New Fairlight 30th anniversary edition

[mikesilence]

Hi Guys,

I think it deserves a separate thread here...

Fairlight - The next generation


Some more news from Sonicstate(http://www.sonicstate.com/news/2009/...ght-details/):
The 30A will look like and perform like the original CMI, although the
mainframe will be much lighter for portability. The look and feel of the
user interface will also be similar to the original, with retro green on
black graphics like the original. A replica of the original music keyboard
will also be available as an option, or you can use your own MIDI keyboard.

The software will combine the very best of the early series II and III
features, with a multitude of additional features. Sound quality of 8-bit,
16-bit, or "best quality" 36-bit floating point can be selected, and
existing Fairlight users can import their entire sample libraries. Even
better, non-Fairlight sounds, such as WAV files can be imported and
specified to play back with the classic Fairlight sound.

Internally it will be all digital, but will use FPGA technology to provide
"virtual hardware" emulation which will exactly model the original analog
circuitry. There will be 16 analog outputs and a stereo sampling input.
All I/O will also be available digitally through MADI.

For an idea of the performance to expect, see attached description of the
Crystal Core engine which the new CMI use.

We are builing a run of only 100 units, which will be available early next
year. Price is to finalised, it is not intended to be cost competitive with
other samplers, but of course much cheaper than the original CMI, even
adjusted for inflation!

[Volodia]

Will they include the sequencer ( I think it was called Page R or something) ?

[mikesilence]

Hopefully... was fun playing around with it...

By the way, some more thoughts i did already here:
WTF?? a NEW Fairlight CMI?

Hmm... will be no "real" Fairlight as it will be hard to simulate the sound in my opinion. Using a Midi keyboard will not give you the dynamic you got with the original keyboard as it used its own protocol with much more steps than Midi. And 5000US$ cannot be the price, I expect something around 10-15k$. The CC-1 card alone is 5k$...

[Silver Sonya]

All your Peter Gabriel and Kate Bush dreams can now come true.

Well, the musical ones at least...

- c

[Silver Sonya]

Originally Posted by mikesilence

I expect something around 10-15k$.

I know only one fact:

I am not in that market.

I love the idea of owning a vintage CMI, but... really, who in this world of collapsing economies can afford $15k of digital nostalgia?

- c

[mikesilence]

Some more news:

In a post to the Fairlight Yahoo Group, Fairlight's Peter Vogel reveals more details about the capabilities and pricing of the new Fairlight:

We’re hoping to have some more detailed specs this week, however I can answer a few questions in general terms.

The CC-1 can perform very complex algorithms and lots of them, with almost no latency. So yes, we are modelling the quirky hardware of the CMI. The sound of each CMI was subtly different, due to their analogue bits, so it won’t sound exactly like any one CMI, but lined up with a few CMIs you won’t be able to tell the difference.

The sound will be user selectable, to be like a series I,II,IIX, III etc. Or you can dig deeper and make it sound like nothing else.

One of the many nice things about the CC-1 is that it has no inherent bit width. “Normal” processors generally offer say 32 or 64 bit operations, where as the CC-1 can be configured to any number of bits. So if something works most effectively as 33 bits, so be it. And the bit widths can be mixed within the one signal path.

The “n” polyphony is achieved by “n” individual circuits set up in the FPGA working in parallel, as opposed to the software emulation model which is necessarily sequential. The channels can have different configurations is required; in any case there will be subtle coefficient differences between channels to reproduce the individuality of outputs that has often been cited.

How much polyphony? All we know at this time are the extremes – it will certainly be at least 16 like the original Series III but given that the Crystal Core when used in a DAW delivers up to 230 channels of mixing ALL of which have full processing (8 bands EQ, 3 stages Dynamics), you can safely assume a lot more than 16 will be possible.

Re pricing: yet to be finalised, but the choice to go with the CC-1 does come at a price. Although the CC-1 is not sold currently as a separate card (it would be no use without the software etc that goes with it), the retail price would be around the $5,000 mark. So you can do the sums, the CMI 30-A is not going to be price competitive with the mass-market synths which abound.

Based on this, it sounds like the new keyboard will have to be well over $5,000 US, not "price competitive with the mass-market synths", but not out of the range of other high-end synths.


(via Sonic State - News New Fairlight System Expected To Cost $5,000+, More News On The 30th Anniversary CMI)

[tagpass]

$17K to $19K!

Fairlight Instruments - The next generation

[Farshad]

Originally Posted by tagpass

$17K to $19K!

Fairlight Instruments - The next generation

[Silver Sonya]

In no way do I need this.

In every way do I want this.

- c

[pabloman]

Originally Posted by Silver Sonya

In no way do I need this.

In every way do I want this.

- c

I second that!