The story
Founded by Kim Ryrie and Peter Vogel in 1975.1
In 1975, Fairlight Instruments Pty Ltd was established by Peter Vogel and Kim Ryrie. The company produced microprocessor-based music workstations with samplers, which were revolutionary for their time.
New sounds could be created by drawing a 'sound wave' on the screen, which the computer would produce as sound. Theoretically, any sound was possible. Apart from opening up a world of new sounds, the Fairlight gave composers and performers instant playback. By changing the wave patterns presented on a screen, they could tweak a sound into shape without singing or performing it all over again.
The versatility of the early Fairlight was not lost on recording artists. The first record made entirely on a computer in the United States was done by EBN-OZN (Ned Liben, who represented Fairlight in New York, and Robert Ozn) – "AEIOU Sometimes Y" made in 1981, released in 1983.
Fairlight also became a manufacturer of media tools such as digital audio recording and mixing consoles. A hybrid analogue/digital Computer Video Instrument, invented by Kia Silverbrook, debuted in 1984. The fact that the CVI was also a "computer" was transparent to its use: it did not use a conventional ASCII keyboard (though in later models one could be attached), but rather a set of sliders and a small graphics pad about the size of the palm of a hand. Menu selections were made with a stylus rather than a mouse. The CVI allowed users to paint directly over the top of video footage as well as "with" video footage via an extensive series of effects.
In April 1989, Fairlight ESP (Electric Sound and Picture) was established by Kim Ryrie, with the financial backing of Australian distributor Amber.
DaVinci Resolve
In September 2016, Fairlight was acquired by Blackmagic Design.
Since version 14 (2017), DaVinci Resolve has included an integrated version of Fairlight software designed for TV and film post-production, and live audio mixing. The Resolve-integrated software supports up to 1000 audio tracks, with a maximum of 6 inserts and 24 aux-sends per track. Other functionality includes 96-channel audio recording and 3D audio mixing for formats such as 5.1, 7.1 and 22.2. Integrated audio tools include compression/expansion, limiting, gating and parametric EQ.
Fairlight software has been used in the production of TV shows, advertisements, and feature films such as Logan and Murder on the Orient Express.
From Wikipedia’s article on Fairlight (company), shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4