Fairlight-CMI

Hello Peter,


although I am not a Fairlight but a Synclavier user, I follow this forum due to my 
appreceation of the original CMI's sound, concept and design.

In my humble opinion your exiting proposal to create a CMI-IV unsing today's technology 
could hit a market-gap, if it was executed with the same strong conceptual foundation as 
the original CMIs.

At the moment there is no High-End Computer Musical Instrument available, that would 
enable the creative musician to work intuively by integrating deep performance, recording 
and sound design capabilities in one coherent instrument.
Wich is what the Fairlight CMI and the NED Synclavier achieved in their day.

Looking at what is available today:

1. A system freely combining a standard PC/MAC, any software, a controller keyboard and 
external AD/DA:
A standard System like this does not give you the best possible sound quality, it is 
unstable, and due to its lack of integration it is not verry intuitive.
The user interface arguably hinders the creative process.

2. A workstation keyboard like the Korg Oasis:
A pretty well integrated Instrument, but technically and software-wise it does not 
represent the state of the art. In terms of sound qualitiy it can't even compete with a 20 
years old CMI-3 or a Synclavier.

3. DSP based Workstations like Kyma:
Great sound design tool, but not necessarily an intuitive musical instrument.


Now if you compare the pricetags of the aforementioned, I am pretty sure, customers 
(including myself) would be willing to pay more than the proposed $US5,000.00 if the 
CMI-4 came with its own specialized keyboard controller/user interface, that would match 
the CC-1's audio processing capabilities in terms of Quality and Design.


Best regards,
Fabian

 



--- In Fairlight-CMI@yahoogroups.com, <peter.vogel@...> wrote:
>
> 
> 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.fairlightau.com/downloads/public/Fairlight%20NEW%20CC-1%20Brochur
> 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
>