I'm Building a Fairlight CMI: Episode 13

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.
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[@6581punk]

Sunday and a new episode, boom.

[@electronash]

Great to see this project still going well, Cris. ;)

[@lasskinn474]

New ep so soon. Not complaining

[@thomassvedin8701]

In todays episode, Chris transforms into a random orbital sander

[@6581punk]

Needs to have a set of those glasses with LEDs on them to be an Orbital sander. I learned a while ago that they used to wear the head mounted lights when doing their gigs because they were fans of the Alesis MMT8 sequencer and they had a very poor backlight on the LCD screen. I expect it's all laptop based these days.

[@Oli1974]

Learning the difference between rattle cans and electrostatic coating ...

[@paulpeterson7853]

An awesome project! Long time lurker, first time commenter. I love this project!

[@nase9501]

hi Cris, I´m loving your Fairlight stories.... your clock next to the steps needs a new battery. 😁

[@CrisBlyth]

hehe I think you’re right.. it has earned the right to be more then just twice a day correct !

[@MatthewHarrold]

Cris ... your journey is infectious. I forgot to tell my 9 year old to go to bed while watching this, he came in at 11pm asking if it was time for bed. You are only partially to blame though, I also watched an hour of AI producing Python code to solve world hunger. $0.02

[@CrisBlyth]

The GPT3 dream is real... :) Indeed, it might have helped me on a future Fairlight EVO coding situation.. hmmm :) yeah.. lots more to come - glad you're enjoying them

[@lasskinn474]

the scanning works well when there's a square around it that it uses to align the plane.

[@kuglepen64]

Some flatbed scanners can focus in the vertical. My Epson can. Else try to find a prepress service bureau with a larger flatbed scanner - they do exist!

[@CrisBlyth]

yes, my scanner could handle it, but it wasn't long enough. :)

[@kropjesla01]

if you decide this colour is ok thats fine, you could also mix the corect color and then spraypaint it. In the country where I live (Nederland) that is totally possible. you could try and take a picture and then compare the RGB numbers in the computers to know what colors you actually need. But anyway, if you're ok with the colour thats fine... Keep em coming! I enjoy your videos very much.

[@ezquimal]

Can use Coreldraw with the logo and the screen

[@deanwetherbee6468]

Hi Cris - I'm a big fan of you/your Fairlight project and have been watching from ep 1 right through to ep 13 here. I had a thought on your panel graphics screen printing sizing issue - instead of the photo-emulsion kit you are looking at for the screen printing (which has size limitations for the transparency you will have to try to print on - the darkness of that black will also be a major issue, incidentally), you might try just using cut vinyl instead. If you have access to a Cricut or similar cut vinyl machine, you can use it instead of trying to learn the photo-emulsion route - instead of the photo-emulsion being the resist (the area that doesn't print), the vinyl takes its place. First, there is no real limitation to how big/long you can go - it's only limit is the cut capacity of your vinyl cutter - but there are ways around that even if it is limited. Also, it's much more forgiving, way easier if you screw up - essentially, you could redo it over and over again until you get it right (the photo emulsion is one shot - if it gets screwed up at any stage, you have to start from scratch by reclaiming the screen with chemicals and starting over), so, the vinyl is much, much faster, etc. The photo-emulsion process of creating a screen is an art in and of itself. I happen to think you also get a much cleaner/sharp result with vinyl. You just need to get a physical screen that is large enough for your panel. There are lots of tutorials out there on Pinterest, KZbin, etc. for the cut vinyl screen printing process - so, just a thought. On the vector graphics and layout, I recently was working on graphics for a Roland PG-800 front panel that I need to redo, and for me (graphic designer), it was easier to take really good measurements (I used a machinist's caliper) and did the layout straight in Adobe Illustrator or a similar vector graphics program rather than trying to convert the photo you took on your phone. You surely can use it for reference, but the measurement approach has saved me lots of hassle in the end. You can then duplicate your file and in the new file, convert your fonts to outlines/curves so the vinyl cutter will be happy (the duplicate is so you can always go back to the original if you screw up - non-destructive editing!). Reach out if you want any pointers. And good luck!!!

[@deanwetherbee6468]

Oh, and I meant to say, AMAZING JOB on this - I am blown away by your electronics/Fairlight knowledge and ambition. Congrats!

[@CrisBlyth]

@@deanwetherbee6468 Thank-you ! yes.. I was considering the Cricut route for a while.. however, in that regard hopefully all will be revealed in the next video..

[@FLH3official]

Yes, my "Sunday Fairlight"! A good way to forget the sunday blues. Cris, The Painter. The funny thing is the guys at Fairlight, or at the Fairlight's subcontractors for the "boxes", spent certainly less time to chose the paint color, they just grabbed what was available in the shed. It was white? OK! It was semi-gloss-satin-broken-white with a bit of shinny olive green? OK, who cares! 😁

[@CrisBlyth]

The green part really threw me !.. Ultimately it gets 'resolved'... 'later on'. :)

[@FLH3official]

@@CrisBlyth Hi, Cris, BTW did you consider to go to a car painter? They have special analysis machines in order to find the exact matching colors, and the proportion of different paints to achieve the correct color, when they have a repair paint job on a car.

[@CrisBlyth]

@@FLH3official maybeeeeeee.. in the 'future', which has already happened, but I'm constantly behind on editing.

[@PORRFNK]

hi :) The longer the distance between the can and what you are painting the more rough it's going to look (Matte) If you are closer and have the can and the subject heated it will become completely glass like. Also it matters how much paint you apply, more paint right after will make it more smooth. Sanding is best with sandpaper, the spongle will make it green :) you did a good job

[@CrisBlyth]

Thank-you.. Looking back now, I'm just baffled at my non-sensical thinking, and brazen approach to not learning from others via KZbin. I have since learned a lot about painting.. Indeed there are more learning rabbit holes in the next episodes.

[@PORRFNK]

@@CrisBlyth Cant wait :) I admire your ability to keep calm while working, no rush really to finish but rather doing it proper, this is something I am still trying to master, with age it seems to be easier, but I am having a harder time actually soldering and reading the PCBs and schematics. The phone camera is such a great tool

[@6581punk]

@@CrisBlyth If it's aluminium then you can just anodise it.

[@Veptis]

Do you ever plan to use the Fairlight to produce some music? Maybe once the project reaches a somewhat finished state?

[@moreprofound]

I would have programmed an LCD display where all 11 states are shown as names on the display

[@HFqTV]

Hey, I love to see you rescue an old glory days sampler. The printing house only uses the DIN system, maybe you can print it in A3? because the front is bigger

[@D_VAULTZ]

its time for more complete baffoonary. incredible.

[@CrisBlyth]

That's what my Dad used to say... :)

[@frontier9]

Dude i've watched this whole series so far and you are VERY slow, not going fast. However, it's a restoration/creation so I understand that you are chasing a certain look and feel. I find this all to be very inspiring in patience, i'm orders of magnitude more fast and crappy.

[@6581punk]

I'd have probably just got it sprayed by a pro at a body shop, but then I'm pretty bad at spray painting. However I do have compressor and that makes things a lot easier.

[@CrisBlyth]

yes ! However, this was filmed during the pandemic, and getting anything non-standard at any shop was kinda difficult... Also, I have a compressor now... eventually :)

[@6581punk]

So it's probably all finished and working now? bah :)

[@CrisBlyth]

@@6581punk It's further along.. However, no project is ever really finished, but I DO have other projects that are piling up and editing this is definitely taking my time up !

[@Boxbearer]

just lock the screen orientation

[@CrisBlyth]

yeah.. I was just too giddy with excitement.

[@ezquimal]

What say the manual of the paint can ?

[@CrisBlyth]

not sure the question. ?

[@ezquimal]

@@CrisBlyth you don't need to put the can 1 meter for the surface to paint?

[@CrisBlyth]

@@ezquimal I've heard various different methods.. including heating the can ! which sounds scary.

[@NeilAFawcett]

Firsty synthy wirsty...

[@33ordie]

Two videos just to make a rectangle front panel.... My feeling is this series will last till 2030 to milk youtube to the bone.

[@CrisBlyth]

I agree with you, and this is exactly my issue too ! :) However, I've never done it before and I'm figuring it out.. My goal was to always show the entire process, warts and all. I feel that the episodes were getting too long, and taking too long to make also, so I'm attempting to make shorter episodes, but I know that it could lead to overlap. Also, it's not just a rectangle; there's metalwork fabrication, 3D designing & printing of latches & hinges, re-creating the graphics, painting, screen printing and/or laser etching the graphics.

[@33ordie]

@CrisBlyth I might sound angry but I'm not. I just felt I needed 2 minutes to watch this one.

[@6581punk]

@@33ordie I think the issue is we can't really see the difference in finish. Maybe one day when we have 12k VR it will be easier :)

[@har234908234]

You're not wrong...Though my feeling is that if the content is honest I'm okay with it. I don't feel like I'm being sold something that it's not. I think if you get to Ep 13 you're not really here to learn how to replicate the colour for a Fairlight, or how how to (avoid) screen printing the panel... etc. It's niche KZbin... the (relatively) few of us that are watching are are here for Cris and his journey... and we know how to skip ahead! When complete, he may served well by condensing the project into a tighter duration.