Talk:Fairlight CMI

MINOR EDIT

I improved in my opinion some passages in language, also moved a bit about the CMI in Devo as it fits more with the other mention of artists at the beginning,

Thanks

Word processors

I worked at Fairlight at the time of the bankruptcy, and I can't for the life of me remember any attempt at selling a $120,000AUD machine as a WP. If it was the case, then it would have been a highly stripped-down machine with no sound cards. It would have only been the 6809 part, but I can't see anyone buying that around 1988. Someone just put that in there for a lark.

PRICE OF SERIES 1

I had a small reearch on the internet and the series I Fairlight when introduced in 1978 cost around $40,000 and not 1 million as exagerated here. For God, adjusted for inflation a million dollars of 1978 would be today $5m!

Until double checked I will delete that entry.

Price of Series 3

I purchased a basic 8 channel CMI III in the mid 1980's for $57,850 AUD, just prior to the price rise to $60,000 AUD. Tannoy K3838 (talk) 14:07, 6 May 2009 (UTC)

Songs

I'm looking for songs that used the Fairlight, I make playlists, it would be nice to have a playtlist of all the songs or a selection that used the fairlight, like good demos.. I already have a few on my site at http://www.bl3nder.com/music/rhapsody . In return the playlists could be placed anywhere, on wikipedia, at vintage synth.. The idea is to give some context for music in terms of synthesizers (in particular), though I plan to do these for other instruments as well.

contact me at riseofthethorax at earthlink dot net . It would be good to also place a list here..

I remember hearing on the radio at the time, that the cars album "heartbeat city" was recorded in Australia using the fairlight musical computer. They also said the icehouse album "primitive man" was done the same way. It could be wrong, but i remember them saying it more than once.

The Fairlight inspired a subgenre of album. Would it be appropriate to put the genre here??--Tednor 05:03, 1 December 2006 (UTC)

There's a decent playlist on spotify http://open.spotify.com/user/failedmuso/playlist/0Hrwq3EwXY54aki74nV2cz — Preceding unsigned comment added by YasiuMłody (talk • contribs) 00:45, 8 May 2015 (UTC)

Other

A few thoughts on the article:

• As I understand it, while the Fairlight II had somewhat better sound than the Fairlight I, it wasn't until the series III that the Fairlight had really good sound.

• You know, I don't think the Mirage ended the reign of the Fairlight. The 16-bit series III came out soon after the Mirage. It was understood, in the 1980s, that you were better off with a 16-bit Series III instead of the Mirage, Emulator, or one of the many affordable 12-bit samplers. Listen to the sound track of "Wall Street" to get an idea of the limitations of those 12-bit samplers. It was the Akai S1000 and Emulator III that came out around 1989 that killed the Fairlight and Synclavs.

Samboy 15:29, 21 Mar 2005 (UTC)

I agree, the Mirage didn't take the Fairlight's market; it was too inferior (although remarkable for what it could do for the price). What it did was upset the Emulator market. Only later samplers from Ensoniq (and others) could challenge the Fairlight by which time the Fairlight was already history. StaticSan (talk) 00:46, 10 March 2009 (UTC)

First Commercial Single to Use A Fairlight CMI?

and the first commercially released song to use it was Gabriel's Shock the Monkey in September 1982

This is not true. The Fairlight CMI was used previously on Peter Gabriel III (credited on the album as Computer Musical Instrument: Peter Vogel) and several singles were released (at least in the UK) but I don't know if the instrument was used on these particular tracks - "Games Without Frontiers" - February 1980 , "No Self Control" - May 1980 and "Biko" - August 1980. "I Don't Remember" was also released but some time later and after "Shock The Monkey". Perhaps someone who knows more about PG can verify it Ian Dunster 10:32, 29 August 2005 (UTC)

Here's an early 1980s video on YouTube with Peter Gabriel showing how a Fairlight CMI can sample sounds: [1] —Preceding unsigned comment added by 213.40.249.181 (talk) 23:01, 28 October 2009 (UTC)

This frustratingly incomplete Youtube video shows part of his performance on Top of the Pops to promote "No Self Control" - presumably mid-1980 - and it opens with the keyboardist miming with what looks like a Fairlight CMI, with the dual manuals. It doesn't prove that the instrument was actually used on the record though. -Ashley Pomeroy (talk) 21:57, 3 June 2010 (UTC)

BTW, that's Kate Bush doing the backing vocals on "No Self Control", as you can probably tell. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 80.7.147.13 (talk) 09:24, 26 May 2012 (UTC)

According to the liner notes on PGIII the Fairlight was used extensively, PGIII was released in May 1980, Never for ever in September 1980, Babooska the single was Jun 1980, Games Without Frontiers was February 1980 unless I am mistaken.

Price

The Holmes Fairlight page says the CMI "typically had a price of US$25,000 or more, while the Fairlight Series III (which could be customized with many options) started at around US$40,000 and often exceeded US$100,000" - but the $1M price for a fully spec'ed CMI is a tenfold increase on that. What kind of options would give that price? Cammy 19:50, 23 January 2006 (UTC)

Song "My Own Time" by ASIA

The song titled "My Own Time" used a horn instrumental at the end of the song. Geoffrey Downes has stated that the sound was from a Fairlight CMI from a preset called "flglbone" (Flugelbone).

ASIA on tour in early 80's

In the early 80's, Geoffrey Downes would use 4-5 CMI's live on stage (only one CMI monitor would be visible on stage). Two playing at once to have the polyphony needed for chords, and the others would be loaded up with other sounds. He credits part of his "wall of sound" effect he used back then to the Fairlight CMI.

Whoever wrote this, what's your source on that? In an interview with Keyboard, he was shown with only one CMI in photos, and told them he was buying another soon to use as a second one on stage. When I asked his tech about this in 1997, he said no, he never had more than one (they weren't cheap), but what he did have was a second Graphics Terminal set up in a custom arrangement so that he could see the display of what his tech was changing backstage, also, I imagine, to have the look of the bright Fairlight green screen on stage. I highly doubt that anyone had more than two identical CMIs in the 80s, as they were very expensive and never sold well.--75.79.150.134 (talk) 22:41, 23 October 2012 (UTC)

Hardware

"The Series III model ..was built around Motorola 68000 processors, running Microware's OS-9 Level II operating system (6809 version)". In opposite

"http://www.ghservices.com/gregh/fairligh/images.htm" : "Series I and Series II use Motorola 6800 processors, with the Series II having better voice cards. The Series IIx uses 6809 processors, while the Series III has 68000 processors". If so, series III cannot run OS-9 ( 6809 version ), but OS-9 ( 68K version ). hemmerling 17:03, 3 October 2007 (UTC)

To Hemmerling, The Holmes Page is correct. This Wiki article is nonsense in a lot of places, like saying the CMI Series III was expandable beyond 16 voices (a lie from the Fairlight brochures that had a lot of fancy talk about 80 voice CMIs). On the CPUs, here's a simple rule that will set you straight: Every Fairlight CMI ever made is an 8-bit computer, period. The General Interface (MIDI/SMPTE) option added to the IIx in 1984 did have a 68000 on it, as did the Series III, which was the exact same computer as the IIx. This 68000 was not in any way connected to the software running on the system from the disk drives, it was only running firmware from EPROMs on the General Interface card itself. Since the Series III was just some 16-bit voice cards stuffed into a IIx, they had the problem of managing 16-bit sampling on an 8-bit computer that only had an 8-bit data path, so they made the Waveform Processor card with another 68000 on it to act as a kluge to translate here. Throwing that "68000" number around all over the place infers it was now a 16-bit computer, but it wasn't.--75.79.150.134 (talk) 22:41, 23 October 2012 (UTC)

Importance of "Frankie Goes to Hollywood" for the fame of Fairlight CMI

I remember that one of the "avertising rumours" told by the radio DJs between the songs in the 1980th was, that one of the smash hits of Frankie Goes to Hollywood, "Welcome to the Pleasuredome" if I remember right, was the FIRST which was totally produced "on" a computer. hemmerling 17:10, 3 October 2007 (UTC)

Herbie Hancock Demonstrates Fairlight on Sesame Street

Very cool snippet someone put up on youtube

http://youtube.com/watch?v=gn1LW3wyRrc —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.71.201.149 (talk) 06:45, 27 October 2007 (UTC)

Afrika Bambaataa

I've heard that Afrika Bambaataa used the Fairlight fairly regularly, and was one of the first to do so. Surley this would be of note if its true? Does anyone know anything about that?--LeakeyJee (talk) 12:42, 6 June 2008 (UTC)

Sigue Sigue Sputnik?

Just listening to Sigue Sigue Sputnik's Flaunt It album, you can hear the classic Fairlight CMI library being used, just like any other album, strikingly similar to that classic Frankie Goes to Hollywood sound. Yet they are not listed in the main article as people who use/used the Fairlight CMI. Just think they need to be included there

Miyukisan782 (talk) 13:31, 25 August 2009 (UTC)

Influence

I assume that Jan Hammer played the Miami Vice theme at the commercial events and the other musicians were just present - but it reads as thought they were all playing it together. I know this is a dumb point, but if it was just Jan H playing the theme, could someone hook that long list of people out of the middle of the sentence and move them out of the way, so as to eliminate the ambiguity?

History

"Fairlight went bankrupt a few years later". Later than what? When did they go bankrupt?

The real Fairlight company (Fairlight Instruments) closed at the end of 1988 and liquidated at auction in early 1989 (January, I think).--75.79.150.134 (talk) 22:41, 23 October 2012 (UTC)

30A light pen

Is it actually a light pen or is it a touch screen mocked up to look like a light pen? - Richfife (talk) 01:40, 4 February 2015 (UTC)

Yes it actually a light pen as well documented here The CMI was the first instrument to include digital sampling, graphic waveform editing (via the light pen)Ijustwannabeawinner (talk) 12:48, 30 May 2018 (UTC)

References

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Why the early CMIs had so much aliasing

Earlier today I have edited the article, specifically on the causes for the Series I's highly aliased sound. I know for a fact that a low sample rate like that alone can't cause aliasing, it's more down to the way the sound is sampled. I also vaguely remembered reading something about oversampling ADCs not being available until 1989, but didn't remember where I read that. As a result I wrote the claim that the aliasing was a result of the lack of supersampling, without any citation. It was removed within a few hours by @Popcornfud. Now, I still think this is most likely the case, but I want to use this page for me and others to find sources on the history of ADC development and see if my assumption is right. I did run into some stuff about delta sigma modulation, which appears to line up in terms of when the first musical samplers began using it (earliest I could find is the Ensoniq ASR-10 in 1992), but I'm not sure this is quite it, nor if that was the first use of oversampling in a digital sampler of this sort as a means of anti-aliasing. Tomer 070 (talk) 20:59, 25 April 2023 (UTC)

If you can find this in a reliable secondary source, by all means we can include it, assuming it’s notable information. Have a look at WP:RSINSTRUMENT for a starter list of sources that can be used on Wikipedia. Popcornfud (talk) 21:01, 25 April 2023 (UTC)

Though I should also add that this info might just be too arcane and obscure for a general audience and not really appropriate for Wikipedia… Popcornfud (talk) 21:13, 25 April 2023 (UTC)

Actually, sampling always, by definition, creates aliasing, and with a sample rate of 8 kHz that would certainly be audible. But sampling rates substantially higher than that were definitely possible by then, it's a matter of what your digital design looks like. Paul Koning (talk) 14:48, 11 July 2023 (UTC)

First?

The quote in the article from 1978 that sampling "had never been done before" is certainly not correct, but I don't know if the earlier work has been published in available sources. To be specific: at the University of Illinois PLATO project, the PLATO Music Group headed up by Sherwin Gooch built a 16-voice digital waveform synthesizer in either 1976 or 1977. (I did a modest amount of the work on that device.) It was used either with sampled or with synthesized waveforms, and certainly produced rather realistic sounding musical instruments or ensembles of these. Paul Koning (talk) 14:52, 11 July 2023 (UTC)

That would be a good addition if we can find it in a reliable secondary source... Popcornfud (talk) 14:58, 11 July 2023 (UTC)

Jean Michel Jarre?

It surprises me that Jarre isn't mentioned once in the main text (although highlighted in the media bar), despite having been an early adoptor of the instrument, to have then produced one of the most seminal Fairlight-related albums in the form of "Zoolook" in 1984. 82.28.124.70 (talk) 16:20, 10 February 2024 (UTC)