Fairlight 7/16/2017

Quick demo of my Fairlight CMI IIx - it currently needs a tuneup, but I plan to have it taken care of this year and start doing recreations of '80s tunes that used this marvelous, mythical, classic machine.

[@kengruz669]

Possibly the only synth requiring you to call a Locksmith.

[@stocchinet]

It's like the millennium falcon, basically it's a piece of old junk, but it's still the fastest keyboard in the galaxy

[@davidcogan3437]

Best description

[@marqush]

That must have been magical back in the day. Still is exciting to watch

[@cmi6809]

Hey there Paolo, I was the second owner of your CMI, purchasing it in 1999 from its original owner. It has a great little history to it. Very happy to see it landed with you. You will notice that all the components are a “matching set” with the same serial numbers for each piece (mainframe, monitor, etc.). This was a request that the first owner made to Fairlight, and they obliged. Your system started life as a Series II, and was upgraded to the IIx in 1985, but without MIDI. I added the MIDI retrofit in 2001 (I think) after a long search for the components. I hope you continue to give her lots of love and patience. She’s been on some great recordings and even used live a few times. Not many of the early CMI systems still out there and operating.

[@SynthManiaDotCom]

Frank, thank you!! Yes, love the MIDI interface - as far as I know he did Psychedelic Furs on this one, correct? Unfortunately it's developed some tuning problems and I need to have it serviced asap :(

[@cmi6809]

@@SynthManiaDotCom Yes! You are correct! I *believe* is was for their album "Mirror Moves", but may have been for "Midnight To Midnight", not completely sure. It was also used in sessions for Missing Persons album "Rhyme & Reason", and for sessions with Kurtis Blow, plus MANY others I can't remember LOL! The original owner was Sanford Ponder, a really fantastic and interesting guy. He did session work with your CMI in New York (and likely other cities) around the mid-1980's. You'll notice that the graphics monitor has some wear on the sides of the housing as he had it wedged into a rack mount unit for easier transport. It barely fit! Sanford went on to use that CMI for his own albums on the Private Music label, before he went into the field of sound design and beyond. I recall that one of the MIDI ports (in or out? I can't remember) does not function due to a bad IC on the breakout box. And there was also that sticky voice card which would work when it wanted to LOL. Anyway, I'm really glad you ended up with her, and hope you can keep her for several years to come. She has definitely earned a stable home after all these years!

[@cmi6809]

And I believe that Yello and Peter Gabriel used it for some live shows too while in the NYC area, although this may have been for pre-production work on the shows and not in the actual performances. We didn't chat about this too much so unfortunately I don't have exact details.

[@SniffyPoo]

the most interesting sound is the noise of the floppy disk drive, completely forgot what that sounded like ;)

[@kz1000ps]

So mechanical! Computers today make very little mechanical sound except for the fans.

[@BartManNL]

If modern computers make mechanical noises it probably means that you are in deep trouble... Love the fairlight! Sound of my youth!

[@Cesarsound1]

The noise of the floppy disk drive is the best part of this video.

[@IThinkYouLookLarvely]

Yes, despite the difference in size of disks, my old Yamaha SY77 makes the same sound!

[@pauldeverill926]

The Peter Vogel CMI phone app actually emulates the FDD sound. This dude knows what people really want.

[@blackmichael75]

Sending it to Australia is a bit harsh. It hasn't committed any actual crimes, has it?

[@CrossCuntryFranco]

I get the joke :P But The Fairlights all come from Australia :)

[@SynthManiaDotCom]

Haha :-D Good one ;-)

[@watercolourmark]

The Fairlight is responsible of many music crimes in the 1980's. I have passed this video on to the music police within the relative colonies.

[@arthurallsopp9344]

The Fairlight was originally produced and manufactured in Australia

[@kierenmoore3236]

It should be so lucky ... ... Oi! Oi! Oi!! :D

[@solitarianihilista1454]

Even after all these years the Fairlight "Orchestral Hit" still packs a pretty impressive punch.

[@neuronmind]

The sound of Trevor Horn !( Propaganda , Frankie goes toHhollywood, Art of Noise ) Man I love this thing !

[@CholokMauser]

OH MY GOD You have CMI! That's insane!

[@ItsMedicationTime]

That was mindblowing!! Amazed at the sound quality...very low or zero noise that I could hear! I can think of a couple dozen songs right now that used the sounds you demoed for us. Great video!! Thanks again for such wonderful work!!!

[@dkehrerproductions]

Even as old as this thing is ,its still pretty cool . Thanks for sharing

[@crenshawblaster3982]

that scream sound was used on Whodini's "Nasty Lady" (1983)

[@timthompson468]

Great video. Good classic sounds. Cool that it works as well as it does. It's funny how something that looked and sounded like it came from the future 30 years ago now looks so ancient. I'm going to compare the sounds from your video to the iPad app sounds.

[@DEADLINETV]

Now that's a hardware key!

[@Rtcmanga_YouTube_Channel]

Wow, really cool sounds. I recognize the art of noise sounds you mentioned. Also the orchestra hit and the broken glass!! Awesome!! :)

[@memriloc]

would love to see a more indepth demo and review on this

[@sysexstudio]

Wow, 8" floppies!

[@TheKorgUser]

In 1984 you were able to see one of it live on stage ---> Mike Oldfield and his "Discovery"-Tour.

[@MarkyShaw]

These are the best synth videos to be found. Love your work! What a classic machine. There's a refurbed model on eBay and the seller is asking about $13,000 for it. Pretty amazing. Thank you for the vid.

[@MarshalArnold]

Awesome! For the time I'm sure this blew people's minds! Love the sound of a solid mechanical keyboard and a large floppy drive! Oh, and the synth sounds nice too 😁

[@deauvillevrienden]

Sounds a lot like my first Tandy synth, it had a sampling function for "do" "thaa"... things :)))

[@heikkiwi]

Finally! You did it! Thanks! Those great aliasing harmonics ❤️ Gives unique character 👍 Bitley in Sweden has done some great Kontakt banks of Fairlight.

[@HowlingMoonCinemas]

Still sounds GREAT!

[@clintoncunningham2341]

Very nice demo! Love that "ignition" key !!

[@ChrisCebelenski]

Ah, memories. The real wonder of the Fairlight wasn't the sampling - though that was pretty amazing. Page R was killer tho, especially for drums. Sequencing on the CMI II was at the time the only instrument that offered anything like it. Today it sounds pretty rough and lo-fi, but at the time it was what you used if you needed that sound. Today it's only interesting for the nostalgia factor and perhaps as a controller if you have a series III, which has many more capabilities.

[@this_connor_guy]

TIBET1!!!! Used by RevCo for "No Devotion" and JMJ for "Wooloomooloo" and SPK in "Zamia Lehmannia" (glass breaking sound also used on that album) That is a sample that I MUST have. please. and thank you. haha.

[@SynthManiaDotCom]

Easy! Do you have an iPhone/iPad? Peter Vogel sells Fairlight ios apps that have the full library :)

[@this_connor_guy]

I have neither! :( I did download a full Fairlight CMI library and it didn't have Tibet1, I am so sad now.

[@delbertthomas8886]

Nice! My favorite synth of all time! Pet Shop Boys and Nick Rhoades (Duran Duran) used it a lot! Thanks for posting. Keep them coming! =)

[@djronancoficial]

you are amazing!!! i think you are the only one in the world that really loves all this stuff and have a real massive synths & stuffs collection!!! thanks for share!!!!!

[@JoeSim8s]

Awesome... even the "clack" from the mechanical keyboard is cool

[@barrybedkey543]

Remind me not to go backwards... but I love hearing the floppy drives' heads moving back and forth. I would have been ecstatic to play one of these 30 years ago. Better than my Commodore 64! What Fun!

[@AlexBallMusic]

Great video! Fascinating to see a working one. Where did you get it? Brassfall12 played way down in the bass register is the T1000 drone sound from T2. I've got the Kontakt version of the Farilight and have been playing around with it.

[@5roundsrapid263]

Probably the most important music gear of the '80s. It defined the whole decade. It changed music for the better and the worse.

[@AA-gl1dr]

5Rounds Rapid this and the Jupiter 8

[@polara01]

only for the worse with a few exceptions where simply talent rose above the digital frey...

[@punkgift]

The breaking glass sound is at the start of the Murder Mix of You Spin Me Round.

[@Poke493]

Man, the audio quality really is amazing. It seems fake hearing a computer that old making such clear sounds.

[@powrxplor69]

hey, that tibet1 (7:10) was used on the intro to revolting cocks no devotion, never realized that was fairlight they were using

[@tomasmulcahymusic]

Great demo thanks. Even with the presets the fullness of the sound, especially the bass, is evident here. Nothing else really does that. JB Edmond in France seems to be the best Fairlight guy in Europe? Fixed Jarre's one, also put SD card reader in.

[@benb3316]

Heh - heard these sounds on SO many keyboards, even the cheap $99 at Target range ones. And this machine is why! First ones to imitate. Also listening to these old but famous things (Mellotron, Hammond) explain all the wild sounds you get on any keyboard arrangement. To sell the thing, no matter how superior the technology is, you make sure it can emulate/imitate all the old "Rock Gawds" of the past. Hey, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, love working with Mellotron cloners myself... Thanks for the video!

[@ForceStudios]

I`ve been following you on your synthmania-homepage for a long time and each time I`m deeply impressed how much care you take about the documentation of the sounds and machines. Looks like a lifes` work. But I wonder...are you still leaving the house and see the sunlight ? :D If I`m honest... I wouldn`t... if I could live in this "cockaigne of sounds and keys" ;-) Greetings from a fan. Keep up the fantastic work with your "museum of sounds" on synthmania.

[@suadcokljat1045]

With all it's obsoleteness, in good hands even today you can make a hit song with it. Amazing instrument. Imagine having it in 1979! Cheers! S

[@William_sJazzLoft]

You have a Fairlight in your home! It's a wonderful thing. Thank you for sharing.

[@SynthManiaDotCom]

Thank you very much

[@William_sJazzLoft]

Of course. Your demo was nice. You missed the brass stabs though. An Art Of Noise demo just isn't complete without those classic brass woodwind hits 😊😅

[@Trig242]

It has a key! Every time you would load a sound and I heard those drives cranking I would smile

[@guitarbrad]

This is so cool! Yes I did enjoy it! I demoed my first Fairlight at the Wurlitzer music store on Newbury St. in Boston in the mid-80s. ORCH5 - probably the very sound used on Hello Again by The Cars. A full demo of a working one would be amazing!

[@futago.sounds]

jajajjajja inevitable! the best synth channel!! ever!! close all! :) ! a hug from buenos aires paolo!!

[@IThinkYouLookLarvely]

The first instrument was used on a lot around the mid '80s. Especially Jan Hammer and Tony Banks (particularly on Domino part 1)

[@vco8450]

The Fairlight REALLY shines if you put it through an old digital reverb (RMX 16, 480L, etc)

[@Wayne_Robinson]

Thanks for the demo! It's such a relic compared to the modern USB controller/DAW/VSTi setup we use today. So many of my favorites from that era used it (e.g., Peter Gabriel and Kate Bush). Make sure you keep backups of those floppy disks ideally on more durable media!

[@oneworld9071]

I saw Al Dimeola (and his band) in a small venue on campus of University of Maryland playing through Fairlight. Saw him drawing waveforms on screen, presume they were envelopes and/or harmonics map..... very early 80's. I read in some trade mag then the Fairlight didn't come with a user manual because the team that invented it weren't sure of all it could do :) This is like looking at a 1969 Chrysler Imperial and remembering how futuristic it was.

[@NeuronalAxon]

They did come with quite a few manuals AFAIK.

[@creepingnet]

Crazy hearing how many of those sounds were on The Cars Heartbeat City album alone. Not sure what ones Loverboy used on Keep It Up though though I read they had a CMI Fairlight on that album.

[@philipcross1586]

i`m glad i`m watching this in november and not end of march - april 1st.

[@notrealy180217]

7:08 was definitely in Revolting Cocks: Attack Ships on Fire. Apparently Waxtrax! had one of those in the studio in Chicago.

[@TimOestmann]

Great demo - thanks!

[@JorgeGeorgeD]

I wasn't expecting Scream5.

[@irishmusico]

That's amazing. I can hear all those sounds on records. That synth bass sounds like the one on take my breath away.

[@LittleRichard1988]

Take my breath away used a Yamaha DX-7 for the bass sound.

[@irishmusico]

@@LittleRichard1988 Oops! You are right. I thought I was hearing it. In fairness it is a very distinct DX7 sound. My bad.

[@mrdali67]

Great Videos. Love all the retro sounds :) Would really love to see a demo of a classic D-Drum II set, if you can find a set that still works. There are close to zero videos on the net of one of the best digital Drum sets ever made.

[@kriskemp]

That is such a massive music machine. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha. Thanks for making the video.

[@MrMongo321]

LMAO!!! the sounds we liked 30 years ago....5 and 1/4 inch floppies - wow - memory lane...

[@MrUlski]

mrmongo673 they are the even larger 8inch floppies. From wikipedia: CMI Series II (1982-1983)[39][38] Price: ~£25,000CPUs: Dual Motorola 6800Storage: Two 8-inch floppy drivesMemory: 16 KB per voice, System: 64 KB, Video: 16 KB (512x256 pixels)Voices: Eight voices of polyphonySynthesis: Dynamic harmonic control (Page 4); waveform generating (Page 5); waveform drawing via lightpen (Page 6)Sampling: 8-bit at 2100 Hz to 30.2 kHz (mono) (Page 8)Sequencer: Basic keyboard sequencer (Page 9), Musical Composition Language (MCL, Page C), Realtime Composer (Page R)Keyboard: 73-note unweighted velocity sensitive + slave keyboardI/O: No MIDI, optional CV/Gate interface (Page A)

[@wado1942]

Cool demo. I'd like to see one on creating sounds from scratch (not loading or creating samples) with the light pen.

[@Brandon-mt4tm]

Aha! That's the orchestra impact sample I've been looking for!!!

[@fffranckable]

AON Sarrar voice IIX "sounds" that convince me to buy my first sampler in 1986.Starting with (DSS1,S1000K,EMU4X) and now Emulator X and Kontakt. And I get the Fairlight emulation from Arturia a bit more affordable.Thx for this demo.

[@mikosoft]

7:53 that is Pet Shop Boys' Suburbia right there

[@NickHchaos]

Wow, you have everything.

[@djgeorgieporgie7862]

The holy grail of sampling. Sorry MPC

[@NeuronalAxon]

@Dreamcoat ドリームコート - How so?

[@NeuronalAxon]

@Dreamcoat ドリームコート - Just unlucky, or known problem with those devices?

[@NeuronalAxon]

@Dreamcoat ドリームコート - Ha, LMAO.

[@johnbosack6772]

You can change pad sensitivity on the newer mpc’s at least

[@dadautube]

amazing! also kinda curious and so funny a number of these patches / sounds / voices you demoed here i have as computer sfx files that can run on old Amiga computers of the time! :) if i'm not mistaken, the files were in a directory called Fairlight too ...

[@kz1000ps]

I love that you can't mention the Fairlight without bringing up Art of Noise... their fates are very much intertwined. On one hand you can look at them as obsolete and bizarre relics of a bygone era, and on the other it's easy to hear that there's STILL something exotic and completely unique to their sound. Paolo, I'd love to see you do an "Art of Noise style jam" =)

[@LtdBoomer]

that belongs in a museum ;-)

[@RoshiAi]

I am amazed you own all this gear. I'd be interested in how the synthesis actually works on the Fairlight. Keep up the good work.

[@electronash]

Robin Bausewein Literally just raw PCM samples tbh. Loaded onto the waveform cards, then each card plays each of the "voices" IIRC. All controlled using a 68000 CPU, or may have been dual 6809 CPUs on these model, I can't quite recall. lol It certainly boots up fairly fast, so probably a 68000? I did start trying to implement the Fairlight II or III on FPGA, but to do it properly would have needed many separate RAM chips etc., so not exactly cheap nor simple, even these days. It really did use a fairly "brute force" method for the sample playback.

[@electronash]

...in the end, I eventually wrote a Wavetable MIDI core on the FPGA. Only using an 8-bit sample set atm, 'cos that is the "width" of the Flash chip on the DE1 dev board. The 8-bit samples were from AmigaDOOM, so have some classic Roland sounds in there, and certainly give it some character. hehe drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B1grqFdAErsrM19hZWNlU3hKNEE (please ignore the 'Voodoo Chile' song as a serious example, it was my first attempt at adding pitch bend. lol)

[@kibidk]

7:10 Jean Michel Jarre "Wooloomooloo"

[@gullyfoyle6354]

FINALLY!! :-))))) this made my day, Paolo. Now, I'm expecting your future videos about re-creating the songs you mentioned, probably some from Alan Parsons who used this extensively, too. I got the full app version for my Iphone, damn cute ;-))) GRAZIE.

[@SynthManiaDotCom]

Really happy that you enjoyed the video! Yes, as soon as the voice card is fixed I'll start doing regular songs with it - thanks for watching!

[@gullyfoyle6354]

Great!! Thanks a lot, Paolo, you are doing so much for the community, I truly appreciate all your tutorials, always worth watching and entertaining, too. I must confess that I'd been chasing a Series IIX for some time...but, after reading all the issues and repairs, I rather prefer staying and using the libraries with modern samplers. :-)

[@SynthManiaDotCom]

You're a smart person! :-D

[@_fig.8]

you realize the fairlight could have its own channel? thanks for sharing

[@Ishkur23]

The Fairlight is a beast. Jam Hammer scored the music for Miami Vice with it. But how on Earth do you still have working 8 inch floppies? Mine demagnetized years ago.

[@lotus30com]

I have about 160 8" floppies and nearly all of them still work. I've over 500 5 1/4" floppies and about 2% of them are bad. 3.5" floppies are even worse. I think the more data they jammed into a smaller space leads to more errors.

[@GaryKildall]

Kirk Keyes ... Towards the 90's floppy production quality severely degraded to make them cheaper. It wasn't the density only.

[@IThinkYouLookLarvely]

Maybe not going so far back, but of about 80 disks, all except one of the 3.5in Double Density (about 768k?) ones for my old SY77 still work, not sure how they would have fared if it used the High Density format. The original disk drive still works but is on its third belt. Shame, that one disk that doesn't work had the killer song on it that could have made me a millionaire in about 1992.

[@BlackburnBigdragon]

I don't know where I got it, possibly from a website or BBS back in the ealy 90's, but I managed to find zip files containing wave files made of every single sound that was on those Fairlight floppies. I've had them for a LONG time and I used them in a LOT of my old Tracker tunes. Being familiar with a LOT of industrial and electronic music back in the 80's, it was just amazing going through those samples because a good many of them, I was like, "I know this one!! It was in (fill in the blank!)".

[@blb]

Incredible

[@JonMichaelDeShazer]

Anyone old enough to remember the episode of The Cosby Show where they are in Stevie Wonder's studio and Stevie is piping samples into a Fairlight?

[@StarsandBarsRecords]

Jon-Michael DeShazer On the one!

[@mpatherton3795]

That was a Synclavier in that Cosby ep with Stevie W

[@keykrazy]

@@mpatherton3795 There's another video from the 80's (or 70's maybe) that's here on KZbin somewhere with Herbie Hancock demonstrating a Fairlight. It's a Sesame Street episode with a little girl named Tatianna Ali. (Later on the child actor played parts on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air and The Cosby Show.)

[@scootervia4213]

The sound your using at 2:55, i could listen to all day

[@vicioussuspicious894]

This video made me feel young again ;)

[@zosxavius]

it still sounds pretty decent. i was expecting it to sound far worse really. way better than the early 8-bit samplers.

[@walterbenford]

Wow, that's a beast!

[@PaulTheSkeptic]

That's a really cool piece of technology.

[@manuelignaciogalafeherrera259]

The almighty Fairlight!!! OMG!! PAOLO, you are the man, love your gear and teaching technics. Can you made a cover of Crockett's theme By Jan Hammer? grettings from Chile!

[@memriloc]

wow. fascinating!

[@SailfishSoundSystem]

When you turn that on it reminds me of the movie Wargames.

[@pauldeverill926]

I always dreamed of owning a Fairlight and now I finally have one that works perfectly and with full library - IN MY PHONE! :)

[@zosxavius]

what app emulates the fairlight??

[@kierenmoore3236]

Peter Vogel CMI (Pro)

[@cubdukat]

And the Darklight IIx UVI, but I wouldn't hold out much hope on it sounding as good as the Vogel CMI app. Their emulation of the Synclavier, the Beast, is absolutely wretched. Not to mention you're stuck with IIx sounds and lower; only the Vogel app has Series III sounds.

[@Stoney3K]

Is there a good VST out that can emulate the Fairlight?

[@cubdukat]

Stoney3K Not an official one. The closest you'll get is the Darklight IIx, but that will only give you a Series IIx. There are several independent ones based off of Kontakt, too, but Darklight is as close to an official Fairlight VSTi as you're gonna get.

[@ThomCherryhomes]

You gave me a heart attack holding the floppy with your thumb so close to the media cutout.

[@RickJohnson]

Coming from someone who grew up with floppies in the 80s, I cringed too!

[@tombruckner2556]

Glad I was not the only one.

[@jvidalw]

yeah,me too!

[@Nikkibausch]

Wow look at the size of that thing holy crap!!!

[@edwardthomas3974]

I recently found out the Swanee (Panpipe) sound from the Fairlight CMI was the melody used for the theme song of the 90s Nicktoon "Rugrats 🍼👶🏻"

[@RobertCasas]

Music history compiled in some minutes. Thanks for sharing your Ferrari.

[@WildernessMusic_GentleSerene]

This brings back computer memories; 8inch floppy drives, System discs, CDC300mb removable disc drives for $25,000.00 each and $500.00 per disc. $10.000.00 500mb disc arrays, $1000.00 per 1gig memory.

[@MichaelSouhoka]

That disk drive machine sound during loading that didn't heard for a long long time... really missed.

[@NotMarkKnopfler]

I don't suppose you've got a Synclavier behind the sofa? :-)

[@TronicJohn]

Well, he has Synclavier Sample CDs, IIRC.

[@seeyouintheeighties]

Could the fairlight be the sustained bass in "mad World"? Been years of trying to find out what that sound is.

[@psychedeliccarrie5921]

Most underrated instrument ever.

[@FanJarre]

Zoolook!!

[@toitoitoy]

Wow! fantastic

[@carlcouture1023]

Definitely recognize ORCH5 from Den Harrow's Future Brain. I can see why this behemoth was so beloved in the 80s. It must have been a producer's wet dream. I find it interesting how recent pop hits have gone back to using pitch sifted vocal samples (I Took A Pill In Ibiza, It Ain't Me, In The Name of Love etc.) that you would have needed a Fairlight for back in the day. Now all you need is a freeware sampler app on your phone. I think there's even a Fairlight emulator but not sure how legal that is.

[@ozzy101966]

Back in the days when we used to make some decent stuff.

[@beerbaron9802]

Muy bueno. Saludos desde Argentina.

[@europlane77]

Paolo how many sounds did Jan Hammer use from the fairlight? I use Reason and i would love to have all of his sounds. I know he also used Jupiter, but the classic sounds he used i am most interrested in.

[@sheriffb1544]

The sounds probably would have been much more impressive back then. The synth sure is still interesting to listen to. Technology has come so far! Nevertheless, we can't forget the innovation that resulted in the Fairlight.

[@skyhigh4000]

thank you my friend - synthmania

[@cguajard]

Hi from Chile I have a Questions? Revolting Cocks used the sampler from Jackson 5 song "Body" (extended Version) (7:05 time in this video) in the song No Devotion? Using this Synthetizer?

[@spencertaya]

That is definitely the intro to No Devotion by RevCo.