The Wonder from Down Under: The Fairlight CMI Digital Sampling Synthesiser

Re:The Wonder from Down Under: The Fairlight CMI Digital Sam... by paulgerhardt on Monday October 15, 2018 @10:02PM (#18225790)

If anyone has one of these gorgeous machines (or knows someone that has one), please get in touch (email in profile). Through a very circuitous process I managed to score some of those 8" floppys Vogel made for the CMI in 1979 - would love to rip them for the Internet Archive and hear them in their original glory.

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Re:The Wonder from Down Under: The Fairlight CMI Digital Sam... by meee on Monday October 15, 2018 @10:54PM (#18226021)

The gearslutz.com community may be able to help. There are many enthusiasts and threads on emulation and soundbanks.

Also, for fun, Herbie Hancock explaining a CMI to David Letterman. Around 4:50 if the link acts up. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5QQgZmu4hZ0&feature=youtu.be...

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Re:The Wonder from Down Under: The Fairlight CMI Digital Sam... by kimburgess on Monday October 15, 2018 @11:59PM (#18226352)

Not sure where you are in the world, but if you / the disks can make it to Melbourne, I'd recommend reaching out to https://mess.foundation/. If they don't have direct access to one, they will almost certainly be able to help you track down someone who does.

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Re:The Wonder from Down Under: The Fairlight CMI Digital Sam... by TheOtherHobbes on Tuesday October 16, 2018 @03:26AM (#18227357)

As well as Vogel's own CMI app, Arturia make a VST called Fairlight V which has most of the original sounds and does an excellent job of capturing the audio character of the instrument.

Chances are good the floppies are part of the original sample library, which is widely available.

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Re:The Wonder from Down Under: The Fairlight CMI Digital Sam... by paulgerhardt on Tuesday October 16, 2018 @01:27PM (#18231277)

They came with an invoice from Deram Limited in London sent to Roger Linn in Hollywood. Signed by Gloria Calbrath and John Styx. The invoice says the producer was Vic Coppersmith. Artist: Europeans. Invoice line items says it includes "ENC DEMO SAMPLES FOR LINN ELECTRONICS". Dated January, 1982.

The three disks are labeled:

1) "Ultranox drum sounds, Simmons Drums Sounds, Tom Severetts Drum Sounds"

2) "Freddie Perren's Drum Sounds"

3) "Audio Disk: Vic Coppersmith / Europeans"

All three disks are BASF 128 Bytes(!), 25 Sectors.

If you can point me in the direction of those original sample libraries I would be appreciate it, as it gives me a space to start parsing these!

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Re:The Wonder from Down Under: The Fairlight CMI Digital Sam... by femto on Tuesday October 16, 2018 @01:54AM (#18226933)

You could always contact Vogel direct:

http://petervogelinstruments.com.au/contact/

or if you like the synthesiser, you could buy (part of) the company:

http://petervogelinstruments.com.au/invest/

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Edit: The website is also spruiking a $50 app which appears to be based on the original CMI source?

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Re:The Wonder from Down Under: The Fairlight CMI Digital Sam... by raphlinus on Tuesday October 16, 2018 @12:46AM (#18226599)

The Vintage Synthesizer Museum in Oakland has one, I got to play with it. They might be able to do something with the disks.

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Re:The Wonder from Down Under: The Fairlight CMI Digital Sam... by paulgerhardt on Tuesday October 16, 2018 @12:50AM (#18226613)

Ah perfect! Will drop by as well as reach out to the Mess foundation in Melbourne!

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