Fairlight CMI

History

The mark Australia Fairlight is at the origin of the first sampler S (Sampleur) musical. The company is created towards 1976 by Peter Vogel, Kim Ryrie and with the technical assistance of Tony Furse.

The name Fairlight comes from the locality of the parents of Peter Vogel, place where the prototype before the real creation of the company was developed. It is in fact the name of one of the bays which surround the town of Sydney.

Evolution

At the origin of CMI (Musical Computer Instrument) Fairlight, one finds work of Tony Furse on several Synthétiseur S analogical and numerical (mainly Qasar I & II). This last already created its own company, Creative Strategies in Sydney, in 1975. Consulting near Motorola, it develops a machine bi-processor (based on two Motorola 6800) called QASAR. This computer constitutes the fundamental architecture of the CMI (Musical Computer Instrument), the famous samplers of Fairlight.

The pre-Fairlight prototype is the QASAR M8, which is in fact a QASAR equipped with audio chart, of management of a musical keyboard and an optical pen. The electronics of this machine is very close to EXORciser from Motorola. Although this machine does not sample yet, it constitutes a revolutionary machine at the time because it makes it possible to graphically handle the parameters of a sound. However, the 4 kilobytes allotted to each sound make it judge limited in potential and the machine remains a prototype.

When the C.M.I is launched, it is the first sampler 8 bits in 16 Khz. The memory allotted to each sound is of 4 KB. The Operating system is a relatively light adaptation of the MDOS from Motorola, famous for the occasion in QDOS by Fairlight by changing the M into Q (for QASAR). The orders are exactly the same ones as on the MDOS (system employed on the machines of development EXORciser ). It lays out disk drives 8" , of a capacity of ~512 KB.

The range extends thereafter to the following apparatuses (between brackets the name of the processor used appears):

CMI II 8bits 20 Khz (6800)
CMI IIx 8bits 32 Khz (6809)
CVI (6809)
Voice Tracker (68008)
CMI III 16bits 100 Khz (mono) and 50 Khz (stereo) (8x6809 + 68000 + 56K)

The company encounters then financial problems. It leaves the following models:

MFX (CMI III with D2D) (8x6809 + 68K + 56K)
MFX2 (Super CMI III) (8x6809 + 68K + 68K20 + 56K + 96K)
MFX3 (new architecture 68K40)

New financial problems are encountered. The company produces MFX3+ (DSP Shark).

Development

Quasar M8 (1975-1977)

basic Price of: 20000 American dollars
Two Microprocessor S Motorola 6800
Manufactured by Fairlight and Creative Strategies
8 ways (not of sampling, just numerical additive Synthesis with 128 harmonics)
Memory: 4Ko by voice
Synthesis: Synthesis of Fourier; dynamic check of the harmonics, edition of form of wave
Tape reader perforated

CMI Series I (1979)

: 12000 Pounds Sterling
First musical sampler
8 votes of Polyphony
Characteristic of sampling: 8 bits to 16 Khz (mono) maximum
Memory: 16Ko by voice
Bi-processor Motorola 6800
Synthesis: Drawing of form of wave thanks to the optical pen, dynamic check of the harmonics, edition of form of wave
musical Keyboard: 73 notes with swiftness but without after touch + keyboard slave of 73 notes, 2 buttons ON/OFF, 3 faders linear
final Keyboard: 62 keys
Sequencer: Simple recorder
Language script of composition: Musical Composition Language (MCL)
: monitor of 12 inches, resolution of 512x256 pixels (16Kbits), monochromic green
Two disk drives of 8 inches (~512Ko maximum by diskette)

CMI Series II (1980)

: 15000 Pounds sterling
8 votes of polyphony
Characteristic of sampling: 8 bits of 2100Hz with 30200 Khz (mono)
Memory: 16Ko by voice, 64Ko for the software Bi-processor system
Motorola 6800
Synthesis: Drawing of form of wave thanks to the optical pen, dynamic check of the harmonics, edition of form of wave
Keyboard: 73 not ballasted keys, sensitive to the swiftness + keyboard slave
Control: by MIDDAY
Sequencer: Basic keyboard of sequence, support of Musical the Composition Language (MCL)
video Memory: 16Ko (512x256 pixels)
Two disk drives of 8 inches (~512Ko maximum by diskette)

CMI Series IIx (1983)

: 20000 Pounds sterling
8 votes of polyphony
Characteristic of sampling: 8 bits of 2100Hz with 30200 Khz (mono)
Memory: 16Ko by voice, 256Ko for the software Bi-processor system
Motorola 6800
Synthesis: Drawing of form of wave thanks to the optical pen, dynamic check of the harmonics, edition of form of wave
Keyboard: 73 not ballasted keys, sensitive to the swiftness + keyboard slave
Control: by MIDDAY and SMPTE time code
Sequencer: Basic keyboard of sequence, support of Musical the Language Composition (MCL), Page R
video Memory: 16Ko (512x256 pixels)
Two disk drives of 8 inches (~512Ko maximum by diskette)

CMI Series III (1985)

: 76000 Australian dollars
16 votes of polyphony (extensible)
Characteristic of sampling: 16 bits with 100 Khz (mono) or 50 Khz (séeréo)
Memory: 14Mo extensible with 32Mo then 64Mo on the last version, 356Ko for the Bi-processor system
Motorola 6809, one 6809 for each chart of voice, a replaceable Motorola 68000 by a 68020 for the chart of treatment of the tables of waves.
Synthesis: tables of waves free by Graphics tablet, FFT, edition of tables of waves
Keyboard: 73 not ballasted keys, sensitive to the swiftness (compatible MIDDAY)
Control: by MIDDAY and SMPTE time code
Sequencer: CAPES (sequencer of composition, arrangement and reading), 80 votes of polyphony, support of Musical the Language Composition (MCL),
Hard drive and reader of magnetic band DC600 (ESDI, SCSI), a disk drive of 8 inches (~512Ko maximum by diskette)

Random links: