Hi Peter,
Just the idea of something potentially being created by the pioneer of digital sampling alone is enough to spark off my interest. There are very few gaps in today's market and maybe in reality it isn't a viable project to develop a fully blown Series IV in the same way a Series III was... but a fair few analogue synth pioneers are doing rather well, re-inventing their classic synths / hardware. There is demand for anything tagged "vintage".
Off the top of my head: In the way the EL7 Fatso emulates tape distortion, an affordable vintage Fairlight sounding (filters, output stage, etc) 19" rack unit, with maybe the ability to play back the samples exactly as the Fairlight did might be a good starting point. You could select the various Fairlight version emulation... I, II, III, etc. Another idea would be to have a Fairlight soft-sampler, along with associated hardware to 100% faithfully re-create THAT Fairlight sound (again with version emulations). Best of both worlds... Usual DAW editing and VST integration but with the hardware to bring the samples to life. No convolution stuff... REAL hardware components based exactly upon original designs. If this could be done at a competitive price, I'm 100% certain you'd be onto a winner.
Universal Audio are great at creating vintage emulations, I'm a huge UAD fan... They've emulated a Moog filter recently and it's awesome. They have many exciting things in development including analogue synths (although nothing much has been disclosed as of yet). I did suggest to them about modelling a Fairlight channel... maybe you could connect with them and see where it goes?
Best wishes,
Peter
On Thu, Nov 20, 2008 at 9:23 PM, Peter Vogel <peter.vogel@vogelfamily.net> wrote:
Hi Peter C,
On Behalf Of Peter Connelly
So what is your dream for a Series IV? Where's the hole in the market, as
you see it?
Thansk,
Peter V
_____
Sent: Friday, 21 November 2008 5:08 AM Subject: Re: [Fairlight-CMI] Re: CMI Series IV
My cheeks are killing due to the grinning after reading such a possibility.
A Fairlight IV. It is the future!!! Thanks Peter :D
P
On Sat, Nov 15, 2008 at 2:43 PM, Peter Kersten <synthserv@hotmail.
synthserv@hotmail.com> com> wrote:--- In Fairlight-CMI@ Fairlight-CMI%40yahoogroups.com>
Peter,
This news brings a very large happy smile on my face. Thanks. :-)))
I'm sure I'm not the only one on this list with such a smile ;-)
Cheers,
Peter Kersten.> From: Fairlight-CMI@ Fairlight-CMI%40yahoogroups.com>
yahoogroups.com, peter.vogel@... wrote:
>
> Thanks for your comments Peter.
>
> I should point out that I have no connection with Fairlight (the
company)
> these days, but I will pass on your comments to them. I think
supporting
> things like 8 inch floppies is not as easy as keeping motorbike
parts, but
> perhaps if I do continue to develop a Series IV I could look into
how the
> old CMIs could be maintained better too.
>
> Certainly the ability to transfer old sounds and sequances to the new
>; platform would be a noce option.
>
> As the Series IV will have only one proprietary card, the support
problem
> is dramatically reduced compared to the many cards involved in the old
> series. Also the cost is a dramatically less.
>
>
> Best regards,
>
> Peter
>
> ________________________________
>
yahoogroups.com
> [mailto:Fairlight-CMI@ Fairlight-CMI%40yahoogroups.com> > To: Fairlight-CMI@ Fairlight-CMI%40yahoogroups.com>> --- In Fairlight-CMI@ Fairlight-CMI%40yahoogroups.com>
yahoogroups.com
> Subject: [Fairlight-CMI] Re: Fairlight CMI series IV?
>
>
>
> Hi Peter,
>
> Interesting to say at least.
>
> However: as a IIx user, first thing that comes to my mind is lack of
> good service and upgrades.
>
> In 1979 I bought a brandnew Motorbike, limited edition even. And even
> today ALL parts can be obtained.
>
> How different is the story for my IIx, and all the other CMI systems,
> which cost 20 times the amount I paid for the bike.
>;
> Look at the trouble it takes to even get a floppydrive replacement or
> a HD.
>
> From this point of view, I wonder what would happen if the card from
> the IV system dies on me in the future????
>
> My advice: Improve support.
>
> Kind regards,
>
> Peter Kersten.
>
> You should be proud of what you created Peter. A CMI system is
> something very special and it should not die a slowly death. Keep in
> mind that many musicians get very attached to their instrument. It
> sorta becomes part of them. Bob Moog understood this very well. Hope
> you do so to.
>
yahoogroups.com
> Fairlight-CMI% Fairlight-CMI%2540yahoogroups.com>r> tau.com/downloads/public/Fairlight%20NEW%20CC-1%20Brochur r> tau.com/downloads/public/Fairlight%20NEW%20CC-1%20Brochur>
40yahoogroups.com> , 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.fairligh
<http://www.fairlightau.com/downloads/public/Fairlight%20NEW%20CC-1%20Brochu
> > 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
> >
>--www.universal- <http://www.universal-sound-design.com> sound-design.com
Peter Connelly
Universal Sound Design Ltd
--
Peter Connelly
Universal Sound Design Ltd
www.universal-sound-design.com