The Shocking Truth About DaVinci Resolve Fairlight

We’ve been exploring DaVinci Resolve recently, an NLE with a few tricks up its sleeve. In this article we take a look at Fairlight and tell why our findings are so shocking.
If you’re wondering, Black Magic don’t advertise with us or have had any input into this article. We’ve simply come to the DaVinci Resolve party late and think it’s worth talking about.
Read more here www.production-expert.com/pro...

[@geoffos42]

One more thing: remember, that as Fairlight is part of Davinci Resolve, you'll never have to pay for upgrades in the future, once you've made that one-time payment for the Studio version.

[@alecvoggel]

Every now and then I'm creating a vid with Davinci Resolve. Right now I'm behind cutting a vid of one of our concerts as a Duo. The audio was (is) not that good and I tweaked it a little in Logic Pro X. During cutting I thought what's about that Fairlight thing. I gave it a try and couldn't believe my eyes and even more, my ears. I found instantly some 'knobs' to adjust and i was speechless. After a search in YT I came across that vid of you. It convinced me to start learning more about Fairlight and I'm very positive that soon I will improve my mixing process. Great vid and very convincing! Cheers...

[@GertKracht]

I worked with Premiere CS and CC and all those other CS tools. Then went to FCPX and now DVR Studio. So good! My dream came true. And I had the Studio version from February 2021. But then my father became serious ill....two years later after we lost him I discovered Fairlight and it is exactly what I was looking for. I hope I can learn to use it and make my video's better.

[@roberthead375]

Very timely video. I’ve been looking to change my current DAW, Sequoia, and Resolve has grabbed my attention. I too like the fact you can work with video. I do very little video but need it from time to time. Im also getting some video to clean up the audio. All in one? Im in. I am confused about the GPU needs though. Is that something you can speak to? Your hardware specs? Great video, thanks

[@LaustinSpayce]

I used fairlight Xynergi workstations about 10 years ago before they were bought by Black Magic. It has its merits over other popular DAWS when doing post work! And for the low price of FREE I agree people should just have it to play with it.

[@fusion-music]

Yep. I'm just waiting for the day they introduced Midi. Already it makes sense to do everything in Resolve & I love the audio section. Good to see your enthusiasm.

[@mariotriforce]

While I agree it should come, if you look at bmds focus with fairlight is it's a mixing and mastering daw focused on onlineing, ADR + mastering workflows & with obviously the focus is to sell hardware 😅, it dose need improvements & I am not saying I don't want midi because that's what fairlight was famous for but their thoughs is that audio should allready be done by the time your coming to master in fairlight 😅(still would love the option tho)

[@WillisWildeWelt]

Actually Fairlight is abled to work with mackie protocoll. I am using the icon Platform m+ for mixing in Resolve and it´s really great.

[@mariotriforce]

@@WillisWildeWelt indeed it dose tho it is a tad broken & I think we're more talking about midi in the sence of a midi sequencer 😅

[@fusion-music]

@@WillisWildeWelt Yes, the icon Platform m+ is a nice interface for mixing. I have Mackie control on my keyboard and can do the same thing, but I like the idea of a standalone interface, just for ergonomics sake.

[@WillisWildeWelt]

@@mariotriforce ah okay. But that will stay a problem. There is just a Timecode and no BPM based Midiclock in Resolve to solve this problem. Nice would be a native integration of Abelton Live or other DAW, that provides this data.

[@ErikBiskopst]

I have Davinci Resolve Studio and like Fairlight. But it's not as easy to record overdubs audio as Pro Tools. I could not route a simple mic from Apollo to a track as easily in any DAW.

[@sounddramaturgien]

well, that's a bit of a clickbait and also a bit of incorrect context 🙃 Blackmagic Design has done an incredible job of packing three fully-fledged, long-established programs (Fusion, Davinci, Fairlight) into one with a shared timeline. On top of that, as the newest member, they've also turned it into a powerful editing tool. And now it's also a DAW with by far the most powerful cloud integration/collaboration... Love to see more on that❣️

[@musolo78]

Wonder if it is possible to apply Fairlight effects to voice as a live pre-processing, kinda like OBS does with itts filters? EQ, Compression etc?

[@tonysheilds4681]

Well I use Davinci Resolve 18.5 but for audio I use the SSL 360 with The SSL12 32Bit/192Khz IO with there UC1 interface as well as the Presonus Fader Port 8. The intagration of having the faders and the SSL consol software with hardware tools for time and feel are amazing. I am totally blown away by how great of a solution this is for Audio and Video Post Production. Thanks for sharing your knowladge.

[@CaptRadar101]

how do you get the flowing mixer in fairlight

[@annebokma4637]

Shoshocking thing about fairlight? Try midi integration, it needs work to get up to the level of the other resolve parts

[@SkyCharter]

1:28 The fact there are standard loudness guidelines (plural) for various organizations means there isn't quite a standard as of yet.

[@lewisguapo]

When i started to look into color correction, i saw DaVinci being the industry top notch and then i saw DaVinci and notice fairlight. Fairlight was a big selling point for me because I always wanted a DAW to treat my videos without switching throughout many apps...

[@SamHocking]

I do really like it for quick multichannel and Atmos workflows, but without full VST, Midi, CC, OSC support it's painful to use. I know it's lacking all this because you're meant to be buying their hardware, but these days hardware is just not needed for majority of work.

[@mariotriforce]

It's not their in my view is because their current focus is a mixing & mastering DAW so music should be done by the time it gets to fairlight, not that I hope they don't eventually add it tho Re Vst, -anything in particular I'm guessing side chaining Midi - thats fair and still unfortunate but see above hopefully someday tho What's CC & OSC?

[@anatomicallymodernhuman5175]

Not to mention it has auto-transcription for dialogue tracks, and can show it on the timeline. I have see if I can record and edit audio as fast in Fairlight as in PT.

[@Rhythmattica]

You can.... But you cant... However, drop the muscle memory, and use Fairlights terminology , Like the MFX (CMI Series III) specific for Audio post, Back then , all the post guys said Fairlight was Faster.... ALAS.. TDM dropped

[@Nick_Lavigne]

It can't go above 30db in volume gain, which is annoying when dealing with Zoom F6 32-bit float files, which need about 60+db for dialog to be heard.

[@JanKlier]

While I appreciate that Fairlight has come a long way since the much more limited version BMD rescued from bankruptcy and which was mostly unusable in many workflows (no side chaining, confusing routing, and many more gaps just a short time ago - I tried it back then, as I'm a regular Resolve user with 3 licenses), what you describe (Loudness curve & meter, clip based non-destructive processing, Atmos w/o external software) has existed for years in other DAWs (maybe PT was behind, but not some of the others). So yes, BMD is catching up to the front of the field, but that is not shocking. They've done that with any other aspect of Resolve, and are having major impact on the industry as a result. While you may be appreciating that it's an essentially free tool for most people (even the studio version at a flat one-time $300 is essentially free for anyone running a business), I think this is a pyrrhic victory. Making advanced tools like that takes a lot of development effort (by some accounts BMD employ in excess of 1,000 devs in Singapore at considerable cost). BMD is paying for this largely now by scale (by some accounts now 3M+ users), but before by subsidizing it with their cheap and so-so hardware sales. They're not charging what it actually costs, in order to gain market share. That could seriously harm other software only vendors for DAWS, and at some point you may be left with Fairlight only, whether you love it or hate it. As a professional we should never be wowed by 'free tools' and what they can do. Just like you don't like your client's to be vowed by free services others may offer. This is different than legitimate open source efforts that have other parameters. You could take a look what Resolve has done to the colorist community, where it is legitimately the premiere industry tool. Everyone is now a colorist because it's a free tool. That's a long story for another time, but be careful what you ask for. You may be shocked soon for related reasons. Everyone might be a mixer before long, thanks to free tools and endless YT videos teaching them. We've seen this song so many times in other related industries, from photography, to color grading, etc. etc. I don't have anything against BMD and their tools. They have much improved. I do take issue with the business model, which is not healthy for the rest of us, and we shouldn't be celebrating that. Especially not the pros of the industry. It's another matter if the young kids making it on YT do.

[@mariotriforce]

While I don't disagree, bmd is a disruptor by also riseing everyone up, I've talked with professional Coulorists & they are getting more work then ever (with some doing a side buissness in teaching), I get the pro sentiment of if everyone is creative no one is but if theirs a technical expectation of quality pros won't have an issue if they keep on top of it -truthfully it's the younger generation that will suffer because they have to be exceptional - (bmd is also kind of incredible the amount of pro users they retain, you'd think they would lose more 😅) Bmd is a hardware company so they justify it & at least bmd spends RnD money compared to some, Ai is the bigger threat because if it dosen't save time it devalues skill...

[@JanKlier]

​@@mariotriforce Pro Colorists do indeed have plenty of work. But expectations, budgets, and client engagement have shifted. As the tools become ubiquitous and free, some part of the market doesn't understand the value of a specialist anymore, or at least until they fail on the DIY path. BMD is spending heavily to make Resolve the dominant tool. Lots has been written about the backstory and motivation. And some parts are admirable. But I remain that we should not celebrate free giveaways that have hidden costs. In the data economy we have learned that free platforms come at cost to privacy. Much has been written about the looming streamer consolidation which was a race for marketshare and growth that put growth over business fundamentals. Now they're all going through a painful recalibration, that has caused a significant slowdown in work across the industry, some of which won't come back. I know several people who had to find work outside of the industry. I applaud the engineering BMD is putting into the app. And the speed at which they do it. They started with a few lemons, so it's going to take a lot to become leading edge. But they have the resources. If they charged a reasonable subscription for Resolve, like anyone else in the industry that reflects the value of the tool, instead of giving it away for free, I would have much less to say. Yes, it's business, and the strongest survives. Sometimes by being good, and sometimes by dirty tricks. But any business also should think about the economic health of the people they serve, or the landscape may look bleak one day. But then, in the current times, being mindful of the better good of the community is not en vogue.

[@mariotriforce]

@@JanKlier bmd dose not sell any user information adobe dose(look what they are doing adobe is doing with ai & it's the reason why bmds intergrations only improve with major versions, the only send home is their verification server & dongle is an still an option) Again it's covered because bmd is a hardware company first 😅 While I agree client expectations are particularly bad now but that's not just because of bmd the whole sector is seeing social media and seeing a market, bmd offers resolve for free because 1 traction but mostly because so many students pirate adobe anyways so theirs no point in locking it behind a paywall, I will critique you massively for supporting subscriptions tho because their just a way to keep shareholders happy & is what caused the race to the bottom in the first place (also look at the amount of updates premier got vs resolve even in the past year) remember bmd do keep releaseing professional stuff too(look at the atem stuff released last year & this) Truthfully the bigger problem actually is that this whole race to the bottom was caused by the producers in Hollywood makeing this race to the bottom to destroy their unions 😅

[@Rhythmattica]

They have come along way, CVI and Voicetracker owner here, with firmware never released.. I understand...

[@robainscough]

You sound like you work for an Audio software company like maybe BandLab (aka Sonar, aka Cakewalk) ;) ... I'll disagree with you from a software engineer's perspective (37+ years), there is only so much "new" in the development of audio and over the decades we've built on existing code and it's inevitable that Audio processing will reach of point of saturation where there just isn't much more to do from the software engineering side ... rearrange the UI to make it look different but underneath the core has reached as good as it gets. I recall paying $1500 for Audio software and even more for plugins and some crazy expensive prices for samples ... over the years that got cheaper and cheaper and cheaper. I can create Atmos quality audio that is as good as 98% of big budget films for a fraction of the cost. Yes, it does mean that audio exclusive jobs are fewer and fewer as the work can be covered by fewer team members and reducing the cost of production. Lower production costs while retaining high quality = more films ... so it's not entire doom and gloom for audio specialists it's just a need to adapt to change.

[@scottlarock7924]

Resolve/Fairlight has been a great compliment to my main daw. Even just a small dip into video can have a nice effect on your music. A nice little jog of inspiration. Also, if I ever run into a problem plug-in on my main DAW, I can just boot up fairlight and it usually runs and I can get what I need and bring it back over.

[@BurninSven1]

I am going back to make music with real instruments and I find Davinci really confusing to work with compared to a traditional DAW like for example Logic 9. So far I have totally failed to understand Fairlight and when I add audio/songs/music to video in Resolve I record it in Quicktime if I am on my video computer cause I have only a 10 chanell M-Audio Delta Pci soundcard and a USB condencer mic. Via some hokus pokus and some trixing I manage to put together a two channel track in Quicktime I import to Resolve and add it to the video. The USB mic works but I want to record multitrack songs using my 16 channel mixer. That is if I ever learn how to do it in Fairligh. The Delta 1010 does not work cause it is a Pci card not a Pcie card. So even if Davinci can produce better sounding audio it does not matter cause it is so different compared to what am used to.

[@watchandproduce]

No MIDI support, no midi automation, are things that would make Fairlight a real DAW. It's great that it supports most VSTs and in the case of RX that you can use them to fix audio issues but without MIDI tracks it's missing features for my workflow that require I use a real DAW. Considering what MIDI is this shouldn't be too hard for Blackmagic Design to add to Fairlight and I think it would lead to even more people wanting to buy Studio and the hardware controllers they make.

[@danepaulstewart8464]

Fairlight is just THE most monster audio tool to have within DaVinci Resolve. It has made my life SO MUCH EASIER since the first day it was integrated! Yes, it was a bit basic at first, but it has rapidly, like VERY rapidly, increased its powers and abilities.

[@marklholloway]

Agree Fairlight is focused on audio treatment for Resolve editing, nothing more. It doesn’t replace (or compete) with Pro Tools or other DAWs. The last version of Fairlight pre-BMD acquisition had Midi and BMD removed it from the integrated Fairlight version.

[@chris_zazzman]

It's a strange truth, we seem to equate quality with price... which marketing departments know all to well!! Davinci Resolve is amazing - great job Blackmagic!

[@sairlordmusic]

i remember the first Fairlight white box keybaord and green screen in SYCO systems with an unknown bloke called Hans Zimmer playing it 1980/1 lolz

[@constructionomnipotence49t83]

Im glad to here that Fairlight is that good ..I have the studio version and learning all the pages as an editor ..Fairlight tutorials are next on my list!

[@georgewoolf6300]

What you get of free in Resolve is wild, but it's a decade behind our other music first DAW's with many features.

[@annekedebruyn7797]

Not only that, the integration with hardware is also limited by design so that you can only use BM products. Which is fine if BM made everything or made everything as well as other offerings. While it will work great for many people and smaller productions no doubt. I don't think it's ready for lots of others and that is mainly due to aggressive restrictions on Blackmagics end. There is a reason why you see mostly video editors switching to Resolve instead of audio editors and engineers.

[@mimoochodom2684]

I thought this was going to be about the Fairlight synth. 😂

[@ProductionExpert]

You're as old as me then! 😂

[@Rhythmattica]

Quasar? Or Sampler with synth capabilities? ;) Yeh, Im a Fairlight Tragic.. Almost bought a CMI II mx in 1990.. so wish I had... But , Atari and EPS FTW

[@watchandproduce]

Would love to see a Fairlight Synth emulation and at least Midi Tracks in the Fairlight page to for example control automations of effects both internal and external.

[@squidskunk]

as a content creator and musician i would like integration of midi tracks and vsti for music creation.

[@mariotriforce]

Vsti is supported but only for recording not in the midi sence, the sad fact is fairlight originally was exceptional at midi, I do hope they bring it back eventually tho they are focusing on fairlight being a mixing & mastering daw (for online editing ) so it might be a while

[@mariotriforce]

While it definitely needs some work its definitely getting their music people will question stuff but for an onlineing & mastering tool alot of its focus isnt on makeing music its a very nice & powerful tool even tho most people dont get it 😅 You didn't even mention collaboration :)

[@bertomil]

It is not about your tools. It is about you.

[@tombombadyl4535]

Don’t bury the lead

[@deafdave6468]

I'm too afraid to watch something so shocking!! I don't want to have nightmares!!! Ehem clickbait!!

[@moltenpros]

I am not impressed.