Regarding the CRT. That CRT likely still has its vacuum. What you are seeing is the glue degrading whith which the implosion shield has been glued to the tube itself. Some CRTs used implosion shields like this to protect the user from shrapnel in case of an implosion. Another issue is said glue seeping out of the CRT at the bottom and corroding the implosion band around the CRT/boards sitting underneath it. The glue can be removed, by leaving the tube in the sun and carefully cutting around the implosion shield to get through he outer most layer of dried glue. Then with a needle isopropyl alxohol can be injected between the shield and tube itself to aid in softening the glue. I then use a thin piece of acrylic to scrape the glue out until the implosion shield comes off. Afterwards the shield is re glued around the edges where its obscured by the bezel with double sided tape to get the spacing right. During the process of glue removal i like to keep the CRT in a bucket whith the mounts sitting on the ledge so the risk of snapping the neck is reduced. However one needs to be extremely careful when doing this as a CRT implosion is no laughing matter.
Yeah, it looks like classic cataracts, though usually they start at the edges; here, it appears to be progressing from the centre. I have the same issue on my VT100. And yeah, removing the shield is a very dangerous process!
Agree - and yes, watch out if you need to replace the band, as that provides a significant structural element to the glass. I've seen CRTs shatter with just a bump with the shield and band off. It's possible to get a "like" tube replacement, or at least it was five years ago, but the phosphors will be different, and replacing it with an LCD never looks right and makes the light pen problematic since it relied on the vertical sweep to detect position.
When I went to college in London between 1979-83 we acquired around 1981 one of the first Series 1 Fairlights in the UK and had "lessons" with Hugh McDowell the then cello player in ELO (no longer alive sadly). Spool forward to 1987 and I acquired Alan Parson's Series IIx, which had the original sequence and guitar samples for Mammagamma (guessing a play on Ummagumma), a very impressive piece of programming, as the echoed notes in the lead line were actually programmed notes with descending velocity. It also has the original 8-track foundation sequences and sounds for Two Tribes (Frankie) and Close to the Edit (Art of Noise), which I recorded and still have today. In 1988 I stepped up to the Series III (from Andrew Stirling at Syco Systems) and parted with the IIx. I think the Series III once fully-load cost me around £40,000, which considering I'd paid £56,000 a year earlier for my first house, gives you an idea of the relative eye-waterng cost. I recall the additional 2MB cards cost £2,000 each - mad! Look forward to seeing how your restoration quest goes.
Wow, JJ for sure managed to get every ounce of sound out of the early CMI's back in those ZTT days! I hope you or someone has managed to archive the floppy's. :D
i love that your dad was just like "son you need this technology. just trust me" and then you used it till it broke. it sounds like he knew you well. :)
So happy to see this video Michael. I was so worried that it wouldn’t arrive or arrive in pieces and my relief was immense, so looking forwards to the series. Thank you again. David
Such a difficult year David and yet we managed to make this work. I've played a few of your CD's during this time working on the CMI :D Thank you so much!
In case you don't know yet: It looks like the problem with that monitor is mainly what is called "cataract": It has a protective sheet of glass (possibly tinted) in front of the actual CRT, and the stuff between the front and the CRT got molded. This is very repairable but takes some special handling. There a videos on UA-cam showing you how to do it. Thanks for posting! Looking forward to the next episode.
New sub, i dont understand why it took yt so long to suggest your channel! Amazing, thanks for sharing mate! Nice to have a local channel covering this kind of stuff. I'm in Donnybrook WA!
Nice to see you back! 👍 Before "information superhighway" took off I heard legends about Fairlight. Colleague who "knows someone who seen one" told us stories (some exaggerated) about capabilities. We admired how Jean-Michel Jarre, Mark Shreeve and others used it. And Peter Mergener had his Emulator II+ 🙂 Fun times, when you're young music affects emotions more directly 😁
So cool! Best of luck with the restoration. I have an IIx with the same front panel as yours. My chassis SN is SNA108050. My understanding is it was made in October 1980, the 50th CMI made. But that's too early for MIDI, so it was retrofitted at some point after 1984.
Quite luxurious! I had a taperecorder with a turning knob but this was a few years earlier I guess. Can’t remember the brand, was cheap so nothing much I guess.
I had the same cassette recorder n2214 only after a couple of years the pinch roller alignment went out so it would damage the tapes . I had earlier models of Philips tape recorder that were metal mechanism so that not an issue . Yes suppose was new Sumner 76. The first tape I ever played on it was "mamas & the papas hits of gold" on stateside label
The IIx returns "home". I worked with a IIx on a project once-upon-a-time, and always wanted one of my own. About five years ago I again had the chance to buy one, but I actually passed on it because I thought it would be better used somewhere else and not just sitting in my studio. So much time has passed now on these that, while I'm sure they could be musically useful, there are just so many other tools that realistically a IIx is just a labor of love and not economically useful for working people. And that's just fine - maintaining such old electronics gets harder each year (just ask me about my older equipment) and nobody ever built them to last this long. I look forward to seeing whatever challenges there are in restoring the "guts" - I don't think there were many if any custom chips, which would be really problematic today to replace.
The great thing with the Fairlight is all the schematics, theory of operation and diagnostic untilities. Still a heavy lift to get working (and seriously heavy to lift) but well worth it :D
Just amazing - as a user in the 90s and 00s - my buddy has 3 - super interested to see this and also look forward to the next episode! Well done!! JPMusic/NZ
I just found this video and your channel Michael and have just subscribed. Very cool to see another Aussie taking on a Fairlight restoration. I see a few familiar names here in the comments too. I'm in the FB Fiarlight group but haven't been using Facebook now for months. I was collaborating with Peter Weilk restoring CMI31 channel cards around 2021 but my life circumstances at the time put an end to that project. I'll be following your project here with great interest. 😎😎😎
Brilliant work Michael. ❤ I remember hawking MFX systems around the world in flight cases to demo them to potential customers so I know how fragile they are. Looking forward to part 2.
Kim told me a wonder story of how Steve Rance had to save the day with the first CMI IIx demo! Kim then went on to muse how many times after that Steve had to save the day :D ... Beyond cutting edge tech (and software) Jonathan! I have Steve Rance's orginal MFX 3+ here also :D
Just subbed to your channel. Whenever I think of a CMI Fairlight, I always think of Kate Bush 😍 The Art of Noise also used the Fairlight which I believe cost about as much as a house in the 1980s.
Subscribed, this is an awesome restoration project! My own journey with recording also started with a tape machine similar to yours which was given to me by my paternal grandfather when I was about six years old. Several decades later my parents discovered one of the tapes I'd recorded via the built in microphone, and it was amazing to hear how strong a Cockney accent I had as a child. I have a Fairlight story as well. Twenty years ago I was playing in a band that rehearsed at an incredibly squalid studio called La Rocka in London. One time we were there I noticed in the corner of the office a bit of equipment with the Fairlight logo on it. I asked the guy who ran the place what it was, and he told me it belonged to the co-owner of the studio who had been a salesman for Fairlight. When Fairlight went out of business he ended up with the equipment. From what I recall it wasn't a sampler, but part of some sort of digital recording system that was supposed to compete with the NED Synclavier.
I'm guessing that was a MFX 3 system, I have one of those also hiding away in my 'Machine Room' Not sure who the person would of been that run La Rocka, I should ask in the Fairlight group :D
I did have a Google after posting my comment and I think you're correct about it being a component of an MFX system. I can't recall if I ever knew the name of the co-owner of La Rocka, but the guy there usually was Pete Chapman who did sound engineering in the recording studio on the top floor. I did my first proper recording session there and it turned out sounding great, despite all the equipment being covered in a layer of cigarette ash!
Just subscribed as I'm now invested in this! Your presentation and voice are soothing which I like in a UA-cam video. All the best in your mission, no turning back.
Bravo! All the best with the restoration, good on you for taking it on! I love restoring classics as well, a bit simpler than this, though full disassembly and restoration also. Vintage synths mainly.
@@100ThingsIDo Indeed, too costly otherwise! My restoration roster is mainly Rolands, TR606, MKS-70, JX8P, JX3P, Juno 60, 106, Alpha 2. I've 4 at the moment, the later Juno's and the JXs. Recently I started designing pcbs to use in my modular video synth. I have finished up a comparator module which is working very well. I look forward to seeing the rest of your Fairlight journey! regards,
Impatiently waiting for more... Great story, geat job. God luck! Btw. Fairlight is beatifull "instrument" and lot of great sounds was created and used by the lot of great musicians. But Kate and Mike are my favorites. Especially Mike with ETUDE. 🎉
Great topic, great video, so I hope for a sequel soon!!! However, the condition of this CMI already gives you an idea that this is a very time-consuming project. Calibrating the channel cards takes at least a whole working day and is no walk in the park, but I still hope that you will tackle this task to the delight of all Fairlight fans...
Be interesting to see how this turns out. Not sure I would respray the keyboard though - it can fixed to work OK again, but it's had a life of use building up battle scars and patina over the years, lending a bit of use history to it. Just making it look factory new seems a shame.
Some people like the items to tell a story through use and witness marks, sometimes its just as important to let people see what it looked like Out of the box also :D
I've had an eye out for videos on this kind of topic for years! I include Quantel Paintbox in the same category. I'm not a muso but find high-end specialized low-production computer-based systems that were not for general computing but were very important, to be incredibly fascinating. Stuff about old minicomputers and also key stuff like the Xerox Alto and Lisp Machine that are lacking in-depth technical stuff on UA-cam.
I'm both a muso and a computer addict, if you have a look in the background of many of the shots I have a PDP-11/23 hiding away (size of a fridge) :D Quantel Paintbox always reminds me of early 80's Dr Who, Fairlight did a very mini Quantel Paintbox with their CVI which I will feature at some point next year :D
Awesome stuff mate! This battery degradation and damage thing happens a lot with other electronics too, including some of the hi-fi gear and test and measurement equipment I work on. It can be devastating to see a board so damaged by leaking electrolyte that it is basically unrecoverable.
I'm sure glad everything is in one piece. My heart sank when you lifted the lid and saw foam peanuts. They should never be used for packing heavy things because they shift and settle allowing whatever is packed in them to move around.
I had already removed a few buckets full by the time I started removing things, while your correct ... there was very little space for anything to move inside. It really was well packed :D
@@100ThingsIDo It's a miracle for sure, because usually when people pack heavy things using foam peanuts they don't pack them in tight - so the big or heavy items move around as the peanuts shift and settle.
If I'm not mistaken, that texture isn't a type-of-paint effect, it's a type-of-spray effect that's applied during painting. Basically, you have two guns and you paint a standard coat as you'd expect. You let that dry, and then you hit it again with the second gun which is set to "spit" paint and not atomise it. I could be wrong, but having once done it myself in a Sydney factory, it looks very similar. Note that you can't easily do it with a rattle can, as you need control of the air pressure.
Thanks for sharing another exciting story! Still remember schoolyard chats from the 80ies about this mysterious instrument and which artists are using them. I doubt that any plug in will ever have such a long lasting aura like the groundbreaking devices from the past.
Better for removing tape residue is a product here in the states called ‘Goo Gone’ which you follow with Isopropyl Alcohol to remove the residue because it’s a petroleum based product. WD 40 is something I do my best to keep away from ANYTHING electronic. Fun video! I think I’ll sub! Cheers!
Great project, I look forward to seeing how it goes. One caution that I would mention is electrostatic discharge, which everyone online seems to think is a myth, but having worked on and blown up computers of this vintage, is very much a reality. A simple ESD wrist strap clipped to the chassis and another clip to ground will keep any sensitive devices inside the Fairlight safe and is well worth the 10-30$Au. Why does no one seem to believe that ESD is an issue? Probably because the damage often doesn’t come to light immediately. I did once zap and instantly kill a Motorola 68030 by rolling my chair across carpet then touching the heat sink on top of it, but that was a spectacular and stupid move. More often I was the second or third technician to a fault and the customer would ask “what’s that thing on your wrist?”, I’d tell them it was my ESD strap and ask if the previous techs had worn one, they never had. Failure to wear ESD precautions was a sackable offence at one previous workplace, so I’m something of a believer. Anyway, enough preaching, best of luck with the project, can’t wait to hear an ORCH2 out of it ;-)
Thanks for the information. I make sure I have grounded out before touching things. Very early on I killed a Apple IIc from eletrostatic discharge. I learn the lesson then :D
We will go into that next time.... there are so many different voltages at play in the CMI and the power supply is over 40 years old .... I had to force myself not to just 'flick the switch' no matter how much I just want to :D
Looking forward to the repair series. The monitor is probably fine, that's just some glue between the front glass and the CRT that needs to be removed... But you probably know that, because it seems to work in the thumbnail 🙂
The first Fairlight I saw was behind glass at a distance in a Sydney museum, the first one I touched was my Series III when it arrived. Its all a lot bigger in size than it looks in photos and on TV :D
Great start on the restoration! I am worried about that CRT, though I did the same thing and rebought the exact same model of tape recorder I had when I was a kid 😅
Hey Wagoo, its been a little while since we chatted last! Indeed, some things you just have to have back in your life.. reminds me of the Stephen King book Needful Things :D. Hope your doing well!
Excellent video. For glue residue I found out that cleaning benzine works probably best. It's what I used for Emulator II overlay removal, WD40 is good too but can be hard to remove that smell. :)
Hey there, hope your doing well and your creating great sounds! I tried to pruchase an E II recently but the seller got cold feet and decided to keep it :D
@@100ThingsIDo Friend has two E-II's one of which is original HD version he might sell it, but it's EU unfortunately. Shipping and customs just places it way way up...
Ironic, really, to see the machine traveling around the globe from Belgium to Oz, when the machine was originally built near Sydney NSW. Greetings from Belgium!
In order to remove glue residue from tape, stickers etc. Use: 1. Spirit, then wipe 2. WD40, then wipe 3. Repeat from 1, and within a few minutes you've completely wiped it off. Note that in almost all cases spirit does not affect screen print, but try a small spot to make sure.
@100ThingsIDo that's the crazy thing. They all work! I was lucky. I have the schematic but no service manual so things calibrating are a bit slow 🦥. Send me a personal message if you like to see my Google Foto Album
My friend has a Fairlight CMI III and the but the some of the keys on keyboard don't work so is limited to what he can do at the minute but the main keyboard it'self works ok and all the sounds too. To record vocal samples he has to but the disc drive in another room because it's so loud.
The CMOS chips that drive the keyboard can fail quite easy, also depending on the keyboard it could have springs for key contacts that become non-conductive over time and need cleaning. A good tech should be able to fix it up quite easy :D
Hey there, hope your going well. Indeed, your telling me. Fortunatly I had accounted for the possibility of tax... it still cost me a small fortune for a totally broken Fairlight ! :D
So how is the 1X project going along? For cheap(ish) texture paints I would highly recommend Warnex (one of the standard speaker paints). With a long pile roller it tends to come out really well, and if you spray over you can get an amazing finish.
Hey man, hows it going ? I'll check out the paint. The 1x has now changed course, I have enough parts to make a single voice Series 1 (even card cage and original frame parts). I'll do that next year I hope :D
@@100ThingsIDo Three generations of Fairlight in one room plus a Synclavier 2? That feels like some rift in the space time continuum is about to happen. It's going allright here; as always too much stuff and not enough space. I did finally manage to get a reasonable deal on a Larc so the 300L is no longer a paper weight, I just need to get my act together and solder patchbays so I can actually have a useful setup here (until I have the willingness and means to move into a large enough space for all the stuff).
@@nativeVS I was going to ask about the L300, such a really nice reverb! :) Maybe I will have all generations of Fairlight soon, including the 30A! :O Nothing in the world like them.
I had the opportunity to purchase one in the late 90s, I guess at a time when nobody really wanted them and to this day regret not buying it. I thought it had been customized as the keyboard was black rather than the usual white however I have since noted images of others with the black keyboard. Was this an option offered by Fairlight.
Yep, there seemed to be a mix of Black and Beige keyboard for a lomg time. Stock, Atken, and Waterman had a limited 1 of 1 edition everything Black Fairlight :D
Could this mighty machine haver been been made more compact or did the technology dictate that .. was there much spare real estate within the casings inside ??
@@100ThingsIDoFinding that kind of old CRT tube that fit the spec of the Fairlight CMI was probably not easy , this thing must have the good refresh rate to work properly with the lightpen, it's not like using the one that came with an old French TO 7 Thomson computer that use a similar lightpen, those from the Fairlight are specificly made for this machine... But lightpen was also use on old computer like Sketchpad or for scientist use.
I came close to buying a Fairlight III from an American movie producer back in the early naughties. I could’ve just about scraped together the asking price, which I can’t actually remember, but the shipping costs to me in the UK would’ve wiped me out, so unfortunately I had to pass.
Yep, I was tempted to purchase Mike Oldfields Faitrlights and Stewart Copelands CMI's years back when they were on eBay for say.. the shipping was the thing that stopped me! :D
Worth changing all the electrolytic capacitors. After 40 years, they will come to bite your bum. Get good quality ones from a reputable distributor. Good luck with the restoration.
Fortunatly not this time. It has happend in the past but then I sand and re-spray.. I got lucky with the case .. and a few other times you will see in the coming weeks :D
Regarding the CRT. That CRT likely still has its vacuum.
What you are seeing is the glue degrading whith which the implosion shield has been glued to the tube itself. Some CRTs used implosion shields like this to protect the user from shrapnel in case of an implosion.
Another issue is said glue seeping out of the CRT at the bottom and corroding the implosion band around the CRT/boards sitting underneath it.
The glue can be removed, by leaving the tube in the sun and carefully cutting around the implosion shield to get through he outer most layer of dried glue. Then with a needle isopropyl alxohol can be injected between the shield and tube itself to aid in softening the glue. I then use a thin piece of acrylic to scrape the glue out until the implosion shield comes off. Afterwards the shield is re glued around the edges where its obscured by the bezel with double sided tape to get the spacing right. During the process of glue removal i like to keep the CRT in a bucket whith the mounts sitting on the ledge so the risk of snapping the neck is reduced.
However one needs to be extremely careful when doing this as a CRT implosion is no laughing matter.
Yeah, it looks like classic cataracts, though usually they start at the edges; here, it appears to be progressing from the centre. I have the same issue on my VT100. And yeah, removing the shield is a very dangerous process!
Agree - and yes, watch out if you need to replace the band, as that provides a significant structural element to the glass. I've seen CRTs shatter with just a bump with the shield and band off. It's possible to get a "like" tube replacement, or at least it was five years ago, but the phosphors will be different, and replacing it with an LCD never looks right and makes the light pen problematic since it relied on the vertical sweep to detect position.
When I went to college in London between 1979-83 we acquired around 1981 one of the first Series 1 Fairlights in the UK and had "lessons" with Hugh McDowell the then cello player in ELO (no longer alive sadly). Spool forward to 1987 and I acquired Alan Parson's Series IIx, which had the original sequence and guitar samples for Mammagamma (guessing a play on Ummagumma), a very impressive piece of programming, as the echoed notes in the lead line were actually programmed notes with descending velocity. It also has the original 8-track foundation sequences and sounds for Two Tribes (Frankie) and Close to the Edit (Art of Noise), which I recorded and still have today. In 1988 I stepped up to the Series III (from Andrew Stirling at Syco Systems) and parted with the IIx. I think the Series III once fully-load cost me around £40,000, which considering I'd paid £56,000 a year earlier for my first house, gives you an idea of the relative eye-waterng cost. I recall the additional 2MB cards cost £2,000 each - mad! Look forward to seeing how your restoration quest goes.
Wow, JJ for sure managed to get every ounce of sound out of the early CMI's back in those ZTT days! I hope you or someone has managed to archive the floppy's. :D
@@100ThingsIDo Alas, when I sold my Series III in 2005, I let all the files go with it. All I did was to lay the resultant audio off onto a DAW.
i love that your dad was just like "son you need this technology. just trust me" and then you used it till it broke. it sounds like he knew you well. :)
Indeed, he go frusted later when I started to try and make things work in different ways to they were designed haha! :D
So happy to see this video Michael. I was so worried that it wouldn’t arrive or arrive in pieces and my relief was immense, so looking forwards to the series.
Thank you again. David
Such a difficult year David and yet we managed to make this work. I've played a few of your CD's during this time working on the CMI :D Thank you so much!
@ thank you! 🙏
In case you don't know yet: It looks like the problem with that monitor is mainly what is called "cataract": It has a protective sheet of glass (possibly tinted) in front of the actual CRT, and the stuff between the front and the CRT got molded. This is very repairable but takes some special handling. There a videos on UA-cam showing you how to do it.
Thanks for posting! Looking forward to the next episode.
came to say the same thing! :)
Indeed, I can see that around the edges but the center worried the Jeepers out of me :D Thanks we will see how I go
Thanks for wanting to help :D
@@100ThingsIDo shango066 has many CRT cataract removal videos. You need hot summer sun for it, so it is the perfect time to do it down under.
shango066 is the cateract master.
New sub, i dont understand why it took yt so long to suggest your channel!
Amazing, thanks for sharing mate! Nice to have a local channel covering this kind of stuff. I'm in Donnybrook WA!
Nice to see you back! 👍
Before "information superhighway" took off I heard legends about Fairlight. Colleague who "knows someone who seen one" told us stories (some exaggerated) about capabilities. We admired how Jean-Michel Jarre, Mark Shreeve and others used it. And Peter Mergener had his Emulator II+ 🙂
Fun times, when you're young music affects emotions more directly 😁
Indeed, amazing how much the put a dent in the musical world for ever :D
This is what dreams are made of, great work
I had had dreams of working on this Fairlight trying to fix things for sure since I started the project haha! :D
@@100ThingsIDo it's very inspiring! I'll happily grow old if it means having a life like yours (no offence, not calling you old) haha
Jeepers, you and Chris Blyth. True Fairlight fans.
True! Cris has been a very good friend for many years (and kept me entertained the next day after a very very drunken night of amazing fun) :D
I’ll be following this for sure. Love the Fairlight and its history.
Indeed, facinating! I'm so fortunate to know so many of the creators and some of the Artists in the Fairlight story :D
: D Nice to see another one of these getting restored!
Thanks, The can be quite frustrating to get working correctly, but well woth it :D
So cool! Best of luck with the restoration. I have an IIx with the same front panel as yours. My chassis SN is SNA108050. My understanding is it was made in October 1980, the 50th CMI made. But that's too early for MIDI, so it was retrofitted at some point after 1984.
I'm guessing that was originally a Series I that was upgraded at some point ? :D
@@100ThingsIDo Sounds like it. I take it your's has the MIDI port box bolted to the back of the chassis.
Wow! My dad bought me exactly the same model of Philips cassette recorder, the N2214, when I was 10 or 11, around 1975-76.
Quite luxurious! I had a taperecorder with a turning knob but this was a few years earlier I guess. Can’t remember the brand, was cheap so nothing much I guess.
The sound of the door opening when you press Eject is the sound of my childhood :D, 1976 for me :D
@@100ThingsIDo I loved those barrel volume, tone knobs, at the time they seemed incredibly stylish and cool.
I had the same cassette recorder n2214 only after a couple of years the pinch roller alignment went out so it would damage the tapes . I had earlier models of Philips tape recorder that were metal mechanism so that not an issue . Yes suppose was new Sumner 76. The first tape I ever played on it was "mamas & the papas hits of gold" on stateside label
Excellent. Every Fairlight must be saved and go to heaven!
No! ! ! ! ! :D Every Fairlight shall live for ever hahahaha Thanks for the comment and hope you enjoy the future episodes.
The IIx returns "home". I worked with a IIx on a project once-upon-a-time, and always wanted one of my own. About five years ago I again had the chance to buy one, but I actually passed on it because I thought it would be better used somewhere else and not just sitting in my studio. So much time has passed now on these that, while I'm sure they could be musically useful, there are just so many other tools that realistically a IIx is just a labor of love and not economically useful for working people. And that's just fine - maintaining such old electronics gets harder each year (just ask me about my older equipment) and nobody ever built them to last this long. I look forward to seeing whatever challenges there are in restoring the "guts" - I don't think there were many if any custom chips, which would be really problematic today to replace.
I love old tec and worked on some old synths - but taking on a Fairlight? That is a bold move! Good luck! I'll be following...
The great thing with the Fairlight is all the schematics, theory of operation and diagnostic untilities. Still a heavy lift to get working (and seriously heavy to lift) but well worth it :D
Just amazing - as a user in the 90s and 00s - my buddy has 3 - super interested to see this and also look forward to the next episode! Well done!! JPMusic/NZ
I just found this video and your channel Michael and have just subscribed.
Very cool to see another Aussie taking on a Fairlight restoration.
I see a few familiar names here in the comments too. I'm in the FB Fiarlight group but haven't been using Facebook now for months.
I was collaborating with Peter Weilk restoring CMI31 channel cards around 2021 but my life circumstances at the time put an end to that project.
I'll be following your project here with great interest.
😎😎😎
Thanks, Yes we have chatted a few times on FB, hope things are good with you :D
Bravo 👏🏻 Mike. Great work. I’m very excited for the next episode
Hey Torsten, thanks for checking out the Video. Hope your own studio is going well and you are finiding time to make music :D
Brilliant work Michael. ❤ I remember hawking MFX systems around the world in flight cases to demo them to potential customers so I know how fragile they are. Looking forward to part 2.
Kim told me a wonder story of how Steve Rance had to save the day with the first CMI IIx demo! Kim then went on to muse how many times after that Steve had to save the day :D ... Beyond cutting edge tech (and software) Jonathan! I have Steve Rance's orginal MFX 3+ here also :D
another great Fairlight story ! I will follow this
Thanks :D Hope you enjoy!
I'm very happy to follow this new adventure! 👍
And the traffic cone in the garden is a nice addition 😁
Someone just left it outside of my house.. it stayted there for a week and I eventually decided to adopt it :D
@@100ThingsIDo Give it a name,. 2 possibilitie, Ralf or Florian
Just subbed to your channel. Whenever I think of a CMI Fairlight, I always think of Kate Bush 😍
The Art of Noise also used the Fairlight which I believe cost about as much as a house in the 1980s.
Indeed, JJ's sounds with AON are all time classics! Such a creative guy :D
Howard Jones too 😊
250k i think it cost back then.
Subscribed, this is an awesome restoration project! My own journey with recording also started with a tape machine similar to yours which was given to me by my paternal grandfather when I was about six years old. Several decades later my parents discovered one of the tapes I'd recorded via the built in microphone, and it was amazing to hear how strong a Cockney accent I had as a child.
I have a Fairlight story as well. Twenty years ago I was playing in a band that rehearsed at an incredibly squalid studio called La Rocka in London. One time we were there I noticed in the corner of the office a bit of equipment with the Fairlight logo on it. I asked the guy who ran the place what it was, and he told me it belonged to the co-owner of the studio who had been a salesman for Fairlight. When Fairlight went out of business he ended up with the equipment. From what I recall it wasn't a sampler, but part of some sort of digital recording system that was supposed to compete with the NED Synclavier.
I'm guessing that was a MFX 3 system, I have one of those also hiding away in my 'Machine Room' Not sure who the person would of been that run La Rocka, I should ask in the Fairlight group :D
I did have a Google after posting my comment and I think you're correct about it being a component of an MFX system. I can't recall if I ever knew the name of the co-owner of La Rocka, but the guy there usually was Pete Chapman who did sound engineering in the recording studio on the top floor. I did my first proper recording session there and it turned out sounding great, despite all the equipment being covered in a layer of cigarette ash!
Great stuff Michael. always great to see these being revived and back in their original place of production.. All the very best mate!
Thanks! :D It's well worth it, nothing else has the workflow or the sound :D
Just love your passion for this project! Keep up the good work, mate!
Cheers
Daniel, host of Eat and Listen channel
Thanks Man, to me there is nothing like a Fairlight :D
A real dream synth for me! Happy for you and att the same time a bit jealous. But I am not jealous about the work ahead of you! God luck!
It took a long time and a lot of saving to find one and afford it! Even very very broken ones are very expensive these days... :D
First sampler I used was the fairlight CMI IIx, it was magical, I've always wanted my own fairlight and synclavier
Still is very Magical and enjoyable to use. Thanks for the comment :D
Just subscribed as I'm now invested in this! Your presentation and voice are soothing which I like in a UA-cam video. All the best in your mission, no turning back.
Thanks, No turning back... we must go on... we must go on :D
Bravo! All the best with the restoration, good on you for taking it on! I love restoring classics as well, a bit simpler than this, though full disassembly and restoration also. Vintage synths mainly.
I started in a similar way, just trying to keep my vintage synths alive :D
@@100ThingsIDo Indeed, too costly otherwise! My restoration roster is mainly Rolands, TR606, MKS-70, JX8P, JX3P, Juno 60, 106, Alpha 2. I've 4 at the moment, the later Juno's and the JXs.
Recently I started designing pcbs to use in my modular video synth. I have finished up a comparator module which is working very well.
I look forward to seeing the rest of your Fairlight journey! regards,
I was bought the same cassette recorder when I was 5 in 1978 - and I still have it!
It seems a few of us had this Phillips deck! What amazing (and a lot more simple) times :D
Excited for this man! Great editing and restoration so far
Thanks, as you know .. many hours on this one :D
Great project, and very good filming.
You have now a legend at home. Well done !
Thanks :D Indeed, a world of sound and creation!
I need the other parts of this series now! Can't wait.
Its going to be a while and a lot of episodes I suspect. I'll explain more soon! :D
Impatiently waiting for more... Great story, geat job. God luck!
Btw. Fairlight is beatifull "instrument" and lot of great sounds was created and used by the lot of great musicians. But Kate and Mike are my favorites.
Especially Mike with ETUDE. 🎉
Kate , Gabriel , and Jarre for me sir .....
So great to see Kate's music back in the mainstream again :D especially the Fairlight heavy tracks!
I had a really great chat last year with Jo Hammer about his time with Jarre and those concerts they did togeather. Jo is sadly missed! :D
Great topic, great video, so I hope for a sequel soon!!!
However, the condition of this CMI already gives you an idea that this is a very time-consuming project. Calibrating the channel cards takes at least a whole working day and is no walk in the park, but I still hope that you will tackle this task to the delight of all Fairlight fans...
I should have another episode out soon!. Indeed, most of the voice cards are very broken :D
Be interesting to see how this turns out. Not sure I would respray the keyboard though - it can fixed to work OK again, but it's had a life of use building up battle scars and patina over the years, lending a bit of use history to it. Just making it look factory new seems a shame.
Some people like the items to tell a story through use and witness marks, sometimes its just as important to let people see what it looked like Out of the box also :D
I've had an eye out for videos on this kind of topic for years! I include Quantel Paintbox in the same category. I'm not a muso but find high-end specialized low-production computer-based systems that were not for general computing but were very important, to be incredibly fascinating.
Stuff about old minicomputers and also key stuff like the Xerox Alto and Lisp Machine that are lacking in-depth technical stuff on UA-cam.
I'm both a muso and a computer addict, if you have a look in the background of many of the shots I have a PDP-11/23 hiding away (size of a fridge) :D Quantel Paintbox always reminds me of early 80's Dr Who, Fairlight did a very mini Quantel Paintbox with their CVI which I will feature at some point next year :D
@@100ThingsIDo Great stuff! Are you on GitHub or BlueSky by the way?
Awesome stuff mate! This battery degradation and damage thing happens a lot with other electronics too, including some of the hi-fi gear and test and measurement equipment I work on. It can be devastating to see a board so damaged by leaking electrolyte that it is basically unrecoverable.
I'm sure glad everything is in one piece. My heart sank when you lifted the lid and saw foam peanuts. They should never be used for packing heavy things because they shift and settle allowing whatever is packed in them to move around.
I had already removed a few buckets full by the time I started removing things, while your correct ... there was very little space for anything to move inside. It really was well packed :D
@@100ThingsIDo It's a miracle for sure, because usually when people pack heavy things using foam peanuts they don't pack them in tight - so the big or heavy items move around as the peanuts shift and settle.
youtube brought me here, this is amazing, subbed
Thanks :D hope you enjoy
If I'm not mistaken, that texture isn't a type-of-paint effect, it's a type-of-spray effect that's applied during painting. Basically, you have two guns and you paint a standard coat as you'd expect. You let that dry, and then you hit it again with the second gun which is set to "spit" paint and not atomise it. I could be wrong, but having once done it myself in a Sydney factory, it looks very similar. Note that you can't easily do it with a rattle can, as you need control of the air pressure.
You are most probably correct, you can get rattle can's these days that contain particulate to do a similar job :D
Thanks for sharing another exciting story! Still remember schoolyard chats from the 80ies about this mysterious instrument and which artists are using them. I doubt that any plug in will ever have such a long lasting aura like the groundbreaking devices from the past.
What a time to be alive! It seems everything has slowed down again now and everything is an iteration of other things right at the moment :D
Halfway through the video, subbed already!
Thanks so much! Hope you enjoy the future episodes as much :D
Looks killer and I'm excited for your journey! Thanks for sharing!
Thanks, and thanks for the comment :D More excitement to come soon!
NICELY DONE .Looking forward to the next vids ..:)
That keyboard now looks lovely. This is going to be very interesting. Subscribed.
Thanks, Indeed... it looks so NEW! I could not believe it! :D
Nice work Michael. Keep up the great work and I'll keep watching with intrigue! Best Simon
Thanks Simon! Hoep things are good with you and your studio :D
Better for removing tape residue is a product here in the states called ‘Goo Gone’ which you follow with Isopropyl Alcohol to remove the residue because it’s a petroleum based product. WD 40 is something I do my best to keep away from ANYTHING electronic. Fun video! I think I’ll sub! Cheers!
Great! I'll keep it in mind :D Thanks
Great project, I look forward to seeing how it goes. One caution that I would mention is electrostatic discharge, which everyone online seems to think is a myth, but having worked on and blown up computers of this vintage, is very much a reality. A simple ESD wrist strap clipped to the chassis and another clip to ground will keep any sensitive devices inside the Fairlight safe and is well worth the 10-30$Au. Why does no one seem to believe that ESD is an issue? Probably because the damage often doesn’t come to light immediately. I did once zap and instantly kill a Motorola 68030 by rolling my chair across carpet then touching the heat sink on top of it, but that was a spectacular and stupid move. More often I was the second or third technician to a fault and the customer would ask “what’s that thing on your wrist?”, I’d tell them it was my ESD strap and ask if the previous techs had worn one, they never had. Failure to wear ESD precautions was a sackable offence at one previous workplace, so I’m something of a believer.
Anyway, enough preaching, best of luck with the project, can’t wait to hear an ORCH2 out of it ;-)
Thanks for the information. I make sure I have grounded out before touching things. Very early on I killed a Apple IIc from eletrostatic discharge. I learn the lesson then :D
Great stuff, no doubt you've seen Chris Blyth's videos, now on Episode 19, but I think he had a much bigger hill to climb!
I'm actually in Episode 19, I'm the first guest to arrive to the Fairlight party :D
Excellent start. I would need to know right from the get go if it powered up! Cheers.
We will go into that next time.... there are so many different voltages at play in the CMI and the power supply is over 40 years old .... I had to force myself not to just 'flick the switch' no matter how much I just want to :D
Subscribed and hungry for more 👍
Me too! More Fairlight ... more often :D
hyped for future vids
Thanks so much :D I hope you continue to enjoy!
Looking forward to the repair series. The monitor is probably fine, that's just some glue between the front glass and the CRT that needs to be removed... But you probably know that, because it seems to work in the thumbnail 🙂
Thanks! Indeed the video's take a while to put togeather so I'm ahead of where the Video shows I'm up to :D
Great, I like this.
Wow! I've never actually seen any Fairlight, except a few photos of them on the net, really interested to see the inner workings
The first Fairlight I saw was behind glass at a distance in a Sydney museum, the first one I touched was my Series III when it arrived. Its all a lot bigger in size than it looks in photos and on TV :D
@@100ThingsIDo Awesome
VHT wrinkle paint from Autobarn might be you friend for the keyboard.
I'll check it out, thanks :D
Good one Mike!!
Thanks Rob, hope your doing well :D
Great start on the restoration! I am worried about that CRT, though
I did the same thing and rebought the exact same model of tape recorder I had when I was a kid 😅
Hey Wagoo, its been a little while since we chatted last! Indeed, some things you just have to have back in your life.. reminds me of the Stephen King book Needful Things :D. Hope your doing well!
Excellent video. For glue residue I found out that cleaning benzine works probably best. It's what I used for Emulator II overlay removal, WD40 is good too but can be hard to remove that smell. :)
Hey there, hope your doing well and your creating great sounds! I tried to pruchase an E II recently but the seller got cold feet and decided to keep it :D
@@100ThingsIDo Friend has two E-II's one of which is original HD version he might sell it, but it's EU unfortunately. Shipping and customs just places it way way up...
Don's in the house!
Ironic, really, to see the machine traveling around the globe from Belgium to Oz, when the machine was originally built near Sydney NSW. Greetings from Belgium!
Hellooo! Indeed, I still can't believe they made me pay a very heavy import tax for a 1983 computer :D
In order to remove glue residue from tape, stickers etc. Use:
1. Spirit, then wipe
2. WD40, then wipe
3. Repeat from 1, and within a few minutes you've completely wiped it off.
Note that in almost all cases spirit does not affect screen print, but try a small spot to make sure.
The traffic cone caught me off guard!
It just arrived out side my house one day and never went away! :D
I wish you all the best. I im in the process with a water damaged logan string melody. 😊
Good luck with that, hopefully no crazy impossib to find chips required :D
@100ThingsIDo that's the crazy thing. They all work! I was lucky. I have the schematic but no service manual so things calibrating are a bit slow 🦥. Send me a personal message if you like to see my Google Foto Album
Thanks!
Thanks for watching, Thanks for the comment :D
My friend has a Fairlight CMI III and the but the some of the keys on keyboard don't work so is limited to what he can do at the minute but the main keyboard it'self works ok and all the sounds too. To record vocal samples he has to but the disc drive in another room because it's so loud.
The CMOS chips that drive the keyboard can fail quite easy, also depending on the keyboard it could have springs for key contacts that become non-conductive over time and need cleaning. A good tech should be able to fix it up quite easy :D
Nice!💪 Sort of funny that you have to pay import tax for a product that’s made in Australia😎
Hey there, hope your going well. Indeed, your telling me. Fortunatly I had accounted for the possibility of tax... it still cost me a small fortune for a totally broken Fairlight ! :D
@ Thanks! Here all good! Now waiting for more Fairlight videos! Something to do on dark winter evenings!☃️
Here we go!
Indeed! Many highs and a few lows on this one! :D
@@100ThingsIDo looking forward to your discoveries in this series.
You are obviously single or have an understanding partner/wife, looking forward to seeing the progress and results. Aussie ingenuity all around.
So how is the 1X project going along?
For cheap(ish) texture paints I would highly recommend Warnex (one of the standard speaker paints). With a long pile roller it tends to come out really well, and if you spray over you can get an amazing finish.
Hey man, hows it going ? I'll check out the paint. The 1x has now changed course, I have enough parts to make a single voice Series 1 (even card cage and original frame parts). I'll do that next year I hope :D
@@100ThingsIDo Three generations of Fairlight in one room plus a Synclavier 2? That feels like some rift in the space time continuum is about to happen.
It's going allright here; as always too much stuff and not enough space.
I did finally manage to get a reasonable deal on a Larc so the 300L is no longer a paper weight, I just need to get my act together and solder patchbays so I can actually have a useful setup here (until I have the willingness and means to move into a large enough space for all the stuff).
@@nativeVS I was going to ask about the L300, such a really nice reverb! :) Maybe I will have all generations of Fairlight soon, including the 30A! :O Nothing in the world like them.
Batteries have killed more electronics I am glad the battery did not leak !
So very very very true! :D
I had the opportunity to purchase one in the late 90s, I guess at a time when nobody really wanted them and to this day regret not buying it. I thought it had been customized as the keyboard was black rather than the usual white however I have since noted images of others with the black keyboard. Was this an option offered by Fairlight.
Yep, there seemed to be a mix of Black and Beige keyboard for a lomg time. Stock, Atken, and Waterman had a limited 1 of 1 edition everything Black Fairlight :D
I'd have had that keyboard powder coated. It'll last longer and you can probably find the right texture easily.
Fairlight? Instant subscribe :D
Thanks, Plenty of othet Fairlight content on my channel :D
ummm I’m having flashbacks seeing front plates being washed in a kitchen basin !! :)
HAHA! They did look amazing. I'll never forget your excitement when you were showing Kim how well they came up :D
Could this mighty machine haver been been made more compact or did the technology dictate that .. was there much spare real estate within the casings inside ??
No, I'll explain why in later expisodes! :D these days you could possibly put everything on a Pi and be done! :D
@ I’m looking forward to the next episode
Looks like it's cataract on the monitor screen, rather than blown CRT.
Yep, which comes with its own challenges :D
Those CRTs always get so nasty... hoping for a successful cataract surgery or replacement tube to show up.
Indeed, and because the Fairlight screen is so big its VERY rare to find a matching tube :D
@@100ThingsIDoFinding that kind of old CRT tube that fit the spec of the Fairlight CMI was probably not easy , this thing must have the good refresh rate to work properly with the lightpen, it's not like using the one that came with an old French TO 7 Thomson computer that use a similar lightpen, those from the Fairlight are specificly made for this machine... But lightpen was also use on old computer like Sketchpad or for scientist use.
@@100ThingsIDo yeah this looks like a cataract issue, should be easy to fix..
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Hey David, thanks for checking out the Video. Hope all is good with you and family. Stay chilled and drink some wine for me :D
@ 🎄✨🥰
Don't let strangers slow your roll. Coffee tastes better when slurped!
It still surprises me what people get upset about on UA-cam :D
I came close to buying a Fairlight III from an American movie producer back in the early naughties. I could’ve just about scraped together the asking price, which I can’t actually remember, but the shipping costs to me in the UK would’ve wiped me out, so unfortunately I had to pass.
Yep, I was tempted to purchase Mike Oldfields Faitrlights and Stewart Copelands CMI's years back when they were on eBay for say.. the shipping was the thing that stopped me! :D
Worth changing all the electrolytic capacitors. After 40 years, they will come to bite your bum. Get good quality ones from a reputable distributor. Good luck with the restoration.
Ohhhhh are you looking into the Future! .... Wait and see :D
😃
:D
I see on the left side something cream white I owned years ago 2:35
Put Captian Solo in the cargo hold..... :D
I was waiting for various insects to embed themselves in your spray paint...
Fortunatly not this time. It has happend in the past but then I sand and re-spray.. I got lucky with the case .. and a few other times you will see in the coming weeks :D
@@100ThingsIDo I'm the kind of guy who will get insects on paint, indoors. So lucky you!
A community, a sararr-ity if you will✌️
I See What You Did There.... BIZZARE.VC :D
i dont care what it looks like. how does it sound?
Step 1. Vacuum the peanuts before breaking down the box
Wow, I didn't think of that at the time (although I did try and bucket out as many as possible) :D thanks for the future
I'm not so sure that repainting the keyboard will add value, as vintage music equipment are best left with natural wear, a bit like a vintage guitar.