizers are as important as an arpeggiator or a filter, since they can inspire entire songs. If I think to the great work of the sound designers involved in the Wavestation programming... these evolving textures filled a lot of albums during the 90s, but nobody complained about that.

Then, all the patterns in T&T are in different keys, at different tempos, with different elements, different mute/unmute parts and probably where created by Tim during the T&T pre-production - he is credited for Groove Box special programming and artistic collaboration - and ended also on the definitive MC-808 memory.

The more I am listening to T&T the more I am appreciating it; but it always happens to me with Jarre albums. Metaporphoses was a shock, but after one month I began loving it.

Cheers

P.

[kubrick]

Bud it's still not realy creative of Jarre. I have no problem with the fact that he use preset sounds (revolutions: many d-50 preset sounds bud he composed and played the music, rendez-vous: synthex sound, composed and played the music, oxygene/equinoxe many eminent strings, composed and played the music...) the problem is that the music on teo and tea is not composed or played by Jarre at all. He takes a bit of this pattern and a loop of that and cut, paste, mute... and did some improvistations on the demo's. Thats all. Jarre just made some remixes of the existing patterns and loops of the mc808, bud did not create an album that he composed.

[Jon]

Pete, were not complaining as such, were responding to the findings. I don't think any of us were expecting to hear Jarre use so much of the preset patterns from the 808 in the way he did for the T&T album. Putting it bluntly - he cheated a little and too often. So far you are the only member to come forward with a 808 and provide us with samples from the machine (many, many thanks for that as it's a nice sounding machine). So up until yesterday, we were unaware of what was used from that machine. And it would appear it was a bit of a shock to the system

Putting Jarre aside for the time being - what's the 808 like in general, in terms of use, sounds, recording, other patterns, etc.

[Equinoxe]

there's no point dwelling on it,Jarre will do what Jarre wants,sadly I think in the last few years he's starting to drive a divide in his audience,I still have a great respect for him,but sadly am slowly wondering if he will ever regain a form that grabs my attention,it just seems he floated along going nowhere since oxygene 7-13,with just a few odd decent tracks popping up with the mediocre offerings of Albums