OMG Ingo, I completely forgot this one.

What I did is to find on one of the synths the first preset that was remisniscent of the Jarre counterpart, then customise it quickly, while listening to the youtube original video. So for the brass I wont change the sound because I played the part "a bit in advance" because of the specific attack, and we both know that replacing a sound with another one once it have been played is deinitely not so easy ( the strings doubling is the same btw I played it even more in advance ) and I dnt want to replay all the track.

And yes you're right, its a soft brass lead like on the original, and not a bright stringy one

I just created another version of the cover song above where i substituted the Synth Brass sound with the Oxygene 4 Brass sound ("BR Oxygene 4 Brs IW") which i had created for the "Synthax B" expansion for Xils Lab Synthix:

http://soundcloud.com/ingoweidner/oxygene-4-substance-vs-syn thix

The rest of the sounds are still from Tactile Sounds Substance and the Tactile Sounds TS-808 drum synth. No external FXs were used in that song.


UPDATE:
after listening to both of my versions and the Original song again it's possible that the sound which i created in Tactile Sounds Substance is closer to the original sound. Anyway i still like the second version with the Synthix Brass more.


Ingo
Last edited by Ingonator on Tue Apr 03, 2012 2:45 pm; edited 1 time in total

well i'm guessing you are not going to shell out for a virus but i thought this would be relevant and somewhat jaw dropping - check out the jarre covers at the bottom of this page (completely done with a virus KB)

http://www.perkristian.net/studio_viruskb.shtml

Sorry, but your sounds are all slightly off and this hasn't got any of the 'magic' it just sounds flat...



.

Funny thing is none of these examples sound like JMJ.

But you wouldn't want to sound like him would you?
You want to sound like yourself.

I think you can analyze JMJ's sounds to death, but you will never be able to be the new JMJ anyway. And why would you?...

I think everybody wants to be unique, otherwise it makes no sense to even try.

Of course you can be inspired by many artists, and that's fine.

But trying to be the new Jean Michel Jarre is just a waste of time.

Try to be unique instead.

Tweak the flanger differently or reverse that sample etc....

Well, just my two cents

Can I get the patches for this? Sounds stellar!

Slightly OT but this album is pretty cool: http://www.4-3-3-4.de/
It was done just with freeware synths.

Cheers
Dennis

Yes I'm sure you can do a lot better.

Hey, thanks for the link. That album is like an alternative Oxygene/Equinoxe revisited. Amazing. Fun factor set to 1000%. hehe.

@gtg605
I hear what you are saying and you are right overall, developing one's own sound is great and ultimately what music is about (for me at least). But I don't think anyone here would seriously want to be the new JMJ. It's not about that, I don't think.

When you emulate certain sounds, production techniques, composition style, you get to learn. You also get to have lots of fun! Just take that album Bronto Scorpio linked above, the maker has got an incredible ear for emulating the original Jarre sounds and composition style, that takes some talent and/or effort. Also, doing such an elaborate album is all about having fun and enjoyment. I'd certainly have lots of fun listening to it! Stick the CD in the car and go for a ride at night cruising the motorways (get away from the screaming kids! ).

I think it's very cool to revisit such golden oldies, for all the reasons mentioned, especially in these post-super-unsion-trance-wave times when wobbles have given space to extreme digital brostep cut-up sounds that pound my brain like an extreme death metal song. These JMJ sounds are like a breath of fresh air (nostalgia induced).

I always figured my life would feel more complete if I took over a major metropolitan area with a laser harp ...

[e] I always wanted to ask, does anyone know what was used for the percussive intro to "Industrial Revolution"?

Since this is about JMJ sounds, here goes something (I would not call it a song) I did with the Arturia CS-80 around 7 years ago, it's not based on Oxygene album. The CS-60 and CS-80 are very JMJ distinctive sounds.
http://www.soundclick.com/player/single_player.cfm?songid=48 28105&q=hi

It's always a part of the learning curve to try to recreate stuff from other artists. Everybody will do that. But at some stage people must learn not to jump on the "I will sound like..." bandwagon and try to make their own sound and style. It's true, there will not be a new JMJ (and to be honest, in my opinion a lot of artists making today much better electronic music than Jarre...)

But there are always things we can learn also from the old artists. Jarre was never a big sound designer and IMO he was never a outstanding composer like his father Maurice Jarre but he was some of the first artist, trying to make electronic music for the mainstream (and we know he had big success).

Some ideas we can learn from Jarre: simple effects like a phaser can make from a simple white noise a great and interesting effect (see Oxygene 4). Lot of small layers also non-tonal sounds are the glue to make a big sound.
I think today nobody will really sound like from 1974 It makes no sense to use exactly the same sounds (or emulations of this sounds) for todays songs.
But it's always interesting to get the idea how sounds are made in the past and some talented sound designers will always find based on this sounds new ideas for todays usage

You need to start small and pay your dues. Get a stylophone, and go on a busking circuit in your town. In the evening you can use a torch and practice how to do a light show too.

I can see wanting certain sounds at times. I know I have at times wanted specific sounds for tracks(Alphaville's synth brass comes to mind) when I was doing a track in a similar vein. If someone wants an old school Berlin style track you could easily want to dip into some specific sounds. then again sometimes just having those sounds leads to new places.

Now I agree you would not want to be a copy of an artist. But I certainly understand wanting to show sometimes exactly where the inspiration for a track came from.

Frankly some of those sounds from Jarre, Vanglis, Tangerine Dream etc are pretty dang timeless. But maybe that's just me and I'm okay with that hahahaha

Exactly! Listening to these sounds, or playing them is such a pleasure nowadays in a world awash in wobblified and glitched out pyrotechnics, where everything is maximised and compressed to death...Listening to Oxygene is like aural healing for my synth-sound loving ears. Same with Antarctica by Vangelis, or Ricochet/Rubycon/Stratosphere by TD (plus many more artists)
Last edited by himalaya on Wed Apr 04, 2012 6:31 am; edited 1 time in total