Wax Tax! Inspired Music and Digital Art // Fairlight CMI // DeltaLab // Casio Sk-1 // Synth Topics

video upload by Saul Stokes - Frequensea

"Stokes extracts the music and design language of WAX TRAX!, crafting his take on the 1980 / 90s label out of Chicago. Expect daw-free driving rhythms, pulsing basslines, and aggressive sound design; all syncopated with a nonstop digital art blitz.

Accompanying Stokes’ art and music set will be a short presentation on WAXTRAX! and the musicians who forged a unique genre of electronic music, along with some of the equipment behind the music.

Topics:

WaxTrax!
Ministry - 242- Chris and Cosey - Front Line Assembly
Fairlight CMI
Delta Lab Effectron
Early Akai Samplers
Yamaha CS01
and More"

Bill Wolfer - Working with Stevie Wonder

video upload by Anthony Marinelli Music

Discover the enchanting tale of Bill Wolfer, a young dreamer from Cheyenne, Wyoming, whose ambition led him to create a master plan: relocating to Los Angeles, securing a job at Guitar Center, and orchestrating the perfect sequence of events that ultimately launched his thriving music career alongside two legendary icons - Stevie Wonder and Michael Jackson.

In this captivating video, Bill not only marvels at the awe-inspiring genius of Stevie as a songwriter, singer, and keyboardist but also graciously opens up about the deep emotional connection and joyful camaraderie he shared with Stevie firsthand. It's a heartwarming journey that showcases not just musical prowess but also the power of friendship and passion in shaping a magical career.

00:00 Introduction
00:36 Stevie Wonder's Early Career
01:40 Berry Gordy Years
02:38 The Guitar Center Plan for a Music Career
04:14 The Star Parade at Guitar Center
05:26 Meeting Ronnie Foster
06:42 Discovering the ARP Sequencer
09:12 Stevie Wonder Hears Bill's Music and Calls Him
09:57 Working on Journey Through the Secret Life of Plants with Stevie
11:50 Touring with Stevie
13:20 Bill's Beautiful Friendship with Stevie
16:19 All-Nighter Recording Sessions with Stevie
17:20 Driving with Stevie...and the Rolls Royce
20:42 Stevie's Sense of Humor, Incredible Singing & Musicianship
23:52 Meeting Chick Corea
26:07 Stevie, Chick and Herbie Hancock
26:57 Logo (AMM theme music)

https://www.anthonymarinellimusic.com

80-ies Synth cover of Crockett's Theme from the Miami Vice TV Show

video upload by Jose's Vintage Keys

"#miamivice was a famous tv show in the 80-ies - the soundtrack was made by the fabulous #janhammer (#janhammermusic) and featured the #jupiter8 #linndrum and the #fairligthcmi - great #vintagesynths #synthcover #synthwave was born in that time and this is one of the greatest synth songs ever. I playing the #YamahaEX5, #RolandJX10 and the wonderful #Arturia Fairlight CMI plug in."

A history of synthesizers with Melbourne Electronic Sound Studio | Art Works

video upload by ABC Arts

"Melbourne Electronic Sound Studio (MESS) holds the largest collection of electronic instruments in the Southern Hemisphere. It’s home to 1400 synthesizers, drum machines and other electronic making equipment.

We zeroed in on two synthesizers in particular, the ARP 2600, which provided the iconic voice of R2-D2 in Star Wars, and the Fairlight CMI, which was made in Australia and changed synthesizer history."

You can find additional posts featuring the Melbourne Electronic Sound Studio here.

Art of noise, Moments in love (short cover)

video upload by fischek

Gear:
* Korg Wavestate
* Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3 (controlling Ableton)
Various samples, the most important being the famous ARR1 Fairlight CMI sample (the voice sound).

Valmont - Analog Jam 3 : Nation

video upload by Valmont

"Chords: Sequential Prophet 2000, Steven PDD-3000, Dynacord DRP-16, Ibanez UE-405
Bass: E-Mu Emax II playing a CS20M+Fairlight III patch
Bold Bass: Arp Axxe (mk2 in mk1 body), Ibanez UE-400
Flanged Chords: Akai AX-80, Boss BF-1
Drums: Behringer RD-8, Roland SIP-301, MPC Electronics DSM 1 (not to be confused with M.P.C), Yamaha R-1000, Alesis MidiVerb
Bright Pad: Sequential Prophet 600
Emax, AX-80 & RD-8 are live sequenced in Audacity, the Prophet 2000 is audio-looped on the two first cycles"

https://linktr.ee/Valmont

Fairlight CMI IIx Listed for $88,651.38

Note: Auction links are affiliate links for which the site may be compensated.

via this auction

"What you see here is the real deal! This is not a reissue, THIS IS IT! The one and only Fairlight CMI IIx! This unit belonged to the Bee Gees / Pet Shop Boys keyboard player Blue Weaver! This is the holy grail of Fairlights! This unit comes with some original Pet Shop Boys, Scritti Politti, Steve Nye and tons of other floppies! The Fairlight IIx has been personally signed by Blue Weaver and even has his phone number written on it! Don’t let this one slip out of your fingers, because it won’t be around for long. There are only a few working Fairlights IIx left and none in as good condition as this one! When you own this piece of history, you can truly say “I made it” We wanted to keep Blue Weaver’s Fairlight as original as possible. Any upgrades and CRT replacements can be done for free upon request if you are interested in purchasing the unit. Who knows when the next unit will show up? Personally, I wouldn’t risk losing this piece of history!"

CLICK FOR MORE »

Synth Rorschach #84

What is it?

See the video below.

Note the patch points appear to be mini pins in to banana plug type sockets.

P.S. Akai gets a label for this one.

CLICK FOR MORE »

Building a Fairlight CMI: Episode 15

video upload by Syntaur

"It's a holiday double-header, with two Fairlight episodes back-to-back!

Cris Blyth is a brave man. He has a dream of taking a Fairlight MFX and upgrading it to a Fairlight CMI Series III. In this episode, Cris gives the Fairlight a bit of a shower, then comes to his senses (sort-of) and learns to do screen printing with hopes of completing the front panel. A sneaky cheat brings on a momentary sense of elation - is the end in sight?"

Building a Fairlight CMI episodes

Building a Fairlight CMI: Episodes 13 & 14

video upload by Syntaur

"Cris Blyth is a brave man. He has a dream of taking a Fairlight MFX and upgrading it to a Fairlight CMI Series III. In this episode, Cris gets the newly-made front panel painted, in an epic battle between off-white and beige, and satin and gloss. And he makes an interesting discovery about replicating the panel graphics."



Cris Blyth is a brave man. He has a dream of taking a Fairlight MFX and upgrading it to a Fairlight CMI Series III. In this episode, Cris explores his graphic design skills, and gets the Fairlight front panel ready for screen printing."

Building a Fairlight CMI episodes

QasarBeach Alias Library 1.0 (Fairlight CMI IV)

video upload by QasarBeach

"This is a quick look at the Alias Library V1.0
https://adamstrange.itch.io/alias
This just shows the voices, auto loading and preview giving a good feel for what can be done with Alias.
At all times this is a mono voice being played live - no added voices or effects. Just QasarBeach Alias..."

FAIRLIGHT C.M.I. - Handmade Miniature 1/6 scale

video upload by Ronaldo Lopes Teixeira ROLT

You can find another previously posted here.

Building a Fairlight CMI: Episode 12

video upload by Syntaur

"Cris Blyth is a brave man. He has a dream of taking a Fairlight MFX and upgrading it to a Fairlight CMI Series III. In this episode, Cris is making faces - taking a blank aluminum face plate from his donor machine, and cutting and drilling and painting to make a CMI face plate."

Building a Fairlight CMI episodes

QasarBeach Alias Dev 8 - Dirty FM (Fairlight cmi)

video upload by QasarBeach

"This shows the DFM architecture in QBAlias. This is a full FM synth with 4 operators. one with feedback. and each with 128 waveforms as the core. There are 12 algorithms to play with as well...
This shows 4 simple audio examples, so expect some great retro sounds and strange (but very dirty) FM goodness..."

Building a Fairlight CMI: Episode 11

video upload by Syntaur

"Cris Blyth is a brave man. He has a dream of taking a Fairlight MFX and upgrading it to a Fairlight CMI Series III. In this episode, Cris works hard (too hard!) to solve a mouse problem, has an adventure mounting a SCSI2SD card, and gets a USB port installed."

Building a Fairlight CMI episodes

Kate Bush - Experiment IV (Code Mix) QasarBeach (Fairlight CMI)

video upload by QasarBeach

"Kate famously used the Fairlight CM. QasarBeach was captured with no edits, overdub or added effects to create the Code Mix.
https://adamstrange.itch.io/qasarbeach
'QasarBeach CMI IIz' is a Fairlight CMI simulator written from the ground up that does an amazing job of recreating the user interface and functionality of the original hardware, while adding many useful improvements that makes workflow faster and more intuitive."

The Fairlight Story

video upload by The Age & Sydney Morning Herald

"It is one of the greatest innovations in music history, and it came from Sydney, Australia.

The story of the Fairlight CMI's creation, its cultural impact and ultimate demise is told via exclusive interviews with both Fairlight co-founders Kim Ryrie and Peter Vogel as well as Fairlight engineer Peter Wielk and Professor Samantha Bennett of the ANU School of Music.

This video was produced by Tom Compagnoni for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.

Subscribe: https://subscribe.smh.com.au/"

ABC Millionaire (Tube Mix) (QasarBeach Fairlight cmi)

video upload by QasarBeach

"Created and captured with no additional effects
The core is a set of files recently found. Possibly constructed for ABC's spot on 'The Tube'
This version has been augmented and expanded into the Tube Mix used QasarBeach
https://adamstrange.itch.io/qasarbeach"

Arthur Baker Shows How He Produced Afrika Bambaataa's Iconic 'Planet Rock' @ IMS Ibiza 2022

video upload by Point Blank Music School

"We teamed up with Arthur Baker, the legendary artist behind the production of Afrika Bambaataa's iconic electro track, 'Planet Rock', for an exclusive breakdown of how the song was created at IMS Ibiza 2022 for IMS College in partnership with Point Blank, Beatport and Microsoft Surface."

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This one was spotted and sent in via Soviet Space Child.

Fairlight in Despicable Me 3

video upload by Bart Simpsonfan 3000



This one was spotted and sent in Phil Winn.

"You can see the fairlight page r in this scene on the display in the background, i.e. at around 1:44."