wow, totally amazing!! thanks for the info and link c
On Mon, 29 Nov 2010 13:12:11 -0000, 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
