Workshop ®ÂØÒňΠ® Fantom-G Workstation Keyboard Sequencing and Recording © 2010 Roland Corporation U.S. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form without the written permission of Roland Corporation U.S.
About the Workshop Booklets Roland’s Fantom G6, G7, and G8—the Fantom-G family—set a new standard for excellence in workstation keyboards, with spectacular sounds and incredible built-in effect-processing muscle. A beautiful full-color LCD display and innovative performance features make getting around a pleasure and make the G6, G7, and G8 a dream to play. For recording, the Fantom-G contains a powerful 152 MIDI/audio track sequencer.
Understanding the Fantom-G Studio In order to master the Fantom-G’s studio, it’s important to understand exactly what it is that the Fantom-G sequencer and audio recorder do, and how they work. In the following sections, we’ll explain the relationship of Studio mode to the sequencer/recorder, introduce phrases and samples, discuss MIDI and audio tracks, and then take you through the sequencing and recording processes in detail.
When the sequencer plays back your captured MIDI data, the data’s sent once again to the sound engine, recreating what you played. You can quickly build a song’s entire rhythmic structure in one step by copying the phrase the desired number of times using the phrase Copy operation described on Page 243 in the Owner’s Manual. Play that note. Play this note. Sequencer • You can use the Fantom-G as a pattern-based sequencer—with each phrase containing the whole arrangement for a section of a song.
The Grabbable, Mousable Phrase On the Fantom-G’s display, you can grab a phrase with your mouse and move it to a different time in the song. Here we’re dragging a phrase rightward to move it later in the song. Samples offer similar benefits to those of phrases—the differences lie in that with samples you’re dealing with audio recordings, not MIDI data. Let’s say: • you’ve got a beat loop—you’ve sampled or imported and want it to provide the rhythmic basis of your song.
MIDI Tracks and Audio Tracks Here’s what it really is: AUDIO TRACK 1: What MIDI and Audio Tracks Are Bar Bar Bar Bar In the Fantom-G: • phrases—are played by MIDI tracks. There are 128 MIDI tracks in a song. • samples—are played by audio tracks. There are 24 audio tracks in a song. Neither kind of track actually contains your song’s MIDI data or audio samples. Instead, each • • MIDI track—is list of phrase playback events.
Samples Get Onto Audio Tracks Like This Samples are placed on audio tracks • • during recording—automatically by the Fantom-G. After recording, the Fantom-G asks you if you want to assign the newly captured sample to the previously selected audio track. when you manually insert them at the desired location—using the F1 (Insert) operation on the Song Edit screen. When you’ve got an audio track selected, the Fantom-G offers you a menu of all of your project’s samples to choose from.
Sequencing, Recording, the Project, and Songs Getting Your Project Ready When you’re sequencing or recording tracks, you’ll either be working with: • • a project you’ve already created in which you’re: • sequencing/recording a track in an already existing song. • sequencing/recording the first track of a new song a new project—in which you’re sequencing/recording the first track of a new song. To load an existing project if it’s not already loaded: 1 Press MENU, and click F1 (Project).
3 Select the song you’d like to load. 4 Click F8 (Load), and when the Fantom-G asks you if you’re sure, click F7 (OK). Creating a New Song While you can always add a new song to the current project, we recommend starting a new project for a new song if you plan to record audio tracks or create new samples in the song. This will help keep the song as compact as possible for saving and loading.
Setting the Song’s Basic Tempo Here’s how to set the song’s tempo. (You can change it at any time, since MIDI notes aren’t time-based, and audio-track samples in the Fantom-G automatically stretch or shrink as needed): 1 Press the TEMPO button to open the Tempo window. In the factory project, another way to select instruments to use is by selecting Songs 008-0125 from the Song List. These songs don’t contain sequences—they simply contain additional studio sets for you to use.
3 4 Select any MIDI track, and then press the LIST/EDIT PATCH button to open the Part Select window. Select the part you’d like to use for sequencing. 2 Set the displayed parameters. We’ll explain them below. 3 Once you’re ready to begin sequencing, press the PLAY button or click F8 (Start) —the window is replaced by the Realtime Rec window, which we’ll discuss in a bit. The countoff, and then sequencing, begins.
what you’ve previously sequenced. If you’d prefer not to use the Sequencer Auto Track feature in general, you can turn it off as described on Page 7, and use the parameter here, or the 6 5 buttons on the Song Play or Edit screen, to select the desired track. Choose the part you want on its Studio Play screen. The Count In parameter determines what occurs when you hit the PLAY button or F8 (Start) to begin sequencing.
Without input quantizing Beat 1 Beat 2 Beat 3 super-tight. If you’re unfamiliar with music notation, you may need to experiment with the Resolution value by trying a few takes until everything lands in the right place on playback. With input quantizing Beat 4 Beat 1 Beat 2 Beat 3 • gently correct timing errors—set Input Qtz to GRID, set Resolution as desired, and set Rate to something less than 100%.
You can quickly toggle the Loop Sw parameter on and off by pressing the LOOP button to turn its indicator on and off, respectively. When you turn Loop Sw on, the End Point and Rec Length parameters become active, allowing you to set the length of the loop you’ll be sequencing. We’ll discuss these two parameters in a moment. 3 Use your mouse’s scroll wheel, INC and DEC, or the Value dial to change the song’s tempo as desired. End Sw 4 Press STOP when you’re done.
The Rec Select feature lets you filter out MIDI data you don’t want to capture. (Some can be inadvertently generated, such as Poly and Channel Aftertouch.) While the Fantom-G’s large sequencer memory means you don’t have to think about filtering MIDI data, you can, by clicking F7 (Rec Select), and then unchecking any type of data you don’t want.
Erase mode works especially well—and is most fun to use—during loop sequencing as your music loops around and around. 1 Press the MENU button. 2 Click F5 (Undo). Deleting a Phrase You can use Erase mode to remove notes from an already-sequenced track by sequencing over the track in Mix mode, and pressing F6 (Erase) in the Realtime Rec window to get to the Erase window.
desired sound for the part. 3 Click F8 (Close) to hide the Part Select window. 4 Click F3 (Phrase List) and select the phrase you want to work on. 5 Press the REC button. 6 Set up the Realtime Rec Standby windows parameters in the same way you do when sequencing a track in a song. See Page 11 for details on these parameters. During sequencing, you have the same tools available to you as you have with track sequencing as described on Page 15.
recording audio tracks in the Fantom-G. If you’re looking for a quick tutorial, Page 14 of the Workshop booklet The Fantom-G Possibilities is the place to go. And, as with sequencing, the numbered steps you’ll find in the following sections are intended only to place the various screens and concepts we’ll cover in context. Connecting Mics, Instruments, and Audio Devices • stereo—connect its left and right outputs to the LINE IN L/ MONO and R jacks, respectively.
2 to hear the audio you’re recording. • OFF—so that recording begins as soon as you hit PLAY or F8 (Start). Press REC to start the Fantom-G metronome—the PLAY button flashes to show the song’s tempo—and open the Audio Rec Standby window. • 1 MEAS, 2 MEAS—so that when you hit PLAY or F8 (Start), you hear the click for one or two measures, respectively, before recording starts. • WAIT NOTE—so that recording begins as soon as you strike a key.
• LINE IN L—to record from the LINE IN L/MONO jack. • MIC/GUITAR—to record from the MIC/GUITAR input jack. • USB AUDIO—to record streaming audio from a computer running a DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) or some other audio program. When the Fantom-G receives 16- or 24-bit digital audio rates up to 96 kHz from the DIGITAL AUDIO (COAXIAL) or USB inputs, the incoming audio is captured as 16-bit, 44.1 audio. (To stream audio from a computer, you’ll need to Fantom-G’s driver on the computer.
When you’re done setting up your input effects, press REC again to return to the Audio Rec Standby window—if you press F8 (Exit), you’re taken all the way out to the Song Play or Edit screen, from where you’ll need to hit REC again. to zoom in and/or out on your tracks to see what you’ve got. On the Song Play and Song Edit screens are two pairs of zoom buttons. Click a magnifying glass with a: • minus sign—to zoom out. • plus sign—to zoom in. Zoom in and out horizontally using these zoom buttons.
current project. The screen will take on even greater importance in our next Workshop booklet, Perfecting Songs, MIDI Tracks, and Audio Tracks. • 4 F5 (Loop)—We’ve already discussed the Fantom-G’s ability to loop a song section or entire song during sequencing and song playback. While you can click F7 (Play) to play the SMF—and press it again to stop it—you’ll actually have more control of the SMF’s playback using the Fantom-G’s standard transport buttons.
• back to the previous marker— hold down SHIFT and press the button. There’s also a special Jump feature that allows you to get instantly to a preselected Jump marker of your choice. We’ll talk about this in a minute. All of a song’s marker settings—including the Jump marker—are stored within the song when you save it using the WRITE button. You set up markers in the Marker window—get there from the Song Play window by clicking F6 (Marker). choose the one you want.
Trk 1 Trk 2 Trk 3 Trk 4 When you save a song as an SMF, its audio tracks and samples aren’t included. A Note About MIDI Channels and MIDI Tracks When you select a part and play, the MIDI data you generate uses a specific MIDI channel. By default, Parts 1-16 in Studio mode use MIDI Channels 1-16, respectively. (You can change this on a studio set’s Level/Pan Part View screen, but there’s rarely a reason to do so.
wood-based metronome. 6 7 • TYPE2—to have the metronome use a computertype low-pitched tick. • TYPE3—so the metronome uses a clave-like, high-pitched sound. • TYPE4—to make the metronome use a cowbell sound. Set Beat Indicator Mode to the times at which you want the PLAY button’s beat indicator to light. You can set it to light: • only during song playback and recording—with the REC&PLAY value. • all the time—with the ALWAYS setting.