[Search for users] [Overall Top Noters] [List of all Conferences] [Download this site]

Conference napalm::commusic_v1

Title:* * Computer Music, MIDI, and Related Topics * *
Notice:Conference has been write-locked. Use new version.
Moderator:DYPSS1::SCHAFER
Created:Thu Feb 20 1986
Last Modified:Mon Aug 29 1994
Last Successful Update:Fri Jun 06 1997
Number of topics:2852
Total number of notes:33157

663.0. "Fairlight: you'd love what you can't hear!" by MDR01::RUBEN () Mon Jan 19 1987 05:28

    Name a wonder: Fairlight.
    
    I've got a friend of mine interested in sound engineering. Heck
    of a guy! His father runs one of the major recording studios here.
    Last week he acquired a Fairlight: kind of sounds processing device.
    
    He gave me a call telling me that he knew of my interests in electronic
    music and he invited me to see the machine working. I drove there
    and got in the studio. Lots of hardware there: synthies, recording
    machines, wave shape controllers and a man-build keyboard.
    
    My friend took me by the hand and pushed me into a poor illuminated
    room. A red light falling directly over the wonder. Big sized device
    resembling a videodisk recorder. My friend told me to sit down and
    listen to the sounds the machine was able to produce. He took himself
    a while connecting wires, introducing hydrophones inside a water
    filled basin and a third micro attached to a glass bottle.
    
    And then, he played...
    
    Strange yet beautiful sounds were emerging from the baffles. Sometimes
    it sounded like a F-14 Tomcat just taking off, sometimes it sounded
    like two crystal oceans crushing, sometimes like zirconite waterfalls
    melting... and still it sounded wonderful. My friend told to me
    this device was a sound processor: you attach micros to anything
    you wish: bottles, any kind of surfaces, inside boiling water or
    whereever you wish. He was experiencing with a fly inside a glass
    to which he had attached two of those little micophones ("a
    sophisticated sound picking devices costing 10% of the total price"
    I quote).
    
    He was very excited. Indeed, he was able to produce whatever sound
    you asked him for to generate. That wonder, called Fairlight (unable
    to state who is the manufacturer yet!) was really impressive.
    
    What I can add it is that it surprised me. And he was able to run
    past me two tapes from a French guy called Patrick Vihan and another
    one by Didi� Bouqu�t ("Noises and analogous times" and "Sequence").
    
    The only thing I can say about this machine is that Mike Oldfield
    uses it to simulate violins chorecords and that J.M. Jarre used
    it in its record "Concerts in China". Sound processing device seems
    to me a new technology pushing sound engineering a step ahead. 
    
    Will never forget those tapes he gave me away: a John Hassell-like
    music you would think of being played by angels up there in Heaven...
    
    Next weekend I promised him to come back for a listening. He told
    me he is goin' to show me how it sounds tapping on a glass surface
    and then processing the sounds mixe 'em up with a reverse recorded
    pulse train obtained from a boiling kettle. Sounds funny, I know,
    BUT THE MANUFACTURER PROVIDES A HANDBOOK ON SOUND PROCESSING WITH
    STILL MORE RARE EXAMPLES!!!!
T.RTitleUserPersonal
Name		DateLines
663.1Yeah, we've heard of FairlightECADSR::SHERMANMon Jan 19 1987 10:548
    Uh, did you hear about Keyboard's latest contest in which they promise
    to give some bum a Fairlight?  Seein's how I meet their qualifications
    to the letter, I've been sending in an entry each time I leave work
    for the past month or so.  Of course, I would only be able to play
    with it until tax time, but I won't win anyway, so what do I care?
    Entering often just gives me the right to fantasize.
    
    Steve
663.2<If ever I get my hands on it...>MDR01::RUBENMon Jan 19 1987 11:033
    I didn't hear about it, but I would proceed in the same terms. If
    ever I get my hands on that wonder....! I wanna a Fairlight right
    now!!
663.3Contest? What contest?STAR::MALIKKarl MalikMon Jan 19 1987 17:129
    Re; .1
    
    	Steve, Shhhhhhhh!  Stop telling people! ;-)
    
    	The Fairlight CMI (Computer Musical Instrument) Series III is
    indeed a wonder.  If I ever win the lottery, that (or a Synclavier
    with sampling option) would be quite near the top of my purchase
    list.
    							- Karl
663.4Price anyone?MDR01::RUBENTue Jan 20 1987 02:254
    A wonder indeed!!! which is the price there in the States? Here
    in Europe price of the wonder skyrocketed since the A.K.G. 72
    experiment (kind of experiment undertaken in Barcelona showing the
    ability of the Fairlight: impressive is the word!!!).
663.5I wanna have a III!!!PHUBAR::WELLSOh?Tue Jan 20 1987 11:375
    Aw...who wants to win that silly old contest anyways...it's only
    a used Series II anyway...
    
    Richard
    ;-)
663.6Is there no justice???JAWS::COTELet&#039;s change the rules and giggle!!!Tue Jan 20 1987 12:306
    
    Just watch.... Len will win it.
    
    :^)
    
    Edd
663.7Go ahead - CALL me a liarDYO780::SCHAFERROCK the planetTue Jan 20 1987 12:476
Re: .?

    Don't recall exactly, but a full blown CMI Series III tops out around
    $93K.  I've got two on order ...
    
8^)
663.816514::MOELLERSWSIII-PS/SWAV/SCSWTue Jan 20 1987 14:172
    Yeah, I know.. you really *NEED* it for your new compositions..
    why not? that rationalization works for me !
663.9So, I give you a dollar, and I win 50 cents, right?PHUBAR::WELLSOh?Tue Jan 20 1987 15:405
    If len wins it, does that mean we all have to go out and win something?
    
    ;-)
    
    Richard
663.10Not In The RunningDRUMS::FEHSKENSWed Jan 21 1987 09:566
    C'mon guys, I haven't even entered the contest!  I mean, like, where
    would I put it?   I know, I know, you'll let me leave it at your
    place....
    
    len.
663.11DREAMING OF A FAIRLIGHT ON MY DESK...MDR01::RUBENWed Jan 21 1987 11:5011
    And so, I can see a great interest over there about "the wonder"...
    But have no idea about what are you supposed to do in the contest.
    Is it kinda music contest? Who wins it? And 93K seems a lot of money
    indeed!! I can send you...photographs of the machine: it's the only
    thing I've got.
    
    But I am more interested you answering the following question:
    
    WHAT THE HELL WOULD YOU DO WITH A FAIRLIGHT?
    
    Anyone wishing to dream?
663.12{ Wonderment }SKYLRK::MESSENGERThings fall apart-it&#039;s scientificFri Mar 27 1987 14:103
    The Fairlight/CMI is a Wonderment... does it really need to do
    anything?
    				- HBM
663.13Yabut, what if...ECADSR::SHERMANYou have *my* word on it...Fri Mar 27 1987 17:2017
    Hey, assuming that I won that Fairlight from KEYBOARD (fat chance), 
    and assuming I have no cash (a verifiable assumption):
    
    o How much do you think Uncle Sam would say the $40,000 synth was
      worth at tax time (or even Uncle Dukakis) ($8000?) ?
    
    o How much would I be able to sell it for ($10,000? $14,000?) ?
    
    o How much would I have left over after selling it ($2000?) ?
    
    o What incentives would I have to *not* sell the thing, other
      than the fact that it's a great 8-voice synth with monster
      sequencer and considering that it would probably be my *only* 
      great piece of equipment?

Steve_who_enters_the_contest_every_working_day_so_he_can_fantasize