Vintage Fairlight Computer Music Instrument Videos

Fairlight founder Peter Vogel uploaded some classic videos to YouTube last weekend, including a peek inside the Fairlight factory in 1984 (above), Greg Sneddon demonstrating the Series III, the development of the CVI video processor, and a prehistoric 1980 TV appearance on ABC's "This Week," featuring a rather nervous young iteration of Peter (who bore a striking resemblance to Yanni in those early days).

Created by Australians Kim Ryrie and Peter Vogel, the Fairlight CMI was the first digital sampling instrument, capable of recording snippets of real sound and playing them back at different speeds. This meant that incredibly complex and annoying sounds could be captured and sequenced by musicians with enormous record label advances and negligible talent. Pop music would never be the same. [cue cheesy orchestral hit]

Comments

The tune they are recording in the clip sounds like it was lifted from Animusic. I suppose this was the "music of the future" 20 years ago. These guys weren't forward-thinking enough to realize that music in the 21st century would be 90% clicks.

[Duncan]

... but some masters like Kate Bush & Peter Gabriel did make good use of it. I remember seeing a clip of Gabriel trying to record the sound of him smashing a TV tube: "thump ... thump ... thump ... bastard!" He was obviously finding it harder than expected, to get the glass to break! Question is, did he ever use the sampled "bastard" on any tracks?

[james]

I suspect the true secret of the Fairlight's success was the Page R sequencer. It was basically an 8 voice monophonic sample tracker that forced you to think in terms of individual events. Old school piano and organ players had a habit of voicing whopping great big chords that made instruments like sampled flutes and choirs sound like organ music (you see a bit of that at the tail end of the 1980 video in this collection).

Tracking individual samples opened up an entire world of audio deconstruction and rhythmic synthesis. With only 8 voices, one was forced to weigh the value of each note, and background pads were usually left to analog synths or a PPG.

[Philip Barrett]

I think I still have the original demo cassette for the system somewhere. I remember us all crowded around the CMI in the studio, mouths agape!

[Mars Lasar]

Hi, Mars Lasar here! Yep, the young blond guy demonstrating the Fairlight with Kim Ryrie in this clip. The Fairlight Computer was the start of what is now in music production(which is mostly software). In 1981 we only dreamed of having multiple high-end voices with verbs, delays etc. and NO looping, to use in a virtual multi-track recorder and midi sequencer. I spent thousands of hours designing the original Fairlight library and sequencing songs on the Page R sequencer to be shipped with the machines. In 1985 we finally had the technology to sample and entire full bandwidth cymbal in stereo, we had a company party to celebrate! The technology really took off after that. It just kept getting better and better, cheaper and cheaper. The Fairlight Series III had a $80,000 pricetag, now you can get everything you need plus more in a sequencer for under $1000.
I still create music in the same way I did back then. I have a vast collection of sequenced and performed music on my website, you can check it out at www.marslasar.com