Fairlight Legacy Refill becomes officially approved by Fairlight!
Brilliant news for Patrick. Here’s what he has to say at his website…(where you can also find the latest version of Supremacy (v1.10) and some other great stuff)
As of today, April 7, 2010, I have now gotten very positive signals from both Fairlight.au and Fairlight Instruments regarding the refill. Fairlight AU works with post-production digital tools and Fairlight Instruments, run by Peter Vogel (one of the Fairlight CMI inventors and founders of the original Fairlight company) are currently developing a new CMI, something which I find totally amazing. Anyway; what all this means is that I now safely can say that the refill is officially approved by Fairlight. This is a huge relief – and it also means a bright future is to come for the refill. Fairlight.au supports Reason integration with its computer-like studio gear and they may use the refill for demo purposes. Fairlight Instruments on their part sees the refill as a good way of spreading knowledge about the Fairlight. Of course, the refill will never replace a real CMI, whether new or antique – Reason can’t sample, it can’t do FFT analysis (which is real hardcore and still to this day a Fairlight-only feature) – but: it can bring you a little bit of the Fairlight sound… if you are using the Legacy refill.
Superb news!! “QDOS” to Patrick 
I have to say that I whole heartedly applaud this reaction from Fairlight. Many companies would’ve slammed the door shut in Patrick’s face, but they have clearly seen that stuff like this can only serve their purpose much better by supporting it and using it to spread the name and sound of the Fairlight instrument. It is brilliant promotion and testament to the very communal and ethical business practices that people like Peter Vogel have. Hats off to them!
New Fairlight Instruments website
Hot on the heels of the press release, Peter Vogel has now brought the full website online with much more detail about the forthcoming Fairlight CMI 30A.
I’m very honoured to have a link on the links page of the site, directing visitors to my Spotify playlist, “All The Fun Of The Fairlight”
Sadly, I don’t think it will warrant me a discount or review version of the new machine! LOL
And that brings me on to the price….
$17,000 for the System & Monitor plus $2,000 for the keyboard. Prices are still an estimate and Peter has always maintained that the CMI 30A was never intended to be price competitive.
So, much like back in 1984, the Fairlight will remain out of the reach of the vast majority of us, which is sad. However, my eternally optimistic side is thinking that this may be the start of something that may lead to other Fairlight things, like really good sample libraries.
Fingers crossed! ;o)
More in depth blogging on this matter to follow soon 
)
And yet more details about the Fairlight CMI 30A
This email received this morning in to the Fairlight Yahoo Users Group from Peter Vogel…
We’re hoping to have some more detailed specs this week, however I can answer a few questions in general terms.
The CC-1 can perform very complex algorithms and lots of them, with almost no latency. So yes, we are modelling the quirky hardware of the CMI. The sound of each CMI was subtly different, due to their analogue bits, so it won’t sound exactly like any one CMI, but lined up with a few CMIs you won’t be able to tell the difference.
The sound will be user selectable, to be like a series I,II,IIX, III etc. Or you can dig deeper and make it sound like nothing else.
One of the many nice things about the CC-1 is that it has no inherent bit width. “Normal” processors generally offer say 32 or 64 bit operations, where as the CC-1 can be configured to any number of bits. So if something works most effectively as 33 bits, so be it. And the bit widths can be mixed within the one signal path.
The “n” polyphony is achieved by “n” individual circuits set up in the FPGA working in parallel, as opposed to the software emulation model which is necessarily sequential. The channels can have different configurations is required; in any case there will be subtle coefficient differences between channels to reproduce the individuality of outputs that has often been cited.
How much polyphony? All we know at this time are the extremes – it will certainly be at least 16 like the original Series III but given that the Crystal Core when used in a DAW delivers up to 230 channels of mixing ALL of which have full processing (8 bands EQ, 3 stages Dynamics), you can safely assume a lot more than 16 will be possible.
Re pricing: yet to be finalised, but the choice to go with the CC-1 does come at a price. Although the CC-1 is not sold currently as a separate card (it would be no use without the software etc that goes with it), the retail price would be around the $5,000 mark. So you can do the sums, the CMI 30-A is not going to be price competitive with the mass-market synths which abound.
Peter
More news on the Fairlight CMI 30A Limited Edition
This just in from Peter Vogel via Nick @ Sonicstate.com…
The 30A will look like and perform like the original CMI, although the mainframe will be much lighter for portability. The look and feel of the user interface will also be similar to the original, with retro green on black graphics like the original. A replica of the original music keyboard will also be available as an option, or you can use your own MIDI keyboard.
The software will combine the very best of the early series II and III features, with a multitude of additional features. Sound quality of 8-bit, 16-bit, or “best quality” 36-bit floating point can be selected, and existing Fairlight users can import their entire sample libraries. Even better, non-Fairlight sounds, such as WAV files can be imported and specified to play back with the classic Fairlight sound.
Internally it will be all digital, but will use FPGA technology to provide “virtual hardware” emulation which will exactly model the original analog circuitry. There will be 16 analog outputs and a stereo sampling input. All I/O will also be available digitally through MADI.
For an idea of the performance to expect, see attached description of the Crystal Core engine which the new CMI use.
We are builing a run of only 100 units, which will be available early next year. Price is to finalised, it is not intended to be cost competitive with other samplers, but of course much cheaper than the original CMI, even adjusted for inflation!
Fairlight CMI 30A – The 30th Anniversay Edition!!
I just got sent the following link by my good friend, Steve Howell….
http://www.fairlightinstruments.com./
It shows the following….
THE NEXT GENERATION
Peter Vogel with his first baby, the CMI, in 1979
…and his new baby, Jasmine, in 2009.
The Fairlight keyboard, signed by the who’s who of 80s music,
which sold at auction for $100,000 in 2006
Fairlight CMI Series 30A
(Thirtieth Anniversary) Limited Edition
Pre-production mockup
Want to know more?
Email: Peter Vogel
Suffice to say, I just spoofed in my pants!! LOL )
I have, of course, emailed Peter for more info!
Don’t touch that dial!!!
More Fairlight Goodness from Peter Vogel !
Fairlight Corporate promotional video 1985 including CMI, CVI and Voicetracker and interviews about Fairlight with Joni Mitchell, Todd Rundgren and Tom Bailey. For all your Fairlight nostaligia needs visit Peter Vogel’s personal collection at anerd.com/fairlight
Fairlight Video’s Part 2
More gems from Peter Vogel…
Firstly, a very sad piece which shows the auctions after Fairlight went bankrupt…
And then a tour of Fairlight’s Sydney offices…
Peter Vogel’s Fairlight Audio Archives
Stevie Wonder and his CMI
Peter Vogel’s Fairlight Audio Archives
The legendary Peter Vogel, co-creator of the Fairlight Computer Musical Instrument, has just uploaded some excellent audio files to his website for all of us to enjoy.
In Peter’s own words…
“Here is a collection of audio material including Fairlight demos, radio interviews and CMI pieces from the eighties. There are even a couple of recordings from the Fairlight CMI’s predecessor, the Qasar M8, designed by Tony Furse. The M8 did not use sampling, the sounds were generated by additive Fourier synthesis.
Some of the pieces are of unknown origin, or have little information. If you recognise anything and can add some detail, please email me.”
There is some awesome stuff in here, so eternal thanks to Peter for this gift )
Other Fairlight stuff from Peter can be found here.
Fairlight Video’s
The legendary Peter Vogel has decided to upload and share some really cool Fairlight videos…. Enjoy
Via Yahoo Fairlight User Group
Thanks Peter
