Fairlight › Models › Fairlight CMI II

SPECIFICATIONS

In 1982, the Fairlight CMI II, a slightly improved version of the CMI, was created.
The sampling rate turned from 24 to 32Khz, still in 8 bits.
The channel cards have been improved.
A MIDI card is available as an option.
But the main innovation was the inclusion of the Page R, created by Michael Carlos, the first sequencer with a graphic representation of the 8 tracks and notes. It was based on a system of patterns (sets of bars) that you could repeat, copy, paste … You could also quantify the notes. The Page R was a revolution in the use of sequencers. Some musicians bought a CMI only for this graphic sequencers.

  • Dual 8-bit 1 Mhz Motorola 6800 processors
  • 8 channel cards with 16Kb waveform RAM = 8 voices of polyphony
  • 64Kb system RAM (QDOS)
  • Two 8″ floppy drives: double sides, simple density disk (512Kb)
  • 6 octave keyboard, featuring key velocity sensitivity, with 3 sliders and 2 switch buttons assignable to various parameters (vibrato, volume, sustain … ).
    A second keyboard is proposed as an option (without the control buttons)
  • Monochrome monitor which was used to visualise waveforms and to edit parameters: resolution was 512 x 256 pixels
  • Alphanumeric keyboard
  • Lightpen
  • Additive synthesis with FFT (Fast Fourier Transform)
  • 32Khz 8-bit sampling
  • Sequencer (Page C) and graphic sequencer (Page R)
  • MCL: Musical Composition Language
Layout on the CMI-25 motherboard
ID              DESCRIPTIONSLOT    
CMI-02Master card: control of 8 channel cards, ADC sampling, timerfunctions for sequencer and MCL1
CMI-01-AChannel card with 16Kb waveform RAM
CEM3320 (Rev 1 & 2) or SSM2045 (Rev 3 & 4) Filter		3 to 10
CMI-07Analog interface card (optional): 16 inputs/outputs to control analog synthesizers11
Q148Lightpen card12
Q09664Kb system RAM card13 to 15
Q032Processor control card16
Q026Dual 6800 processors17
QFC2Floppy disk controller18
Q045Graphics card19
Q02516Kb video graphics RAM20