Fairlight-CMI

Hi, I've been a fan of the Fairlight since the early 80's. Seeing 
guys like Martin Rushent sampling his voice then playing it on the 
keyboard as different notes, it blew me away! But its own sounds as 
well are lovely, especially the orch and aahh sounds as used by Jan 
Hammer, Jean Michel Jarre, Thomas Dolby etc. And Kate Bush's Hounds 
of Love just rewrites the rule book! 

I'm a non-owner, in fact I'm a non-musician, I just love the sound of 
this machine and love finding out as much about them as possible. I 
have touched 2 though, one at Keele University and one at the Synth 
museum in Bristol, but the Keele one blew a fuse and the Bristol one 
wouldn't load any disks! One day I will see a working one!

So I would just like to ask if it's ok to frequent this group and 
read and post as appropriate? One thing I may ask too often is 'you 
know that bit in the song ****? Is that Fairlight?'!! Is it ok to ask 
that sort of thing, or would you rather talk about the technical side 
of things?

Thanks for reading this, post soon!!

Andy (UK)

Hi Andy
As the moderator of this group I welcome you to the group and if you 
have any questions, asked away. If any one of us can help we will. 
The Fairlight is a great instrument and try some day to see a 
working one you won't forget it. It sounds that it was a Series I or 
Series II/IIx you seen as the Series III has a Hard Drive and loads 
sounds and sequences directly from that. Go to the files section of 
this group you will see my IIx which belonged to Tom Bailey of The 
Thompson Twins and Martin from 808 State. You also my notice a Linn 
LM1, which belonged to Martin Rushent and was on The Human League's 
Dare album and their follow up album. I thought I would mention that 
as it was spooky that you meationed his name in your email to the 
group.
Welcome again
Best regards
Colin

--- In Fairlight-CMI@yahoogroups.com, "trilliann42" <andyg4242@a...> 
wrote:
> Hi, I've been a fan of the Fairlight since the early 80's. Seeing 
> guys like Martin Rushent sampling his voice then playing it on the 
> keyboard as different notes, it blew me away! But its own sounds 
as 
> well are lovely, especially the orch and aahh sounds as used by 
Jan 
> Hammer, Jean Michel Jarre, Thomas Dolby etc. And Kate Bush's 
Hounds 
> of Love just rewrites the rule book! 
> 
> I'm a non-owner, in fact I'm a non-musician, I just love the sound 
of 
> this machine and love finding out as much about them as possible. 
I 
> have touched 2 though, one at Keele University and one at the 
Synth 
> museum in Bristol, but the Keele one blew a fuse and the Bristol 
one 
> wouldn't load any disks! One day I will see a working one!
> 
> So I would just like to ask if it's ok to frequent this group and 
> read and post as appropriate? One thing I may ask too often 
is 'you 
> know that bit in the song ****? Is that Fairlight?'!! Is it ok to 
ask 
> that sort of thing, or would you rather talk about the technical 
side 

> of things?
> 
> Thanks for reading this, post soon!!
> 
> Andy (UK)

Hi Andy,

Welcome to the group! Of course you can frequent this group. Colin set it up 
for fans as well as owners. 

You are lucky, having been able to see one in person. I,too, lusted after them 
for almost 20 years and the only place I ever was able to see one was the July 
'85 cover shot of Kate Bush sitting at hers and the Nov. & Dec. '87 issues of 
Music Technology when they ran an excellent 2 part primer on the series III 
when it came out.  I only got my first chance to see this dream machine and to 
touch it when I bought one in March.

Kate's HOL was a great album but ususally when I think of her & her Fairlight, 
I think of her album The Dreaming. It's a wacky, wonderful album. 

Any questions you have, ask away. We'll try to answer them.

Jerry