Fairlight CMI Series III

Title link takes you to some great shots via this auction sent my way via loscha.

"Offered for sale is a very rare, fully functional, vintage classic chassis Fairlight CMI III computerised musical instrument workstation in excellent condition. Also fitted is Fairlight MFX2 capability, which adds a 24 track direct to disc recorder / editor. The system is a late model, and as such has the latest and best in technical innovations, whilst still retaining the classic legendary sound of the CMI.

The system has 16 voices, 16 Mbytes RAM, colour graphics card, digital sampler and 24 output router. Up to 2 extra 8 Mbyte RAM cards can be supplied for an extra $300 each. It also comes with the later MFX alpha-numeric keyboard, and a really nice proper weighted action music keyboard. A 15” LCD screen (not the one illustrated) is included. There are two 4 Gbyte hard discs fitted, with a front panel switch that toggles to enable the system to boot up either in CMI (revision 9.34) or MFX2 (revision 11.39) mode.

The MFX2 disc is empty for disc recording, whilst the CMI disc is full of the following libraries:

Complete Fairlight library, Prosonus Strings, Brass, Percussion, Sound
Genesis strings, plus many libraries collected over the last 20 years
dealing with top producers and musicians. These include libraries from: Pet
Shop Boys, Trevor Horn, Hans Zimmer, Frankie goes to Hollywood, Art of Noise and many, many others. The complete Fairlight IIX library is also included.

An external empty 4 Gbyte hard disc, with both sets of system softwares is also included, with SCSI lead, as a backup.

The system will be serviced, have a full set of manuals, all leads, latest firmware, and come with 3 months warranty.

Please note you’ll see other Fairlight systems advertised on ebay, and many will less expensive. However, do some research before you buy. What may look like a bargain might not look so appealing when its obsolete parts finally give up. This applies specially to earlier systems. This system is complete, fully functional, and will work straight out of the box. I worked as product specialist and studio manager at Fairlight in Sydney during most of the 1980s, and have been involved in re-building Fairlight CMIs for over 25 years. I have sold and supported well over 30 of these classic samplers. If you are in any doubt, please type “Peter Wielk Fairlight” into the worlds favourite search engine and see what comes out. I am also proud of my 100% positive ebay feedback with over 140 transactions, which I hope reflects my honest and straight forward dealings. I have also described this system as accurately as possible. However, please feel free to ask any questions, or if you’re passing through Sydney, you would be very welcome to have an extensive demonstration. Lastly, these systems were designed and built with no compromises, reflected by their US$75,000 price tag when new. The sound is completely awesome.

The last picture in the sequence shows my "widgetarium" my workshop devoted to all things Fairlight, including an old sign from the factory."

Update via the comments: "This is as "real" as it gets. This instrument is being sold by Peter Wielk, who used to be the UK Fairlight distributor. He's been supporting the instrument ever since."