Sunday Synth Jam: This cover of the Jean Michel Jarre classic Oxygen II, via organfairy, makes use of some old organs that don’t have the caché of a B3 or a Synthex, but still offer some great vintage sounds.

Technical details below:

This is not intended as a 1-to-1 reproduction of Jean Michel Jarre’s famous classic. It is more like my shot at it using the instruments that I have.

It’s funny that just because JMJ used an Eminent U310 and later an Elka X-705 then these exact organ models sells for astronomical prices while most other organs can be bought for peanuts.

So therefore I have used Elka X-30 and Technics SX-C600 to play most of the arrangement. I don’t have a MiniPops 7 drum machine so I used a Rhythm Ace. One thing I did to make it more authentic was that I manually added the quijada sound to the rhythm. I synthesized it on my Roland JX-8P because I felt that it was vital for the mood of the melody. The sequence that runs through the first part was programmed on the little Korg Poly 800 and most of the sound effects was made on my Roland SH-2000. Finally I added the sound of my homebuild zimbelstern because I hadn’t got a clue on how to make the huithuithuithuithuit sounds of the EMS synthesizer that I assume Jarre used.

For once I had the sheet music. I found it at the public library – you know, the house with books made of real paper in it. But it’s not easy when the composer doesn’t follow his own notes on the recording he made!

I haven’t added many effects efter the sounds were recorded. Just some panning, reverb, and echo.