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

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

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

Building a Fairlight CMI: Episode 10

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 on the caps, SCSI2SD card, rack ears and hinges 3D printed!"

Building a Fairlight CMI episodes

Building a Fairlight CMI: Episode 9

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 goes through the process of testing the digital voice cards, getting characters to work on the MFX, basic repairs, and getting cards unstuck!"

Building a Fairlight CMI episodes

Building a Fairlight CMI: Episode 8

video upload by Syntaur

"Cris is Back! After months of trial and error, the next chapter in building a Fairlight CMI is here!

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 goes through the process of making a VGA plate, getting software to work on the MFX keyboard and troubleshooting RAM problems. Does he figure it all out?"

Building a Fairlight CMI episodes

Building a Fairlight CMI: Episode 7

video 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 fights to the finish with the digital cage, discovers that he shouldn't have removed those blue tabs, and has some success - and some defeat - hooking up the keyboard."

Building a Fairlight CMI episodes

Building a Fairlight CMI: Episode 6

video 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 on ribbon cables and powers up the CMI."

Building a Fairlight CMI episodes

Building a Fairlight CMI: Episode 5 (Part 2)

video 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 breaks a CMI that he has borrowed, gets out of trouble using a 3D printer, then drills and files his way to getting lots of things hooked up."

Building a Fairlight CMI Episodes

Building a Fairlight CMI: Episode 5 (Part 1)

video 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 has Fairlight pieces scattered everywhere, connected by crazy wiring, and somehow, those pieces start talking to each other."

Building a Fairlight CMI Episodes

Building a Fairlight CMI: Episode 4

video 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 booted, sort of - but only after he calls in The Terminator, and experiences The Bad Thing."

Building a Fairlight CMI Episodes

Building a Fairlight CMI: Episode 3

video 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, Chris wins the blue ribbon for ribbon cable mayhem, and he powers up the box. Sort of."

Building a Fairlight CMI Episodes

Building a Fairlight CMI: Episode 2: For the Fans

video 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, he has great success - in getting the fans spinning. And he demonstrates his basic tools of synthesizer repair: power drills, hacksaws, and files. Should we worry?"

Building a Fairlight CMI: Episodes

Building a Fairlight: Episode 1: The Arrival

video 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, a case arrives, and Cris prepares for the guts to be transplanted."

Building a Fairlight: Episodes

Building a Fairlight CMI: Episode 0

video 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. He's not worried that these machines are tremendously complex, quite rare, have not been made since the 1980s, and cost huge amounts of money back then. He's not worried that the few existing experts on Fairlights strongly recommended that he not attempt this. Will he make mistakes? Absolutely. Will he succeed? We're not sure. But either way, it will be a fun journey."

Building a Fairlight CMI: Episodes

Arturia CMI V Tutorials

video uploads by Arturia

Playlist:
Tutorials | CMI V - Episode 1 : Overview
Tutorials | CMI V - Episode 2: Sampling and Sample Editing
Tutorials | CMI V - Episode 3 : Time Synthesis
Tutorials | CMI V - Episode 4 : Spectral Synthesis

"Multi-award winning music software & hardware developer Arturia have released a tutorial series on the finer details of CMI V, their recently unveiled recreation of the Fairlight CMI: the 'mother of all samplers' that changed the face of contemporary music production.

Presented by Glen Darcey, this 4 part video series covers the key concepts of the instrument, letting users quickly familiarize themselves with its features and functions. This series includes a quick tour of the instrument, shows you how to load and edit samples, and explores the new Time and Spectral synthesis possibilities.

While ludicrously powerful and undeniably revolutionary, the original Fairlight CMI was typical of early digital instruments: sluggish, temperamental, and notoriously difficult to program. Despite these quirks, whole studios based their sound around the unparalleled capabilities of this revolutionary sampler, and many now-legendary record producers made the CMI their signature mix ingredient.

Reborn for the modern production age, CMI V has been revamped, reworked, and reimagined to create an equally ground-breaking instrument, built to inspire today’s musicians just as the original did since its 1979 release. Building on the classic sampler functions that are now second nature to most 21st century musicians and producers, and true to their form of revitalizing retro instruments with powerful new features, Arturia have created a living, breathing, true synth & sampling instrument.

Sculpt harmonics and gain access to vast waveform controls with the Spectral Synth; import audio and create your own personalized sample-scapes; and take command of 32 harmonic sound envelopes in the additive Time Synth. CMI V is truly the triumphant return of a giant, a fitting tribute to the monumental sampler that inspired generations of musicians, and turned the whole industry on its head.

CMI V is one of four new stunning vintage instrument recreations that are included in V Collection 6 - Arturia's groundbreaking retro synth and keyboard package. Containing 21 instruments, each modeled after a keyboard that changed the face of music as we know it. Within V Collection, you'll find meticulously modeled analog synths, digital powerhouses, incredible performance keyboards, acoustic and electric pianos, organs, a string machine, and even a sampler.

Breathing life back into the most iconic keyboard instruments of all time, V Collection is the ultimate creativity launchpad, and an essential studio tool for the modern music producer."

Boris Blank's (Yello) Fairlight CMI III with Huge Library

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

via this auction - last 24 hours.

Full description: "Every Fairlight Computer Musical Instrument has a story behind it. Hugely expensive when new, their unique sounds and legendary user interface were used by music pioneers who changed the sound of music forever.

At a cost around $65,000 in 1985 (which could have bought you a very nice house) the list of Fairlight III owners reads like a who’s who of musical innovation of the time. Peter Gabriel, Tears for Fears, Kate Bush, Thomas Dolby, Hans Zimmer and Pet Shop Boys were owners in the UK, with many studios catering for those who didn’t own one. For a complete list take a look at:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairlight_CMI

The particular system being offered here belongs to Boris Blank, the musical part of Swiss band Yello. One could argue that during the 1980’s Yello used the Fairlight more, and more interestingly than virtually anyone else. Every hit single they had (and there were quite a few) used the Fairlight CMI extensively..

So, if you ever lusted after one of these legendary instruments, here’s a chance to acquire one with some serious street cred!

Yello Fairlight III. Signed front panel. There will be Boris's sounds included, as well as all the libraries listed below, in 4 x hard drives. Boris is on holiday at the moment, however his assistant has promised some more photos and goodies when he returns!

Offered for sale is a very rare, vintage classic Fairlight CMI III computer musical instrument workstation in excellent condition. The system is a late model, in three rack units which are 8U, 8U and 5U for the hard drive enclosure. It has the latest and best in technical innovations, whilst still retaining the classic legendary sound of the CMI. The system is switchable for 110, 220 or 240V so will work ANYWHERE in the world.

The system has the latest 9.34 music software, has 16 voices, mono graphics card and monitor, and 24 output router. Instead of the usual 14 Mbytes RAM memory fitted as standard from the factory, this unit has a brand new 32 Mbyte card, which is the maximum possible in these systems. It also has a digital sampler module and a Turbo-SCSI card: It is therefore fully optioned with the last and best revisions of both hardware and software. There is no music keyboard, however any MIDI keyboard or external computer/sequencer will work brilliantly. I can supply a colour graphics card at additional cost if desired, to enable the system to run with many flat LCD screens. If required, the original mono graphics can be re-installed in minutes..

There are four hard drives installed. Three are original, with Boris's sounds, and the forth is "My" collection of libraries I normally include with my systems for sale. These are as follows:
 Complete Fairlight library, Prosonus Strings, Brass, Percussion, Sound 
Genesis strings, plus many libraries collected over the last 25 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.

The floppy and WORM drive work intemittantly, however these were only used in the 1980's before more reliable and cost-effective storage emerged. Therefore there is no warranty on these parts. The only other points of note are that some of the keys on the alpha-numeric keyboard are beginning to lose their legends (see picture), and the graphics pad is worn in places. I have however adjusted the keyboard so that the worn spots on the pad doesn't cause problems.

The system has been serviced, will have a full set of manuals on CD, all leads, latest firmware, and come with 3 months warranty (apart from the two drives mentioned above).
Please note you’ll see other Fairlight systems advertised, and some might be 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 45 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.

You might be apprehensive about owning a big piece of technology, however the Fairlight CMIs were designed to last – no new technology comes near it for build quality. All the cards and modules of a series III are plug-in which makes servicing a breeze (and also helped push the original price up). In the unlikely event of a board failure, this can simply be swapped out for a replacement from me, to either repair or replace. I have a huge amount of spares, since I bought most of the factories old stock and spare parts. I also do repairs at board level, and re-manufacture parts when unavailable. I have been supporting these incredible systems for many years, and hope to continue this for many more…
I have tried to describe 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. You might buy a sample CD of the Fairlight sounds, it will sound NOTHING like the real thing.

Also, only about 200 systems were built, and they were sold to the most influental musicians and producers in the world. The sounds of the Fairlight CMI formed the soundtrack of the 1980s. So, if you’ve always lusted after one, here’s your chance to own a part of music history!

Please note price is in Australian dollars, and excludes freight. I have an account with TNT couriers here in Sydney and ship many systems every year. I will ship for my cost. Please mail for more exact figures to your location. All shipments can be tracked through TNTs own site. IGNORE EBAYS SHIPPING PRICE CALCULATORS: THEY ARE WORSE THAN USELESS !!!!!!!

There are many currency conversion sites online. Australian residents please add 10% GST.
Lastly, due to the number of frauds and scams on ebay, please contact me if you have less than 10 positive transactions. I won't even consider shipping until funds have cleared this end, so please don't ask. I am sure any honest bidder will not resent this precaution.

Extra information:
This system is multi-timbral, in that it can produce 16 different sounds at any given time. It also has dynamic voice allocation, meaning that although the device is 16 channels, one could play for example, 16 voices of piano in one bar of music, 16 voices of brass in the next, 16 of vibraphone in the next, and so on. Each sound is output through it's own dedicated router output, of which there are 24. A loom will be provided to interface the first 8 "routputs" with your mixer. This differs from the earlier CMI IIIs, as they had only one monophonic output per XLR. As producer and Fairlight programmer extrordinaire Andy Richards (look him up for credentials) once said: "Having a router is like having a Fairlight and a half"

Horizontal Productions in sunny Sydney"

If you look at the pic of the keyboard, you'll notice the E and Y keys are pretty worn out compared to the others. I wonder if the L and O are as well.

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An Interview with E-mu's Founder Dave Rossum

This one in via David Vandenborn of DVDBORN on The MATRIXSYNTH Lounge. theEMUs.com has an interview up with E-mu's founder David Rossum. The following is just the first question and answer for the archives. Click through above for the full interview.

"I read on the internet once that you got inspired to build the first Emulator after having seen the Australian Fairlight CMI at the AES show in 1980. I also want to build a lot of stuff that I see – but I always fail miserably and can’t even get my head around it.
I obviously know that you build modular synthesizers and that you created the technology for keyboards for other companies like Sequential Circuits Inc. and Oberheim Electronics.

What made you so sure you could do a sampler? Had you been experimenting with digital circuitry and RAM based technology prior to this? Did you buy a Fairlight sampler to look at when developing the Emulator – or did you do it differently – from scratch?

To understand fully, you need some background: the situation in May 1980 was that we returned from AES to find that Sequential Circuits was refusing to pay the royalties they had promised, and that we had counted on to fund the marketing of the Audity - which we introduced at the show.

We needed a product soon. Scott Wedge, Marco Alpert and Ed Rudnick had been talking on the drive back from the show, and thought that the Fairlight had one and only one good feature - sampling. We had also seen a Publison Digital Delay that had a capture mode, and the captured (sampled) sound could be played with a control voltage/gate type synthesizer keyboard.

The guys came to me with their ideas, and we had the need for a new MI product quickly to replace the lost Sequential revenue stream.

E-mu was the first company to use a microprocessor in an MI product - our 4060 polyphonic keyboard and digital sequencer, introduced in 1976. We'd done all sorts of stuff with microprocessors - the Audity had a full blown real-time operating system I'd written.

We'd built our own Z-80 development system including disk interfaces, etc. The sequencer in the 4060 used 64K bytes of dynamic RAM. And as I've been previously quoted as saying, "Any asshole can design digital circuits." (Analog is a LOT harder).

We also had been consultants for Roger Linn on the circuit design for the LM-1, so we knew a bit about sampling as well. We'd played with COMDACs in the lab at E-mu as well.

The Fairlight used a separate RAM and a separate CPU for each voice. When Scott, Marco, and Ed came to me with their idea, I knew that such an approach was simply too expensive for an MI product. We'd just have another Audity-class product, competitive with the Fairlight.

So I saw that the key would be to use ONE CPU and ONE memory for all eight voices. The trick was getting the memory bandwidth to accomplish that. The solution was a combination of fast, cheap DMA chips and some FIFO buffers to give them big enough bursts so that the bus negotiation didn't hog too much bandwidth.

So the answer is that we never gave the slightest thought anything but designing the Emulator from scratch. I was revolutionizing the state of the art - building what was in my mind, not duplicating something that I'd seen. And the hardware was the easy part.

The software was the real challenge. The Audity we demo'ed at AES had about 10,000 lines of code, which I'd written in about 3 weeks. The Emulator code base was a similar size, but rather more complex in several ways. Getting both the hardware and software into a form for demonstration at January NAMM 1981 was a real challenge. And that leads to..."

Emu

Fairlight CMI Series III For Auction

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

"Offered for sale is a very rare, fully functional, vintage classic Fairlight CMI III computer musical instrument workstation in excellent condition. The system is a late model, in a sexy black tower case and as such has the latest and best in technical innovations, whilst still retaining the classic legendary sound of the CMI. This was my own studio system which I'm only selling as I now have a rack series III (see last picture), under the stairs rather than in the spare bedroom, which pleases my wife considerably.

The system has the latest 11.39 software (or I could install revision 9.34. They both have the same features, but the rev 11 is faster – especially given the size of the supplied libraries). It has 16 voices, colour graphics card, and 24 output router. It also comes with a 17” LCD screen. Instead of the usual 14 Mbytes RAM memory fitted as standard from the factory, this unit has a brand new 32 Mbyte card, which is the maximum possible in these systems. It also has a digital sampler module and a Turbo-SCSI card: It is therefore fully optioned with the last and best revisions of both hardware and software. The alpha-numeric keyboard which contains the graphic pad and pen is BRAND NEW AND BOXED. There is no music keyboard, however any MIDI keyboard or external computer/sequencer will work brilliantly.

The libraries supplied with this system are as follows:
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 spare system softwares can also be supplied for a minimal additional cost.

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, and some might be 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 45 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.

You might be apprehensive about owning a big piece of older hardware, however the Fairlight CMIs were designed to last – no new technology comes near it for build quality. All the cards and modules of a series III are plug-in which makes servicing a breeze (which also helped push the original price up). In the unlikely event of a board failure, this can simply be swapped out for a replacement, to either repair or replace. I have a huge amount of spares, since I bought most of the factories old stock and spare parts. I also do repairs at board level, and re-manufacture parts when unavailable. I have been supporting these incredible systems for many years, and hope to continue this for many more… There’s also a vibrant Fairlight community of like-minded souls who can offer help and advice..."

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