? FREE Fairlight CMI Archive — 24 high-res scans & photos from the video ? https://doctormix.com/free/fairlight-archive
? Big thank you to Freshwater Instruments for supporting the channel.
??? Check out FRESHWATER INSTRUMENTS HERE: https://www.freshwaterinstruments.au/ ???
? Read the full article — your Fairlight questions answered ? https://doctormix.com/blog/the-fairlight-cmi-your-most-frequently-asked-questions-answered
? Subscribe to Chris Blyth's channel ? www.youtube.com/@CrisBlyth
I flew to Los Angeles to ask my friend Chris Blyth every question I've ever had about the Fairlight CMI — and he owns FIVE of them. ? Chris is a Hollywood visual effects veteran who has spent years restoring Fairlights and documenting every step on his own channel. Nobody knows these machines better.
This is the first episode of a Fairlight mini-series. We sit down at a real Series IIx and a Series III, open up the hardware, draw waveforms with the light pen, build a beat in the legendary Page R — and play the famous sounds that ended up all over pop, hip hop and film scores. ?
And the finale? A Series III that might just have belonged to Ryuichi Sakamoto. ?
? In this video:
?️ What the Fairlight CMI is — the first commercial sampler and the grandfather of the DAW
?? Who invented it — Kim Ryrie, Peter Vogel and Tony Furse's original idea
? Inside the box — dual CPUs, voice cards, 8-inch floppies
?️ The light pen, waveform drawing and harmonic envelopes — in 1979!
? Page R — the rhythm sequencer the whole internet raves about
? The famous sounds — ORCH5, Art of Noise, Owner of a Lonely Heart, Terminator 2 and more
⚖️ Series II vs IIx vs III — what actually changed
? Why a Fairlight cost as much as a house
?️ The Fairlight Evo console and its screen-per-button workflow
?️ The mystery machine — is this Sakamoto's Series III?
Timestamps:
0:00 A Fairlight mini-series
0:56 Meet Chris Blyth
1:31 How many Fairlights does Chris own?
2:10 What is the Fairlight CMI?
3:00 Who invented the Fairlight?
4:15 Why was it so revolutionary?
5:04 Inside the main unit
6:58 Loading sounds with the light pen
8:33 Why a real Fairlight sounds different
10:29 Waveform drawing & harmonic envelopes
14:01 Handmade keyboards & how they funded the Fairlight
15:03 Page R explained
20:14 Song mode
21:12 ORCH5 & the most famous Fairlight sounds
25:21 The Fairlight Series III
25:47 The Terminator 2 sound
27:01 Hans Zimmer's favourite & multisampling
28:01 More famous Series III sounds
30:36 Series II vs IIx vs III
32:14 Why was the Fairlight so expensive?
33:38 The Fairlight Evo console
35:27 Ryuichi Sakamoto's Fairlight?
39:13 Thanks, Chris!
? Courses & training ? https://doctormix.com/courses
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? Sound packs & multitracks ? https://doctormix.com/sound-packs
?️ Merch ? https://doctor-mix.creator-spring.com/
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