Quote:
Originally posted by Diki:
Zawinul was a big Chroma user, wasn't he...?

Not sure about the Fairlight, though. Sonically, most modern things can compete, but I just never learned the OS, so I'm not sure what I'd gain using it. Was it simply the library? I know at the time it was FAR ahead of any competing stuff, but with 24/96 software samplers out now, audio quality must be a moot point.

Did you do primarily your own sampling, or was it the Fairlight library that made it the goto gear for you?


Zawinul was an avid Chroma user and rightfully so, it's an amazing synthesizer.

Unfortunately sonically most modern samplers can't compete with the Fairlight. The Fairlight CMI III has fantastic AD/DA converters, a 100 kHz sampling rate, and the most bottom end and raw sound I've ever heard from any sampler to date. Sample an analog synth into the Fairlight and it actually sounds like the original. Drums are spectacular as well. By todays standard there are samplers with much more RAM and polyphony but for sheer raw, organic sound, nothing beats the CMI III.

I sampled many of my own sounds as well as used the Fairlight sound library which is great. FYI.... most modern Korg synthesizers/workstations utilize many of the Fairlight sounds as Korg licensed the CMI sample library a while back. Unfortunately the Korg samples bear little resemblance to the original but still sound good. Other companies also used many of the Fairlight sounds although they chose to "lift" the samples rather than license them. At least Korg saw fit to sample the RAW material rather than steal it.