Hmm. I guess in the context of the title of this post we have to clearly understand just which and what sort of Dream I'm talking about here!!

Hi Blutone....well you're always welcome here. Sometimes it's not JUST about Fairlight (if you check out saome of the previous topics you'll see what I mean).

HI SPIGOTS!!!
yeah I totally love it. I talked a bit about what I thought on the "Jitterbug" Topic here.
I was just re-reading some earlier topics up here and came across the following statements on a previous Topic.

"I was very interested in what Fairlight had to offer at the 2001 AES show. They looked like some very intuitive, fast, and stable systems.However there are certain things I have grown accustomed to over the years, and Fairlight has overlooked just a couple of them. The most glaring one is the ability to operate in "grid" mode referenced to bars/beats/ticks. This simple omission prevents me from
recommending their systems to anyone who is used to working on PT. I am not just some staunch supporter of Digi-d. In fact, I would love the opportunity to support any serious competition to Digi-d. Fairlight is almost there. It certainly exceeds digi in many areas. But Fairlight has to listen to the music making community very carefully if they are serious about taking on the PT behemoth.

Just look around, it's apparent that I'm not the only one who feels this way. Maybe if we all got together and sat on Fairlight's front doorstep, might they start to consider a more aggressive approach to this market? What do you think? "

Because I myself had litle knowledge of Fairlight at the time, let alone touched one, I was unable to comment.
I have simce often seen them repeated by people, here on RO and (shhh...) on other Forums. They have been put to me whenever I have posted or entered into a discussion about Fairlight. It's a bit like Groundog Day..the same sort of comments, with minor differences, repeated over and over. With all due respect to their original author - this is in no way a personal critique of the postee - I'd like to use these to explain what I myself feel about Fairlights Dream Series. I hope this is cool - absolutely no dissin' intended.

If you're at all interested - if not..'s cool...I'll just talk to myself for a while...below on the next post.
Kind regards

Stedel :cool:

[QUOTE]Originally posted by stedel:
[QB]

"I was very interested in what Fairlight had to offer at the 2001 AES show. They looked like some very intuitive, fast, and stable systems.

They are.

However there are certain things I have grown accustomed to over the years, and Fairlight has overlooked just a couple of them.

Fairlight does not have a Global one stop shop approach to its product. It does not try to be all things to all people. It may lack a few of the bells and whistles that other DAW's provide but more than makes up for this in the quality of the things it does provide. I like this approach anyway, it allows me to choose where necessary a specialised product, or one that I happen to like using, for a particular function. For instance...Fairlight and Midi. I seem to remember criticism of Digi's implementation of MIDI. So this is not a big problem for me. I'd prefer to use my favourate sequencer/midi program anyway - which is Cubase. Fairlight interfaces with VST so I like being able to retain my freedom of choice.

The most glaring one is the ability to operate in "grid" mode referenced to bars/beats/ticks. This simple omission prevents me from
recommending their systems to anyone who is used to working on PT

A tricky one. Anybody who works on PT that comes from an analog background has to change their woking process profoundly. This comes down to personal preferences. I actually don't mind not working with "grid mode". You can quickly establish a tight enough working reference map for tracks and your song. I found it made me actually listen more rather than over-rely on visual cues, and I tend to edit by analyzing the wave form anyway. You can get as accurate and as precise as you like with Fairlight. Again any minor inconveniance I'm prepared to trade for the sheer pleasure of not hearing my sound getting crunched.

. I am not just some staunch supporter of Digi-d. In fact, I would love the opportunity to support any serious competition to Digi-d. Fairlight is almost there. It certainly exceeds digi in many areas.

A common perception of Fairlight is that it is some hugely mega-expensive DAW and ProTools isn't. If you follow PT users advice, and look at the set up that a serious PT rig involves, starting from nothing, you'd be surprised at just how cost effective Fairlight is.

But Fairlight has to listen to the music making community very carefully if they are serious about taking on the PT behemoth.

I think the music making community should do themselves a favour and listen to the quality of the sound that Fairlight gives you. After my experience I can now:
Rest assured that I can use all the outboard gear that I love, without having to cope with latency issues, and synchronisation "creep".

So just MHO.

Plus it looks really pretty at night.
And my girlfriend slept with it and it respected her in the morning.

There are 2 ways to deal with the grid situation.

1. Use the IBM command=Insert Beat Marker. This allows you to create a grid nased on tempo.

2. If you need a finer grid ie 16th notes. What i do is always record to a click synched from a sequencer. If I need a 16th note grid, I'll create a 16th note click. Record that into the Fairlight, and use the gate function. Now I have an audio clip every 16th note. I have a macro the will insert a marker at the head of each separate audio clip. Presto 16th note grid. Using that with the arrow keys to jump around makes editng a snap.

This quite easy and quick to do.

Mark