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 and CEM3320 filter (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 | DESCRIPTION | SLOT |
|---|---|---|
| CMI-02 | Master card: control of 8 channel cards, ADC sampling, timerfunctions for sequencer and MCL | 1 |
| CMI-01-A | Channel card with 16Kb waveform RAM CEM3320 filter (Rev 1 & 2) | 3 to 10 |
| CMI-07 | Analog interface card (optional): 16 inputs/outputs to control analog synthesizers | 11 |
| Q148 | Lightpen card | 12 |
| Q096 | 64Kb system RAM card | 13 to 15 |
| Q032 | Processor control card | 16 |
| Q026 | Dual 6800 processors | 17 |
| QFC2 | Floppy disk controller | 18 |
| Q045 | Graphics card | 19 |
| Q025 | 16Kb video graphics RAM | 20 |