BlahBlahCafe - Jean-Michel Jarre forum

Jote wrote:So... which stereo image is the correct one?

It would be surprising if JMJ didn't validate this change (same for the Zoolook album), but he's the only one who can answer.

Both versions have been produced for 20 years, so maybe that's not important. (In a general way with JMJ's albums I tend to regard the original mastering on CD as the good one.)

For comparison's sake, here's Equinoxe 4 (from the top: 1978 French LP, 1991 Digitally Remastered CD, 1995 MFSL CD):

Phil wrote:

jarreaus wrote:(...) So basically all versions of Equinoxe before 1997 have the same stereo image including the original 'redface' press?

Yes that's what we can observe.. but a glassmaster error remains possible. (According to an interview with JMJ in a Keyboards Mag, there are some albums of Oxygen produced before 1997 with the inverted channels .. the result of a bad "glassmaster".)

That must of been what happened with my edition of The Essential – I just checked and it's definitely the CD itself. This is the Australian pressed version. So Polygram Australia must of utilised a glass master with the reverse stereo image.

Phil wrote:

Jote wrote:So... which stereo image is the correct one?

It would be surprising if JMJ didn't validate this change (same for the Zoolook album), but he's the only one who can answer.

Both versions have been produced for 20 years, so maybe that's not important. (In a general way with JMJ's albums I tend to regard the original mastering on CD as the good one.)

I recall back in 1997 Sony claimed that the original was incorrect and that they 'corrected' it with the remastering process. (However it appears the Band in the Rain section of Equinoxe 8 they kept the same as before – moves gradually from left to right).

Something I recall an audio engineer said to me years ago was that it was common mixing practice to have the primary sound more to the left and the delays more to the right. If that be the case then the 1997 onward versions of Equinoxe with the channels switched seem to convey that aesthetic so maybe it was a correction after all. Moreover Oxygene also seems to be mixed that way.

Finaero wrote:(Hearing Oxygene 10 in-between the opening laser harp notes of Oxygene 7 still is a nicer "easter egg" to me, though https://www.dropbox.com/s/4ccd4on0z79iwzh/1997.wav?dl=0 )

(Removing the WAVs tomorrow!)

That link is dead, can you upload it again?