Fairlight CMI (Series I - III)

Back in 1979, this groundbreaking machine became the world's first fully integrated digital sampling synthesizer workstation, letting musicians capture real-world sounds and manipulate them in ways that blew open the doors to electronic music production.

Evolving through Series I to III, it offered 16-voice polyphony with velocity-sensitive keyboards, starting at 8-bit 32kHz sampling in early models and peaking at 16-bit 44.1kHz stereo across channels in the Series III, backed by up to 28MB of expandable waveform memory for several minutes of audio. The setup included a bulky mainframe housing processors like dual Motorola 68000s running OS-9, eight smart sound cards per voice with digital filters and amps, a CRT monitor for lightpen interaction, QWERTY keyboard, and performance controls like wheels, faders, and switches. Page R, the iconic graphical pattern sequencer, let you draw notes on-screen, while outputs spanned 8 mono channels, stereo ins, MIDI, and SMPTE for studio sync—expandable to 64 voices with extra racks.

Musicians and producers still celebrate its revolutionary sound design and workflow, from Peter Gabriel's intricate layers to Miami Vice scores synced in days; though its steep learning curve and high cost drew some critiques, the CMI's legacy as a creative powerhouse endures in collector circles.