Fairlight CMI - Features Timeline

Features Timeline

Qasar I, II, and (last) M8 (1975–1977)

Made by Fairlight and Creative Strategies

• Price: $20,000 base price
• CPUs: Dual Motorola 6800
• Storage: Hole paper tape reader
• Memory: 4 kB per voice
• Voices: 8 voices (no sampling, just numeric additive synthesis with 128 harmonics)
• Synthesis: Additive synthesis; dynamic harmonic control, waveform editing

CMI Series I (1979)

Musical sampler was introduced.

• Price: ~£18,000
• CPUs: Dual Motorola 6800
• Storage: Two 8" floppy drives
• Memory: 16 kB per voice, System: 64 kB, Video: 16 kB (512x256 pixels)
• Voices: 8 voices of polyphony
• Synthesis: waveform drawing via lightpen; dynamic harmonic control, waveform editing
• Sampling: 8 bits at 16 kHz (mono)
• Sequencer: Basic keyboard sequencer, Musical Composition Language (MCL),
• Keyboard: 73 note unweighted velocity sensitive + slave keyboard

CMI Series II (1980)

• Price: ~£25,000
• CPUs: Dual Motorola 6800
• Storage: Two 8" floppy drives
• Memory: 16 kB per voice, System: 64 kB, Video: 16 kB (512x256 pixels)
• Voices: 8 voices of polyphony
• Synthesis: dynamic harmonic control (Page 4); waveform generating (Page 5); waveform drawing via lightpen (Page 6)
• Sampling: 8 bits at 2100 Hz to 30.2 kHz (mono) (Page 8)
• Sequencer: Basic keyboard sequencer (Page 9), Musical Composition Language (MCL, Page C), Realtime Composer (Page R)
• Keyboard: 73 note unweighted velocity sensitive + slave keyboard
• I/O: No MIDI, optional CV/Gate interface (Page A)

CMI Series IIx (1983)

• Price: ~£27,000
• CPUs: Dual Motorola 6809
• Storage: Two 8" floppy drives
• Memory: 16 kB per voice, System: 256 kB, Video: 16 kB (512x256 pixels)
• Voices: 8 voices of polyphony
• Synthesis: waveform drawing via lightpen; dynamic harmonic control, waveform editing
• Sampling: 8 bits at 2100 Hz to 30.2 kHz (mono) (Page 8)
• Sequencer: Page R, Basic keyboard sequencer, Musical Composition Language (MCL)
• Keyboard: 73 note unweighted velocity sensitive + slave keyboard
• I/O: MIDI, SMPTE

CMI Series III (1985)

• Price: £50,000
• CPUs: Dual Motorola 6809 CPUs, and one 6809 CPU for each voice card, one Motorola 68000 (to 68020) for waveform processor card
• Storage: Hard drive and Tape DC600 Streamer (ESDI, SCSI), one 8" floppy drive
• Memory: 14 MB, expandable to 32 MB and maximum 64 MB on last hard revision (RAM RAM disk), System: 356 kB
• Voices: 16 voices of polyphony (expandable)
• Synthesis: waveform drawing via graphics tablet; FFT; waveform editing
• Sampling: 16 bits at 100 kHz (mono) or 50 kHz (stereo)
• Sequencer: CAPS (Composer, Arranger, Performer Sequencer), 80 track polyphonic, Musical Composition Language (MCL),
• Keyboard: 73 note unweighted velocity sensitive (MIDI compatible)
• I/O: MIDI, SMPTE

CMI Series 30A (30th Anniversary) (announced in 2009, released in 2011)

• ~$20,000
• Retro look and feel of the original CMI
• Sound architecture based on the new Crystal Core

CMI-30A Hardware Specifications

System Components

• Mainframe — free-standing and adaptable to rack mount, includes 500GB SATA hard drive, DVD R/W drive, USB ports.
  (Welded aluminium enclosure. Width:58 cm, Depth:50 cm, Height:30 cm, Weight:32 kg)
• Monitor — 17" 1280 x 1024 pixels
  (Width:51 cm, Depth:28 cm, Height:38 cm, Weight:12 kg)
• Lightpen — Precision machined stainless steel pointer with left/right click button
• QWERTY keyboard — 85 clicky keys, USB output
• Music keyboard — Fatar 76 key TP40GH, with weighted keys and hammer action for a real piano feel,
  velocity and aftertouch, pitch wheel, mod wheel, 3 assignable rotary controls, 2 assignable switches, assignable multitouch colour screen
  (Width:130 cm, Depth:44 cm, Height:9.5 cm, Weight:25 kg)

Audio Outputs

• 12 channels analogue, balanced TRS
• 2 channels analogue monitor mix, balanced TRS (front panel access)
  (Dynamic range > 100 dB (unweighted); THD < 0.002% @ 1 kHz, −1dBFS; Frequency response +0.05 / −0.15 dB, 20 Hz – 20 kHz)
• Digital output: 64 channel BNC MADI

Audio Inputs

• 2 balanced mic/line inputs XLR, phantom power 48V option
  (Sample rate: 44.1, 48, 96, 192 kHz; THD < 0.002% @ 1 kHz, −1dBFS; Frequency response +0.05 / −0.15 dB, 20 Hz – 20 kHz)
• SPDIF

Other I/O

• USB, Pedal x 3
• MIDI and MIDI Timecode input and output via 5 pin DIN
• LTC (Linear Time Code) input and output
• Word clock (for synchronisation to external sources)

Power

• 100–240V AC — Mainframe & Keyboard: 9W, Monitor: 50W

Fairlight Pro App for iPhone, iPod Touch & iPad, iOS 4.0 or later. (2011)

• £29.99
• Entire original Fairlight CMI IIX Sound Library containing 564 voices.
• 100+ selected CMI III sounds - play the CMI voices from an external MIDI input or the on-screen keyboard.
• Display voices graphically using ‘Page D’, and change your viewpoint by tilting the iPhone/iPad.
• Authentic Fairlight CMI user interface.
• 8 track composition using ‘Page R’ pattern-based sequencer.
• Ability to create instrument sets that store settings for all 8 channels, including the voices, pitch shifts, volumes, release times etc.
• Import/export voices, compositions, MIDI and instruments.