Fairlight-CMI

Chris,

Not such a bad idea to make an emulator!

I have received many e-mails about this topic over the years, and there
have been several lengthy discussions with individuals who seemed
interested in trying it. In fact, I have emulated several different
aspects of the CMI for myself, in one form or another, even though I had
the real thing!

For example, the screen images on my site were made with a simple
graphical emulator, but with no CMI functionality behind it.

I also created a fairly complete page 6, page D, and even page R
emulations, but, again, with no sound-producing capability. My approach
in these projects was 'top down', and was really just to see if it could
be done.

To explain, 'top down' would represent observing and copying the
functionality and behaviour of the Fairlight, using any tools available.
This would re-create the CMI, but in a new form.

'Bottom up' would be a low-level emulation of the hardware, which would
allow the CMI source code to run unchanged. This is typically the method
used for Atari or Mac emulators.

Additional hardware might be required, for example 8 channel output
cards, if the software emulation was not up to the task.

My driving force was the lack of MIDI on my Series II. So I was always
trying to somehow integrate the Fairlight better into the real world. I
also considered some sort of 'remote control' of the CMI, and it would
seem that that route is the most promising right now.

Something I have wanted for years is to emulate just the Series II
floppy drives. This could be done using a 'black box' (connected to the
CMI interface card via flat ribbon cable) to buffer data and a suitable
connection to the PC/Mac (via USB or serial). JB's system reminds me of
this, but may be more complex than required. I am just looking for an
interface, with no permanent storage, that would 'pretend' to be two
floppy drives. It could be easily used to transfer data from one 8"
floppy to the PC/Mac, etc.

Anyway, I could go on for hours about this, but I am sure that there are
several people in this group who have the skills to contribute to a
project (or projects) such as this.



Chris Strellis wrote:
> 
> Hi all,
> 
> Here's something contentious.
> 
> Does anyone know of a Fairlight emulation on a PC or Mac or even a
> Fairlight VST instrument in development or anything?
> 
> If I can run a Mac OS on my PC or an Atari OS on my PC at good speed
> then the Fairlight OS shouldn't be too demanding. They all have the
> same processors being emulated.
> 
> Similarly, if a Moog modular system or a PPG Wave 2.3 can be emulated
> as a VST, filters and all, then the analogue sections of the
> Fairlight can be emulated too.
> 
> IF someone wrote one - wouldn't it be great or would it be a terrible
> thing?
> 
> Cheers
> 
> Chris



-- 
Greg Holmes
mailto:gregh@ghservices.com
GH Services, Ontario, Canada
http://www.ghservices.com/
http://www.ghservices.com/gregh/fairligh/         (Fairlight CMI)


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