Fairlight CMI Emulation - is it possible?

[MarsHottentot]

I know many of you are going to ask 'Why?', well, if you have to ask- just back out slowly. This isn't going to be of any interest to you whatsoever, unless you're a hot shot programmer, maybe.

I just finished reading and responding to this interesting article that basically says 'Yes, having sample libs is great, but we want the Fairlight 'experience'', to which I totally agree.

http://failedmuso.blogspot.com/2008/06/ ... light.html

So the challenge is this: Can the Fairlight be properly emulated?
Do any of you have any hands on experience with a Fairlight IIx or III?
For those of you who feel that it's an outmoded relic and have some VSTi programming chops, well - let's see you do it! It should be EASY, right? Hell, why don't you make it a Fairlight / Synclavier hybrid while you're at it, tough stuff!


Awright. Thoughts, plans, pans?

[Benedict]

I think the 2 great difficulties would be

1) Fairlight had a set of "Pages" that were part of the instrument experience and I can't see people linking that these days.

2) A lot of the sound came from specific chips and converters - if they ain't there it ain't a Fairlight.

Would be interesting though. Why not try to buy one. Every so often someone must want to let go of one (not Iva Davies from what I hear).

[runagate]

There was once a very long thread about this here on KVR.

You might be able to find it in kvr's search.

It was quite informative

[arakula]

Just some thoughts...

Emulating the Fairlight IIx is definitely possible, depending on how close you want to get to "the bare metal". It's easily one of the best-documented pieces of hardware in the music scene. I've got the Service Manual on my web site, if you're interested. The 379 pages of the same manual, however, will tell you how hard it would be...

And that's only a small part of the overall task. If you want to emulate it closely, you'll have to recreate quite a lot of more-or-less obsolete 6809 programs that handle the various Pages. That's quite a task in itself, and ... well... I'm not sure whether it's really worth the trouble, as you would just be recreating an 8-bit sampler with a rather restricted architecture. OK, a die-hard Fairlight fan might see that different, and he'd be right, too - the Fairlight IIx software/hardware combination really delivers absolutely unique sounds - in the right hands. The others will have to resort to the next problematic point...

... which is the Fairlight Library. There's a massive collection of sounds available for this beast ("Duh-duh", anyone? ). All on 8" diskettes. To my knowledge, there still is no 5 1/4" or 3.5" replacement available. Retrieving the data from these disks is not what I'd call an easy task.

That said, I know a German guy who started an emulation. I'll ask him whether he'd like to participate in this discussion.

[teacue]

I would be very interested too as I always was fascinated in the 80 by the sound of the Fairlight.

You may find this interesting
http://dvdborn.blogspot.com/
there are some informations about the particular way Fairlight transposes samples.

Until there is someday an Emulation I am right now waiting for a CD with original Samples of the IIx library that I ordered here:
http://www.pro-rec.com/samplecds.html

But even if these are original samples, I guess it will give only a small aspect of what the Fairlight was.

[MarsHottentot]

So it IS harder than it looks!
Thanks for the well thought out responses and links.
So, let me see...

I think the 2 great difficulties would be

1) Fairlight had a set of "Pages" that were part of the instrument experience and I can't see people linking that these days.

2) A lot of the sound came from specific chips and converters - if they ain't there it ain't a Fairlight.

Would be interesting though. Why not try to buy one. Every so often someone must want to let go of one (not Iva Davies from what I hear).

Smile

Yes, these are the definite main obstacles, although I'm sure the first one could easily be hurdled by a savvy programmer. For example, some Pages could be handled by a main VSTi (Pages 1-8, D, I&M combined perhaps) while others could be handled by secondary plug-ins (Pages 9, C, R), or omitted altogether (L, S & T).

Your second point is why I think it's important that the programmer either own, have access to, or have some deep hands on experience with a Fairlight. Since there's no real hope of exact emulation (there rarely is), the burden is to get as close as possible. If you've never played one, you may have the general idea (not that I'd sneeze at a plug done like this) but you'd be losing an important part of it's charm.

To your last point:
Have you seen the value of the American dollar in the world economy lately?

That said, I know a German guy who started an emulation. I'll ask him whether he'd like to participate in this discussion.

Please do!

You may find this interesting
http://dvdborn.blogspot.com/
there are some informations about the particular way Fairlight transposes samples.

Yes, I just went there last night! Very helpful (especially since I just got an Emax II).

[beej]

The thing is, no matter how well you do the software, it won't feel like sitting in front of a Fairlight, and I think most people would be pretty dissapointed about what you could do with it anyway.

It's kinda like old Amiga tracker software.

The Fairlight was amazing in it's day, but its day has long passed. What we have in our laptops is incredible in comparison.

[MarsHottentot]

The thing is, no matter how well you do the software, it won't feel like sitting in front of a Fairlight, and I think most people would be pretty dissapointed about what you could do with it anyway.

It's kinda like old Amiga tracker software.

The Fairlight was amazing in it's day, but its day has long passed. What we have in our laptops is incredible in comparison.

Really? My laptop is more powerful than a Fairlight?

Alright, beej has stated the OBVIOUS, so let's let him be the one to have said it for this thread - no one else need tell us. Thanks, beej.

It kind of reminds me of when I bought my Tascam TSR-8 1/2 8 track reel to reel. The guy who sold it to me was completely confused as to why I'd want to use tape "when digital sounds so much clearer".

Sometimes process, limitation and character can be more creative than power and limitless possibilities. I find that I can become overwhelmed by the sheer vastness of what modern digital recording has put into my hands. I also find that my comfort level with such can lead to some lazy decisions making some of my tracks follow a certain path. Using limited equipment forces me to approach things in a different manner that, though frustrating at times, often teaches me something that I can use later.

Of course, being an experimental musician, this point of view is pretty much integral to my entire conceit.

[beej]

Alright, beej has stated the OBVIOUS, so let's let him be the one to have said it for this thread - no one else need tell us.

Hey, don't invite comments and then get all caps on my arse. Of course this wasn't my main point, which was that a software emulation, even a good one, still won't give you the feel of sitting in front of a Fairlight.

And the software alone, for 98% of users, would be really disappointing - probably one of the reasons why no one has bothered doing a proper emulation. It just isn't that worthwhile, imo.

[MarsHottentot]

beej, I DID state pretty up front that comments like yours are unnecessary. In the first sentence, even. And I'm not going apeshit on you, I'm trying to use your post to prevent more of the same. No need to reiterate your point, it was clear the first time.

[Stupid American Pig]

If you are going to emulate a fairlight you need to implement a method that would make yer daw useless for the 5-10 minutes it takes to boot up.

[MarsHottentot]

[zerocrossing]

It's true beej, he did.

Here's my take on the Fairlite and the Synclavier (I have a little experience with the Synclavier)

I think emulations of these instruments would need to respect "the spirit of the instrument and not the letter" if you catch my meaning. I could be wrong but the Synclavier was an FM synth with an 8 bit sampler and sequencer for the most part. Forget the sequencer part. Not really important. Whoever wants the experience of sitting in front of a synclavier should have to move one up a flight of stairs. It's hard drive was about the size of a dorm room refridgerator. Fun!

So why not make something called "The Fairclavier" that emulates the 8 bit dithering and synthesis style and other unique audio aspects of these instruments but perhaps does it in a more logical way due to better display and interface technology. That's an instrument I'd like to see. I think people get too caught up in "exact" emulations when they should go for "inspired" recreations. </2cents>

beej, I DID state pretty up front that comments like yours are unnecessary. In the first sentence, even. And I'm not going apeshit on you, I'm trying to use your post to prevent more of the same. No need to reiterate your point, it was clear the first time.

[beej]

I'm as nostalgic about these things as the next guy. If you want to work within limitations, I've got an old Fostex cassette four-track up in the roof, you're welcome to it if you want..!

Zerocrossing - I kinda agree, in that someone making a soft sampler/workstation type device, intended to represent the best of the old school samplers (namely the "sound") with a decent modern-functioning interface, could be a more creative tool. But I think emulations of old samplers, together with their old interfaces, are largely *only* for nostalgic reasons, and not creative or inspirational ones. Next we'll be emulating the three-minute sample loading times to really bring us back to those days... !

The Sync didn't originally have sampling, it was an FM/additive synth + sequencer, but they hastily added sampling, and it was really the fact that you could sequence whole projects, together with authentic sounds, that really made it a success. It had 16-bit 100KHz sampling in it's later versions, and direct-to-disk recording as well, with amazing (military spec) build quality and very good output stages and electronics, which made it fantastic sounding even by today's standards.

For me, there's a place for some old school lo-fi samplers, even though it can still be more or less done with current gear if you want to. But I'm not convinced that a Fairlight emulation has enough of a market, beyond the curious people who would most likely try it, and then be thankful those days really *are* gone... This is a topic that does come up regularly, but I really think it's curiosity driven, more than anything else.

And my "laptops are amazing" throwaway comment that you picked up on is genuine and still stands. I am still amazed, and remember the days of lugging mountains of gear around, rigging it up, pulling it down etc. I just wish I had what I have now back then...

[MarsHottentot]

I'm as nostalgic about these things as the next guy. If you want to work within limitations, I've got an old Fostex cassette four-track up in the roof, you're welcome to it if you want..! Wink

I have a Tascam Portastudio 424 that survived a house fire that I still use on a occasion for really dirty sounding loops. I had a Fostex too, but I launched it through a wall in a whiskey/ephedrine induced rage back in 2001 (right after 9/11 actually, I was supposed to move to NYC around that time - needless to say, that didn't happen). It was a rough point in history for me!

... I'm not convinced that a Fairlight emulation has enough of a market,

That's what I said in response to the article that got me to start this thread. There isn't a market - so it would be upon someone with the VSTi guts and knowhow here to pull it off.

So why not make something called "The Fairclavier" that emulates the 8 bit dithering and synthesis style and other unique audio aspects of these instruments but perhaps does it in a more logical way due to better display and interface technology. That's an instrument I'd like to see. I think people get too caught up in "exact" emulations when they should go for "inspired" recreations. </2cents>

I was saying this, too. This would be the perfect homage to the oldschool process in the new school realm. That's the spirit!