Blah Blah Cafe, the Jean-Michel Jarre forum

[Phil]

These were the ones I samples:

01-2344068DE.wav
02-CD-8000152_DE_silver.wav
03-MFSL_CD.wav
04-FDM46050361401_FR_2011.wav
05-2344068DE_red_blue_white_198x.wav
06-CD-MILLEN9_UK.wav (millennium edition)
07-MPF1098_JA_promo.wav
08-231055_POLYDORSUPER_UK.wav
09-MFSL_1995_vinyl.wav
10-new-master-recording-daily-mail.wav
11-2344068_philippines.wav
12-2933207Y_FR_A3B1.wav
13-MLP1000_FR_greenlabel.wav
14-MTO77000_FR.wav
15-2933207_FR_first.wav
16-2310555_AR_OXIGENO.wav
17-2344068_YU_RTB.wav
18-487351UK_simply_vinyl.wav
19-PD-1-6112_US.wav
20-remaster_1997.wav

And these were the ones I samples :

21 - 1983 : Polydor 800015-2 02 (RED Face - CD)
22 - 2011 : Qobuz Studio Master (mastered by David Perreau) ... but converted to 16 bit 44khz, so the result is identical to 2014 CD in fact.. :-p
23 - 1983 : Polydor 800015-2 03 (= FDM CD-77000 - BLUE Face - CD = 800015-2 04)
24 - 1985 (approx) : Dreyfus MCO 1000 (MPO 01 - CD) (a strange mastering compared to the others... interesting)
25 - 1983 : "Musik Aus Zeit Und Raum" (CD)

Just for the record : 800015-2 05 (1987 - 10th anniversary Edition) has the same mastering than 824746-2 xx (known as Digitally Remastered).

So basically any release of Oxygene before '97 will sound great? Nice!

[Velodynamic]

So basically any release of Oxygene before '97 will sound great? Nice!

Not that 2310555_Oxigeno...thing, don't tell me that. It's bloody aweful listening to.

Just for the record : 800015-2 05 (1987 - 10th anniversary Edition) has the same mastering than 824746-2 xx (known as Digitally Remastered).

I've decided that to be my favourite CD remaster thank you very much.
When it comes to vinyls I think it's way more difficulty.
It's simply amazing how many remasters there is of just one track from JMJ.

[Finaero]

So do we crown the 10th Anniversary CD edition of Oxygene as the winner?

Meanwhile - actually inspired by the horrible 2015 JMJ remasters - I decided to get a new record player (this one) since comparing the 3 editions of Zoolook that I have revealed to me how cheap the Numark one I've had for like 8-9 years now is

And boy are the differences really noticeable. It's kind of like jumping from 128kbps MP3 to, well, maybe 320 kbps or even WAV in some cases!

* Equinoxe 5 (first edition French LP, I think) on my old player.
* Equinoxe 5 (first edition French LP, I think) on my new player.

* Oxygene 8 (LP) on my old player
* Same track on my new player

* Ethnicolor (1984 LP, the one with the Zoolook/ologie remixes) on my old player
* Same on my new one

To me, Equinoxe 5 now sounds very very good (yet shame about the whole LP that I've got, there's bunch of noise at the end of both sides of the LP for some reason), same with Oxygene 8 (the 180g audiophile vinyl angle probably helps, yet even on my new player Oxygene 9 on vinyl sounds a lot worse than the CD version, the rest of the album might actually sound better than the LP now).

Yet my Zoolook dilemma still hasn't been solved. Sure, the new record player plays it better but I can't help but get a bit peeved over how crackly the overall sound quality still appears to be. On the plus side, all my vinyl Zoolook recordings and experiments have made me stop preferring the 1997 Sony remaster, but eh, I don't know... I sort of wish I hadn't started messing with Zoolook since now Ethnicolor sounds kinda wrong to me all around.

[shadow]

The new ones are all a bit slower, but the bass seems alot better. It's a great improvement no doubt!

Oxygene Part 9 probably should sound better on vinyl than on CD. I know that the closer you get to the center of a record the more the sound gets distorted because there's less space. But this really should only impact louder tracks. So I guess either the vinyl mastering went wrong somewhere, or the masterplate was pressed with an error.

Any chance of a uncompressed compelte vinyl rip of Oxygene 7-13 by the way? I'd make myself one, but my pick-up is absolutely terrible

[Finaero]

Keep an eye out on your inbox.

Yeah, it's definitely an improvement (as it makes the Oxygene 7-13 LP sound better than the CD for the most part), but it also makes me realize how much money I'd have to spend to really get all these records sound absolutely smashing (in other words, should probably invest on an amplifier and speakers as well). But yes, it really makes the analogue albums (Oxygene, Equinoxe, CiC, and Magnetic Fields kind of) really stand out!

Also, only now did I realize how freakin' loud the 12" 1979 special remix of Equinoxe 4 is. To be honest, if there's anything that should be properly remastered, that's definitely my pick. :]

[Finaero]

On a related note, I took some Kraftwerk comparisons as well... as we know, Kraftwerk didn't mess up the Der Katalog remastering process and actually did it well instead of making everything LOUD.

So it sounds pretty good!

Yet it also sounds more or less exactly the same as the 1994 CD version. Well, no need to fix what wasn't broken, to be honest.

Yet I still can't but feel that the original German LP (the one that came with the huge poster) has the best sound all around. The instruments are clearer, there's a bit more bass and it just sounds wonderful on speakers. Really wish I had that amp now.

[jarrepaul]

I picked up a 2nd hand Technics HiFi a few months back. Been picking up s as I've been going along. Sort of put me off a bit when I put Zoolook on and it was crackling like anything. Oxygen 7-13 currently on ebay. I'm afraid that is 1 vinyl I will never own until I have a couple of hundred pounds lying around lol

[Phil]

Meanwhile - actually inspired by the horrible 2015 JMJ remasters - I decided to get a new record player (this one) since comparing the 3 editions of Zoolook that I have revealed to me how cheap the Numark one I've had for like 8-9 years now is

Good choice, the sound is really improved.

Yeah, it's definitely an improvement (as it makes the Oxygene 7-13 LP sound better than the CD for the most part)...

One reason is probably because the dynamic range is far better than on the CD, no ? (only DR8,.. DR6 for Oxygene 12 )

[1906]

I picked up a 2nd hand Technics HiFi a few months back. Been picking up s as I've been going along. Sort of put me off a bit when I put Zoolook on and it was crackling like anything.

Is it a Technics turntable with an s-arm? Proper alignment of the cartridge is really critical on these tables. If it's half a millimeter off, you get cracking sound.

[Dr_Jones]

On a related note, I took some Kraftwerk comparisons as well... as we know, Kraftwerk didn't mess up the Der Katalog remastering process and actually did it well instead of making everything LOUD.

So it sounds pretty good!

Yet it also sounds more or less exactly the same as the 1994 CD version. Well, no need to fix what wasn't broken, to be honest.

Yet I still can't but feel that the original German LP (the one that came with the huge poster) has the best sound all around. The instruments are clearer, there's a bit more bass and it just sounds wonderful on speakers. Really wish I had that amp now.

The Radioactivity remaster is not so good. Listen to the the title track, the white noise cancels out a bit of the main melody.

[Velodynamic]

What my turntable kind of sounds like. It's a Pro-Ject Xpression with Grado Gold pickup. I took the signal directly from the external pro-ject tube-box RCA and simply plugged it into my PC's 3.5 mm digital input.
Then I recorded through Cubase LE which I'm not very familiar with. Is the sound too loud? I'm not sure...
The 24bit 96kHz .wav is compressed into flac. It's 27.8 MB.

http://www.filedropper.com/audioeq578promo



"Musik Aus Zeit Und Raum" vinyl version (46286 1 Polystar)
"The Essential" vinyl (Polydor 817003-1)
"MFSL" vinyl

[Dr_Jones]

To add another one to the test: a sample of the 1992 gold border remaster of Equinoxe:

http://drjones.home.xs4all.nl/jarre/goldborder.flac

It sounds (and looks) a lot like the 198x release we know as 07.flac.
Here's what I get when I look in Audacity:

[Phil]

It sounds (and looks) a lot like the 198x release we know as 07.flac.
Here's what I get when I look in Audacity:

That's true (but not new for me ^^)... In fact all "Digitally Remastered" series start between 1985 & 1987 (without the 1991 "golden border") to finish with 1997 "Scott Hull" remastering. It's exactly the same mastering.

I posted a comparative picture in that thread last year about Equinoxe III (but it's the same thing for Oxygene, Zoolook, etc...) :
-> http://www.zoolook.nl/forum/viewtopic.php?t=6150

[Dr_Jones]

It sounds (and looks) a lot like the 198x release we know as 07.flac.
Here's what I get when I look in Audacity:

That's true (but not new for me ^^)... In fact all "Digitally Remastered" series start between 1985 & 1987 (without the 1991 "golden border") to finish with 1997 "Scott Hull" remastering. It's exactly the same mastering.

I posted a comparative picture in that thread last year about Equinoxe III (but it's the same thing for Oxygene, Zoolook, etc...) :
-> http://www.zoolook.nl/forum/viewtopic.php?t=6150

Yeah, that's true. I didn't pay attention to the similarities between the 1991/2 release and the earlier ones in that topic. (that topic and this one learned me I still have to look for the red faced pressings )

I find it odd, since the 1992 remasters have been advertized as being newly remastered for 1992 (at least, I think they're from 1992). Ah well, at least they're stored in a nice box.