BlahBlahCafe - Jean-Michel Jarre forum

After a discussion about the Images versions of tracks on another thread, I was reminded of something I off-handedly noticed some time ago: namely, how the main Eminent strings of Equinoxe 4 are played on a different synth in the Images version for example (D50, maybe?).

Which further made me wonder: was the E4 lead instrument changed to a different one (a more generic, but not quite, piano sound) around the same time as well?

Comparing the original album version to the Hong Kong one, for example, sort of sounds like it had switched to a different instrument... and at the same time to my ears it also sounds like it's still just the Eminent one with effects added in (or changes to the ADSR values).

Notably, by the "analog revival" of the 2007-2011 tours, the lead instrument once again has reverted back to the original Eminent plucks.

IMO these are still the same plucks but heavily processed. Eq, chorus, gate reverb, compressor can alter the sound significantly. On Aero (IIRC) it's almost ear-piercing.

For instance the MF2 solo from China sound is quite different from the one from Docklands but it's the exact same recording.

Yeah, I remember my dad pointing out about the PLD version that "the solo's just reused from the China album" decades ago. IIRC the Hong Kong album/EIC version had a different-sounding one.

Also, could be another SFX thing, but to me the lead instrument of E4 from the Oxygene Tour (or at least on the Wembley-Brussels bootleg) sounds a bit different to the others, sort of has a sharper "synthier" touch to it

As a comparison, the one from Manchester sounds more like the E4 plucks in the "standard" versions.

Maybe it's just acoustics with these two

It's a very simple pulse sound, that he's recreated with the Memorymoog for those live concerts, instead of using the original Eminent sound. It does indeed sound more synthy or 2-dimensional. The Eminent brought that other dimension to his first albums, a made them sound less kitchy or thin, or plasticy. One aspect of that, in terms of sound, is that the Eminent's "filter envelope" makes the sound darker/duller/less highs as you play down the keyboard, mimicking real world acoustic instruments. Synthesizers usually don't do that, unless they can or unless it can be programmed in. Which is why the ARP Solina sounds so much more crude or dirty compared to the 310. The other part of it is simply the 310's signal path and also what Jarre did with those plucks in assembling the track.

Radek Tymecki also made pretty good plucks for the D-50 (both of the presets featured in the mock-up attachment)

(percussions AI-nicked from the Images version)

I just wanted to say I can't in any way contribute to threads like this, but I love reading them and admire the people on this forum that know so much. I learn a lot from threads like this about how and why certain JMJ sounds sound the way they do.

As far as i remember (and as long as my ear sounds good...) EQ4 Eminent plucks change only 2 times over decades :

• - In 1981 China Concert obviously (played on Prophet 5 nope ?)
  - And in Oxygene Tour in 97 where JMJ clearly played it live on Eminent mixed with the recorded original version.

Anything else you ear is just the original sound compresses/processed/Eq-ed an of course playbacked during all those live.

Nothing more.

Yeah, the more I really listen to the Hong Kong album plucks for example, the less "is this just a basic/modified piano-like preset?" it sounds now.

That said, I do wonder what the instrument used for the strings from PLD to Aero (2002) was, could be the D-50 (and possibly even one of the Francis Rimbert JMJ D-50 presets that were included in some magazine around 1989-1990 or so).

Especially because while (obviously) the recorded one from PLD gets reused for most of those concerts, to me the live strings from the 1997 tour (and possibly Moscow) sound like they've been played with the same (or similar) instrument instead of the Eminent.

Finaero wrote: Sat Dec 06, 2025 6:28 pm Especially because while (obviously) the recorded one from PLD gets reused for most of those concerts, to me the live strings from the 1997 tour (and possibly Moscow) sound like they've been played with the same (or similar) instrument instead of the Eminent.

Live Eminent played above the recorded PLD patch. Depending on where the concert attend, we can clearly ear it or not.

I often take Brussels as exemple