BlahBlahCafe - Jean-Michel Jarre forum

Hi,

I don't know if i'm on the right topic. So how are done the "robots" voices on the second part on equinoxe 4? Are there "vocoderized"?

Thanks

It is my understanding that the robot voices you talk of is just S&H (Sample & Hold) from an ARP 2600. The sound could have been routed through a talking pedal I suppose, to give it that 'humanesque' sound. Lots of people say the sound is from a vocoder but I seriously doubt this. Owning a number of hardware and software vocoders, it's just not possible, even if the actual source is JMJ's voice, then it would still have to be heavily processed to sound the way it does, ie: processed with filters and LFO's (random - which is S&H) to give it that characteristic sound.

So, on that basis, I maintain that it is a synth where the LFO signal is routed to both the pitch and the filter. Also, some filter settings, with more ADSR control are able to produce vowel like sounds anyway, which further supports my belief that it's an ARP 2600.

I have also heard people say it was an ARP2500 that did the robot sounds, but there are also many people who say that JMJ didn't actually have the ARP2500 for the recording of the Equinox album.

Any half decent synth can create this sort of sound. As long as you can route an LFO to both the filter and the pitch it's pretty easy to make a similar sound.

i think it was moog modular but ain't 100% sure

The 1997 remaster CD had something along the lines "it wasn't a vocoder but an ARP2600".. I'd check it myself but I sold my copy of that last year :\

The remaster does mention the 2600, and that it was a patch made by Geiss.
The reason why the 2500 is sometimes mentioned, is probably because Michel Geiss was seen playing it during that part of Equinoxe 4 for the La Defense concert.
The 2500 can be seen in that TOTP video 1977 of Jarre playing Oxygene 4. He could have borrowed the synth aswell as the Moog IIIp seen in the official Oxygene 4 music video.
Still That sound doesn't sound too complex, and I would be surprised if the 2600 couldn't do that kind of sounds.
If you listen to Trentemøller's remix of his own track called Moan, it sounds like he tried to get a similar sound.

Hi,

So thanks for all these precisions. I'll now work around it on my TimeWarp2600! Then i will share the patch to get your comments!

P.S.: We should create a Jarre patch database without patch format but only with fundamentals descriptions (i.e.: Equinoxe 4 seq. OSC 1: SAW, CUTOFF: xxx RESONANCE: xxx, FLT ADSR: A:xx%, D:xx%, S:xx%, R:xx%, etc.) The idea it's that to create the patches on all kinds of synth's having basics wave forms... what do you mean?

That sound was made on the ARP2600 and was manipulated by a device made by Geiss that allowed Jarre to play it melodiously.

matt222 wrote:That sound was made on the ARP2600 and was manipulated by a device made by Geiss that allowed Jarre to play it melodiously.

That would mean that it would be impossible to do it with just a 2600 or any of its emulations. But Per Kristian did quite a good emulation of that sound (though a little far in the mix and too fast on the LFO).

Vince did his on a Virus KC and said that it's two or three saw waveforms with at least a separating octave.

Since when can't you play a S&H filter patch across the keyboard melodiously?

GeeJee wrote:Since when can't you play a S&H filter patch across the keyboard melodiously?

Exactly, esp with the ARP2600, why then would you need to build a 'little electronic system' in order to do this.

Did he mean that 'old box'?

Did he mean he used patch cords for the first time?

/edit: I think that old box just allows him to tweak multiple CV parameters with one pot.. although I can't imagine the 2600 doesn't have a 'multiple' unit... hmmm

GeeJee wrote:Did he mean he used patch cords for the first time?

Quite possible

Nah he woulda needed them for the drone patches in Oxygene.

QUOTE JEAN MICHEL JARRE;

" On Equinoxe part 4, for example, you hear a sound like the voices of robots - it's not done by a vocoder or anything like that but with an ARP2600. One day I found the basic sound I wanted to use, and I asked my studio collaborator, Michel Geiss, to build me a little electronic system so I could use it melodiously".

http://www.mediafire.com/?ztkzjgejzjg

Here is my personal version of Equinoxe 4 which contains an emulation of that sound.

Ironically, during E4 at PLD, you see Geiss simulating the sound on the ARP.

All for show, I guarantee you. So much of the sound from those big, one - off concerts came from tape.