Press Release follows:
Freshwater announces the new FI50A Card
Freshwater writes a new chapter for the legendary Fairlight CMI
Today Freshwater announces a milestone event with the release of the FI50A card for existing Fairlight CMIs series I, II and IIx. We’ve spent over a year perfecting this project and now offer CMI users a unique opportunity to extend, preserve and enhance these remarkable and era-defining machines.
Installed in an original Fairlight CMI, the FI50A makes the instrument faster, more reliable and more convenient to operate whilst bringing the legendary CMI sound into the 21st century music production environment. We are currently focused on getting these cards into the hands of users and continuing to optimise the enhanced software bundled with them.
What is the FI50A?
The Freshwater FI50A is a complete modern replacement for the original CMI computer section, including CPU, graphics display, memory and library storage. It is compatible with Fairlight CMI Series I, II and IIx systems. The FI50A preserves the character, workflow and hardware experience of the original instrument while dramatically improving speed, reliability, storage and usability. It runs enhanced software derived from the original source code keeping the instrument recognisably and operationally a Fairlight CMI.
The card arrives pre-installed with a fully licensed original CMI sound library and adds practical modern ways to expand it, including enhanced 10-bit sampling, waveform upload over Wi-Fi, SD card and USB memory support. It also adds DisplayPort output, USB, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi while retaining support for legacy CMI keyboards, CRT/light pen operation, floppy disks, MIDI interfaces and Series I/II channel cards.
Installation is straightforward and fully reversible. Using the supplied user manual and online video guide, the original CPU and peripheral cards can be removed and preserved, the FI50A installed in their place, and the original peripherals reconnected.
For owners familiar with the CMI, the result is not a different instrument, but a transformed one: faster, easier to maintain and ready for contemporary studio use while remaining true to the original machine.
For more information, please follow the link below:
https://www.freshwaterinstruments.au/fi50a
“I once said ‘one day the whole CMI will fit on one chip’. We all had a laugh at that. Fast forward 40 years and that’s the reality. By making this new board compatible with the original CMI channel cards, the bits that make the CMI sound so unique are still there, while the digital part is a zillion times more powerful, smaller, cheaper and reliable.” —Peter Vogel
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