Fairlight-CMI

Hi Peter, 

My vote would be on a more self contained version as mentioned below. I can see there being all sorts of problems with motherboard compatibility problems and so on, let alone when we next have another update from microsoft or a new round of processors/hardware etc. If its kept as a Fairlight supplied PC or computer, I would hope it would solve 99% of those problems from the start or certainly to minimise them.  

The sound of the fairlight, especially the SIII has always had a depth and richness well beyond any other keyboard or sampler I've ever played or owned (and thats a heck of a lot of them), $5K to get the playback performance the card could offer not only as with the SII/SIII sound but as a whole multitrack studio with the option of having 'that' sound would make it very appealing to me and many others, sure, its not a budget machine but neither is a Protools HD setup with similar capabilities, especially if you add better quality AD/DA converters into the cost. 

I'd also like to see the option of having the user interface closer to the originals rather than the 12million different colours, full frame rendered animation and special sound effects that plagues so much software these days. 

If it could be done for the money, I'd have no hesitation (but I may need to save up for a while).

Best regards, Martin 






--- On Thu, 6/11/08, Peter Vogel <peter.vogel@vogelfamily.net> wrote:
From: Peter Vogel <peter.vogel@vogelfamily.net>
Subject: RE: [Fairlight-CMI] Fairlight CMI series IV?
To: Fairlight-CMI@yahoogroups.com
Date: Thursday, 6 November, 2008, 12:25 PM










    
            I don't think Fairlight has a Mac version on the radar at the moment.  But

I'll ask.

 

What do you think of  a completely self-contained device, that is, a small

PC with the CC-1 installed, optionally built into a keyboard. Just some

audio/digital/ network I/Os and a VGA and QWERTY connector on the back?



_____  



From: Fairlight-CMI@ yahoogroups. com [mailto:Fairlight-CMI@ yahoogroups. com]

On Behalf Of Dave

Sent: Wednesday, 5 November 2008 1:31 PM

To: Fairlight-CMI@ yahoogroups. com

Subject: Re: [Fairlight-CMI] Fairlight CMI series IV?



Hello Peter!



The possibility of finally owning a Fairlight, even as a software version,

is an exciting prospect indeed. I've been a fan of the Fairlight and its

sounds for years (I just turned 39 a few days ago) and the question I pose

to you is this: would there ever be a version for the Macintosh platform? I

guess it would depend on Fairlight producing a CC card for it, yeah?



Thank you for reading. :-)

-Dave



_____  



From: Peter Vogel <peter.vogel@ vogelfamily. net>

To: Fairlight-CMI@ yahoogroups. com

Sent: Tuesday, November 4, 2008 4:20:37 PM

Subject: RE: [Fairlight-CMI] Fairlight CMI series IV?



To answer Tristan's questions:



> Do you mean to say you would replicate the CMI digital logic in the

FPGA but that the analogue 

> parts would be emulated using DSP? Or would there be an extra board

with the analogue filters etc 

> on it? What about the CMI light pen, would that be emulated in some

way on the PC?



There would be no analogue parts, it would all be emulated in the FPGA.



> What is be the intended market life of the CMI IV? Although the

existing CMI models have been 

> kept working many decades after being discontinued, what will happen

when the CC-1 card is 

> discontinued and PC hardware and Windows software versions change?

Will the CMI IV continue to 

> be updated and supported?



That is of course a concern of any hardware sort software product. The

intention would be to continually update the software. The hardware has

vastly more capacity than is required for the series II emulation, so there

will be room for expansion. 



> Would you be looking to extend and improve on the CMI design? Could

we expect larger memory 

> sizes and other added processing/synthesi s features in addition to

the authentic CMI sound, UI and 

> mojo?



Yes, certainly. If you look at what the CC-1 card does today, you will see

that there is horsepower to burn. From Fairlight website:



What can be achieved with just ONE CC-1 card



* Capable of sampling frequencies up to 384Khz

* Able to manipulate audio at 72bit floating point

* Processes up to 230 hi res audio channels at 48Khz

* Delivers 8 fully parametric bands of EQ on EVERY channel

* Delivers 3 Stages of Dynamics on EVERY channel

* Delivers 72 user definable mix busses from Mono to 7.1

* Provides a 64 channel audio bridge for 3rd party PlugIns

* Supports up to 220 physical I/Os per CC-1 card, Analogue, Digital or MADI



So the Series IV could be much more capable than the Series III, and

potentially run an excellent mixer and hard disk recorder at the same time.

The issue of course is development cost, which is why I'm considering an

entry point that will provide the revenue for further development.



Best regards,



Peter



/Tristan



Quoting peter.vogel@ vogelfamily.  <mailto:peter. vogel%40vogelfam ily.net>

net

<mailto:peter. vogel%40vogelfam ily.net> :



> 

> There have been discussions from time to time about replicating

the

> CMI

> using a software emulation. These efforts will have limited

success

> because

> the "Fairlight sound" relies on the peculiarities of the hardware

> used in

> the original design.

> 

> In the days when I was the designing CMI hardware, my greatest

> challenge was

> to minimise the distortions and artifacts that were inherent

aspects

> of the

> hardware available at that time. In effect, we struggled to make

the

> Fairlight sound less "Fairlight". So the intimate details of what

> makes a

> Fairlight sound like a Fairlight are indelibly etched in my brain.

> 

> When Fairlight brought out the Crystal Core Engine last year, my

> imagination

> ran wild. Here was a tiny board with enormous capabilities that

could

> be

> configured to faithfully reproduce the CMI hardware in its FPGA

> (Field

> Programmable Gate Array). Every bit of the 1980's CMI hardware,

the

> essence

> of its sound, could be reconstructed faithfully in digital

hardware

> form. 

> 

> To fully appreciate the astounding potential of the CC-1, download

> the

> brochure here:

>

http://www.fairligh tau.com/download s/public/

<http://www.fairligh tau.com/download s/public/ Fairlight% 20NEW%20CC- 1%20Brochu

r> Fairlight% 20NEW%20CC- 1%20Brochur

<http://www.fairligh tau.com/download s/public/

<http://www.fairligh tau.com/download s/public/ Fairlight% 20NEW%20CC- 1%20Brochu

> Fairlight% 20NEW%20CC- 1%20Brochu

r> 

> e%20for%20WEB% 20VIEW.pdf

> 

> I also recently discovered that ALL the IP relating to the

original

> Fairlight CMI including all of the hardware and filter designs,

> sample

> libraries etc are still retained by Fairlight.au in Sydney.

> 

> So I have been wondering if it would be worthwhile to develop a

> faithful

> reproduction of the CMI on the "Virtual Hardware" of the CC-1?

> 

> This would perform identically to the original CMI series II or

III,

> but run

> on a PC fitted with the Crystal Core card. The MIDI input would

come

> directly into the CC-1 so there would be no problem of latency

> introduced by

> the PC.

> 

> At this stage I'd like to "feel out" the market to assess the

level

> of

> interest in this project and whether the significant investment in

> R&D will

> be worthwhile.

> 

> The Fairlight Series IV (CC-1, I/O box and software) might be sold

> for

> approximately $US5,000.00.

> 

> So my question is, what do you think of this idea? How would a

> Fairlight CMI

> at this sort of price be received by the market? Who would the

buyers

> be and

> how would I tap into them?

> 

> What do you think?

> 

> Peter Vogel

> 

>