6 ms·

The Wonder from Down Under: The Fairlight CMI Digital Sampling Synthesiser

59 points by empressplay 8y ago

paulgerhardt 8y ago
If anyone has one of these gorgeous machines (or knows someone that has one), please get in touch (email in profile). Through a very circuitous process I managed to score some of those 8" floppys Vogel made for the CMI in 1979 - would love to rip them for the Internet Archive and hear them in their original glory.
- meee 8y ago
  The gearslutz.com community may be able to help. There are many enthusiasts and threads on emulation and soundbanks. Also, for fun, Herbie Hancock explaining a CMI to David Letterman. Around 4:50 if the link acts up. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5QQgZmu4hZ0&feature=youtu.be&t=291 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5QQgZmu4hZ0&feature=youtu.be...
- kimburgess 8y ago
  Not sure where you are in the world, but if you / the disks can make it to Melbourne, I'd recommend reaching out to https://mess.foundation/ https://mess.foundation/. If they don't have direct access to one, they will almost certainly be able to help you track down someone who does.
- raphlinus 8y ago
  The Vintage Synthesizer Museum in Oakland has one, I got to play with it. They might be able to do something with the disks.
  - paulgerhardt 8y ago
    Ah perfect! Will drop by as well as reach out to the Mess foundation in Melbourne!
- femto 8y ago
  You could always contact Vogel direct: http://petervogelinstruments.com.au/contact/ http://petervogelinstruments.com.au/contact/ or if you like the synthesiser, you could buy (part of) the company: http://petervogelinstruments.com.au/invest/ http://petervogelinstruments.com.au/invest/ --- Edit: The website is also spruiking a $50 app which appears to be based on the original CMI source?
- TheOtherHobbes 8y ago
  As well as Vogel's own CMI app, Arturia make a VST called Fairlight V which has most of the original sounds and does an excellent job of capturing the audio character of the instrument. Chances are good the floppies are part of the original sample library, which is widely available.
  - paulgerhardt 8y ago
    They came with an invoice from Deram Limited in London sent to Roger Linn in Hollywood. Signed by Gloria Calbrath and John Styx. The invoice says the producer was Vic Coppersmith. Artist: Europeans. Invoice line items says it includes "ENC DEMO SAMPLES FOR LINN ELECTRONICS". Dated January, 1982. The three disks are labeled: 1) "Ultranox drum sounds, Simmons Drums Sounds, Tom Severetts Drum Sounds" 2) "Freddie Perren's Drum Sounds" 3) "Audio Disk: Vic Coppersmith / Europeans" All three disks are BASF 128 Bytes(!), 25 Sectors. If you can point me in the direction of those original sample libraries I would be appreciate it, as it gives me a space to start parsing these!
flyinghamster 8y ago
"However, despite its deficiencies, Australian distributors and consumers were interested, so much so that the Musician’s Union warned that such devices posed a “lethal threat” to its members, afraid that humans in orchestras could be replaced!" Funny how the music business in general can be such a bunch of Luddites. Player pianos, the phonograph, the Hammond organ, magnetic tape, synthesizers, digital recording... all of them were going to just kill music.
- dmix 8y ago
  Now look around our own industry at those being extremely pessimistic. I'm sure you'll find many hawking their own politicized dire warnings. News publications and media have always sought out the counter points to any news story, so they dont seem overly supportive. It just happens that it tends to be the loudest extreme voices that get the most attention to fill this contrarian role. That said, it's usually safe to bet any extreme contrarian is likely a little bit right, which makes it hard to entirely dismiss them.
- wwweston 8y ago
  They didn't "kill" music -- which is impossible as long as it's an activity that has inherent value for humans -- but several of these inventions have dramatically changed the economic value of musical skills and therefore, to some extent, the viability of investment in developing those skills. That has second order effects on what kind of music can get made (and by who) and find its way into the culture. Maybe a lot of these are reasonable tradeoffs. I sure love recorded music, even though it did hit the livelihood of gigging musicians. I like having an orchestra I can arrange for in my computer, even though it reduces the demand for studio musicians. I don't want to un-invent these things (nor do I think that's possible). But I recognize the impact and know that musicians who saw threats weren't wrong. I do, however, want to uninvent Spotify and any services like it -- or at least radically change the cost structure. As they're now constituted, they're not a reasonable tradeoff; they don't really introduce a new opportunity, they're simply plays to combine the power of a new centralized distribution channel that has both broadcast and on-demand capabilities with arbitrage opportunities from externalized and/or sunk production costs and digital licensing loopholes to push the economic rewards for producing recordings down to fractional rates previous reserved for non-demand broadcast levels. Consumers love it, of course, because it's only marginally more expensive than piracy, more convenient, and has the imprimatur of legitimacy, but that's largely because services like Spotify are splitting some of the cost externalizations with us as they overall subtract value from the sector.
userbinator 8y ago
It turns out the demo/warez group of the same name, which I'd guess far more users here have probably heard of, did get its name from the synthesiser: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairlight_(group) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairlight_(group) The group and its members also have an interesting history.
cmroanirgo 8y ago
I was sold when I saw the early version of the touch screen: "a light-sensing 'pen' which can tell its location on the CRT by synchronising with the video signal"

59 points by empressplay 8y ago

If anyone has one of these gorgeous machines (or knows someone that has one), please get in touch (email in profile). Through a very circuitous process I managed to score some of those 8" floppys Vogel made for the CMI in 1979 - would love to rip them for the Internet Archive and hear them in their original glory.

meee 8y ago
The gearslutz.com community may be able to help. There are many enthusiasts and threads on emulation and soundbanks. Also, for fun, Herbie Hancock explaining a CMI to David Letterman. Around 4:50 if the link acts up. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5QQgZmu4hZ0&feature=youtu.be&t=291 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5QQgZmu4hZ0&feature=youtu.be...
kimburgess 8y ago
Not sure where you are in the world, but if you / the disks can make it to Melbourne, I'd recommend reaching out to https://mess.foundation/ https://mess.foundation/. If they don't have direct access to one, they will almost certainly be able to help you track down someone who does.
raphlinus 8y ago
The Vintage Synthesizer Museum in Oakland has one, I got to play with it. They might be able to do something with the disks.
- paulgerhardt 8y ago
  Ah perfect! Will drop by as well as reach out to the Mess foundation in Melbourne!
femto 8y ago
You could always contact Vogel direct: http://petervogelinstruments.com.au/contact/ http://petervogelinstruments.com.au/contact/ or if you like the synthesiser, you could buy (part of) the company: http://petervogelinstruments.com.au/invest/ http://petervogelinstruments.com.au/invest/ --- Edit: The website is also spruiking a $50 app which appears to be based on the original CMI source?
TheOtherHobbes 8y ago
As well as Vogel's own CMI app, Arturia make a VST called Fairlight V which has most of the original sounds and does an excellent job of capturing the audio character of the instrument. Chances are good the floppies are part of the original sample library, which is widely available.
- paulgerhardt 8y ago
  They came with an invoice from Deram Limited in London sent to Roger Linn in Hollywood. Signed by Gloria Calbrath and John Styx. The invoice says the producer was Vic Coppersmith. Artist: Europeans. Invoice line items says it includes "ENC DEMO SAMPLES FOR LINN ELECTRONICS". Dated January, 1982. The three disks are labeled: 1) "Ultranox drum sounds, Simmons Drums Sounds, Tom Severetts Drum Sounds" 2) "Freddie Perren's Drum Sounds" 3) "Audio Disk: Vic Coppersmith / Europeans" All three disks are BASF 128 Bytes(!), 25 Sectors. If you can point me in the direction of those original sample libraries I would be appreciate it, as it gives me a space to start parsing these!

flyinghamster 8y ago

"However, despite its deficiencies, Australian distributors and consumers were interested, so much so that the Musician’s Union warned that such devices posed a “lethal threat” to its members, afraid that humans in orchestras could be replaced!" Funny how the music business in general can be such a bunch of Luddites. Player pianos, the phonograph, the Hammond organ, magnetic tape, synthesizers, digital recording... all of them were going to just kill music.

dmix 8y ago
Now look around our own industry at those being extremely pessimistic. I'm sure you'll find many hawking their own politicized dire warnings. News publications and media have always sought out the counter points to any news story, so they dont seem overly supportive. It just happens that it tends to be the loudest extreme voices that get the most attention to fill this contrarian role. That said, it's usually safe to bet any extreme contrarian is likely a little bit right, which makes it hard to entirely dismiss them.
wwweston 8y ago
They didn't "kill" music -- which is impossible as long as it's an activity that has inherent value for humans -- but several of these inventions have dramatically changed the economic value of musical skills and therefore, to some extent, the viability of investment in developing those skills. That has second order effects on what kind of music can get made (and by who) and find its way into the culture. Maybe a lot of these are reasonable tradeoffs. I sure love recorded music, even though it did hit the livelihood of gigging musicians. I like having an orchestra I can arrange for in my computer, even though it reduces the demand for studio musicians. I don't want to un-invent these things (nor do I think that's possible). But I recognize the impact and know that musicians who saw threats weren't wrong. I do, however, want to uninvent Spotify and any services like it -- or at least radically change the cost structure. As they're now constituted, they're not a reasonable tradeoff; they don't really introduce a new opportunity, they're simply plays to combine the power of a new centralized distribution channel that has both broadcast and on-demand capabilities with arbitrage opportunities from externalized and/or sunk production costs and digital licensing loopholes to push the economic rewards for producing recordings down to fractional rates previous reserved for non-demand broadcast levels. Consumers love it, of course, because it's only marginally more expensive than piracy, more convenient, and has the imprimatur of legitimacy, but that's largely because services like Spotify are splitting some of the cost externalizations with us as they overall subtract value from the sector.

userbinator 8y ago

It turns out the demo/warez group of the same name, which I'd guess far more users here have probably heard of, did get its name from the synthesiser: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairlight_(group) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairlight_(group) The group and its members also have an interesting history.

cmroanirgo 8y ago

I was sold when I saw the early version of the touch screen: "a light-sensing 'pen' which can tell its location on the CRT by synchronising with the video signal"