BBC Tomorrow's World Fairlight CMI from 1980 Kieran Prendiville

Not seen this before on KZbin so I've put it up for the Fairlight video collectors out there.
Kieran Prendiville bashes out a tune on a new synthesiser that can sample real sounds! Revolutionary for 1980 and now so main stream. One of TW's hit predictions.
He's wrong when he says the Fairlight (well he never actually mentions it's a Fairlight) "mathematically works out" the sound. It doesn't synthesise the sound which is the impression Kieran Prendiville is giving. He's also wrong when he says "those aren't recordings". They are of course, sounds sampled into memory as we all know and love.
Although the tape based Mellotron from 15 years or so earlier than this was used to play back sound effects ;)
I'm not so keen on his mugging to camera though. Probably a struggling actor coming out of him. Maybe that's why he wrote "Ballykissangel" :D

[@Foebane72]

And then the Amiga comes along a few years later with these similar capabilities on a home computer... ;)

[@garrycraig2095]

Foebane72 and now our iPads!

[@leesusan9073]

@@garrycraig2095 And they are no where near a patch on the vintage original, no matter how good they may seem.

[@bangerbangerbro]

Yeah it is amazing how much the cost of RAM dropped through the '80s, which was the main thing making this kind of thing (samplers) so expensive, rather than processing power. I think the Fairlight can do some amount of synthesis as well rather than just sampling, but I think the Amiga still has more general purpose computing power anyway, which I think the fairlight depends on even for sampling unlike the Amiga, iirc. You can even run basic sample trackers on the ZX spectrum if you have a DAC like covox and enough RAM for samples.

[@whatamalike]

Kate Bush in 1980: "Brb buying a fairlight"

[@CrossCuntryFranco]

After seeing Peter Gabriel with one :) :V

[@294682]

She actually bought two.

[@leesusan9073]

@@294682 Richard burgess of landscape fame was an early promoter and seller via a place called Syco systems: the uk distributer of fairlights, in early 1980 visage or rather midge ure had burgess programme the Fairlight for fade to grey, hihats for the break part, and the glass organ type sound at the beginning were two such samples used, the song was all but completed by late 79', so Fairlight was a bit of post prod on that track, Indeed fairlight was used on the whole visage album, a loop at the beginning of blocks on blocks, a vocal sample on the steps trk sounds a bit like a whale cause its a lower key used, then the famous crowd sample on moon over moscow trk, various other fairlight samples and passages featured on the visage 1980 album, way ahead of the game even on mind of a toy trk there was a difficult to take sample of a music box, and it sounds beautiful if somewhat creepy. Richard burgess is a very clever man. Burgess sold those to gabriel and bush, gabriel saw stevie wonder with one of the first fairlights, ironic however that notable uk artists were the first to truly explore it and have hits way before the americans who were really resistant to having these on commercial singles until later in 82, even Dollar via trevor horn at sarm music a very sohisticated set up back then, used a huge amount of sampling on their hits like mirror mirror. We all know horns prowess, Jeczalick programmed Fairlight for them. Martin rushent quietly used Fairlight and an emulator on human league recordings, he'd aquired an £125000 grant from the uk government in late 1980, and he kitted out genetic studios with linndrum Fairlight a computerised recording desk emulator effects units processors etc etc, (lucky man) so by late april 81' he was well able to produce (just like trevor horn) the highest tech music. Martin showed the hL on sound of the crowd how to tighten and sequence analogue recorded synth percussion using his micro composer before going more digitally based on dare with the linndrum also sample based drum computer, dare sounds as it does because sample playback and sampling synth sounds even a rythmn guitar lol, was a feature quietly used, i am the law, being a prime example of rushent and engineers sampling susan and joannes vocals, one c note, and triggereing both their vocal samples into the eventide harmonizer, and reverb effect unit and created perfect one shots as a way of incorporporating the girls voices onto that track, without being too obvious. Susans is the first ba bao wherby the eventide robs the eq gradually of her one shot very clever and joannes is an agh! Hers is a lot of upper notes with bright eq and extra reverb for dramatic effect,, Phil oakey was not best pleased, he considered sampling as turgid "old recordings" and wanted no one to know because he felt that people would think they made songs that made themselves sort of resoning as a lot of public opinion was that thd then new computers in music, was a case of "The song that sings itself" type syndrome, t thereby perpetuating the mytg thar dare Only ysed manuallh plahed synths when in fact sequencing resampling their synth sounds for perfection was the reality, Dollar however: had no such qualms lol, but of course listening to the hl reveals! but it sounds very other worldly and innovative i am the law. Peter gabriel used fairlights marimba sample to great effect and showcased the fairlight on totp in may 1980, i bet people were wondering? Great performance too and always at the vanguard of innovation. Kate bush was marvelous with what she did with early sampling in 1980, all we ever look for used a plethora of samples and sounded so new then, great lady lots of panache! Never forever really was a benchmark album for being at the Zeitgeist of anew way of making music, she must have had a lot of fun in between tye sdrious work, but hers is the very first time we hear a female vocal sample on a record on the wedding list with the word "all". Suzanne cianni an american synth lady was a pioneer too,, she was the first woman to use fairlight samples of her voice in various ways and also directly record phrases of her vocals direct to eproms a form of direct computer sampling also, then all harmonized and vocodered and other effects all encoded onto eproms for a 1980 arcade game what a smart lady, theres a video of this or part of it on youtube all fascinatin' stuff. Christine lobetta xx

[@leesusan9073]

Apologies for ALL my bloody typos in that last post..._._.silly bitch!

[@FlyBoyGrounded]

Didn't Rushent use a Synclavier?

[@leegrovesmusic]

But they are recordings, sped up and down. The Fairlight is not a synthesizer.

[@pkaulf]

Sampling was originally a secondary function of the Fairlight. They intended it to be a wavetable synthesizer.

[@davidlewis1787]

It is a synthesiser. It uses sampled waveforms but you can apply lfo, filters, modulation, detuning and loop tiny parts of wave, there is wave shaping the list goes on. Its definitely a synthesiser

[@MrJC1]

Tbh context of the time is important. It isnt a conventional recording on tape is what he meant i think.

[@FailedMuso]

The CMI is as much a synthesizer as a Minimoog, DX7 or anything else. It synthesizes sound electronically, either through manipulated digital recordings or through additive synthesis and resampling.

[@leesusan9073]

@@pkaulf yes it was supposed as secondafy but became itw primary function with shnthesis secondary.

[@BioSoftStudios]

"We could have the real thing" *sheeps baaing in the record* XD

[@ClassicGarth]

Unfortunately, it can't reproduce the sound of a bassoon.

[@NOWtheband]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/sGPQqnmCiql1bZY

[@leesusan9073]

Oh yes: it can! I own a IIx and it samples basoons just fine!! Sampling Whips however are another thing though lolll

[@294682]

They should have know the Fairlight is a sampler, an extremely expensive one at that ! £85,000....

[@danielearwicker]

Weird that the presenter insists that "these are not recordings". Whereas today almost all recorded sound is just sampled digitally in exactly this way.

[@dangi12012]

It is sampled. He says it is not but by his explanation it is clear that it is.

[@djhatstand7312]

It is a recording, a digital recording or sample stored in the memory as zeros and ones, the chap didn’t really understand what he was showing

[@qballshanratty1447]

Thanks so much for posting, Synthasy2000. This is CUTTING EDGE, even today. The Fairlight was a spectacular development and use of the Motorola MC6800 processor married to the analog/digital-to-digital/analog converter. A few of pop and dance music's household names made their household names as a result of seeing the original broadcast of THIS item on BBC Tommorrows World.

[@leesusan9073]

Yes you are correct, this stands as a true innovation in microprocessor technology of that time coupled with fast fourier "endowed" wave analysis techniques married to the dacs etal makes Fairlight a wonderful sampler, timeless results really can be achieved on IIx's with nice processing teqniques. "Limitations" often help people push the envelope further and create magic too :-)

[@agilekind]

Does it come fitted with a burglar alarm? Because these days crime's so bloody bad.

[@leesusan9073]

No, just high insurance premiums lol.

[@danwoodhouse9290]

2:38 - was that a reference to That's Life?

[@zetametallic]

I think so as he was in it until 1978. I dont think he takes him too seriously which is why TW gave him items with the potential for a bit of messing about on and misbehaving robots. I had a crush on him as a child xxx

[@นุดดี้บาร์]

Mummy and Daddy got me one of these for xmas. I soon got bored with it and swapped it for a Raleigh chopper

[@djfonso]

A lot of people don't know this but that memory storage device @1:43 has the capacity to store a whopping 1.3 MB of porn.

[@kgm1000uk]

It's a recording, Jim, but not as we know it.

[@leesusan9073]

This Sampler/synthesizer the Fairlight: used a mathmatical microscpic scanning method called Fast Fourier Wave Analysis to assist greatly in the dac sample record system to get all or the most from thee sampled sounds characteristics, that is and was quite an involved very old: but very sophicated mathmatics application. Without that the digital recording used by the Fairlight would have been very greatly compromised and reduced to the sound of pull string pulse code modulatied play toys such as bugs bunnys toys lolll or dolls that said "mama" loll. Obviously this program tomorrows world from march 1980 was not made today, and therefore it would be fair to say that we can't rightly compare it to today and i feel we have to accept common knowledge quilloquially at that time in the time frame it was made as most people would be mystified by this and hot understand its sctual potential musically at that time. The presenter was actually but casually, half correct, but has mis comprehended the sampling element Indeed being a digital recording, or he was trying to misdirect notions, so as to create mystic , indeed the fast fourier applied maths endowed in fairlights hardware software did quickly anylize sounds Whilst sampling them mathmatically by fourier wave applied maths microscopically, but in context to the sampled waveform digital analogue converter part to get the best as such,, so what Prendiville says is half true, but miss's the point by not understanding the basic and obvious principal or facts. If Prendiville had demonstrated a cutting edge contemporary piece of prerecorded pop music that this machine is indeed capable of, instead of using it quaintly as a quirky toy tool that makes farty noises per say? , we'd then, and now: be blown away! Instead of Casually reducing the cmi to mere tackyiness. Please remember peeps, it was not until the november 1981 revision of this instrument then realeased late jan of 82 that really took of, why? Well the sampling rate went up to 12 bit, you could avail of an 8 second sampling option, hideously exspensive that was and was not standard, but producers trevor horn and martin rushent et al availed, page 'R' was introduced giving the user an 8 track digital recorder and various other standard upgrades such as octave pitch mapping, micro scopic analysis ie a form of time and pitch stretching and truncation as well as upgraded mpc composing language, real time step time quantize recording and correction all became the norm there after greatly enhancing the sample playback of cmi's and it was called the Fairlight IIX, until a later revision. Lets keep in mind that this was revolutionary, ground breaking, and good out of the ordinary things could be achieved musically with imagination with this, you really could soundscape alien worlds in new ways as never before. Resynthesized sample playback was what most ordinary producers favoured doing with the fairlight, meaning using attack portions of samples coupled with synthesis or synthesized sounds combined as the fairlight can easily perform that, this "sweetens" the sounds to the ear, but i prefer not to do that this was later known as Linear arithmatic Synthesis. I own a fairlight IIX, and you can really get startlingly real acoustic sound samples into the IIX's, it's frighteningly uncanny for a 1981 sampler, average minded musicians get aveage dreary results, imagination and a little thought and decent musicallity pulls more than mere rabbits out of hats with these fairlights, These are, along with synclavier's: now seen as real instruments of the genre they come from, and they're vintage and complexity yet simplicity make them truely seen as important in the way old stradivarious's are seen, these are not ordinary old communal garden generic instruments, and iphone aps are irrelevent to the true modern vintages in their singularitys that these are! and Always will be, Owning one is to know the reality, it sits in my dining area with some lexicon processors and eventide h910 harmonizer and with an aphex aural exciter and this produces magic and thankfully i aquired all this when they were second hand affordable 25 yrs ago and they've had great maintenance. I mean this kindly and with goodwilll but you cannot casualise revolutionary technological inventions such as this down to common modern everyday items or apps,, as good as they may be? Theres always a chronological starting post, Fairlight was an excellent starting post!! The past helps us see the present with clear hinsight, without things like this fairlight, and the creators and innovators of everything, whom pushed constricting boundrys without fear, i and you wou'd'nt have what we all have and take for granted now, none of us would, so i'm thankful to true innovators, they risked so much to further our comfort, and i truely thank them, except for the dam repair bills! Lol. Christine Lobetta xx

[@Osamabahudila]

ما كان حلم اصبح حقيقة واقعة. المخترع د-اسامه باهديلة

[@BIackMoonCGI]

It never will, not in our lifetimes.

[@B1GDINO]

Wonder why they cancelled TW :)

[@FlyBoyGrounded]

Recordings? Electronically created sounds? Really, what's the difference?

[@jaggass]

A Minimoog was never designed to sound like real instruments. EMS actually produced the first digital sampler in 1969.

[@leesusan9073]

The musy's music computer 12 bit dac's sampler with twin screens in 1968 would really be the first sampler, then the computer music melodian 16 bit rack mount with touch senstive membrane buttons like space 1999's yr two medical centre panel tupe things lol, its true it was beige and orange to look at it was a fab sampler of which two still exist The Wendell (50 hrtz samples) digital Drum Replacement unit in 1977 this was next, used under weaker live recorded drums in a studio recording , the wendell was not a traditional drum machine, it was a sample play back device and digital even had a screen, but what it did was, you'd plug it in to recording console and route to the drum tape loop or recode drum track, where upon it followed audio signals "bursts" and placed a sampled snare underneath a live played then recorded snare, or it placed a sampled hi hat under a pre recorded one by following audio and then auto placing drums around the place. A bit involved but excellent punchy results, the bee gees album it featured on, this way you got the live 4 to the floor micked up live drums with the samples under mixed to beef up the thin drum track adding exciters harmonizers et al, if you listen closely you can hear real unusual perfection on the cymbals hihats bass drum to those 1977 bee gees trks, steeley dan used the wendell and many others, it was an amazing drum replacer, but linn blew it out of the water. And of course the Fairlight was next in 79' then linndrum, the synclavier by ned was next in 1980, it had the 16 bit sampling option from late 1980, hugely expensive but really great sounding. Emulators were next released march 1981 but seen in jan at the namm show caserat the time, december 81 adding a sequencer and 8 notes and a KLUDGE! LOL to stop run on of samples. December 81' saw the release of the oberhiem dmx sample drum machine and autumn 81 saw the ppg wave 2.2 and a test waveterm for sampling due for commercial release the next year, depeche mode bought this at the time and features on see you. And the rest as they say is history! By 87 every one was at it doing whole phrases and loops there after as we all know. So Pump up the jam! And get yer suppers!

[@cnfuzz]

You forgot the Lmd 649 pulse code modulation sampler by Toshiba 12 bit 50 kHz from 1980, as used by Ymo , the synclav had 16 bit sampling by late 1982 ,not earlier.

[@dvamateur]

And the mainstream presenter ruined the whole experience of Minimoog and Fairlight in about 4 minutes...

[@TheHornet79]

1:27 First Dubstep

[@muzikman2008]

Lol... i remember when the fairlight 1st came out around 1984 and it cost £60,000! The cost of 2 houses! Lol.. i could always dream for free! Still a pivotal moment in the history of music & technology.. great instrument and company. Everything seems the same now... shame no real innovation anymore.

[@FailedMuso]

The Series I CMI first came out in 1979 and cost $25,000. Subsequent iterations (Series II, IIx and III) were launched in the following years and as each system was built to an end user's personal specification, there was never a "fixed" price. A maxed out Series III could cost upwards of $100,000 but a standard spec would be half that.

[@leesusan9073]

@@FailedMuso series II Is the IIx and it was previewed in november 81' and released jan 82' it's the one i've owned since 1996. Its really good.

[@FailedMuso]

@@leesusan9073 Series I was 1979, Series II was 1982, Series IIx (with MIDI) was 1984 and the Series III was 1985 🙂

[@294682]

Peter Gabriel was involved in the development of the Fairlight, using them throughout his career...

[@FailedMuso]

Gabriel was not at all involved in the development of the CMI. He did, however, set up SYCO Systems with his cousin, Stephen Paine, to distribute them in the UK.