I'm Building a Fairlight CMI: Episode 15

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?
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[@StupidTuberDude]

Chris, you're freaking brilliant!

[@MrFixiit]

cool episode chris realy enjoyed watching your shananagans cant wait for the next one.

[@distantcomets]

Chris, you look like you were about to cry! I'm genuinely happy to see such a labor of love coming around to completion! Congrats! Can't wait to see you nail the final details!

[@CrisBlyth]

It was definitely a moment.. Even though the front wasn't 'real', it was the first time it was really 'complete'. t'was a moment I'll remember for sure.

[@delskioffskinov]

I'm sooo enjoying your journey Chris with this piece of genuine history! it's going to be sad when it's all over, maybe you could do some follow up videos on how it plays maybe?

[@CrisBlyth]

oh I have a WHOLE bunch of videos planned.. Also, there's other pieces of Fairlight hardware that will be recording the stuff I'm making.. with any luck ! :)

[@6581punk]

It makes my conversion of a Korg Wavestation into a Wavestation EX rather trivial.

[@CrisBlyth]

@@6581punk I'd still like to see though :)

[@nilsvanderplancken]

I like that this is a triple-header, with three Fairlight episodes back-to-back-to-back! (hint)

[@CrisBlyth]

heheh.. it's all a bit messy, isn't it ! Wasn't really planned out when we started this :)

[@ToTheGAMES]

Yessss! I love these series.

[@johantorneheim1384]

It’s so satisfying to see the project coming to fruition - the ups and downs, the infectious enthusiasm, and the journey 😅 Makes me want to give my Prophet VS a facelift… Cheers!

[@CrisBlyth]

Oh I can give your Prophet VS an entire new home if you like ;)

[@dannybloe]

And Cris, don't forget to make at least one episode, when it's all done, where you actually make a full track of music with the beast! Can't wait to see that one in the future! Loving it so far though.

[@6581punk]

It's all about the journey, when it is over you don't know what to do. A youtuber Techmoan told a story in one of his videos about a work colleague who collected some sort of books, this guy would drive around the country to different book shops to see if they had the books. But Mat (techmoan) told him about ebay and the guy then completed his collection that way. When Mat asked him if he had got them all yet he said yes and looked rather disappointed. It was his hobby of sorts to collect them and driving around the country was a day out, having lunch at a new cafe/pub etc.. and now he had nothing to do.

[@dannybloe]

@@6581punk Of course it's mainly about the journey. Totally agree. But still, knowing almost nothing about how it is to work with a fairlight I still think the 'journey' towards a track could be quite enjoyable too. At least to me.

[@CrisBlyth]

@@6581punk Yes, the journey is the destination for sure :). At first I did think about what would be 'next' after finishing the CMI. However, I've got a lot of journeys literally waiting for me, my garage and rest of my house is jam-packed with other adventures waiting to happen. The CMI has basically made more journeys appear. For example, there's a TON of stuff that ultimately led me to be chatting with Jean Michele Jarre, and repairing CMI's for Hollywoods top composers, and then being asked to write music too... You might have noticed a lovely Fairlight EVO in the background here and there... How did that happen ? Well, I've got around 25 hours of footage as to how that happened... all waiting to be edited. :)

[@CrisBlyth]

@@dannybloe Oh, I've been making music on it already - I've finished complete projects on it... indeed you might hear it reasonably soon... :) can't say much more at the moment

[@6581punk]

@@dannybloe As software has gotten overcomplicated the appeal of dedicated hardware to me has grown. Every DAW goes through a cycle. A new contender appears, has a great workflow, much more optimal and simpler than the big players. People start adopting it but then notice feature XYZ is missing, they request it and it gets added. Multiply that by 10,000 people and it's not long before your challenger DAW is just as cluttered and confusing at the big players. Hardware puts a stop to that to a degree. Although even synths have started out having "one knob per function" and ended up having extra features added which aren't reflected in the interface. Eg. The Waldorf Quantum, Novation Peak which have added new modes without a dedicated button (although the Quantum is hardly simple, the screen helps). Anyway, I was on the waiting list for a Cirklon sequencer for ages and by the time my place in the queue turned up I was broke and no longer cared. I've tried all manner of devices, but I think a laptop and Renoise is good for me right now. Always liked the tracker interface. A few years back I came close to buying a Synclavier from ebay, but looking back I'm glad I didn't. Would have been like buying a vintage Ferrari. Sure, you can pay for it but can you keep it going?

[@mickaelhoarau199]

Brilliant!

[@williamtell1477]

This is very cool, I've been wanting to learn how to screen print for a couple things. Looks a little bit tricky but very cool to see what is possible.

[@6581punk]

It's a very cheap way to do t-shirts if you don't mind single colour prints.

[@FransvandenBergeMuziekschuur]

This is sooooo interesting. Thank you for sharing.

[@CrisBlyth]

I'm glad you like them ! more to come !

[@FransvandenBergeMuziekschuur]

@@CrisBlyth i believe this (intuitive) interface was/is part of it’s succes. If you could come up with an ipad with the same interface and pen. I bet it will still hold it’s own today.

[@bobule]

Double joy! Thanks Cris!

[@stephaneparage2530]

🖤🖤🖤🖤

[@andrewscott1253]

Why not screen print it in two halves to keep the original size and overcome the need to print close to the edges of the screens?

[@stickman393]

"...just like a bought one"

[@dav1dbone]

Very cool, Fairlight.... 1000 million bucks, okay. However within reason can we get synthy, upgrades to the max, modern chips, 8bit limit?

[@CrisBlyth]

There are some really good software options, and the MAME Series Iix emulation is also really really amazing.

[@6581punk]

I don't mind the whole aluminum and aluminium thing. But dropping the H on herbs drives me nuts :)

[@CrisBlyth]

I now add at least 5 H's to 'Herb' now.. just to make sure people get it.

[@6581punk]

@@CrisBlyth Do they call Herbie the VW beetle 'erbie?

[@CrisBlyth]

That’s a really good call.. sadly I feel if I use that one, the younger ones might go, ‘who’s Herbie?’ :(

[@BeakFoundry]

You don't know the musician Erbie Ancock?

[@kenwhelan7920]

Hi Chris, another great episode it trminds me of useing letraset 9fail0 to get a pro finnish did you look into water slide labels ? look forward to the next part.

[@CrisBlyth]

yeah, I was going to try the laser/transfer, but I need something to feel really 'bang on' professional :)

[@wiseoldfool]

What happened to episode 14?

[@Ojref1]

I just donna know what to say m8.

[@kuglepen64]

Too bad you didn’t get the shade of white right.

[@CrisBlyth]

not yet.......... future Cris wants to say something, but that would ruin things.. :)

[@kuglepen64]

@@CrisBlyth Alright then ;-)

[@phpn99]

WHY ?

[@CrisBlyth]

Why not ?