Hello and welcome back..... Got a spare $13,000 and don't know what to buy?....
How about a piece of music history....
Up for sale is the Fairlight computer / synth CMI III owned by 'Boris Blank' from the band "Yello" (Think 'Oh Yeah')
For a mere $12,900 (Aus) it could all be yours.
They used to cost $65,000 in 1985 and it has even been signed by Boris himself, BUT you need to hurry, the selling ends in a few days...
SEE EBAY PAGE HERE
YELLO - OH YEAH (Thanks to philippekogler for the video)
TAKEN FROM THE EBAY PAGE
Every Fairlight
Computer Musical Instrument has a story behind it. Hugely expensive when new,
their unique sounds and legendary user interface were used by music pioneers
who changed the sound of music forever.
At a cost around
$65,000 in 1985 (which could have bought you a very nice house) the list of
Fairlight III owners reads like a who’s who of musical innovation of the time.
Peter Gabriel, Tears for Fears, Kate Bush, Thomas Dolby, Hans Zimmer and Pet
Shop Boys were owners in the UK, with many studios catering for those who
didn’t own one. For a complete list take a look at:
The particular system
being offered here belongs to Boris Blank, the musical part of Swiss band
Yello. One could argue that during the 1980’s Yello used the Fairlight more,
and more interestingly than virtually anyone else. Every hit single they had
(and there were quite a few) used the Fairlight CMI extensively..
So, if you ever lusted
after one of these legendary instruments, here’s a chance to acquire one with
some serious street cred!
Yello Fairlight III. Signed front panel. There
will be Boris's sounds included, as well as all the libraries listed
below, in 4 x hard drives. Boris is on holiday at the moment, however
his assistant has promised some more photos and goodies when he returns!
Offered for sale is a very
rare, vintage classic Fairlight CMI III computer
musical instrument workstation in excellent condition. The system is a late
model, in three rack units which are 8U, 8U and 5U for the hard drive enclosure. It has the latest and best in technical
innovations, whilst still retaining the classic legendary sound of the
CMI. The system is switchable for 110, 220 or 240V so will work ANYWHERE in the world.
The system has the latest
9.34 music software, has 16 voices, mono graphics card and monitor, and 24
output router. Instead of the
usual 14 Mbytes RAM memory fitted as standard from the factory, this
unit has a
brand new 32 Mbyte card, which is the maximum possible in these systems.
It
also has a digital sampler module and a Turbo-SCSI card: It is therefore
fully
optioned with the last and best revisions of both hardware and software.
There
is no music keyboard, however any MIDI keyboard or external
computer/sequencer
will work brilliantly. I can supply a colour graphics card at additional
cost if desired, to enable the system to run with many flat LCD
screens. If required, the original mono graphics can be re-installed in
minutes..
There
are four hard drives installed. Three are original, with Boris's
sounds, and the forth is "My" collection of libraries I normally include
with my systems for sale. These are as follows:
Complete
Fairlight library, Prosonus Strings, Brass, Percussion, Sound
Genesis strings,
plus many libraries collected over the last 25 years
dealing with top
producers and musicians. These include libraries from: Pet
Shop Boys, Trevor
Horn, Hans Zimmer, Frankie goes to Hollywood, Art of Noise and many, many
others. The complete Fairlight IIX library is also included.
The
floppy and WORM drive work intemittantly, however these were only used
in the 1980's before more reliable and cost-effective storage emerged.
Therefore there is no warranty on these parts. The only other points of
note are that some of the keys on the alpha-numeric keyboard are
beginning to lose their legends (see picture), and the graphics
pad is worn in places. I have however adjusted the keyboard so that the
worn spots on the pad doesn't cause problems.
The system has been serviced, will have a full set of manuals on CD, all
leads, latest firmware, and come with 3 months warranty (apart from the two drives mentioned above).
Please note you’ll see other Fairlight systems advertised, and some
might be less expensive. However, do some research before you buy. What may
look like a bargain might not look so appealing when its obsolete parts finally
give up. This applies specially to earlier systems. This system is
complete, fully functional, and will work straight out of the box. I worked as
product specialist and studio manager at Fairlight in Sydney during most of the
1980s, and have been involved in re-building Fairlight CMIs for over 25 years.
I have sold and supported well over 45 of these classic samplers. If you are in
any doubt, please type “Peter Wielk Fairlight” into the worlds favourite search
engine and see what comes out.
You might be apprehensive about owning a big piece of technology,
however the Fairlight CMIs were designed to last – no new technology comes near
it for build quality. All the cards and modules of a series III are plug-in
which makes servicing a breeze (and also helped push the original price up). In
the unlikely event of a board failure, this can simply be swapped out for a
replacement from me, to either repair or replace. I have a huge amount of
spares, since I bought most of the factories old stock and spare parts. I also
do repairs at board level, and re-manufacture parts when unavailable. I have
been supporting these incredible systems for many years, and hope to continue
this for many more…
I have tried to describe this system as accurately as possible. However,
please feel free to ask any questions, or if you’re passing through Sydney, you
would be very welcome to have an extensive demonstration. Lastly, these systems
were designed and built with no compromises, reflected by their US$75,000 price
tag when new. The sound is completely awesome. You might buy a sample CD of the
Fairlight sounds, it will sound NOTHING like the real thing.
Also, only about 200 systems were built, and they were sold to the most
influental musicians and producers in the world. The sounds of the Fairlight
CMI formed the soundtrack of the 1980s. So, if you’ve always lusted after one,
here’s your chance to own a part of music history!
Extra information:
This system is multi-timbral, in that it can produce 16 different sounds
at any given time. It also has dynamic voice allocation, meaning that although
the device is 16 channels, one could play for example, 16 voices of piano in
one bar of music, 16 voices of brass in the next, 16 of vibraphone in the next,
and so on. Each sound is output through it's own dedicated router output, of
which there are 24. A loom will be provided to interface the first 8
"routputs" with your mixer. This differs from the earlier CMI IIIs,
as they had only one monophonic output per XLR. As producer and Fairlight
programmer extrordinaire Andy Richards (look him up for credentials) once said:
"Having a router is like having a Fairlight and a half"
OH YEAH.....
