The Fairlight CMI is a digital synthesizer, sampler, and digital audio workstation introduced in 1979 by Fairlight. It was based on a commercial licence of the Qasar M8 developed by Tony Furse of Creative Strategies in Sydney, Australia. It was one of the earliest music workstations with an embedded sampler and is credited for coining the term sampling in music. It rose to prominence in the early 1980s and competed with the Synclavier from New England Digital.
Fairlight CMI Series II exhibited at NAMM Show in 2011
Fairlight CMI
Fairlight CMI Series IIx (1983)
"Page R" and light pen on Fairlight CMI Series II
A digital synthesizer is a synthesizer that uses digital signal processing (DSP) techniques to make musical sounds. This in contrast to older analog synthesizers, which produce music using analog electronics, and samplers, which play back digital recordings of acoustic, electric, or electronic instruments. Some digital synthesizers emulate analog synthesizers; others include sampling capability in addition to digital synthesis.
Jordan Rudess performing with a digital synth
EMS MUSYS-3 (1970) (based on Nunzio 2014)
Fairlight CMI series II (1982), exhibited at NAMM Show
The GS-1 was the first commercial digital synthesizer by Yamaha based on FM synthesis. For $16,000, the buyer also got a desktop computer for programming it.