Is there such a beast in today's soft-synth catalogs that does similar things that the Fairlight CMX did back in the 80/90's?

Namely allowing importation of one's own samples (via pre-recording or live via audio hardware) and the ability to manipulate those samples in real time thru it's own digital signal processing. Arturia's CMX offering like many other wannabe's don't even scratch the surface of what the CMX was capable of. Seems in today's climate those CMX capabilities should be able to be mimicked and then some given the fact that the audio hardware, software, storage and computing capabilities far out runs what what possible in the 80's and 90's.

 

Arturia CMI-V and then the FREE Qasar Beach Fairlight emulator if you want to try it.
https://adamstrange.itch.io/qasarbeach

 

Last edited: Oct 16, 2023

I think it's kinda counter intuitive and close to useless looking for that type of stuff these days. CMI sounds unique on its own because of it lacks so many things back in the days, accuracy (low sample rate) being one of them that all those weakness contributes to its own unique sound full of characters. These days all those "weaknesses" are already solved and being overcome where sampling technology offers greater result with tremendous accuracy using less resources, additive synthesis can be done 10 times crazier if one desired. In returns everything is so high definition and has none of that character older samplers are famous for. Synth enthusiast all agree they all sound like shit and some call it plastic whatever that means. Then, bitcrushing and clipping generation began to take over, everything become backward but the result musically improved.

Anyway, IMO Granular synth is likely the closest next gen of sampler synth that could top CMI any day if technology is the merit but it's a rabbit hole that I don't really feel like diving into, so that's all I can say about it. I do enjoy Steinberg Padshop tho.

 

I would get Emu Emulator X, but the plugin is 32bit PC only. An R2R version was released many years later than it's original release date. The title of it is E-MU Emulator X3 v3.0.0 WiN FULL-R2R and there are many sample "libraries" for it. We already have enough Fairlight emulators.

 

Last edited: Oct 16, 2023

I just installed this and it does have a 64bit version. 2008
The only problem is interface is not resizable so it looks tiny.

 

My problem with it is the Windows only part. I forgot they revisited it, thanks.

 

I tend to think of wavetable synths as predecessors of the Fairlight. So Serum, Vital, Pigments etc

 

Maybe something like Falcon, Halion and the likes.

 

No modern sampler will sound like Fairlight, especially in the low registers, that's where the whole secret lies
I tried to recreate this sound in the Independence sampler and Kontakt, both sounded the same in the low registers, but not the same as in Fairlight.

 

You mean a certain timbre when a sample is being pitched down / played back at a lower speed?

 

@Hazen Exactly

 

There is a junkie XL YouTube video showing this compared to vst samplers using his Yamaha A5000

 

Personally I am not looking for something that sounds like the Fairlight CMX (that's also not what I wrote). Nothing is going to sound like a fairlight other than a fairlight. I'm looking for something that allows DIRECT importation and manipulation of native samples (as in live analog audio recorded in the field or from in studio) or better yet has the facility to record real-time audio samples on its own as well, and then be able to manipulate the analog sounds and even export that manipulated sound to other mediums and soft synths. THAT is what I am looking for.

Seems every other "sampler" or "soft-synth" released these days are just cookie cutter clones of each other. While this is great for the dev's making $$ on basically the same product over and over again with no REAL innovation or brain power involved, for the end user it's just moot. Just throw another wave-table synth, or even better another "analog" soft synth on the fire every couple of years and the crowd goes wild. Every one of these "new" instruments sounds just like every other "analog" or wave-table soft synth to come along in the last 10-15 years with a slightly different GUI, different presets, and pre-canned samples. THIS is not what I am looking for.

 

Ableton and Bitwig's native samplers allow those, if I understand you correctly.

 

This is interesting. I'm not heavily into sampling so I'm not up on it but a simple sampler where you import a sound and start tweaking on it with a fairly simple interface sounds like a no-brainer...
As far as Arturia goes, I'm surprised that the CMI isn't a full implementation of the original. I was under the impression that their Synclavier was literally the original code ported to Windows and adapted to work as a vst. Is the Fairlight not the same??

 

The Arturia stuff is a kind of a joke in the realm of the operation of these iconic sampling beasts. The Arturia "CMX" is capable of importing and playing original reclaimed CMX samples (from the original floppies) but that is about it. The rest of the tool is simply afterbirth. The arturia "synclavier" is basically just a canned sample player like 1 million other similar products.

The iconic, now vintage, samplers do have a unique sound to them #1 because they are semi-analog based and #2 because the sample formats were limited to 8 bits. Not by design, but just because that was the tech available at the time. With a TRUE MODERN sampler given the capabilities of the vintage hardware combined with today's tech would be a real GEM. With all the proper tools on board a creation like this one could make sounds that mimicked the old school vintage sound as well as completely new and innovative sounds made from natural sources in the world around us. That's where those vintage beasts excelled even though the tech was a few years coming down the road to completely support the concept.

 

Synclavier V is more than a sample player. It has the additive and fm engines of the original with added capabilities.

TAL Sampler is also great. Maybe the best analog modeled sampler plugin on the market.

Everything you're looking for (and MUCH more) can be achieved with Falcon. Import audio, manipulate it with a level of control that far surpasses anything old samplers could achieve (slice and granular oscillators), combine with different types of oscillators, add dozens of top notch fx, modulate everything with a huge array of modulators.. and you can write your own scripts to process midi in any way you can imagine.

 

TAL looks very interesting and so does Falcon. Looking into as we speak. Much obliged for pointing those out!

 

Thats not correct Arturia CMI V is much more than a sample player with Spectral Synth, Cross-synthesis,The Time Synth, so is Arturia SynclavierV with FMsynth, Resynthesis, Additive Time Slice

 

Falcon, kontakt, halion, cubases sampler track (although somewhat limited, one sample only per track) and waves Cr8.
I have used and use them all same as my A5000 and before A3000 yamaha samplers. As far as I understand what you want to do cubases sampler track (very straight forward to use) and CR8 are what you want.
From what I read above bitwig and live can do this too.