Fairlight synth demonstrated by inventor in 1980

And we shall wrap up Fairlight Appreciation Day (post #1, #2, #3) with this 1980 clip of co-inventor, Peter Vogel, demonstrating the Fairlight Computer Musical Instrument on ABC TV. And yes, Fairlight is still making gear. (Thanks, civvie!)

David Pescovitz is Boing Boing's co-editor/managing partner. He's also a research director at Institute for the Future. On Instagram, he's @pesco.

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Disasteradio

Yes, they’re still making great gear, and yes, we still can’t afford it :(
Anonymous

I have an analogue audio file of a demo of the fairlight [later model/unknown]
showing how bowie used it for some guitar hacks

sarchi
David Garland

Hooray for the Fairlight! In the early ’80s I loved using the Fairlight at PASS, the non-profit Public Access Synthesizer Studio (now Harvestworks) in NYC. The very expensive Fairlight would have been otherwise unavailable to me. In 1985 my band included Clive Smith, Fairlight expert and contributor to the Liquid Sky soundtrack, who plays percussive sounds on the instrument live in this clip:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ylBDzFQ6RmA

and the Fairlight provides backing tracks for this performance:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EuvKbV5VkM8
ericroded

Yeah, I’d say Sampling was pretty cute in 1980.
frankieboy

Kate Bush made good use of that thing. Her record “Never for Ever” was an early use. Baboooooossshhhkkkkaaaaaa!
Christo

Gosh, it’s Australia day today and here we are on the world wide interwebz celebrating Aussie ingenuity..

Love it.

Queue ‘Advance Australia Fair’ in 8-bit MIDI.
Christo

And we also have awesome hair and shirts..
iandberg

For those interested, this guy is selling Fairlight sounds for use in Reason and Kontakt. You can also buy some raw samples in .wav format. All legit and licensed.

http://bitley.laconicsounds.net/
- logicblog
  
  Yeah I bought these a couple days ago. They’re 16 bit AIF’s & WAV’s,
  better than the original ;) !! I’m reviewing them soon at
  http://www.logicblog.info/offbeat/2011/1/30/fairlight-cmi-samples-on-the-cheap.html
Doctor Popular

And now the Fairlight is on the iPad http://www.synthtopia.com/content/2011/01/18/25000-fairlight-cmi-synthesizer-coming-to-ipad-iphone/
Anonymous

this is my favorite picture of kate bush: http://i.imgur.com/GnOAg.jpg

just chillin at the fairlight *swoon*
alfC

Synthesiser Patel – Look Around You
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DRkFZA4CoTY
- Xenu
  
  Came here for this, leaving satisfied.
Anonymous

The 2007 Darren Hayes double-album “This Delicate Thing We’ve Made” also extensively used a Fairlight, in no small homage to Kate Bush.
illobo

I’m the only one loving (also) that 8″ floppy drive noise ?
illobo

I’m the only one loving (also) that 8″ floppy drive noise ?
trommelkopf

Fairlight is certainly still making equipment (I worked for them here in L.A. about 12 years ago, coincidentally) but, more to the point, Peter Vogel has brought back the CMI (http://fairlightinstruments.com.au/). It was (re)launched at the recent NAMM Show in Anaheim, CA. Looks very similar, but is based on current Fairlight technology…and instead of a physical numeric keypad on the right hand end of the keyboard it uses an iPhone. Peter told me the samples can be from 32 bits all the way down to 4 bits. Nice and crunchy!
petsounds

David, a bit pedantic, you might want to specify that ABC doesn’t stand for American Broadcasting Company, but the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

I too loved the floppy noise. But jesus, the screen refresh when drawing the parametric curves. That would drive me crazy.
Anonymous

My name is Inigo Montoya, you killed my father, prepare to DIE!
haineux

Liquid Sky, perhaps one of the most, um, something, movies ever, used the Fairlight for the entire soundtrack.

Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9-n9gpFVpk

(One of the highpoints of the movie is when

Here’s a lovely video of a fashion show featuring another fantastic song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xwOHKKJxrgA
Anonymous

Mike Oldfield used one extensively.
haineux

Hey, who pressed SUBMIT I wasn’t EVEN
ill lich

Perhaps the most interesting thing about the Fairlight CMI (to me anyway) is the infamous “Stravinsky chord” apparently sampled by David Vorhaus from Stravinsky’s “Firebird”, which was on a disc shipped with every CMI, and so then went on to be used in Afrika Bambaataa’s “Planet Rock.”
- David Pescovitz
  
  AKA the orchestra hit or ORCH5. Please see this post from earlier today.
- Ugly Canuck
  
  For those who need a “Planet Rock” fix right now:
  
  Mix 1.
  
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lDCYjb8RHk
  
  Mix 2.
  
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ibPNEbB4IDw
  
  Soul-sonic! Some do say that Mix 2 is more “ill”.
Anonymous

Im SO loving the sound of the Disk Drives!
skeletoncityrepeater

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EuHRQC3gHmU Don’t forget the lowly Emulator!
- skeletoncityrepeater
  
  Synclavier – whoops.