Fairlight-CMI

Hello, I'm new to the board — a lover of the Fairlight sound who
doesn't own one.  I have a few questions:

1) What was it about the Page R that led people in the musical
directions it did?  With very few exceptions, if you listen to a
Fairlight album from the mid-80s, just about everyone was doing these
very off kilter, herky jerky sequences, with tons of panning and
a-rhythmic fills.  Because while plenty of people did the Yello/Cosby
Show/"Oh, look a guy going 'Doh!'" thing w/ cheaper samplers after the
Fairlight fell out of favor, a lot of the sequencing elements that made
Fairlight records unique just about completely disappeared.   But w/o
ever having seen one hands-on, what were they exactly?

2) How would you best emulate this aspect of the Fairlight with, say,
Reason or some other modular synth program today?  I have both the
Digital Domain disc and JJ's Art of Sampling to get close to the sound
part, at least...

Thanks!
Matt

On Mon, 02 Oct 2006 21:36:08 -0000
"matthew_weiner_2000" <matthew.weiner@gmail.com> wrote:

> Hello, I'm new to the board — a lover of the Fairlight sound who
> doesn't own one.  I have a few questions:
> 
> 1) What was it about the Page R that led people in the musical
> directions it did?

If you saw how it works, you'd also understand how did entire 
XOX and "tracker" subculture evolve. you didn't have to have musical
experience, just a good ear and some ingenuity to "squeeze"
the power harnessed into 8 tracks, "4/4 measure" patterns.

Well, right -- I think that's exactly it: I need to see how it works.
 It's just interesting that it takes a LOT of work to recreate not
just the "sound" of the Fairlight on modern gear, but perhaps more
importantly, the "feel." 

Is there any kind of Page R emulator out there?

--- In Fairlight-CMI@yahoogroups.com, Marcin 'Rambo' Roguski
<rambo@...> wrote:

>
> On Mon, 02 Oct 2006 21:36:08 -0000
> "matthew_weiner_2000" <matthew.weiner@...> wrote:
> 
> > Hello, I'm new to the board — a lover of the Fairlight sound who
> > doesn't own one.  I have a few questions:
> > 
> > 1) What was it about the Page R that led people in the musical
> > directions it did?
> 
> If you saw how it works, you'd also understand how did entire 
> XOX and "tracker" subculture evolve. you didn't have to have musical
> experience, just a good ear and some ingenuity to "squeeze"
> the power harnessed into 8 tracks, "4/4 measure" patterns.
>