Fairlight-CMI

Laurence, thank you — that was helpful to hear.  I've actually tried
some of the things you suggest with...mixed success.  I would def.
agree that the monophonic and velocity things are big — it adds to the
robotic feel of the thing.  

I don't know if you're familiar with the program, but Reason—with its
pattern-based Redrum drum machine emulator and Matrix
Modulator—strikes me as being a system that SHOULD do a fairly decent
job of reproducing the Fairlight composition process.  But still I
don't get it exactly — things I do seem to plod repeatedly where most
Fairlight sequences seem to be in a constant state of change.  

Lastly, I'm replying to this response of yours, as part of me wonders
how much of the artiest IIx stuff I've been hearing—JJ Jezcalik's work
with Trevor Horn comes to mind—was done on MCL as opposed to Page R. 
There's just this hyperattentive level of detail on some of those records.

Any further thoughts?  Part of me thinks that hearing a multitrack of
some of this stuff (a la Gabriel's "Shock the Monkey" but with all
Fairlight) would really help.  As would seeing this thing for myself,
though where that would happen is anybody's guess...

--- In Fairlight-CMI@yahoogroups.com, Laurence Shields <mercybox@...>
wrote:
>
> It's not a stupid question at all. First, the Series II and IIx had
three sequencers, Page 9, MCL, and Page R. There was no way to "sync"
any of the sequencers together (apart from multi-tracking one to tape,
then loading and syncing the other). If you think about it, it
wouldn't make much sense anyway, as the Fairlight could only play 8
voices altogether. Having those voices shared between two sequencers
at once would be of limited value. 
> 
> Page R, as has been said, is a rhythmic composition page. You have 8
monophonic lines that you can repeat, transpose, and so forth. You use
patterns to represent, say, parts of a song, and then you can arrange
them in different orders to make up that song. Really, just think
glorified drum machine and you've basically got it.
> 
> Page 9 (or Keyboard Sequencer) is altogether different. It is a
straight record and overdub page. It's basically useful as a
scratchpad for recording a performance but there are no editing
features of any kind. No quantize either(!). You can overdub lines
with another sound in the Fairlight's memory and change the tempo and
such but that's about it. You play it in, it plays it back. That's it.
It does have a facilty for importing MCL sequences, for easy playback.
> 
> MCL (or Music Composition Language) is also quite different. It
doesn't using the music keyboard at all. Commands and note events are
step-entered from the QWERTY keyboard using codes for pitch, length,
velocity, controllers and so on. Unless you are experienced, composing
a song in this way takes a pretty long time. However, you can achieve
results that are not possible with the other sequencers. I think many
power users in the early 80s must've used this quite a bit on records.
Incidently, this is the only one of the sequencers in which you can
record and play back controller data that has not been assigned to one
of the Fairlight's physical controls, if that makes any sense. :-)
> 
> By the way, the Series III is totally different in many, many ways.
Not only do you have 16 voices, but you have another sequencer, CAPS,
that is a bit more modern and supports polyphonic recording and such.
I would imagine that many people used that.
> 
> Hope that helps.
> 
> Laurence
> 
> 
> ----- Original Message ----
> From: Andrew <taoist.hermit1@...>
> To: Fairlight-CMI@yahoogroups.com
> Sent: Wednesday, October 4, 2006 5:46:47 AM
> Subject: Re: [Fairlight-CMI]Re: Page R — What Made It So Unique and
How Can I Emulate It?
> 
> 
> I hope this isn't a stupid question.  I don't have a Fairlight so
I'm just 
> on this list for gathering information.
> 
> As I recall (from many years ago :D), the Series II had Page R as a
rhythm 
> programmer, but also Page 9 as a sequencer.  I would have expected
if that 
> was the case that Page R would usually be used for rhythm events - 
> percussive stuff - and Page 9 for note sequences.
> 
> But that doesn't seem to be what's being said here, which refers to
Page R 
> being used for rhythmic note sequences.  Is this because - as many
people 
> complained at the time - there wasn't a way to link Page R and Page
9?  I 
> always assumed (dangerous, I know) that Fairlight would fix that with a 
> software update, or sort it with the Series III, but it doesn't
sound that 
> way from what's being said.  So I'm curious about Page 9 and why people 
> didn't use it for sequencing.
> 
> 
> 
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