Developed in Australia during the ’70s and ’80s, the Fairlight CMI (Computer Musical Instrument) was the first commercial sampler and screen-based rhythm sequencer. Today every sampler, digital synthesizer, sequencer and audio workstation can trace its lineage back to this legendary machine. Now you can have, in your pocket or on your iPad, a piece of history developed by Fairlight staff who worked on the CMI in the ’80s.
You can Buy and download the Pro App from the App Store, or if you are not sure you want the Pro features, you can get the Player App and play original Fairlight CMI sounds and sequences straight away. Then if you want to create your own masterpieces you can use the in-app upgrade process to get all the Pro features listed in the Features page.
You can find an audio montage of Fairlight App sounds, made by a Fairlight customer, on SoundCloud.
Video Guide 1
Features OverviewVideo Guide 2
Player vs. ProVideo Guide 3
Voice Sampling
Accepts input from Core MIDI devices as well as from the Line 6 MIDI Mobilizer and Akai SynthStation.
A great way to get quality audio into the new sampling feature in version 1.1 is via iRig Mic, and the perfect support for your iPad is iKlip.
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Hello Thomas, Peter and all. I have two questions: 1. Will you realese the whole series 3 library as an in-app upgrade or any new sounds for the app in the future? 2. Will it be or is there a community for app-users to exchange files and “Page R”-songs?
I enjoy the PRO-app a lot and your support is excellent (thanks again Thomas!).
Sincerely
Bo Johansson
Bo, the CMI III voice library is too big to fit on an iPhone or iPad, so I don’t think it’s practical to release it at the moment. However, that could fit with your second question. We have always considered a community music exchange for the CMI and the App, but our initial research didn’t show much enthusiasm from the community. Now is the time for you all to tell us we were mistaken!
Thomas, I don’t have a clue how big the CMI III library is but I see your point here.
How about offering the whole library file by file for any app user to buy? Or maybe the whole library for the app user to choose files from, to be uploaded to the device when needed?
I would buy singel files or perhaps the whole library if offered on your site.
Maybe I’m a dreamer?
In 1986 I was 16, totally into Gabriel/Kate/Jarre and dreamed of owning a CMI: I painted the “Fi” logo on my wall and even went so far as to buy a Fairlight slave keyboard when it came up for sale from a studio in London (I still have it, and the hand-crafted pcb is a little ornament on my mantelpiece – it has a sticker with “Lyn”, a quality control person maybe? and the Fi logo nicely etched on it). Then, in ’89 I helped with a recording at CTS Wembley for a TV drama. They had a Fairlight and I was asked if I could use it. Well, I wasn’t going to pass that up, so I lied that I could
but luckily only the keyboard of their SIII was there… so, a bit of an obsession you might say. Many, many years later, having become a teacher rather than a superstar, one of the reasons for getting an iPad was your app, and the fun of being able to explore it in some way at last. But tonight, my four year old son saw I had a midi keyboard connected to the iPad and asked if he could have a go. So there he was, playing the Fairlight app; his first foray into electronic composition was on a Fairlight (!) Funny how things go. Thanks guys.
Hello. I bought the pro app for the iPhone. Having to buy the iPad, my question is “Do I have to pay for the iPad version of the app or I will be able to download it on the new device without charge ?”
Thx in advance.
Hello Antonio. I bought the app for iPad and it’s on my iPhone 4 as well. I payed once and there was no charge for the iPhone version. I’m on iOS 5 by the way.
Best regards
Bo
Please don’t forget about us poor souls who compose in more than one time signature. Thanks.
The uppdate are realy amazing!!
THE sampling option!
Attack / Realize !
Hide/expand keyboard!
Improved timing !
Click Track!!
The wish list:
8bit sampling !
Vibrato, Portamento !
Tracking filter !
Thanks, Jesper. I’ve added your votes for these features.
Congratulations on adding the new features. I would like to see the filter, vibrato and sustain added in the next release.
Alex, I’ve added your vote for vibrato and sustain. But which filter did you mean?
The low pass filter that was present in the original fairlight cmi II on page 7.
Many thanks for your kind words Martin. Would make a great review for the app store
Bought the app two days ago and I never experienced shorter flight trips, utterly consumed by this fantastic app. Fellow passengers looked suspiciously on the green appearence on my iPad, but I soon forgot them. I grew up intensly listening to Jean-Michel Jarre, Magnetic Fields and Concerts in China, so this app was the most amazing experience I have had for some years. I’m in lucky tears for the opportunity to challenge myself with the Fairlight. Best app so far on my pad.
I received a reply about the missing samples on the Fairlight app. It has made me wonder about one thing. Do Fairlight automatically get a copy of a sample that I sample myself on the App for them to be able to replace it if my samples appear missing? Please advise
No, we don’t get a copy of anything on your device. The only place the voices exist is on your device, or on your computer if you have copied them via iTunes.
If your voicedata directory exists, and the voice files have not been deleted, and you send them to us along with your database, we can generate new .VCX files for you to import.
How many sounds are in the upgrade to Pro?
There are more than 110 voices in the CMI III collection.
Any chance of an Android version appearing?
John, all things are possible, but I can’t see it happening this year.
“Yes, 8 bit and lower sampling speed would be nice features, we’ll add it to our (long) list of requests.”
Lovely!!
I know its less quality – but that is the certain effect I am on about here.
On the fairlight it didn’t sound that bad at all – more warm and fuzzy but still piercing at times…
Steven,
Yes, 8 bit and lower sampling speed would be nice features, we’ll add it to our (long) list of requests.
Thanks!
Peter
Hi Peter.
Thats great.
I bought the pro app today by the way.
Its great…
Some more tutorial videos would still be welcome though!!
Keep up the great work there!
Steve.
It’s an amazing app!
Steve, I am just putting the finishing touches on the demo video for sampling. In the process I found a bug which can cause sampled voices to get lost. A bugfix is wating for Apple approval. Please see the workaround here in the meantime http://fairlightinstruments.com.au/?qa_faqs=important-export-your-sampled-voices
To add to my question – I’ve been doing a bit of reading – maybe instead of 8-bit mode, the sound I am on about was maybe the result of the early Fairlight’s 24 kHz sampling mode…
Would it be possible to add support for this? I take it the current sampling rate is 44 Khz, 16 bit, in the app?
Hi.
I have the player app and the new update is much better.
I am seriously thinking of upgrading to pro. My question is – can the app (or indeed could the real Fairlight), let you just press Record and play something on the keyboard that would be recorded and you could play it back again.. Or do you have to sit there and draw each individual note on the sequencer page?
Hope this question makes sense. Thanks.
Steven, the simple answer is – yes! In both the CMI and the Fairlight App, in Page R, after selecting a track and a note length and insert mode, playing notes on the on-screen keyboard or an external MIDI keyboard will insert notes.
Hi Thomas.
Thats great to hear! I am buying now!!!
On a side note, as a huge Peter Gabriel fan here, I well remember his 1982 documentary on the making of his fourth solo album. It was recorded for the South Bank Show, here in the UK.
It featured the Fairlight throughout the program as the album was made quite heavily with one.
I loved watching him demonstrate the Fairlight and it showed you him making samples for it – smashing TV’s, singing, blowing etc.
Years later, watching this – I still thought the Fairlight was a really cool instrument/production tool – even to this day – so as soon as I saw it was available on IOS, I had to get it. Now we have sampling thats the icing on the cake.
One small thing though… If you are familiar with that album it is full of samples on the Fairlight and they sound sort of 8-bit – but in a good way.
I know PG worked with Larry Fast to process the signals eg. the harmonica samples etc. but it had a rather unique sound.. It would be cool if the Fairlight sampling routine could do 8-bit mode..
My question really is I suppose – did or could the original Fairlight sound like that – or was it just Larry Fast’s processing of the sounds later that made it sound the way it did. I realise this could be a hard question to answer accurately especially if you are not familiar with these PG albums (3 and 4).
To simplify – is there likely to be an 8-bit filter on sampled sounds?