MATRIXSYNTH


Tuesday, November 04, 2008

New Fairlight?

via Failed Muso who spotted this note from Peter Vogel on the Fairlight Yahoo Group:

"here have been discussions from time to time about replicating the CMI using a software emulation. These efforts will have limited success because the "Fairlight sound" relies on the peculiarities of the hardware used in the original design.

In the days when I was the designing CMI hardware, my greatest challenge was to minimise the distortions and artifacts that were inherent aspects of the hardware available at that time. In effect, we struggled to make the Fairlight sound less "Fairlight". So the intimate details of what makes a Fairlight sound like a Fairlight are indelibly etched in my brain.

When Fairlight brought out the Crystal Core Engine last year, my imagination ran wild. Here was a tiny board with enormous capabilities that could be configured to faithfully reproduce the CMI hardware in its FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array). Every bit of the 1980's CMI hardware, the essence of its sound, could be reconstructed faithfully in digital hardware form.

To fully appreciate the astounding potential of the CC-1, download the brochure here:

CC-1 Brochure

I also recently discovered that ALL the IP relating to the original Fairlight CMI including all of the hardware and filter designs, sample libraries etc are still retained by Fairlight.au in Sydney.

So I have been wondering if it would be worthwhile to develop a faithful reproduction of the CMI on the "Virtual Hardware" of the CC-1?

This would perform identically to the original CMI series II or III, but run on a PC fitted with the Crystal Core card. The MIDI input would come directly into the CC-1 so there would be no problem of latency introduced by the PC.

At this stage I'd like to "feel out" the market to assess the level of interest in this project and whether the significant investment in R&D will be worthwhile.

The Fairlight Series IV (CC-1, I/O box and software) might be sold for approximately $US5,000.00.

So my question is, what do you think of this idea? How would a Fairlight CMI at this sort of price be received by the market? Who would the buyers be and how would I tap into them?

What do you think?

Peter Vogel"

You'll find some more notes on Failed Muso.

The Dears and The Secret Machines on Amateur Chemist

via Amateur Chemist where you will find more shots and notes on the show.

Top shot:
Keyboardist for the opening band, The Bathroom Murders


Bottom shot:
Two keyboardists for The Dears

Plan B Model 31 Buffered Mult Released

"We are pleased to announce that the first delivery in a 25 piece "hot or not???' initial order of Model 31 Buffered Mults will be at Noisebug by day's end. The 22nd released product in the Plan B line, the M31 is the first utilizing our new (NON-Cliff) jacks and offers significant patching option and functional improvements over other Multiple in the Euro Rack format.

For more info including price and current draw, go here"

Buchla ring mod riff


Buchla ring mod riff from Joe Pascarell on Vimeo.
"a variation of the filter mod patch. all audio from the 200e but going through the 111 ring modulator. the 123 is choosing pitches of the 261 principle and mod. oscs."

A Little Melody


A Little Melody from Joe Pascarell on Vimeo.
"more buchla/genoqs ... a simple little melody ..."

syndrome wpw

"I've made a synth page that lists the gears used in my brand new album with some pictures. You'll see a doepfer modular system, a DSI prophet 08 and Mopho, a Korg MS-20 and some other stuffs. 3 of the tracks can be listened on myspace. Those 3 tracks were mainly made with doepfer A-100 modules and DSI prophet 08: myspace.com/syndromewpw.
Here is the link"

Do check out the myspace page as well for some trippin' hoppin' music. The first track, The Vivian Girls has the classic Fairlight Orchestral Hit in it.

The Quadatrix Vertical Sequencer demo #1 of many


YouTube via dolphinicus
"The Vertical sequencer has been added the the Semitone set"

Roland TR-808 Rhythm Composer


YouTube via retrosound72

"vintage gear demo by RetroSound

The queen of all drum machines...
Roland TR-808 Rhythm Composer from 1981

This demo vid shows the drum instruments and the various functions of TR-808.

You must have very good bass loudspeakers or a subwoofer to hear the deep frequences."

Japan - Cantonese Boy/Ghosts LIVE @ OGWT 1982


YouTube via CircusOfHeaven. Sequential Circuits Prophet-5, Oberheim OB-x, Roland System 700
"with sir Sakamoto on keyboards! beautiful performance, beautiful David. Japan is love, spread it all around!"

Analog Synthesizer Builders' Summit 2008 in Tokyo

via Gan on the SDIY list:
"We had 8th "Analog Synthesizer Builders' Summit" on 2 Nov in Akihabara, Tokyo, Japan. The meeting is annually held to show synth builders' makings and to exchange technical information. About 30 people attended this year. A lot of interesting things were there, such as very unique synth controller, SF-taste noise machine based on Gakken SX-150 synth, Moog modular clone, hand-made FM module programmed from scratch, PC builtin keyboard (or keyboard builtin PC), very small MIDI-CV, mechanical rhythm machine, etc.

You can see the meeting report over the net. Check following if interested:
http://analog-synth.jp/summit08/e_index.html
http://gaje.jp/2008/11/04/613/
http://mtomisan.cocolog-nifty.com/blog/

Enjoy,
---
Gan
http://gaje.jp"
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