$26,000 at the time, the Fairlight CMI was the commercial product that really launched the notion of computer as musical instrument to the general populous – along with various electronic cliches in its wildly-popular preset bank. Our friend James at Retro Thing alerts us to the fact that none other than Fairlight co-founder and co-designer Peter Vogel has been uploading vintage videos to YouTube. There’s a behind-the-scenes tour of the Fairlight factory, circa 1984, and below, a demonstration of the Series III instrument by Greg Sneddon:
There’s also this charming 1980 appearance on "This Week" on Australian TV.
What about making music with computers?
"No, no — you don’t feel like a technician."
Curious that we still have to answer that question today.
Dig the groovy imagery at the end. (around 5:00 in).
