Fairlight-CMI

Hello to all,
I'm new to this forum & a recent proud & happy IIx owner.
I chose the IIx because of its character & also because I realised 
that this "grain & sound" obsessed me for a long time before being 
conscious it came from a Fairlight... 

I'm using it & facing some small difficulties in the recording to get 
what I'm expecting a step farer.I'm working on a small home studio 
configuration so I forget about the Neve / SSL / Avallon & all that 
stuff that makes life so magic in the recording world ...
The thing is, I wonder how to enhance this basic grain from flute & 
Sararrh sounds.
I'm using a "MOTU 896" with a "mac G4" running "Logic Audio 4.8".
I'm recording in 48khz & 24 bits.
at the moment I'm using a "promix 01" to premix the 8 outputs from 
the IIx...Of course I use some various plug-ins to bring in the mix 
what I can hear when I play the IIx alone.
By using some IIx samples via kontakt I realised that recording in 
96khz was making the thing a lot more real.but my system is on the 
knees in 96khz & There are some bugs appearing ;
so OK the sampling rate is very impotant to get the real sound, but I 
wonder if there isn't a good preamp / EQ or even compressor(tube or 
not ) that could gently bring the basic recording  on the next level.
the MOTU preamps are quite transparent, so should I try something 
colourful to enhance the IIx original sound  ?   
Can anyone help ?
I'd be very happy to shae your experience about recorng the CMI IIx .
Thanks for reading, & nice to meet you !
Patrice Jacquot.

Congratulation Patrice for your IIx and welcome to the group !

Where did you found it ? Do you have any info regarding its previous  
owners ?

Best regards.

     Laurent.

Hello Laurent ,
Thanks for your Welcome , I finally decided to join the group. & it's 
very cool it does exist !
my IIx comes from Germany via René Yves.
Apparently this unit had been preowned by Mike Olfield, there's an old 
Syco sticker on a side with the customer's name .
Unfortunetaly there are no programs included from the Mike One in the 
disks... 
I'm very grateful to René Yves about the help he's providing, the IIx 
is a big beast to domesticate  between the R page , the wavetable & the 
path of sampling ...
I'm thanking you by the same way as you gave me the contact of René 
Yves a while ago . René Yves is a real decisive meeting for my 
activity  & my machines obsession & use ...& we're nearly neighbour !!!
so thanks again to you as I didn't imagine that I would approach any 
CMI so close to me & so fast when I naively contacted you  about  one 
year ago ...
How is your "serie III" ? do you compose with it ?

bye,
Patrice.



--- In Fairlight-CMI@yahoogroups.com, Laurent Lemaire <llemaire1@f...> 
wrote:

>
> Congratulation Patrice for your IIx and welcome to the group !
> 
> Where did you found it ? Do you have any info regarding its previous  
> owners ?
> 
> Best regards.
> 
>      Laurent.
>

Hello Patrice,

Welcome.

> The thing is, I wonder how to enhance this basic grain from flute &
> Sararrh sounds.

I'd use a chorus and a reverb to thicken the sound. Apply according to
taste. (Lexicon reverbs have my preference).

> I'm using a "MOTU 896" with a "mac G4" running "Logic Audio 4.8".
> I'm recording in 48khz & 24 bits.

The motu looks very nice, hadn't checked it before.

> By using some IIx samples via kontakt I realised that recording in
> 96khz was making the thing a lot more real.but my system is on the
> knees in 96khz & There are some bugs appearing ;

Try to use less channels by applying effects and recording this to a new
channel on disk, then use that channel for playback instead of the
original one which would have effects in real time (if applicable).

> so OK the sampling rate is very impotant to get the real sound, but I
> wonder if there isn't a good preamp / EQ or even compressor(tube or
> not ) that could gently bring the basic recording  on the next level.
> the MOTU preamps are quite transparent, so should I try something
> colourful to enhance the IIx original sound  ?
> Can anyone help ?
> I'd be very happy to shae your experience about recorng the CMI IIx .
> Thanks for reading, & nice to meet you !
> Patrice Jacquot.

Best regards,
Harald.

>               Thanks for your answer Harald

> I'd use a chorus and a reverb to thicken the sound. Apply according to
> taste. (Lexicon reverbs have my preference).
> 
> > >           Yes , I already use an LXP15 & that's alreay 
great ...Never used a chorus , I have to try that ...

> The motu looks very nice, hadn't checked it before.
> 
>                 the Motu is very transparent ...but is it hat I'm 
expecting for the IIx ?!

> Try to use less channels by applying effects and recording this to a 
new
> channel on disk, then use that channel for playback instead of the
> original one which would have effects in real time (if applicable).

>                 Yes I do that too, it's a lot of manipulations , but 
when you don't have the choice ...

thanks again , bye .
Patrice.