Fairlight CMI on "This Week" ABC TV

[lmorgan1974]

That's rather delightful



[Povixas]

Bla

[jaibobro]

it sounded like a old printer when loading



[moppchilly]

com truise

[snakehunter1964]

2:27 - 'That's rather cute, isn't it?' LOL!!! ;)

[ElasticMinds]

if i ever had the money id buy a CMI IIx. Such amazing machines and ahead of their time. In the mean time these akai 12 bit samplers will do.

[bobcatmustard]

The moustace! 

[MichaelKhanTV]

warm sound...

[hypnodelica]

Hmmm... Nice Fairlight skills from the young Jeffery Dahmer.... and next week we have Fred West rocking the 'Gardeners World' theme tune on his MiniMoog...

[gizmoffm]

ahead of their time!

[Asianbeard]

Fucking hell! It's the Daddy of all MIDI! If only it stayed like this and music was made still in bands with lots of synths and a fairlight CMI and a band and bass and guitar. That would be awesome, but now all this modern rnb is made completely on midi

[goldhillproductions]

Brilliant post! Thank you :)

[ernest8sz]

on app store ;)

[TWMusicBerlin]

if you need real fairlight samples for reason, check out bitleys reason refill, fairlight CMI Legacy! =)

[dewalwalers]

and the future called it NATIVE INSTRUMENTS KONTAKT...... go figure out

[seanwallacegunn]

Sydney Australia, 1080....Compu/synth NERD capital of the world!!!

[seanwallacegunn]

Sydney Australia, 1080....Compu/synth NERD capital of the workd!!!

[MissFlux]

The blonde guy , Michael Carlos is my Dad :) I love this old footage! He is still with Fairlight today ;)

[F5Speedy]

@MissFlux

Is your Dad the Michael Carlos who played keyboards with Tully? I really loved hearing that Michael playing the Hammon organ.

[MissFlux]

@F5Speedy YES! that is Michael who played in Tully :) They recently actually got to gather at a hair reunion! and saw each other for the first time in a loooong time ... i wish i was there. aaaanyway .. the answer is yes ;)

Feel free to email or message me on the topic if there is anything you'd like to know etc.

[headcut2007]

alot of musicians cant play the keyboard that made me piss my self

lol i am going to sample that line

[baawsman]

Kanye West would have one of these in the 80's

[baawsman]

Kanye West of the '80s?

[fattyJNL]

:) My daddy told me my Microsampler is like a pussy version of this.

[dumpsky]

this must have been the inspiration for "Synthesizer Patel" in the program "Look Around You"

[xfrogobliviousx]

I really want to watch this "Timelapse" show.

[MrDThorn]

today you get this in the form of garageband

[qu4dq0r3]

electronic WIZZARDRY !!!1 brun em !!! =P

[zero33AD]

4:10 SWALLOW!!!

[jimmykinkade]

4:08 Great Transition. He turns into Michael.

[qwert4125]

Yes, the smoke was necessary.

[petro1986]

Bet this thing can't manage the bassoon...

[vaxjoaberg]

@petro1986 of course not. the bassoon can't be modeled electronically.

[petro1986]

@vaxjoaberg DRkFZA4CoTY

[ilsennodipoi]

@vaxjoaberg

The actual Fairlight synth also had a key lock because, as Synthesizer Patel will tell you, "these bastards, they steal your synthesizers".

[ScorpionBlood]

and now, i can do this on my iPhone or Android :P impressive stuff there ;)

[sheatheman]

5:28, brilliant. looks like the boss on the future 2D street fighter 5. they travled into the future copied the microsampler

[sheatheman]

wow, they traveled into the future and copied the korg microsampler!

[quazedelic]

Met Peter Vogel at NAMM yesterday I geeked when he asked me to do an interview on what the Fairlight meant to me in my life as a musician! Pure Genius! 

[quazedelic]

Met the Man himself at NAMM yesterday Pure Genius!

[giovagb07]

beautiful machine!

[bencrea1]

love this host!! wish we had hosts like this these days

[matameh]

woowww... ¡¡¡

[LaugermanPROductions]

Jan Hammer used this

[Sharli321]

hehe, Floppy noise R0CKS :)))

[86108610]

'what an amazing machine, nyuh'

[ztilo]

@86108610 __ HAHA haha .. shes like ..eh..

[MalteSer001]

this "thing" was first used by talking heads in their album .. 

[unriselyrical]

Peter Vogel = Yanni

[expatfreislander]

It was expensive, but not THAT expensive (they're giving prices in Australian dollars not U.S. dollars).

[MRVISDOME]

what the actual price if there is a chance to find one of these?

[bitleyTM]

I've collaborated all the Fairlight II sounds into a Reason library some of you might want to check out. Look at my clips :-)

[2010mustang2]

I didn't know they had LCD back in 1980

[valcarni1]

@2010mustang2 LCD was used in Nintendo Game and Watch from 1979 :)

[DelRockford]

This reminds me so much of Synthesizer Patel from the show Look Around You. I love it.

[sti3]

@DelRockford It had to be the source material...

[mrrandom177]

to think, you can do this (and more) on a phone now !

the phone will be a bit quicker and quieter though LOL

[sleestack808]

lol @ 4:14...whats with that strange pause..

[willobi]

wow pre stone age tech you can do that on your pc.

[Wondermike42]

I wonder if some of those machines still exist

[FraueleinAspirine]

floppy disks! those old days... *sighs*

[doom705]

hopefully the tone generators is analog cause digital tone generators sound thin, harsh and generally shitty.  :P lol i bet not though, its sooo! retro and awesome.

[joe2grand]

fucking hell i thought that was a printer making that noise

[markscudder]

Is that Yanni?

[SlimeTron5000]

@markscudder Unless you were not joking, it is Peter Vogel. He looks different now.

[UberTroll13]

wow, a whole 2 megabytes!

[closertofiftythanyew]

Oz$26,000 of crap.

Rubbish sterile load-of-crap music producer. A musak-plus producer. Utter, utter crap. Miami Vice music, need I say more?

[RoyOrbiton]

I wanna buy one for Ronald Jenkees.

[coolbluelights]

That's rather cute isn't it? haha love that guy's hair :D

[ubercarrots]

pshhh what a stud.

[RINLEW]

Outstanding.... and that was only 1980. Kate Bush's THE DREAMING was done on it, as well as a lot of PET SHOP BOYS, THOMAS DOLBY and PETER GABRIEL material.

[AleDaino]

He said Ok Computer......:)

[kstarpictures]

I've read about the Fairlight CMI for years, so it is finally interesting to actually see one in action.

As a side note... Interestingly enough, here in the United States, our ABC-TV has a news program titled "This Week." What are the odds?

[Dimon1981Vid]

ha ha ha ha. Its really cool

[antoniodcz]

is this not the machine that signalled the beginning of the digital music revolution? I mean, mp3s, wmf, wav files- they're all samples at the end of the day

[TurbeenBeatz]

yeah it was the first digital sampler.^^

[BillKendall6]

Dual 8 bit processors and sub-audio audio. Wow. You can do better with any computer and $50 of software. Still musos buy them for house prices. That's why we laugh at musicians.

[Hot80s]

Gabriel used it en masse.

[CESkootchy]

Damn, the second season of Look Around You must've been directly based on this program

[lectrickmusic]

Amazing stuff !

[superluser]

Holy crap! It's Synthesizer Patel!

Right down to the horrible music being called delightful.

[oxygene65]

ha ha ha, someones been watching Look Around You.

[1czelaya]

26,000.00$!

If we take inflation into account, I would assume the price of a system likethis would cost today around 100,000.00$.

I thought the Korg Oasys (8,000. in todays market) was expensive.

[NEILVANCE]

@1czelaya Very much true! and I see they only sold 3000 of them, They will be underpowered very soon as the pc/mac & software never stops, as far as power, technology, software, etc.

[gjc82071]

@1czelaya It is/was (Oasys). Too expensive. Back in the 70/80's, there was a definite technological advantage/difference between a synth costing a few thousand $'s compared to ones casting 10's or 100's of thousand$. Today, there isn't enough of a difference between, say the $2,000 Korg Triton & the $8,000 Oasys to justify the cost. You could by 3-4 different flagship workstations for the price of 1 Oasys, & with the 3-4, have MUCH more variety & equal or greater sequencing/sampling power.

[snolan1990]

@1czelaya Compared to the Synclavier the Farilight was a steal, although there was no set list preice because the Synclavier sold so few the average price tag for one of them circa 1980 was $200,000.

[dudewhosaysarrh]

@1czelaya Actually, it is still around 26,000. They just released a re-issue with a quieter drive a more capacious mainframe and a TFT screen. ;-)

[eriknyquist123]

its timelapse motherfucker

[Hot80s]

JAN HAMMER MIAMI VICE THEME.

[alexnordh]

Jean Michel Jarra, Kraftwerk, Tangerine Dream used it, so naturally its THE cult object in retro-synth! I guess an Iphone could do that now.

[curszondax]

it was amazing for it's time.

i recoded some stuff back in the 80s. the band i was with at that time, used a fairlight cmi which belonged to producer Trevor horn of the Buggles.

the orchestral string sounds of the fairlight completely blew us away.

for those people that could afford the £60.000 price tag it was well worth it.

a friend of mine sold his old fairlight for £2000.

personally i think he should have kept it, but he needed the money.

[captinseperoth]

what a dumb ass..if he told me.... and he just recently sold it... i would of bought if for 6 thousand dollars

[antimetalclubRfags2]

he looks like yanni lol

[NEILVANCE]

wow, do you hear the loudness of the floppy drive head reading the disk!!! awsome!!!

[MacXpert74]

@NEILVANCE I remember when my old amiga would make those kind of disk sounds. It usually meant the disk was corrupted :)

[fuglynutlock]

@NEILVANCE these days that noise would be sampled and used in a song!!

[gjc82071]

@NEILVANCE Sounds like an old dot matrix printer, lol.

[UltraPic]

@NEILVANCE

Not only awesome, but it fits the timing perfectly.

[djsmithy]

Any Software out there today that lets you draw Harmonics?

I remember with N.I. Absynth you could draw the Waveform, but cannot remember if you can actually draw the harmonics.

Amazing machine alright, was Light years ahead of its time, excuse the pun!

[shairaptor]

What an amazing machine indeed!

[maxrioseco]

ahaha

[aceyage]

Timelapse sort of sounds like the Terminator theme!

[meddlingkids]

"Timelapse," not "Timewarp"

[insanitylieshere]

dope. this inspires me

[authmaax]

the 1st guy looks like James May from TopGear

[ulisespaceprobe]

As long as I know, today Fairlight remains as a vanguard tool of those early days of programming music. One of the reasons because is no longer produced is because it was too expensive, and in some cases was used as powerfull blackhorse. Prince, Pet shop Boys, Kate Bush and other artists had one and used them extensively. Its high cost was its demise. As a hig-end tecnological device was even used in some movies to generate sound effects as in 1986 Aliens

[kllsoa]

yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee­eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeees

[ulisespaceprobe]

anybody knows something about today's FLStudio and similar programs? they do the same and more than those old machines

[kllsoa]

yes

[weenyone]

Looks and sounds like a much younger Kel Richards he of News Radio and the weekly 'Words' segment on ABC Radio Sydney. On ya Kel.

[Jellyrocket1]

I think you're right!

[kekenalii]

i do not think this is was exist!!!!!!!

too kurzweil roland they must keep trying!!!!!!!!!!!

sequencing must surely sample!!!!!!!!!!

mpc e-mu ensoniq is god my life!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[mattysen]

"here's a picture of that blah" !!!!

[LofiFreq]

$26K !!!!! WTF!

[spasticteapot]

A top-spec Kurzweil will cost you even more today.

[LofiFreq]

Sure and a 200e is $30k what's your point? I was saying $26k in 1980 WTF!!! Yea $26k is eaaaaasy to spend on modern studio gear now but in the 80's you had to be loaded to take a risk on a new technology like that. Kinda risky that's all.

[spasticteapot]

How is it a risk? It does what it says it does out of the box - something no other product could do. When the CMI was introduced, you either had a Fairlight or you didn't have a polyphonic sampling synthesizer at all.

The problem was when Fairlight's competitors caught up and you could have a similar synthesizer for a whole lot less money.

[AnalgesicAgnostic]

$26,000 in 1980 dollars.  Calculate for inflation and the plummeting VALUE that a dollar buys today, you're talking over $100,000 for this gem. It was truely a revolutionary instrument and many would die to have one today, like me.

[LofiFreq]

;) I know what your saying. I was surprised it cost $26k new in 1980. It was and is still a great tool for sound no doubt. My friend picked one up in berkley he's going to sell it FYI if your in LA you can check it out , its really wild to play with. I'm saving for a buchla 200e *so rich and sexy sounding.

[BlackmoonUK]

OH MY GOD THAT SHIRT!!!

I feel ill. Seriously.

[Tx66]

lol @the guy just disappearing in 4:24

[3dmaxuser]

$26,000 for 8 seconds of sampling at 8 bit and 32Kz if I remember right , thank god things have moved on :). saying that I always wanted one of these when I was a kid

[shoptothecaf]

bird at the end was fit

[Thalassa77]

Hello , I've posted this video on switchedonsynthesizer.blogspot . com

[producermattpop]

For my fellow sound-freaks: my 2008 dance mix of Moments In Love by Art Of Noise, is basically my homage to the Fairlight ARR1preset (the breathy voice-like sound you hear on that record). I use original Fairlight samples to play a nice solo part with it. If you want to check it out - and my other tracks - simply look for the Matt Mix! Matt Pop.

[Eddlikes99]

Isn't there a program on PS2 that can do this all of this now?

[FoxGTR34Nismo]

Wow, old school MIDI. Fairlights became more advanced over the years like for instance, the game Sonic CD (American ver) used Fairlight IIIs for the synths.

But, damn, I'm glad todays HDs aren't that loud, he almost had to yell over it while it loaded lol!

[mrruppie]

I thought that was Glen Frey

[iletelyastraightmate]

what a fuckin depressing theme tune

[Qiwolf]

Thats what I was thinking

I mean... that isnt the ABC tune is it???

[iletelyastraightmate]

don't think so.

[sleestack808]

@iletelyastraightmate true, haha

[cutluncheon]

really interesting, especially to see the excerpt from "timelapse", an essentially forgotten show. (terrible theme music though!)

[mrruppie]

$26,000 !!!!!!!

[AmbientMusic]

LoL! In 1980!

[nonnufan]

love the noise of that drive loading!

[MissFlux]

Great video! Great that this stuff is still available.

My Dad is actually one of those guys in the clip and it was a blast to see!

It just shows how early on people were working with touch screens. Amazing that it's only really taking off now.

[foggie]

AWESOME! When is this gonna hit store shelves?

[AxelVenturiano]

it hit the store shelves 30 years ago dumbass

[sleestack808]

@AxelVenturiano he was kidding. jezoose!

[SuperCartiel]

@foggie April 17, 1982. Buy it used today for about $4,000-$20,000. Or get a Korg M3/Radius or Roland V-Synth GT for about $14, 000 for both.

[SlimeTron5000]

@SuperCartiel $26,000 AUD back in 1980 would be almost $100,000 now.

[SuperCartiel]

@SlimeTron5000 Right!

[kirij]

@foggie HAA HAAAA! YOu r funny DUDe!

[keybobrob]

@foggie lol...ur not right!!...lol classic!...hilarious dude. thnx i needed that laugh 2day! peace!

[megaladon73]

@foggie Probably not til 1985... we might have to wait a few years

[yetonGhul]

@foggie lol at the time this thing costed more than a car.

[SquonkProductions]

Correct me if I'm wrong... but is that Tony Banks at 5:09???

[mrruppie]

forget that... is that James Taylor/Glen Fry doing the demo?

[BlackmoonUK]

Consider yourself corrected. No way is it Tony Banks.

[blapo38]

Really nice video.Thanx for posting.