Peter Vogel and Thomas Dolby on the Impact of the Fairlight CMI

March 1, 2012 · Posted in Uncategorized 

A one hour interview focusing on the classic Fairlight CMI

The Australian Fairlight Computer Music Instrument (CMI) is a vintage but state-of-the-art Synthesizer/Sampler workstation. An incredible sampler with 28 megabytes or more of memory! One or two full 73 note velocity sensitive keyboards! Complete synthesis and editing of digitally sampled sounds. Three different on-board SMPTE Sequencers and storage to various disk mediums. The processor itself is housed in a 24″ module. It was also the first digital sampler to hit the market back in 1979 and has endured throughout the eighties and nineties.

From 1979 to 1985 several versions of the Fairlight were produced, with the Series III being the last of them. Each new series added updates to the Fairlight as technology developed through the early eighties. The Fairlight 1 and 2 had only 16 kByte of Memory per voice, and only eight voices but expanded to several megabytes and double the polyphony by the Fairlight III. The IIx was the first Fairlight to offer MIDI. The Series III added aftertouch capability to the keyboard. They all had pitch/mod wheels, an 82-key alphanumeric keyboard, 15 function keys, a Graphics Tablet for drawing sounds and a Video Monitor for seeing what you’re doing while editing.

The sampler is the heart of the Fairlight. It’s a 16-bit resolution digital sampler with variable sample-rates up to 100kHz! Original Fairlight models used two standard 8 bit 6800 processors, updated to the more powerful 16 bit 68000 chips in later versions (the IIx had updated 6809 processors, which is what designated it a IIx over a II, and raised the sampling resolution to 32kHz, from the I & II’s 24kHz). In the Fairlight III, sample memory (RAM) comes in 28MB chunks per 16 voices of polyphony – wow! That’s plenty of room for creating stereo or mono samples. Edit them using various hi-tech functions and at a ‘microscopic’ level using the large Monitor screen. Samples can be looped, mixed and re-sampled with processing for sweetening. As for synthesis, create your own waveforms by sampling and applying Fast Fourier Transform and Waveform editing functions. Storing samples and synthesized waveforms can be done to Hard Disk or 8″ floppy disks.

As for sequencing, there are three sophisticated methods. There’s CAPS (Composer, Arranger, Performer Sequencer), an 80-track polyphonic sequencer. The complicated MCL (Music Composition Language) is like a text-based step time sequencer. And finally the Rhythm Sequencer which functions like a classic drum-machine style sequencer. All sequencer’s are SMPTE syncable.

The Fairlight is a horribly expensive Music Production Center and is rivalled only by the NED Synclavier. Although current samplers, sequencers and synths can blow away the Fairlight at a fraction of the cost – the Fairlight is an historical, prized piece of Vintage Digital Synthesizer and Sampler technology. It still holds up today, over twenty years later and is still a high quality and professional instrument. The facilities provided by it benefit hardcore synth programmers, wealthy musicians, sound designers, film composers and wealthy Vintage Synth collectors.

Tags: , ,

Comments

Leave a Reply




  • New stuff



    LISTEN TO THE NEW STEELBERRY CLONES SINGLES ON SOUNDCLOUD (click the images below)



    LISTEN TO THE NEW ELECTRONICALLY YOURS ALBUM ON SPOTIFY (click the image below)

    MUSIC FROM OUR READERS
    Promote your electronic music at Stereoklang by Stereoklang Produktion
    Send us your sounds

  • STEREOKLANG HOME


  • Playlist

    New and recommended by Stereoklang Latest entries first.

    • Covenant: “Last Dance EP”
    • Nine Inch Nails: “Came Back Haunted”
    • Marnie: “The Hunter”
    • Jenn Vix and Dirk Ivens: “Burn”
    • Chvrches: “Gun”
    • Front Line Assembly: “Echogentic”
    • Download: “LingAM”
    • Thyx: “Below the City”
    • Visage: “Hearts and Knives”
    • Alison Moyet: “Filigree”
    • Noblesse Oblige: “Runaway”
    • Pet Shop Boys: “Electric”
    • Zynic: “Dead End (Club Mix by Olaf Wollschläger”
    • Informatik: “World of Wonder”
    • Skinny Puppy: “Weapon”
    • Displacer: “Curse of the Black Lotus”
    • Marsheaux: “Inhale”
    • Pouppée Fabrikk: “The Dirt”
    • OMD: “English Electric”
    • Chvrches: “Recover”
    • Pouppée Fabrikk: “Bring Back the Days of Old”
    • IAMX: “The Unified Field”
    • M83 feat. Susanne Sundfør: “Oblivion”
    • Code 64: “Accelerate EP”
    • Depeche Mode: “Delta Machine”
    • Kite: “The Rhythm” (song) • How to Destroy Angels: “Welcome Oblivion”
    • Hurts “Exile”
    • DSX: “Anonymous EP”
    • KMFDM: “Kunst”
    • Klinik: “Eat Your Heart out”
    • Diorama: “Even the Devil Doesn’t Care”
    • OMD: “Metroland”
    • Interdiction: “Novus Ordo Seclorum”
    • Mesh: “Automation Baby”
    • Trakktor: “Halo of Lies”
    • Depeche Mode: “Heaven”
    • The Knife: “Full of Fire”
    • Röyksopp feat Susanne Sundfør: “Running to the Sea”
    • Titans: “My Sorrow”
    • Lindstrøm: “Fāār-i-kāāl”
    • CHVRCHES: “The Mother We Share”
    • IAMX: “The Unified Field – Radio Edit”
    • Mesh: “Born to Lie”
    • Ohm: “Car Crash”
    • Syntax: “Tripolar”
    • Iamamiwhoami: “Kin”
    • Die Krupps: “Risikofaktor”
    • Legend: “Fearless”
    • The Prodigy: “The Fat of the Land
    • Dead When I Found Her: “Ragdoll Blues”
    • Hocico: “Vile Whispers”
    • Front Line Assembly: “AirMech”
    • Velvet Acid Christ: “Maldire”
    • Rome: “Hell Money”
    • “Bleep – A Guide To Electronic Music”
    • The Birthday Massacre: “Hide and Seek”
    • Karin Park: “Highwire Poetry”
    • X Marks the Pedwalk: “The Sun, The Cold and My Underwater Fear”
    • Delerium: “Music Box Opera”
    • Not Lars: “Worry”
    • Katatonia: “Dead End Kings”
    • Bossa Machine: “The Fat and Ugly Man EP”
    • Marlow: “No Heart”
    • Mr Meeble: “Liar”
    • Grendel: “Epr // Edp”
    • In Strict Confidence: “Morpheus (Heqc Remix)”

  • Loops and more

  • Recommended free SW stuff



    Camel Audio – Alchemy Player


    U-He – TyrellN6


    U-He – Zebralette


    Applied Acoustics Systems – Swatches


    IK Media – AmpliTube 3 Free


    Reaper DAW


  • Partners

  • Magazines













  • Sponsors

Get Adobe Flash player