Jean Michel-Jarre - Oxygene Pt. 8 Live in San Jose

Published on Apr 16, 2018 Distortion Productions

"One of the pioneers of electronic music with a historic performance on April 15th, 2018 at the City National Civic in downtown San Jose."

Some synth spotting on the background screen including Roland gear, EMS SYNTHI, MacBeth Elements, and GRP system.

Be sure to see the following for more of the gear used on the current JMJ tour:

Roland Keyboard Rigs - On-stage with Stephane Gervais (Jean-Michel Jarre)
Roland Keyboard Rigs Jean Michel Jarre

Update:

Jean Michel-Jarre - Oxygene Pt. 8 Live in San Jose

Published on Apr 16, 2018 Distortion Productions

"One of the pioneers of electronic music with a historic performance on April 15th, 2018 at the City National Civic in downtown San Jose."

G2 Minimoog Samples

Title link takes you to some samples created by Jose Sogo Flores of a Minimoog and a Clavia G2. In each sample he goes back and forth between the two. These are pretty amazing. Note that Jose calls out below that this is not meant to be a comparison in sound quality but rather an excersize in programming. Enjoy. BTW, please right click and download a file before listening to each. : )

Some notes from Jose:

- You hear always the Mini and then the Clavia G2.
- On every mp3 files, there is many comparisons. Sometimes only an isolate
note on both instruments, sometimes a group of notes. Because of the many
examples and very similar sound, you'll have to listening carefully to the
mp3 or you won't know if you are listening to the Mini or G2.
- This is silly hand playing and there is timing differences between the
Mini and the G2. So don't take timing differences for sound differences!
- I made the G2 patch in a couple of minutes, using simple modules
and -lacking programming skills- without taking into account important sound
features of the Mini like filter saturation or different resonance response
depending on input frecuencies. That means, the G2 patch can be even
improved with some more effort.
- I stopped programming the G2 patch as soon as I thought the sound was
interesting enough to record some examples. Because of my lazyness, filter
tracking on the G2 was not matching perfectly the one in the Mini. On some
examples, where you listen to the same sound spread across several keyboard
octaves, differences in sound are mostly only slight differences in filter
cutoff due on different filter tracking. Our ear is very sensitive to cutoff
differences.
- Please don't understand the A/B comparison as a sound quality question.
Instrument and sound emulation is a way to learn your gear and expand your
programming capabilities. No winner here. Also no loser.

If you want to host the files and make them available for all people, please
feel free to copy and post the considerations above to AH.

Best Regards

Jose

San Francisco drive via San Jose Ave / Guerrero St / Laguna St

video upload by CatSynth TV

"We travel the length of San Francisco from the southern neighborhoods to the northern edge along the Bay. The ride starts on the San Jose Avenue expressway into the Mission District where we follow Guerrero Street to its northern end on Market Street. After crossing Market, we continue north on Laguna through Hayes Valley, the Western Addition, Japantown, over the hill in Pacific Heights, and down into the Marina District. At the end of Laguna, we wind our way through main streets of the Marina to arrive at the Presidio of San Francisco within sight of the Golden Gate Bridge.

00:00 Introduction and Map
00:10 San Jose Avenue expressway
02:03 Guerrero Street (Mission District)
05:14 Laguna Street (Hayes Valley)
07:52 Japantown on Laguna
08:25 Pacific Heights on Laguna - spectacular hills and views
09:54 Marina District on Laguna
10:51 Marina District on Bay Street, Fillmore Street, and Marina Blvd
13:16 The Presidio of San Francisco

This ride includes two original pieces of music. From the beginning to Market Street is a new track featuring:
G Calvin Weston on drums (soundscaperecordinglab.com)
Big Fish Audio Grindhouse
Universal Audio UAD Electra 88
Cherry Audio Mercury 6, Elka-X, Pro Soloist, Sines, Stardust 201
EastWest Ministry of Rock 2 and Hollywood Pop Brass
Arturia CMI V, Delay Brigade
Metasonix RK5
Rossum Electro-Music Morpheus
Make Noise Maths
Buchla Red Panel 158 and 156m
AudioThing Wires

From Market Street to the end is an extended version of "Broadway" track featuring:
G Calvin Weston on drums
Crank Strugeon Pocket Gamelan
Strymon StarLab reverb module
Octave CAT and Behringer CAT synthesizers
Arturia Modular V
Korg modwave
Arturia B3 V
Arturia Wurli V2 and V3
EastWest Fab Four (Bass), Bösendorfer Piano, and Hollywood Brass"

California 87 in San Jose (Guadaloupe Freeway) - with synth soundtrack

video upload by CatSynth TV

"A ride along the entire length of California Highway 87, the Guadaloupe Freeway, through San Jose. It begins in the southern part of the city at an interchange with Highway 85, runs alongside the downtown area, and ends at US 101 near San Jose International Airport.

The ride features a very 1980s-inspired soundtrack with the following synthesizers and instruments:
Yamaha RX5 drum machine
Arturia Jun-6 V, Jup-8 V, Synclavier, CMI V, Pigments, SQ-80 V, SEM filter
Cherry Audio Elka-X, Pro Soloist, Sines, GX-80
Arturia MiniFreak
E350 Morphing Terrarium
Strymon StarLab
Metasonix R-53 Waveshaper
EastWest Ministry of Rock
RMI Piano instrument for Kontakt"

CS80 Access Virus Ti Demo from Jose Sogo Flores

Jose Sogo Flores just sent me a demo of the Acess Virus Ti covering that CS80 Vangelis sound. It's interesting that this is actually coming from the Acess Virus Ti. Title link takes you there - look for the demo with Vangelis in the title. Thanks Jose!

Allen Strange RIP

Sad news in via vgermuse:

"I just received an email letting me know that Allen Strange passed away yesterday in Seattle. What a deep loss on so many fronts."

You might remember that Allen Strange recently had to cancel a performance in the Seattle area due to illness. If you do not know who Allen Strange is and his impact to the world of synthesizers, read this short bio (source of image and excerpt below) and then take a look at these previous posts; be sure to check out all the links to more info. He was a pioneer of electronic music and wrote a number of books on the subject. This is a sad day.

The following is a brief excerpt of his accomplishments:
"He received two grants from the San Jose State University Foundation (1969 and 1974) for research into electronic music and in 1970 became professor of music and director of the electronic music studios at the university. In 1973 he attended Chowning's music seminar at Stanford University Artificial Intelligence Center. Strange is one of the leading authorities on analogue electronic music; his Electronic Music: Systems, Techniques, and Controls (1972) is now a classic text. He also wrote Programming and Meta-Programming the Electro-Organism (1974), the operations manual for the Buchla Music Easel and has documented the 200 Series synthesizers made by Buchla. He co-founded two performance groups, Biome (1967--72), in order to make use of the EMS Synthi, and, with Buchla in 1974, the Electronic Weasel Ensemble. He was president of the International Computer Music Association (1993--8) and has appeared as a guest artist-lecturer throughout the world. With his wife, Patricia, they have recently published The Contemporary Violin: Extended Performance Techniques."

Update via Robin in the comments:
"From the Family of Allen Strange.

Just wanted to thank you all for your kind words. Allen will always be remembered as a loving father, husband and musician. There will be a memorial reception at the Bainbridge Island Music Guild on March 1st at 4 pm. Directions and information can be found at http://www.islandmusic.org/. We are also planning a life celebration for Allen in the Bay Area of California in the next few months, I will be sure to post that info when it gets planned."

Update via the comments:
"The Family of Allen Strange is having a memorial celebration in San Jose on September 13. For more information please see: http://www.allenstrange.com/ and if you plan on attending please RSVP at http://allenstrange.blogspot.com/

-Robin Strange"

DX5 Playing Alphaville "The Jet Set" cover

video upload by DX5

"'The Jet Set' Instrumental cover.
Gear Used: Roland MRS-2 Promars, Access Virus TI Snow (choir wavetable layer), Roland JX-8P, Emu Emax 1 and Emax II. Backtrack previously recorded, track by track, by me from scratch in Pro Tools, also including a Roland D-10, JP8000 and Simmons SDS8. All sounds synthesized by me or belonging to my libraries.
Original song composed by Marian Gold / Bernhard Lloyd / Frank Mertens.
Performed here by DX5 Jose Maria Bara."

Update:

DX5 playing Alphaville "The Jet Set" (Take 2; recorded w/improved sound while streaming live)

video upload by DX5

"Yesterday I've recorded a cover of this song. Tonight I've just played it again on my Live Streaming and found out I am way more happy with the sound quality and balance than the previous version; thus I decided to upload it too. It does also include a few seconds before/after playing. (There is a barely noticeable jump at 00:28 that happened while broadcasting).
When I record an isolated cover, I do usually benefit from my old camera preamps/compressor. But when I am streaming live, I route audio (analogue) from my Pro Tools card output (Focusrite) to an audio card that feeds the streaming software, resulting in less sound make up. Also, audio levels were set different, resulting on this video.
Gear Used: Roland MRS-2 Promars, Access Virus TI Snow (choir wavetable layer triggered from the Emax1) , Roland JX-8P, Emu Emax 1 and Emax II.
Backtrack previously recorded, track by track, by me from scratch in Pro Tools, also including a Roland D-10, JP8000 and Simmons SDS8. All sounds synthesized by me or belonging to my libraries.
Original song composed by Marian Gold / Bernhard Lloyd / Frank Mertens.
Performed here by DX5 Jose Maria Bara."

Jean-Michel Jarre at The Paramount Theatre Seattle

Above you'll find a photo stream of some pics I took at the Jean-Michel Jarre concert last night at The Paramount Theatre in Seattle (mouse over the image and use the controls on the left and right to flip through). Apologies for the quality of the pics as I only had my iPhone at the show. I was there to enjoy it, not to document it. That said, I of course couldn't help but take some pics and video. I still need to review the videos, so they may come in follow-up posts if they do JMJ's fantastic performance justice - see this post for a couple of videos from the San Jose concert for now - there are others on YouTube as well. I will say the concert was an absolutely incredible experience. If you ever get a chance to see Jean-Michel Jarre perform live DO NOT miss him. P.S. There are still two dates left for the tour in Southern California, Coachella tonight in Indio, and the Spreckels Theater in San Diego. Seriously, if you can make either, just go. The majority of the light show was all lasers and LED panels that moved across the entire stage. The effect was 3-dimensional. Jean-Michel frequently spoke to the audience and gave insight and background to many of the classic and new tracks they performed. I was fortunate enough to have Stephane Gervais, who performs with JMJ, invite me to the show. I was able to meet one of my personal heroes, an incredible influence on my life, early years, and now as an adult. I literally have Jean-Michel Jarre to thank for getting me into synths. It either was that or drums! :) Drums were not an option where I lived and I loved listening to Rendez-Vous when I was just 16. I ended up purchasing an Oberheim Matrix-6, brand new, and the rest his history. Thank you to Stephane and Jean-Michel for being such incredible people. Your music makes the world so much better.

P.P.S. Some synth spotting included Roland gear, an EMS SYNTHI, MacBeth Elements, ARP 2600 MKIII Orange and Black, and a GRP system.

Update: videos added below. These were taken with the iPhone so not the best; per above I was there to enjoy the show not capture it. I zoomed in while filming so the set in person was about 4x larger that what it looks like in these videos. I did see it all in person. The ceiling you see above is actually the underside of the second floor balcony seating. It was truly amazing to see, and it sounded pristine. The iPhone just isn't capable of capturing it unfortunately. Regardless, these videos should give you a sense of what it was like to be there.



Playlist:
Jean Michel-Jarre Équinoxe 4 Live at Paramount Theatre Seattle 2018
Jean Michel-Jarre The Time Machine w/ Laser Harp Live at Paramount Theatre Seattle 2018 (stable after :30)
Jean Michel-Jarre Stardust Live at Paramount Theatre Seattle 2018
Jean Michel-Jarre Oxygene 17 Live at Paramount Theatre Seattle 2018
Jean Michel-Jarre Brick England Live at Paramount Theatre Seattle 2018
Jean Michel-Jarre Fourth Rendez-Vous Live at Paramount Theatre Seattle 2018

You can find the setlist for the show here.

Also see:
Jean Michel-Jarre - Oxygene Pt. 8 Live in San Jose
Roland Keyboard Rigs - On-stage with Stephane Gervais (Jean-Michel Jarre)
Roland Keyboard Rigs Jean Michel Jarre

FUTURESPACE ORCHESTRA

flickr by Kiel Bryant

full size

"VintageTech electric organ/synthesizer looks to be on loan from a Tatooine Cantina -- or Captain Kirk's garage band."

That would be the Con Brio ADS200. Click on the Con Brio label below for more.

Update via Kiel in the comments: "Here's what Sellam (VintageTech president) gave me about it: 'That's the famous Con Brio ADS-200, a way-ahead-of-its-time synthesizer produced in the late 1970s/early 1980s. It was a project by 4 gard students at CalTech. They turned it into a company but since they were all engineers it failed pretty quickly, and only a couple of these were made. This is one of only two known to exist.

It was exhibited at the last VCF, along with the ADS-200R (the portable version). We got the ADS-200R working again recently, thanks in part to one of the original designers who lives in San Jose.

Both belong to Brian Kehew, and this one has been in my warehouse for a while as I'm trying to restore it for him (needs a new disk drive and a few electronic connectors fixed).' "

Update via Sellam in the comments: "I'm not sure what Brian has done to document our restoration progress online, but I'm sure at some point there will be ample web space devoted to these synths.

This is what I currently know (some details might be a little off):

1) Details about the ADS-200 in Kiel's photo can be found on the Con Brio Wikipedia page1b) According to the above link, it was THREE CalTech grad students, not four ;)

2) The 200R model is a portable version of the 200 pictured above. Brian Kehew scored it from Don Lieberman a couple years back. Don (one of the original of the three CalTech grads) had it in his workshop and was just about to throw it out when Brian made contact. Brian brought it up from San Jose to my warehouse, we plugged it in, and it came right up. It was actually in nearly flawless condition. We were able to get it mostly functional using the system disks from the 200 model above.

2b) We finally got it totally functional (well, 98%...) earlier this year. Don and Brian came up and we worked on it for half an afternoon and got the last problem solved (the keyboards). We played old samples stored on dusty old 8" floppy disks. The 2% that still needs to get functional is the video. The system disks we're using were coded for the 200, which uses a different video driver chip or something. We can boot the 200R using the same disks but the video is horizontally shifted and rolling. We can alleviate it by manipulating the video controls, but we don't get to see the whole screen. We get to see enough to load/edit/play samples, etc. Fixing this will be a matter of software, and that will take lots more work and hacking. Unless we can find an original system disk for the 200R.

3) The 200 model needs a new 8" floppy drive. Oddly, the one that it used is some rare CDC (Control Data Corporation) model for which I cannot find documentation. If anyone knows where to get documentation and a schematic for a CDC BR8A8 8" floppy disk then that would be fab. I tried substituting different 8" drives but none will work. Hmm...I just had a thought: maybe it's NOT the disk drive but rather the controller, or a cable. But anyway, can't say for sure until I know what the BR8A8 is equivalent to, or what's special about it, if anything.

4) As soon as the 200 is restored it will go back to Brian and he will do some magick with it. We (or at least I) hope to reprise the demo at the next VCF.

5) I video'd our restoration session as I thought it might be historically significant. It includes audio from the 200R. I'll get that digitized and up on YouTube as soon as someone invents a time machine so I can get more hours in the day. If someone wants to volunteer to do this then I'll be happy to get you a copy of the tape (Kiel?)

http://www.vintage.org
http://www.vintagetech.com"

Vostok Instruments Interview + Atlas Filter Design & Demo // Machina Bristronica 2023

video upload by DivKid

"With Machina Bristronica 2024 not that far around the corner and with it having a whole DivKid stage again with several discussions lets take a look at the talks from 2023.

In this video Jose from Vostok Instruments joins me to discuss his origins, getting into Eurorack personally, building up the company and modules before getting into his latest module Atlas. There's a lot of filter love, design chat and sound demos.

Thanks to Jose and the whole team at Machina Bristronica for a fantastic time, can't wait for the next one, tickets and info for that here // https://machinabristronica.uk

**TIMING INDEX // CHAPTERS**
00:00 Intro
00:40 Personal Eurorack journey
03:21 Vostok origins
04:40 Multi channel design philosophy
06:04 Atlas & a love of filters
07:46 The sound of Atlas
09:00 Choosing filter slopes and poles
10:33 Normalling inputs across channels
12:28 Choosing secondary CV inputs
14:33 Interpolating scanner
16:49 Quad filter modulated drones
17:25 Filter pings
18:53 Adding click and punch to pings
19:29 Clean click free low end booms
21:40 Playful spacing and needing multiple filters
21:43 Complex patches from simple things + needing “more of the same”

5 Sound examples of the hardware CS80 versus the Arturia CS80V. Can you hear the difference?

video upload by Jose's Vintage Keys

"Many followers asked me to do this side by side test. I didn't use poly aftertouch - to create a very objective comparison. You can even join our online quiz - give your answers via de following link: https://forms.gle/UZmKLqMaHHLUm1RY7. #vintagesynths #arturia #quiz"

Update:

CS80 Hardware versus Arturia plug - who could spot the difference?

video upload by Jose's Vintage Keys

"I made 5 sound examples on the real CS80 and the Arturia plugin version. Over 300 people took the test. Here are the results!"

ANI - Y2K Loopfest performance at Anno Domini Gallery in San Jose, CA

Published on Oct 17, 2013 Amy Lee·33 videos

"My performance at Anno Domini Gallery in San Jose, CA (2013.10.16) for the Y2K13 International Live Looping Festival. I've upgraded! That's 2 keyboards: the Akai LPK25 attached to the big iPad running NanoStudio as a fancy drum machine/looper, and an iPad Mini with a QuNexus also running the same NanoStudio patches. The Mini also has iLectric for the electric pianos.

Visuals by Maha on Tim Thompson's LoopyCam.

More on the festival:
http://www.y2kloopfest.com"

iTunes: NanoStudio - Blip Interactive Ltd | iLectric Piano for iPad - IK Multimedia

DX5 playing DX5 "Slave to the Emax"

YouTube Uploaded by DX5 on Apr 14, 2011

"Camera was shooting accidentally while cleaning dust, so I decided to save the moment and keep starting with the song.

Gear:
Upper: Emu EMAX II HD
Mid: Emu Emax
Lower: Kurzweil PC1x

Composed by Jose Maria Bara.

Track from DX5 Jose Maria Bara's album "Electronic Devices EP Vol.1", available now on iTunes, Amazon
and Spotify."

Doug Lynner at The Woodshed South Bay - Potential New Synth Venue

Doug Lynner will be performing at The Woodshed in the South Bay, San Jose area with the modular systems pictured.  Mike Dietrich will be covering visuals.  If there's a good enough turn out, the location could be open to future synth performances.  If you are in the area, do your best to show up.  Not only will you get to see some modular gear live with a light show, but you'll be helping the cause.

via Doug on The MATRIXSYNTH Lounge:

"I have a very special synth concert coming up on Aug 16th in Los Gatos at The Woodshed. My performance on modular synthesizers, keyboard and guitar will be accompanied by visual artist Mike Dietrich using creative lighting with multidimensional projection mapping and computer-generated images. It is going to be amazing!

This show is also important because there aren't great venues for electronic and experimental music down in the South Bay (San Jose area) and if we can get a decent audience to this night we can open one up for future synthesizer performances.

So, if you are in the area, please join me for sights and sounds! http://www.woodshed.org/ai1ec_event/doug-lynner-synthesizer-man/"

DX5 Electronic Devices EP Vol1

YouTube Uploaded by DX5 on Mar 7, 2011
Some synth spotting. DX5 brought us these great videos.

"Available at iTunes and on Amazon.
(Spotify updated album coming soon)

DX5 Jose Maria Bara Album promo. Includes (in order of appearance):
Spoken Words, Electron Chase, Random Trust, Batch, Slave to the Emax, Pipeline

All tracks composed by Jose Maria Bara."

Access Virus Ti and SH-101 Demos

Title link takes you to samples of the Access Virus TI sent to me by Jose Sogo Flores. Two of the samples are the Roland SH-101 followed by the Virus. Impressive. Also make sure to check out the third sample of the Virus. Absolutely liquid sounding; talk about bubbly. If the name looks familiar, he recently sent in those amazing G2 Minimoog samples. Enjoy, and thank you Jose!

Playing Synthpop Songs Live (Streaming Edited Highlights)

video upload by DX5

"Edited highlights from the unplanned (no preparation at all) live streaming broadcasted on December 27, 2021 with me playing some synthpop songs.
00:00 Trust (edit) - The Cure.
04:45 Just Like Heaven - The Cure.
08:25 Waving.
08:28 Why Can't I Be You - The Cure.
11:39 My Secret Garden + Oberkorn intro (Hammersmith vers) - Depeche Mode.
19:06 Policy Of Truth - Depeche Mode.
25:24 Enjoy The Silence (+ intro while loading backtrack's PT session) - Depeche Mode.
32:33 Home - Depeche Mode.
38:21 Shake the Disease - Depeche Mode.
43:24 It's My Life - Talk Talk.
47:40 Save a Prayer - Duran Duran.
53:13 Fade To Grey - Visage.
57:13 New Life - Depeche Mode.
1:01:33 Photographic (+ sound test intro) - Depeche Mode.
1:06:04 Waving and end.

Synths used (L to R, Top to bottom): Roland Promars MRS-2, Roland JP8000, Kurzweil PC1x, Roland JX-8P, Emu Emax I and II.
All backtracks previously recorded on its entirely by me, track by track, on Pro Tools.
Video encoded with an analogue capture device (plus the usual hi8 camera), hence some colours are a bit distorted.
Performed live here by DX5 Jose Maria Bara."

DX5 playing Depeche Mode "Black Celebration" cover (Updated)

video by DX5

"Updating a song I had covered with lyrics (not my voice then) years ago. This is a combination of the album and "The Tube" live versions.

Gear used.
Left upper: Emu Emax ('A brief period' is my own voice overprocessed. Toms and 'plink' sound are original, as well as the bass on the upper octaves. Solo sound is a sampled DX7).
Lower: Emu Emax II.
Right: Roland Promars.

Backtrack previously recorded on Pro Tools.
Song composed by Martin L. Gore.
Performed here by Jose Maria Bara."

DX5 playing Jan Hammer "Crockett's Theme" cover

video by DX5

"Gear used:
Left: Roland D-10 (Pad)
Emu Emax 1 (as MIDI controller, triggering the Kurzweil)
Kurzweil PC1x (Electric guitar sound)
Right: Emu Emax II. (Lead and low pad, both made based on layering different synths/sound libraries).

Backtrack previously recorded and sequenced, track by track, by me, on Pro Tools.
Composed by Jan Hammer.
Performed here by Jose Maria Bara."

DX5 Playing Talk Talk "The Party's Over"

video upload by DX5

"A song from Talk Talk's debut album that I've been playing on some of my live streamings, recorded as an isolated cover now.

Gear used:
Roland JX-8P (5th riff)
Emu Emax (JX and Kurzweil samples)
Emu Emax II (Emu and DX7 samples)
Backtrack previously recorded by me, track by track, on Pro Tools, including Simmons SDS8 for toms.
Original song composed by Mark Hollis, Paul Webb, Simon Brenner, Lee Harris.
Performed here by DX5 Jose Maria Bara."