Fairlight's Peter Vogel

Recently, Fairlight brought together the CMI’s creators, Peter Vogel and Kim Ryrie (shown above; that’s Kim on the left, Peter on the right, and a Fairlight Series II in the background of this 1986 photo) to celebrate the completion of a very special CMI refurbishment. Forty-three keys have been sent around the world to be signed by Fairlight fans and former users including Peter Gabriel, Alan Parsons, Howard Jones, Brian Wilson, Keith Emerson, Nick Rhodes, Thomas Dolby, Herbie Hancock, Annie Lennox, Kate Bush, David Gilmour, Bono, Hans Zimmer, and Chick Corea. Ryrie and Vogel were the final two to put their signatures on the CMI.

Peter Vogel believes the Fairlight’s influence was one of equalizer. “The Fairlight made it possible for anyone, on their own, to realize music that they might otherwise never have been able to create,” he told us recently, “either because they didn’t have access to the musicians required, or because the sounds or the music was impossible to make using conventional instruments. It sort of democratized music. Even people who couldn’t play an instrument could compose and perform their ideas.”

Vogel still works in the high-tech world, and quite passionately, at that. His current project is called IceTV, which allows viewers to skip commercials, among other things. “I get a kick out of demonstrating that things that look impossible, can in fact be done,” he said. “In the early days of Fairlight, before we could actually demonstrate anything, countless people said, ‘Surely if it were possible, someone else would have already done it.’ That made me all the more determined to prove them wrong. I have fun with lateral thinking and doing things that other people wouldn’t think to try. The common theme that keeps me inspired is the underlying value of making technology do fun things for the individual, rather than for the benefit of powerful corporations.”

He has more than a few memories of how thinking out of the box helped the development of the CMI. “In the early ’80s, I visited the boffins at Stanford University,” he said. “They were beating their heads against a brick wall trying to compute the waveforms to make realistic instrument sounds. And I came away thinking, ‘There’s gotta be an easier way.’ That’s when I came up with the idea of sampling the waveforms directly.

“I had to build my own analog to digital converter, because they were not readily available like they are today. Remember, at that time the PC was still a few years away. We were working with 1MHz 8-bit processors and 16K of memory. The first sample I made was an orchestral stab from a vinyl recording of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons — because I had that record on hand. I was, as usual, working by myself in the Rushcutter’s Bay office at about 4 am. When I hit some keys and played back the sample at different frequencies, I was astonished how good it sounded. I felt like Mr Watson hearing, ‘Come here, I want to see you,’ the first time Alexander Graham Bell spoke into a telephone.”

Also at the event in Sydney, Australia, was one of the Fairlight’s 43 signatories, Icehouse front man Iva Davies. His Man of Colours album was Fairlight-based from start to finish. “My absolute belief is that apart from recording technology itself, the Fairlight has been the most important piece of music equipment invented,” he said. “It deserves a Nobel prize.”

Fairlight’s current CEO, John Lancken, wanted to achieve more than a public commemoration of a great piece of synthesiser history. The autographed CMI is to be auctioned later in the year, most likely in the U.S. It is expected to raise a significant amount of money, with offers above $100K already being touted by some potential bidders. The interest is partly due to where the proceeds of the auction will be going. “For us the real highlight was finding and choosing our cause, which is Witness,” said Lancken. “Firstly, it is an organization that uses technology to promote awareness of some terrible human rights abuses. Secondly was the co-incidence that the founder of the organization, Peter Gabriel, shared in Fairlight’s pioneering days as a user and promoter of the CMI. It kind of ended up being a very cool way to reunite two old friends.”