Fairlight-CMI

At 06:16 PM 30/11/2004, you wrote:

> >To me it looks like a Quasar M8...
>
>A Quasar or probably the prototype of the CMI I? I saw this unit in the 
>Powerhouse museum in Sydney two years ago. It was shown in the exhibition 
>"Australia made inventions".

Hi folks,

It's definitely the QASAR M8. Tony Furse donated the M8 plus a considerable 
number of circuit diagrams, code printouts, correspondence, newspaper 
clippings, etc., in 1986. A great archive of materials (I made use of it 
for my recent research).

Alongside the M8, the Powerhouse also has in its collection:

a CMI series I (used by Australian composer/musician Andrew Thomas Wilson);
a Fairlight QASAR business machine (see below);
a QASAR II, the duophonic analog synthesizer Furse built for the Canberra 
School of Music prior to working on the M8

I spoke with the music curator of the Powerhouse a while ago and he told me 
that they also had a complete series II or IIx in storage. Last time he'd 
pulled it out for an exhibition, he was able to get it working but that was 
some time ago.

Whilst Ryrie, Vogel and Furse were transforming the M8 into the CMI I, they 
were selling the "Fairlight QASAR" as a business machine to help generate 
funds. The QASAR business machine in the Powerhouse collection was used by 
St. Vincents hospital in Sydney, Australia, to manage the records of 
patients in the Intensive Care ward. It was purchased with funds, or 
received as a gift, from a heart bypass patient of the hospital.

Cheers,
John


john twyman
school of geosciences
university of sydney
w: +61 2 9351 3189
m: +61 401 992 836
e: j.twyman@geosci.usyd.edu.au