Fairlight as DAW

[Manning]

I was in a conversation with someone of considerable note in the industry (whom most of you have heard of and many of you have dealt with). This person was talking about Fairlight as a DAW and how it was 'vastly superior" to Pro Tools.

I smiled and nodded politely despite having no idea what they were on about. Some googling turned up a video workstation but that didn't seem to be it.

Does anyone have any more insight?

[jkhuri44]

it's used alot by post production people, i believe it does well at the whole non linear work flow thing...pop onto their website and have a look at their features...

[Manning]

Oh OK, then I wasn't looking at the wrong thing.

The website seems to suggest "we're a video house, oh and we also do audio". That doesn't immediately inspire me to build a tracking facility around it - I don't do any post (and don't have plans to either).

However the individual in question assured me that it was a much better alternative to a PT based facility. Is anyone using one of these systems who can comment?

[The Tasmanian]

Ive used a few over the years and they are great machines to record and edit on - but no plug-ins.
Its like using Radar but better. convertors have always been leaps ahead of anything Pootools.
Rock solid format - sync to picture with never a glitch.
Great control surface - no shitty mouse stuff.
I have good mates that have been in front of them for nearly 2 decades - but Pootools has now infiltrated the film world too and taken most of the market - also Avid being one of the main video editing software company's muscled Pootools in.
Shame as it was a Aussie invented platform (hence Fairlight the suburb in Sydney)

[Chinagraf]

Soundwise it is the best sounding DAW there is. Something about their converters, even the old ones sound superior. The studio I have my room in has 3 other rooms all running Fairlight Xynergis, the big room I mix in has the Evo controller which is a bit like an Icon. I'm good friends with one of the owners and the Head Designer Tino.
I've spent a lot of time on the various incarnations since the MFX2. The latest with the Crystal Core card is awesome, but as has been said their main market is post and the design/workflow seems to lean that way. It's by no means a cheap system compared to PT, and if you are doing only music then there are some things you would miss. Midi tempo mapping is still developing (but getting close) which for me is one of the things I miss. The patching and routing is the most flexible I've seen, but along with that comes a more complicated way of setting it up which throws some people used to other systems. Runs VST's and rewire, and the EQ's are unbelievable and switchable between 3 different models.
If you are looking to record live music with very little programming it's awesome, but if you are say composing using vsti's and loops etc, it's not as user friendly as something like tools or Cubase/Logic. Like I say, it's whole philosophy and setup is different to what you would call the standard ways DAW's run, but in the hands of someone who is used to it, it's amazing and sounds incredible. The learning curve isn't necessarily steep, just different.
If really just depends on if you are hiring to outside engineers who are used to Tools or if you just have one house engineer using the system all the time.

[Manning]

Hi andy, thanks for the input. Sounds really intriguing and we are trying to go backwards and not use to much ITB processing, so it seems like it would suit our style.

Looks like the basic system costs $40K or so, so that's out for the time being. In the unlikely event we turn a profit next year then maybe

[rick]

you can buy them 2nd hand for about a buck

i can think of a dozen great things to say about them having used and owned them

and about 3 dozen bad things to say about protools
the first being i cannot tell if avid .digidesign are evil or evil geniuses


still forget fairlights buy or stick with protools

[Damien]

anyone know where i can get a IIx or III for a buck of 3....