Fairlight CMI

This is probably the oldest synth Joel has. In this instagram post we see his Moog Sub Phatty sitting atop his Fairlight CMI.

"Making sure my Fairlight is still working...". Jean Michel Jarre use this sampler on the album Zoolook [1984].

A Fairlight CMI (Series IIx) sampler/synthesizer. Only used by Rick in Zee’s Confüsion

According to the website "Synthtopia," this audio recording features Vince Clarke, in 1984, discussing the Fairlight CMI and how he was using it at the time.

Lindsey recording Tango with the Fairlight Screen behind him!

this video and also linear notes to albums (various)

Atari 1040 ST, Atari Mega ST 4, Roland: Super JX 10, S 50, D 50, MKS 80, MKS 30, U 110, MPG 80; Akai X 7000, Fairlight, Yamaha TX 81 Z, Akai S 612, Korg DVP 1, Roland SRV 2000, Korg SDD 1200, Ibanez SDR 1000, Eventide Harmonizer, 3x Hohner HS-1/E, 2x Klark EQ, Arsonic-Sigma 5.2, EMS Synthi A, and others...

This Sound On Sound article states: "The huge cost of the Fairlight CMI did not put the rich and famous off. Peter Vogel brought an early CMI to the UK in person, and one of the first people to get one was Peter Gabriel. Once UK distributor Syco Systems had been set up, the client list started to grow. John Paul Jones (Led Zeppelin) bought the first as a replacement for his Mellotron. He was soon followed by Kate Bush, Thomas Dolby, Geoff Downes, Queen, Keith Emerson, Alan Parsons, Stuart Copeland, JJ of Art of Noise, Trevor Horn and Frankie Goes To Hollywood, and many others."

At the beginning of [this article](http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/aug14/articles/classic-tracks-0814.htm), there is a photo of Gabriel with a Firelight, as the caption underneath confirms.

This sampler was used in his albums starting with the soundtrack to "Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence". It can be seen starting 25:24. It can also be seen in this video: https://youtu.be/fXcCdy0dkGo

He is seen showing off his Fairlight in the video at 17:00

The attached image is from the sleeve of the Discovery album and the Fairlight Series II (keyboard, computer and monitor) can be seen in the centre. Oldfield was one of the early Fairlight owners. He actually had two of them (astonishingly, given their cost at the time!), both of which were used for live work. (reference tubular.net http://tubular.net/instruments/#SAMPLER )

Accoring to this article Roland Orzabal used a Fairlight CMI when recording Tears For Tears classic album Songs From the Big Chair

Nick is pictured performing with his CMI underneath his Jupiter 8..

"With careful manipulation you can use the latest technology to drive the old stuff anyway; for instance, I use a Fairlight CMI to drive the Minimoog, because I still don't think there's been a better lead synthesizer than the Minimoog in terms of actual solo synth playing."

"A picture of Chris Lowe from the Pet Shop Boys playing a Fairlight Series III on"

"The Transcendent was soon joined by a Moog Micromoog, a Crumar string synthesiser, a Fender Rhodes, a Roland Jupiter 4, an early PPG system (with which he performed his original solo concerts), a PPG Wave 2.2 (a gift from PPG because the original instrument was so unreliable), a Jupiter 8, a Fairlight Series II and a Fairlight Series III."

This Sound On Sound article states: "The huge cost of the Fairlight CMI did not put the rich and famous off. Peter Vogel brought an early CMI to the UK in person, and one of the first people to get one was Peter Gabriel. Once UK distributor Syco Systems had been set up, the client list started to grow. John Paul Jones (Led Zeppelin) bought the first as a replacement for his Mellotron. He was soon followed by Kate Bush, Thomas Dolby, Geoff Downes, Queen, Keith Emerson, Alan Parsons, Stuart Copeland, JJ of Art of Noise, Trevor Horn and Frankie Goes To Hollywood, and many others."

For the 12-inch ‘US Remix’ of ‘The Look Of Love’, Trevor Horn utilised the Fairlight to create a groundbreaking extended mix which chimed with early hip-hop records, using the sampler to bend and ‘scratch’ various elements of the track. “I actually think that was the best 12-inch I ever did,” he says. “Everything kind of came together on that one. What I’d said to JJ was, ‘I want bits of everything on the Fairlight — bits of the strings, bits of the vocal, just anything.’ I seemed to manage to get a narrative through it, playing these things on the Fairlight keyboard."

Accoring to this article Curt Smith used a Fairlight CMI when recording Tears For Tears classic album Songs From the Big Chair

The ARticle I linked to mentions the production of Heartbeat City in 1983-1984. THe most notable piece of keyboard gear on that entire album was the CMI Fairlight - which was an extremely expensive, 16-bit computer powered samplling synthesizer with a TOUCH SCREEN (yes, a TOUCH SCREEN in 1984) for editing the waveforms of the samples. It was used for a lot of things on that album - it's all over "Hello Again" - orchestra hits, all sorts of other stuff. Greg Cites in a few spots in this article.... Unfortunately, that's much easier said than done, particularly when dealing with the level of automation the Fairlight CMI entails. People are fallible, and unlike computers, don't always land each note smack in the middle of the beat, That's what makes so much music feel human. That's also what makes programming for feel hell on the programmer, Greg Hawkes Both Greg and Ric used the Fairlight CMI extensively on Heartbeat City, but also used the Roland Jupiter B and Vocoder, the Memorymoog, the Yamaha DX7 and DX9, the Mini-Korg, a Prophet 5 and a PPG 3.2 Wave synthesizer.

Ric used the CMI Fairlight on Heartbeat City as well as Greg Hawkes for some parts Greg Hawkes Both Greg and Ric used the Fairlight CMI extensively on Heartbeat City, but also used the Roland Jupiter B and Vocoder, the Memorymoog, the Yamaha DX7 and DX9, the Mini-Korg, a Prophet 5 and a PPG 3.2 Wave synthesizer.

John Flansburgh explains on Tumblr that a Fairlight CMI unit was used during the production of their first album.

At his photo Jan hammer sits with a CMI Fairlight, Roland Jupiter 8, Moog Memorymoog, Yamaha DX7.

Paul is credited with "Fairlight CMI" in the liner notes for the album *Junk Culture.*

Yello's music has always been characterised by a willingness on Blank's part to experiment with all manner of sounds, drawing on his vast and ever-growing Fairlight CMI sample library

"Their layered style of recording also made it easier to work from Stanley's home studio, which the band had recently upgraded using advance money from the second album. Stanley's newly expanded home studio included a 32-channel Soundcraft console, a 24-track analog tape machine and room for the band's keyboard and synthesizer collection, which included such classic designs as Sequential Circuits Prophet 5, Fairlight CMI, Roland Jupiter 8, Yamaha DX7 synthesizer and PPG Wave. They also had a LinnDrum LM-2, another recent acquisition."

Andy is credited with "Fairlight CMI" in the liner notes for the album *Junk Culture*.

As mentioned in this forum, Kaye used a Fairlight, Oberheim OB8 and Kawai grand piano in the studio during the recording of 90125.

Kirk is playing a Fairlight CMI in this video.

"...The item can be seen 2:39 into this video..."

"I use whatever's handy", says Kershaw. "The Fairlight, Emulators, a JX10, old Oberheims, PPG Waves, my TX rack... I find DX sounds get lost so easily in a mix, but the TX helps push them back up."

Over the years, Ron Mael has played numerous synths, keyboards and computer-based instruments — Moog's Polymoog, Roland's JP-4 and JP-8, the Wurlitzer electric piano and the Fairlight CMI, to name a few — but his workhorse favorites have been the Yamaha CS-80 (produced in the late '70s) and the sleeker S80 (introduced in 1999).

"I basically used everything you can think of except the Synclavier. I wrote and programmed most of the stuff here on the 9000 and the Studio 440 then transferred all the drum parts to a Fairlight III via a Simmons converter. For one song the basic program was on a Linn, then I had a clap from the Emulator, a bass drum from the Fairlight and a conga from the DX. Which meant I was using the Fairlight as a bass drum."

"On my own album and on Melba Moore I used Fairlight CMI a lot. I use Page R mainly because it's so easy to use. It works the way the human mind works; you can bung a one bar idea into it, then modify it into a two bar idea, then into a whole song, then have different fills every eight bars. It's a great way of working because you don't have to conceive the whole thing in a blob. Previously you used to have to hold the thing in your head, but now it's getting to the point where you can actually sketch onto these machines, and from that sketch you can build the full colour picture."

"At the moment, though, we've got quite a massive library of chips for the Movement, and recently we parallel triggered an SDS7 Simmons set-up. Plus we have a Fairlight as well to do drums if we really want to."

Martin is credited with "Fairlight CMI" in the liner notes for the album *Junk Culture*.

The first and second photo show Steve Levine with a Fairlight CMI.

Q: Rachel Stevens’ “Some Girls” was one of your biggest hits in the UK. What do you remember about recording this track, and is it true that you used the synthesizer once owned by the Thompson Twins? A: Ha! Yes, there was the Thompson Twins’ Fairlight IIx sampler, the big old white ’80s machine with the computer monitor on top. It had apparently been on stage at Live Aid in the USA.