Fairlight for Music Prodution

My background is in music mastering and audio production, although I've been learning Resolve for the last year or so. Primarily I use Sonic Studio for mastering and Nuendo for multichannel work, mixing, and some of the film/tv work we get in.

I just finished day 4 of BMD's week-long "Fairlight for Audio Post" course with Mary Plummer, a consummate professional and all around wonderful human being. I'm impressed by the system and looking forward to learning more.

Someone else on the course asked, and I wondered the same thing, if there's anyone using Fairlight for audio production, and they were referred to this fine forum. It would be good to hear some of the strengths, weaknesses, pitfalls and tips to get the most out of it.

I would expect that for someone making beats, using multiple software synths and such, or composing in the DAW, Fairlight might not be as an ideal choice as one of many competitors tailored specifically for music production. However for what I do, which is largely acoustic music in surround and immersive formats, where most of the adjustments are subtle, transparent, and involve some EQ, level or reverb and require multi-channel busses, I think Fairlight could be an interesting proposition and improve my workflow. I've seen some YouTube clips of a studio in Spain that uses Fairlight extensively for music production, primarily recording and mixing live players.

I've started this thread as a place to collect and share tips, techniques, caveats and ideas for using Fairlight for audio and music production.

Who's first?

I've done a fair amount of work in Reaper DAW, powerful.
Fairlight can do some things, but I don't think it can replace a dedicated DAW.
To then tweak some things post DAW in Fairlight for the final video production, sure.

Fairlight can do some things, but I don't think it can replace a dedicated DAW.

Fairlight is a dedicated DAW, that's been around since the 70s.

Rather than quibble over whether it's suitable or not, can we stick to those who actually use it in some way or another for music production?

If you prefer Reaper, that's fine. I tried it, liked the flexibility, didn't like how it sounded or was supported.

Fairlight is a dedicated DAW, that's been around since the 70s.

I think the "Fairlight CMI" has been around since the 70's but the DAW is late 80's.

The Fairlight CMI (computer musical instrument) was he first digital sampling synthesizer in the world AFAIK - Sydney, Australia company!

I do not wish to stifle your creativity on exploring Fairlight.
Its integration into Resolve puts it miles ahead of other editors.
It has a lot of great effects built in and supports VSTs,
and It does a great job for voice-over audio work.

Thanks. I hope that the few individuals who do indeed use it for music chime in.

Yes, for composing I completely understand the need for Logic, Cubase, Ableton Live and the rest. I also understand that ProTools has established themselves as an industry standard for both music and film production, whether for better or worse.

There are still areas where I feel (as a Nuendo user) that Resolve/Fairlight really offer a compelling workflow, especially for surround and immersive mixing and production.

But I'm still new to the platform, it may be I'll figure out why it's a poor choice at some point. So far I haven't yet reached that point.

Music composition works best in a DAW with MIDI tracks. In Fairlight you can record using a MIDI keyboard but the output of the VSTi plugin is recorded as an audio track.
While it is possible to work this way, it is very limited compared to other DAWs.

Having midi tracks in fairlight would really help make it useful in music production.

Another problem I have with Resolve/Fairlight is that Resolve does not support ASIO

I have a MOTU 8 track audio interface and I can only work with 2 tracks of my interface in Resolve. Vegas handles all of the MOTU tracks just fine.

I wouldn’t have it super high on my list, but it is nice to have MIDI tracks even for editing triggers for foley cues etc.

Further, bars & beats timing and grids are really helpful for editing music accurately and setting up tempo synced fx and delays for music etc


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When creating music I find it nice to have midi control of my virtual instruments (i.e. samplers)

Didn't Fairlight start out primarily as a sampler the was triggered via a keyboard?

Fairlight can do some things, but I don't think it can replace a dedicated DAW.

Fairlight is a dedicated DAW, that's been around since the 70s.

Fairlight is like Nuendo with all of the MIDI and Compositional features ripped out. Not jus the MIDI Tracks, but all of the other stuff that people don't think about when they mention music production software.

It's only useful as a "full DAW" if you're doing nothing but recording live acoustic music - like a live orchestra.