Bang the Fairlight Drum – Sounds and Presets
Plus patches for Oddity 3 and KORG modwave
4,7 / 5,0 | 
We check out some sampled samples from the legendary Fairlight CMI along with new patches for the Yamaha TX81Z, Moog Sub Phatty and Subsequent 25.
This week we’ve got sounds from 80s synths and samplers as well as patches for more modern synths like the KORG modwave and GForce Software’s Oddity 3.
Sounds and Presets
CMI Resurrected Industrial Drumkits by Tonepusher
The Fairlight CMI, the world’s first commercially available digital sampler, is probably best remembered for its more musical sounds, such as SARARR, SWANNEE, CELLO1 and ORCH2. However, the Fairlight’s drums are often overlooked and you might be surprised how prevalent they are, especially in the industrial genre.
Because Page R was primarily a rhythm sequencer, the Fairlight was, albeit it a very expensive one, a brilliant sampling drum machine. Whilst the ground-breaking Linn LM-1 was sample-based, getting your own sounds required you to get those samples burned individually onto EPROMs and you had to keep swapping them around when you wanted to change things.
On the other hand, you simply had to feed the Fairlight an audio signal, either from a live drum or a recording of one, and off you went. And for genres of music that thrived on big, crunchy drum sounds made from anything BUT drums, the Fairlight was perfect.
Tonepusher focuses on the Industrial scene and given that Industrial giants Ministry were huge proponents of the Fairlight, and anyone signed to their Wax Trax label could take advantage of that wonderful and gritty 8-bit crunch, he decided to release a sample library in honour of the daddy of all samplers.
CMI Resurrected contains 79 individual drum samples from the Fairlight CMI which have then been arranged into five complete drum kits. These samples have been processed specifically to be used in the industrial and EBM genres as well as any music that requires big, heavy, crunchy drums.
The Fairlight samples are provided as both dry and wet so you can use them as is, or process them in your own way. Load them up into the drum sampler of your choice. We’ve suggested a few from our affiliate below. You can buy CMI Resurrected for $25 CAD directly from Tonepusher’s website here.
Ambika for the Yamaha TX81Z/DX11 by Chronos
Ah, the TX81Z. If ever there was a synth that was coveted for just one sound, this would be up there vying for the top spot. ‘Lately Bass’ was the DX27/100’s ‘Solid Bass’ with a bit of bite, supplied by the extra waveforms that the TX81Z, and it’s keyed sibling, the DX11, offered.
There are many who will also tell you that the TX81Z/DX11 sounds better than a DX7, despite having two fewer operators. Those additional waveforms over and above the original sine waves gave these, and subsequent FM synths from Yamaha so much more oomph!
But dismiss these synths as ‘one patch wonders’ at your peril. They’re capable of some really great sounds and it seems people are still making new ones for it in 2025! Courtesy of Chronos, and via the LFO Store, comes a bank called ‘Ambika’.
The remit for this bank was to get it to sound as analogue as possible and they seem to have succeeded! Anyone who tells you that an FM synth can’t sound like an analogue is simply telling you they don’t know how to program one! Some of the finest analogue modelling synths use FM synthesis at their heart! <cough>AN1x<cough>.
These patches work on the TX81Z and DX11, as well as the V-50 workstation and YS200, both of which share the same multi-waveform engine. Pick up the Ambika sound set for €15 from the LFO.Store.
Dark Cinematic for GForce Oddity3 by K/V
The ARP Odyssey, on which Oddity3 is based, was always a gnarly beast, capable of some pretty dark, wild sounds. So it comes as no surprise that the likes of K/V have come up with some suitably brooding and haunting sounds for their new pack.
Entitled ‘Dark Cinematic’, this collection of patches for the latest iteration of GForce’s classic is aimed fair and square at the more filmic composers amongst you. Basses, pads, sound effects and more make up this keenly priced sound pack.
The Dark Cinematic bank can be bought directly from GForce Software for £14.99 ex. VAT here.
Urban Dystopia for KORG modwave by skendi
The KORG modwave caused quite a stir on its release and recently made it into our list of top 5 wavetable-based synths. Suitable for use in both the keyboard and module version, as well as the excellent native plugin too, this is a collection that, as so many do, covers a wide range of styles and tastes.
Honestly, there’s something for everyone here! This bank makes use of all the modwave’s tool kit with every patch making use of velocity, mod wheel, macros and the X-Y pad. Each patch has two layers and all the presets have been level-matched so there’s no nasty volume surprises when you’re flicking through.
Yo will need to make sure that your hardware has at least version 1.1.3 firmware installed, or the native plugin is at its latest version, to ensure maximum compatibility. The Urban Dystopia preset bank is available from Anton Anru for $24.95 USD here. It also forms part of a collection of modwave sounds that can be had as a bundle with a massive 40% discount here.
Talus Trance Soundset for Moog Sub Phatty & Subsequent 25 by Kulshan Studios
Despite Moog Music announcing the end of production of the Subsequent 25, there’s still a lot of love for the synth and the unit it ‘evolved’ from, the Sub Phatty. And with good reason, too. It’s a cracking little duophonic synth with a gravelly tone.
One particular genre of music not typically associated with these synths is that of Trance but that hasn’t put Kulshan Studios off making a very specific trance-inspired sound set for the recently deceased Moog synth.
Listing a who’s who of trance as a source of inspiration, they have crafted 59 presets that pay homage to those artists and producers that have dominated that scene. Chunky basses are complemented by soft, sweeping plucks and leads. There’s squelching and biting arps and something to occupy both low and high ends equally.
If you need any further proof, just check out the demo video above. Talus for Moog Sub Phatty/Subsequent 25 is available from Kulshan Studios here.
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