# Hard-Core Gear Porn Monday...

- Site: Analog Industries
- Author: Chris Randall
- Date: 2006-07-24
- URL: https://analogindustries.com/2006/07/hard-core-gear-porn-monday/

![Hard-Core Gear Porn Monday...](https://analogindustries.com/images/blog/playindustries_studio1_lg.jpg)

My in-laws are visiting all week, so I'll be traipsing all over the Pacific Northwest seeing the sights. As such, don't expect much postage this week. However, here's a sexy little number that showed up in my mailbox this morning. Tons of nice kit here, and Tom will no doubt be happy to see both a Fairlight and a Synclavier. [Play Industries](http://www.play-industries.com/studio_one.html) is the joint. Go forth.

## Comments (13)

**Tom** (2006-07-24):

Happy!

I was disappointed to learn that gearporn legend Philip Taysom:
http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/Oct04/articles/readerzone.htm

Has recently sold three of his four Fairlights and one of his two Synclaviers. Now he's only got one of each. How does he manage?

**ecallender** (2006-07-24):

Frankly, this just makes me depressed.

**RexRhino** (2006-07-24):

I, of course, would prefer a Fairlight to using a computer any day just because of the novelty factor of the Fairlight...

But for a pro recording studio, is there any reason at all for having a Fairlight, other than of course the "That's Fuckin' Fresh!!!" factor of a Fairlight? Is there some sort of feature that a Fairlight has that has not yet been duplicated in easily available software yet? It isn't like a Emulator II or something which had analog filters that would be hard to perfectly duplicate, as far as I understand the Fairlight is just a sampler (maybe the DAC on the Fairlight is top notch, but I imagine that the DAC on a modern DAW setup is comparable... and I imagine a lot of people go from DAW straight to digital mastering straight to CD duplication nowadays, and never leaves the digital domain until it enters the CD player).

I don't even know of anyone who has really did a lot of work on a Fairlight. They weren't exactly common in their day, and are rare nowadays. I would suspect that most Fairlight admirers (myself included), have never used a Fairlight. Not that I wouldn't own one myself, if I had the money. I just wonder if a Fairlight is like owning a Lamborgini, or if there is a real use for them that justifies the price?

**synthetic** (2006-07-24):

A Fairlight and a Synclavier? He must have told Stevie Wonder he was gonna paint the studio and made off with all his stuff.

**Angstrom** (2006-07-24):

Failight, Syncalvier and a ... Synsonics drum machine by Mattel.
http://www.play-industries.com/img/playindustries_studio1c_lg.jpg

that's the second time I've seen one of those crop up in a porno.
those things were sub-terrible, is it an in-joke?

**penzoil washington** (2006-07-24):

red rhino, what you say could also be said of something like an Akai MPC (ie: that computers make it obsolete), but, like the mpc, the fairlight, especially the early ones, have a unique sound, and the sequencer has a vibe too. it's hardly a secret weapon, but it has its value to some.

**joe** (2006-07-24):

all that gear and all they have for monitoring are ns-10's?

**Black-Man** (2006-07-24):

The Fairlight has a distinguishable sound... and folks rave about the PPG whose sound is equally unique/distinguishable. This guy owning 3 - that is just wrong.

The MPC is not past-tense only the 60. And unlike the Fairlight... it is omnipresent.

**DavidBattino** (2006-07-25):

I’ll go ya one better on the Mattel drums juxtaposition: I once recorded a movie soundtrack by playing a Fairlight Series III from an Ensoniq ESQ-1. (I really didn't like the feel of the Fairlight keyboard. On another session, I watched a player snap a key while recording.)

The studio where I worked was a Fairlight importer and at one point cobbled together a crazy system out of multiple parts. It was so unstable that I’d have to play a few notes, stop the multitrack, reboot the Fairlight, and then punch in a few more notes. The sound *was* cool, though — certainly better than anything I could afford. In fact, my ESQ-1 still has a Fairlight nameplate glued to it.

**RexRhino** (2006-07-25):

Because of this thread, I just listened to a couple albums that I heard made extensive use of a Fairlight (Ministry's "A Mind is a Terrible Thing to Taste", and B-52's "Bouncing off Satellites" the first two tracks being done ENTIRELY on Fairlight in fact). It doesn't sound any different that if you sequenced it on any other sampler (The B-52s track done entirely on the Fairlight have a kind of thin anemic sound to them, missing a lot of bass... but the Ministry record doesn't have that same bass-less sound and so I am pretty sure that is just how the songs were EQed on that specific record).

If the Fairlight has a specific "sound" to it, it certainly is lost on CD.

**Chris Randall** (2006-07-25):

Not so much a "sound," as a sample is a sample. The thing about the Fairlight is Page R, the sequencer. That has a particular feel to it that you can hear a million miles away if you know what you're listening for. "Mind" was sequenced with Opcode's Vision. Don't know about the B52 record.

-CR

**penzoil washington** (2006-07-25):

yes, Page R is the MPC-like factor here in that it has its own feel.

the 8 bit fairlight I certainly does have a sound
whether one prefers it to the mirage is a subjective question .... ;)

i have a friend who owns Fairlight I, II, and III. he turned down a swap for a U47, so I guess the Fairlight vibe must be worth something!

**Xmuzik** (2006-09-15):

all that room is missing is a mattress on the floor to be perfect