http://www.synthtopia.com/content/2009/08/14/the-17000-fairlight-cmi-30a-computer-musical-instrument/
Only £17,000 as well, or with keyboard $19,000. A bargain! On 29 Nov 2010, at 13:12, Dave Hoskins wrote: >> ;) >> >> Btw, it's not that big of an issue at all. I just wasn't buying that >> recordings from the days of fairlight are actually 12 bit. >> >> Sometimes I wonder why I often think that the fairlight and the synclavier >> were the most intriguing digital systems ever made. But of course, if you >> need 100k to get an instrument or a at least a big budget to use those >> machines, probably the rest of your studio is not that bad either. And then, >> all that was digital was new and wild. >> >> I buy every release that is worth it on vinyl, if available. >> >> Vinyl? Yes, please..., with pleasure. >> >> c >> >> btw. i would definitely prefer a Fairlight CMI to any actual workstation, >> but this is an emotional response with a lot of nostalgia in it. > > Apparently they are re-launching it:- > http://www.fairlightinstruments.com.au/index.html > > An interesting cut from that site:- > > "The reason for this is that the CMI's unique sound was the result of the > limitations of the technology of the eighties. A-D and D-A converters were > very primitive by today's standards - the 1979 model CMI used eight bit > audio, and even the top-notch Series III used only 16 bits (which performed > more like 14 bits in reality). The variable pitch of the sample playback was > generated by very crude hardware which approximated the pitch but introduced > significant artifacts. To compensate for the noise and distortion introduced > into the samples, we used analogue low-pass tracking filters. The "tracking" > involved dynamically setting the cuttoff frequency to just above the note > being played. > The end result was a complex set of colourations which made the CMI sound so > distinctive. To make it even more interesting, because of the large amount > of analogue circuitry involved, the sound of each channel was subtly > different, and these differences were quite variable and unpredictable. > The Fairlight 30A will use the Crystal Core engine to faithfully reproduce > all these acoustic quirks. Thanks to this use of programmable "virtual > hardware", each channel will have its own "randomness" which gives the > combined output the rich analogue CMI sound." > > > And it had approx. 20,000 components in the thing! > Dave. > > > > > > > -- > dupswapdrop -- the music-dsp mailing list and website: > subscription info, FAQ, source code archive, list archive, book reviews, dsp > links > http://music.columbia.edu/cmc/music-dsp > http://music.columbia.edu/mailman/listinfo/music-dsp -- dupswapdrop -- the music-dsp mailing list and website: subscription info, FAQ, source code archive, list archive, book reviews, dsp links http://music.columbia.edu/cmc/music-dsp http://music.columbia.edu/mailman/listinfo/music-dsp
