This instrument was a big part of my life in the 80s, I did Fairlight programming and later did Synclavier... this is how I made my living, this was a genius piece of technology back in the day - then came EMU, MPC then Ensoniq... Geez, I kind of miss those days...
Peter Vogel: unassuming genius who never got rich from his incredible inventions. 'Today' channel 9/7/10 (or wherever these hostesses/hosts come from) - well-meaning but typically inane commercial TV people trying their best to understand who they're dealing with. I was sad to see this video was from morning TV in Australia (let's face it, at 10AM weekdays, not the highest-IQ audience given the next segment was probably about some 'revolutionary' vacuum cleaner or something). The Fairlight CMI that Vogel created was revolutionary, and responsible for some of the greatest sounds of the 80s.
Hmm, except you can now have something that does the same stuff (and much more) with better resolution and a fraction of the price ....in your home computer!
Well the Sampler of the CMI will still be way superior, despite the lower res DAC. Because of the way it playbacks and re-samples the audio. They really were very creative to bypass all the technical shortcomings to not letting it ruin the audio quality :)
Non-musicians have no idea who he was, what he created and how it influences music still today. The Fairlight changed everything. At $100,000 back then, it was only available to recording studios and big name musicians. Eventually replaced by the more affordable E-mu Systems offerings, but in its time, the best.
I remember in the 80s trying to spot them when bands performed on television in the UK , monitor was so distinctive perched there, I remember Nick Rhodes having one, used to see them demo’ them on programs like tomorrow’s world and Sesame Street , we had a music program called top of the pops on Thursday night and if you were lucky you could spot the monitor sitting there . Brilliant. I’m tempted on the lite version if it supports Audiobus and has that Trevor horn patch . It’s about £50 uk pounds for the pro version
I still use the Proteus samples. I used to use the SF2s on the Sound Blaster before E-Mu got bought out. I bought a Proteus 2000, and still love it to this day. Very high quality samples, and many DAWs still keep the presets around for the MIDI.
It had a very short time in the sun. By 1987 you could replicate virtually all the functionality of the Fairlight with an Atari ST and a Midi compatible keyboard for about $3,000.
I had the IIx and Series III. Amazing pieces of kit, but seriously expensive. The Series III cost me around £36,000. The iconic womans voice sound at 4:52 is called Saraar (or a spelling close to that). The sound I used most frequently was Cello, which had a depth, impact and presence not even surpassed by today's samples.
@@robh7671 1988 from Andrew Stirling at Syco Systems. It was around £28k for the base system then the rest on extra RAM cards at £2k a pop and other bits. Expensive business, even by today's standards.
Peter is a thoroughly great guy. I must be the ONLY other person in the world to have ALL the files, schematics, GALS, PALS and ROMS needed to build a Farilight IIx or III. He let me have the lot.
@4:03 oof. I would love to see an interview with Peter on a show that has the time and the understanding to give this instrument and the people behind it the respect they deserve. That said, I'm glad they did this interview in the first place. Any coverage and discussion of the CMI in the modern era is worthwhile.
i don't know about the fairlight stuff but in the 70's he had people who helped him setting up the synth sounds. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Margouleff
Wonder why Vogel didn't mention the guy who got the message out to all those musicians like Wonder and Hancock was another Aussie audio Pioneer and genius named Bruce Jackson, who amongst other things designed mixing consoles, mixed for Elvis, Springsteen, started Apogee and did audio for Sydney Olympics...just to name a few things. Jackson personally flew those fairlights cross country in his own aircraft. Sadly passed away a few years back. An interesting omission, although Bruce is mentioned on the Fairlight cmi wiki..someone should make a documentary or write a book about all these characters..
Quite right - Bruce was our "lucky break". Another important name to mention (there are many of course) is Tony Furse who engineered the Qasar M8 synthesiser that morphed into the Fairlight. Tony's technology (which we licensed) gave us a huge advantage.
According to Rick Wakeman he once asked Dr Bob Moog how his name was pronounced as he was conscious of getting it wrong...do you pronounce it "Moooog" or "Mowg"? Apparently Bob just smiled and said "I really don't mind". So if Bob doesn't mind, why should anyone else? David Bowie didn't mind either ("Bow-ee" "Booey" etc) and was known to pronounce it differently himself from time to time.
It's maybe a little bit surprising to learn that this 30th anniversary ( although handcrafted like the 1908s originals series ) is only a fraction of the cost of the originals. It would be interesting to take a census of those hundred or so 1980s models to find out where they are and who owns them.
A very interesting album. Not their best, but best commercially. But a ton of hit songs off it. Give me Candy O over Heartbeat City anytime ;) Heartbeat City was probably better Panorama...maybe :) But I liked Panorama just fine
Hi There this is Mr C. T. Boxill-Harris, I was wondering if they need to do the exact same version of Everybody's Got To Learn Sometime, why don’t they just Replace the Synthesiser String Sound to an Musette Accordion sound, and also Replace the Xylophone Sound to an 4 Times More Deeper Chime Bell or Even a 5 Times More Deeper Still Drum Sound, Because it is Still my Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Favourite Song Ever Since I was about 11 Years of Age Thank You 😉👍😉👏👏😉👍😉👏👏😉👍😉👏👏😉👍😉👏👏😉👍😉👏👏😉👍😉👏👏😉👍😉👏👏😉👍😉👏👏😉👍😉👏👏😉👍😉👏👏😉👍😉👏👏😉👍😉👏👏😉👍😉👏👏😉👍😉👏👏😉👍😉👏👏😉👍😉👏👏😉👍😉👏👏😉👍😉👏👏😉👍😉👏👏😉👍😉👏👏😉👍😉👏👏😉👍😉👏👏😉👍😉👏👏😉👍😉👏👏😉👍😉👏👏😉👍😉👏👏
Sadly, if you didn't get this when it came out, you probably never will. The injunction against PVI selling it is still in place. The best we'll ever get is the iOS app - which is the entire reason there are no 30A's able to be sold.
The biggest issue i had with the CMI 30A was the terrible price. The original already was so expensive that only the elite of musicians and producers could afford one. And the 30A, dispite all the technical progress and cheaper price for the parts, still cost an arm and a leg. I already had to give up the hope to ever be able to afford and play on one of these…
Michael Bauers They do. Unfortunately, that iOS app is the reason you can’t get a CMI-30A today. That touched off a whole legal firestorm that ended with an injunction against selling the CMI-30A that still exists to this day.
10 years before the mouse was invented! (1989?) 🤣 The mouse was invented 11 years before it (Douglas Engelbart - 1968, NLS system). Commercially available six years before the CMI Fairlight.
True, also the rather silly excuse regarding the keyboard & them needing to make it in house. Keyboards were available & even IBM probably would have sold them some that they could adapt. It seems a lot of what they were doing was wrong & hence why they chose to have it at a high price knowing it could be sold to a select group. So essentially a short term project that tech would always supersede as costs were driven down.
I had one of these. Whilst it looked great it was let down by running under Windows (yes windows!) It kept dropping tracks. Once I had that happened I sold it right away. You can't have dropping tracks.
Interesting, this pronunciation thing. I've always referred to the machine as a Mooooog, and so did just about everyone else outside of the USA, so it came as some surprise when I saw an interview with Robert and he was referred to as Moog (as in Vogue). Like another poster said though, old habits die hard and I still pronounce it the way I have done for over 50 years. When you see the word for the first time and you are an English speaker (or even if you're not) that's the way you would naturally pronounce it, but obviously Robert's pronunciation trumps everyone else even though it doesn't make a lot of sense. So, it's Moge all the way! :) By the way, I agree those presenters (especially the male variety) were extraordinarily patronising towards such a clever individual..
It’s unfair that they believe he has dissuaded the next generation of musicians from picking up “real instruments”. The computer age was going to happen no matter what and instruments were going to become computerized. I think it’s up to the preference of the musicians; what tech and instruments they are going to use. Personally I use a guitar, real synthesizers, bass guitar, bass synth, real racks and effects; but I also use everything I can to support my sound with what the computer provides in engineering and actual music production. Also we as musicians would never be able to have the personal studios at our disposal nowadays without computers and daws. As a result I probably would’ve never even became a musician in the first place. Computers quite literally perform the job of almost an entire studios layout.
Produced by children. Terrible production, constantly showing that scene when they are done talking about Stevie and it doesn't even contain a Fairlight.
5.42. What a great time it was! People thought, that if you can't touch smth, then there is no need for copyright protection. Then guys like Steve Jobs (let him rest in peace) and Bill Gates came into this area and explained, that it was wrong to think like this.
NuGanjaTron got to remember that Australia legitimately did lag behind back in those days. 1979 is probably close enough to 10 years before PC were “popularised” (he didn’t say invented) here. Definitely it was the late 80’s before they were anything near mainstream. My dad got his first PC in ~1996 and he was an academic working in the field. (Signal processing, later AI). If you had a computer in the 1980’s in Australia you were a very early adopter. Yeah on the mouse thing I expect he misspoke, but this was still 4-5 years ahead on the first PC mouses. Again they weren’t properly popularised until a bit after that.
@@NuGanjaTron Pretty sure he meant 10 years before PCs had PCM capability which isn't far off, first PC sound card with sample based audio (PCM) was in 1987 but was a single channel pretty crude piece of junk. First Soundblaster card was in 1989 but it too was pretty ordinary, wasn't until about 1991 before it became decent enough. Amiga computers on the otherhand had decent 4 channel PCM onboard soundchip which was technically superior to Fairlight series I and II at a fraction of the price in 1985.
I know synthesizer experts who mispronounce it. I am not joking. Bonafide synthesizer masters, who actually know they don't say it properly, but admit they learned it wrong, and can't correct themselves.
That guy that said oh that was start of MJ song Thriller when he put his finger on the key, Is he tone deaf as that was obviously the start of Beat It !!!!
She also seems to be not the brightest light... she states that "the 80s very wild", but Walter went into Wendy in the early 70's. And the MJ sound was a Synclavier. It's just sampled into the CMI here for the Wow-effect
the bass line in thriller is a minimoog. I saw a video on here about it. when it was pure analog signal,,before M.I.D.I. and before the fairlight C.M.I.
He said he did not know it was out there? Some people didn't know about Fairlight? What's wrong with them? I knew about it when I was a kid in the 80s. And please pronounce Moog to rhyme with Rogue or Vogue.
8:28 "you shouldn't have to look at a screen to play music" he says as he literally demonstrates an instrument with a screen 😄 but seriously the CMI was groundbreaking
yeah, I can see how some might see the Melotron as a sampler, but it was more of a ROMpler, because I didn't think users created their own sounds ( not sure Melotron offered that ability)
dutch menneer are you being pedantic and would rather he said taught? Sorry I meant semantic don’t shoot, don’t shoot!! Or are you suggesting that he never taught Wonder how to use the invention and he just magically picked up this piece of equipment and had to teach himself because a blind person can’t be taught by a sighted man? Hmm...
First real sampler. First sampler that could do what we call key groups now. These were innovative but were replaced by the esoniq mirage and akai mpc line. Nobody since the early 90s would have used one of these. Nobody would use one now. There isnt any good music made just on a fairlight but moments in love. But moogs still sound good and music made just on moogs still sounds good. These were ahaead of the time but cheesey and no reason to buy one since the mirage or mpc
pretty much, but some say the Fairlight has a distinctive sound due to it's specific implementation. No idea how close the 30A comes to the original ( and there were different models of original with different specs.)
There's no need for this setup anymore other than the build quality and energy that goes into the hardware. I have an Arturia cmi and operate in a daw which I can take on stage with an 88 key controller and laptop. The idea was brilliant but the execution was wrong. Like many great minds, their vision shaped the future but they didn't consider the economies of scale.
