I just wanted to introduce myself since my request to join the group was just granted. :-)
Apologies for the "CMI Anonymous" wordiness.
Since I was a wee lad I've been totally in love with the CMI in all its incarnations. The bug really bit when I was about 12 years old and got to see and actually press a couple of keys on the IIx belonging to a very close friend of my (much!) older brother. At that point I HAD to get one. In the same way most teenage boys dream of driving a Ferrari I dreamed of flying a CMI.
Fast forward a few years and I finally managed to pick up a second hand IIX and was abruptly made aware of the realities surrounding the ownership of a "Classic" digital device. My first surprise was just how sturdily it was built, closely followed by the discovery that time isn't kind to 8" drives or the various other components that make up the system. Having just got over the sticker shock of buying the machine of my dreams I was faced with a repair bill that was almost more than I had paid for the system. I somehow scraped together the cash and waited for a month while she was refurbished using parts scavenged from all over creation..
While I was waiting for the call telling me to drive the 200 miles to pick her up I was struck by the thought that it might be a good idea to make a backup of the library just incase I couldn't source spares to keep things running in the future. On the heals of that I realized that it could be interesting to actually make the sounds in the library more widely available so others could at least get an idea of what the raw sounds were like. I called up the folks at Fairlight ESP in London and asked if it would be ok for me to commit blasphemy and act on my desire to make a Sample CD of the factory library.
To my utter astonishment word came back from Sydney that I could go ahead so long as I steered clear of anything from the Series III library and credited Fairlight with ownership of the sounds themselves. I practically fell out of my chair when that was followed by being told that no royalties would be asked for. I resolved to do everything I could to make the most faithful reproduction possible.
One thing led to another and I wound up creating the "Digital Domain" disk. No, it's far from perfect but it was a labor of love and the fact people are still talking about it fondly makes me smile. While I was locked in the studio recording it I grew more and more in awe of the creators of the library itself. The contents of the Pink & Blue factory library are pure history and an object lesson in how creativity can overcome technical limitations.
As Tom pointed out below modern samplers do a much better job transposing up rather than down, which is why I structured the 2 meagre "Multi-Samples" at the pitches I did. I was trying to capture the "sound" with the least amount of processing possible. As any 8-bit Fairlight owner knows the samples themselves are less than 25% of the story. The whole experience of using the system in a well geared studio is what turns that initial nugget into a polished gem. While I wound up selling my baby to someone who I knew would take care of her as well as I had I have no regrets about it. The amount of time and money it took to keep things rolling overcame my obsession and reality had to set in.
Rolling forward more years than I'd like, the prospect of a modern CMI has me dreaming again, and that hasn't happened for a long time. :-)
Thanks Peter & Kim and all who were involved.
Rob Brady
From: "tomulcahy" To: Fairlight-CMI@yahoogroups.com Date: 01/12/2010 07:43 AM Subject: [Fairlight-CMI] Re: sampling the fairlight
The short answer is- it depends!
The long answer is- it will sound the same, as long as you're happy with
playback only. The IIx has some very nifty modulation functions, as you
can hear on the dvdborn blog.
dvdborn also has a multisample of Sararr on his blog, from a IIx, with
filter on and filter off. It sounds great. However, my personal go to Sararr
is the one from the Digital Domain CD, taken from a IIx with filter on,
an octave below middle C. Transposed up in a modern sampler, it gives you
the brightness that we associate with commercial recordings.
However, I have recently been enjoying some classic IIx sounds played back
in Kontakt. These were made by importing them on a CMI 3, and then converting
the files directly to WAV. They sound very full in the top end as you would
expect, but retain that Fairlight magic breathy sound, wihtout sounding
dated. I think it's a good way to give a new life to these over exposed
sounds.
--- In Fairlight-CMI@yahoogroups.com,
blixton wrote:
>
> If I sampled the fairlight with a good soundcard and a software like
> autosampler will the sample bank sound the same? Or will it just not
be
> the same?
>
> Thanks
>