Fairlight-CMI

----- Original Message ----- 
From: Harald Feldmann

> Recreating a Fairlight sound completely in software ruins the market for a
> unit. Keep that in mind.

Good point, but I'm not sure it's always the case.  There are always people 
who want the original instrument for the satisfaction of owning it.  With a 
limited number of working Fairlights available, I'd expect there will always 
be enough people to buy with that motivation.

On the other hand it can only be good if those specific sounds are available 
to as many people as possible.  If Fairlight was still in business making 
new instruments it might be a different matter, but with the limited pool of 
existing instruments it seems good to make these sounds more widely 
available.

Personally, I use samplers with much longer sampling times than the 
Fairlight II series, and I use those longer times to the full, so for me a 
Series II might be fun but it would certainly never be essential.  (I'm not 
sure how long the sampling time was with the III.)  It's very unlikely I'd 
ever buy one, and if I did I might be taking one that someone else would 
make much more use of.  I'd seriously consider a software alternative, 
though.  I use one or two classic Fairlight samples already (mostly out of 
historical interest, as  generally prefer making my own samples, synth 
sounds etc), but a software emulation would be a whole new area.  I wonder 
what might happen if Fairlight put their name behind a collaboration with 
Arturia or someone like that?  I'm assuming Peter and Kim still have the 
rights to the Fairlight name.

One thing that does interest me, incidentally, is making sounds by drawing 
them physically.  That's something no one ever really seems to talk about. 
I remember Kate Bush saying they sound too artificial to be really useable, 
but that's the only comment I can ever recall.  Of course I've heard the 
results on several TV programmes featuring the Fairlight.

I think that's the kind of area where a company like Arturia could really 
score if they emulated the Fairlight.  They have a knack of surpassing the 
limitations of the original instrument.  The drawing option for modulations 
in their 2600V is a prime example.

Incidentally I think sampling continues to be a much maligned and 
misunderstood art.  I find it very creative.