Fairlight CMI III/MFX

Name/Title

Fairlight CMI III/MFX

Entry/Object ID

2024.6.7

Description

This is possibly the last model of Fairlight CMI

Collection

Riley's gear

Acquisition

Source (if not Accessioned)

Riley Perry

General Notes

Note Type

Installation Note

Note

It's actually a hybrid of a MFX2 and MFX3 system. The "musical" CMI III developed first into a hard drive disc recorder/editor called MFX2 (which could still sample and play music), then later into the MFX3 which was a totally dedicated disc recorder/editor with no musical capabilities. What you have is a mash-up of both of these. It has 10 channels of musical CMI III, and 12 channels of MFX3 disk recording. However, at the moment I can't see how one would be able to play music on this, as the later MFX3 I/O module didn't support musical capabilities (see my image of what the MIDI I/O panel looks like on a conventional CMI III). Long shot is that it could be converted to a CMI III, however you'd need a few extra bits ...