How did the Fairlight Computer Musical Instrument help musicians work with recorded sounds?

The Fairlight Computer Musical Instrument (CMI), developed in the late 1970s, was the first commercial sampling instrument. It revolutionized how musicians worked with recorded audio by functioning as a general-purpose computer that allowed users to digitize sound waveforms—converting them into a sequence of numbers—and store them for later use.1

Once a sound was digitized, the Fairlight CMI enabled musicians to play the recording back via a keyboard, effectively turning recorded audio into a playable musical instrument. Beyond simple playback, the system provided software that allowed composers to manipulate these digitized sounds using techniques previously restricted to traditional tape studios, while also offering the ability to synthesize new sounds from scratch. By integrating digital sound recording with computer-based processing, the Fairlight CMI became a foundational tool for the development of modern music workstations.12