Introducing Fairlight CMI Legacy MKII+

Fairlight CMI Legacy MKII+ marks the introduction of a new release in the series of Fairlight refills, having been continously developed and updated for about a year and a half.

Comparing the size of this new version with the original, it's pretty evident that lots has happened during this time. Six times larger than the original 400 Mb Fairlight CMI Legacy, introduced in April 2010, the new refill also comes with some stunning new concepts.

Technically speaking what we now have here is a Reason 4 and 5 compatible refill, loaded with no less than *2 304 instrument patches;* 1 014 NNXT patches, 622 Combinator patches, over 190 ReDrum drum kits and much, much more.

*Main news* All instruments are now divided into virtual machines. This is highly inspired by Elektron's Machinedrum & Monomachine grooveboxes. The Combinator graphics are brand new and unique for each machine / instrument. These have been designed with creative input and assistance from Kangebo Design in Stockholm, Sweden. All of the patches in the refill are named according to these instrument types, to make it easier to find the right sound when producing music.

These are the new instruments / machines in the refill;

*4 UPETEUR*

Analog Compuphonic Synth.

*AIRBASS*

The total module for bass sounds.

*CHROME*

Analog and chord synth module.

*DIG IT ALL*

Digital synths.

*FAIRVOX*

Fairlight Voices.

*ILLTURN 80R*

Alternating patches.

*MEAN MACHINE*

Edge and grit.

*ORLANDO*

Analog JX Synths.

*P5*

Analog synthesizer.

*THE LEGACY*

CMI taken to new levels.

*THE ORCH*

Orchestral with a twist.

*TWEEDLE*

Keyboard sounds.

*UNDERCOVER*

Drums, percussion and FX.

*XYLO 4N*

Mallets.

Last but not least;

*ZIGNATURE PATCHEZ*

Signature patches provided by DrLoop, Abstract Assasinator and EditEd4TV.

*Background*

Fairlight CMI was introduced in 1979 and it was the first ever keyboard instrument with digital sampling, ie recording of sounds and storing those in a computer-like fashion. The Fairlight systems of those days cost about 545 000 SEK; roughly 2 MSEK by today's value (about $350,000). The extremely high price combined with the fact that only highly successfull acts got to use it (like Peter Gabriel, Kate Bush, Keith Emerson, Howard Jones and many others) helped form a myth around the instrument. When I got the chance to use some original recordings directly from a Fairlight IIx I was instantly turned on by the idea of building a refill, since these sounds still are highly looked after. I contacted Fairlight in Australia and got a thumbs up about the project, and this has helped me build and maintain what today is the world's largest collection of Fairlight recordings. This is all available for Reason!

File size: 1,7 Gb (packed) or 2,49 Gb before packed with ReFill Packer.

To read more please visit: http://bitley.laconicsounds.net/refills/fairlight/

YouTube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0DRL1XIj8lM