Fantom-X Tips and Tricks

[SamSaussy]

I've been having a lot of fun lately pretending I'm a guitar player. This is super easy.

(Note: This is for the Fantom-X.)

First, record a loop that you want to play over. This isn't really fun to do without background, and the delay is synched with the tempo so it helps to have a frame of reference.

On your mixer, set one of the channels to "VelPan Wurly." Hit the "Effects" button. Select the tab at the bottom that says MFX Structure and choose "Type 2" (MFX1 -> MFX2). Go back to MFX Routing and change MFX1 to "VS Dist" and MFX2 to "MultTapDly" (I think that's right, I'm not in front of my keyboard). Make sure that "PAT 1" is selected on the top left corner so that the arrows going from the Patch point to MFX1 instead of pointing straight to the Output.

Now play your loop, and lay down some sick guitar solos. You can use the pitch bend very effectively, and once you get the hang of it you will sound much more impressive than it actually is. With the delay, you can walk down a scale and the delay will back you up, so depending on your timing you can basically harmonize with yourself. This especially works if you use the "Tape Echo" instead of the other delay. Push the pitch knob forward to create a heavy tremolo for those single hard hitting high notes.

The higher notes will get drowned out when you have lower notes going, so just feel it out and you'll get used to it pretty quick.

Here's a link to the result: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHbb_JM_6TY
The effect I used for the loop was called "Jam Packed."

You can change the pitch bend to an octave by going to the "Part View" screen from the Mixer and selecting the tab "Pitch". Go to range, and change it to 12. This can be a ton of fun. I really wanted to make it so that the bend down is an octave but the bend up is only a whole step (like some of the Dist Guitar patches' defaults) but I can't seem to figure that out; if anyone can help with that please let me know.

If you want to use more of a death metal, fast rhythm type guitar, use the Timpani patch instead of VelPanWurly. You won't be able to hold out any notes unless you mess with the Release knob, but it's great for those choppy death metal chords. If you want it more rugged, change the "VS Dist" to just regular "Dist" and enjoy. There is a Dist->Dly effect too, and if you want to save room you can use that, but I prefer the VS Dist so I split it into two effects.

If you've ever got friends that bug you about your D-Beam (I know I do) and think it's the coolest thing in the world but you don't ever use it, one fun thing to do is to go to the Ctrl screen from Mixer and switch the D-Beam to "Bend Down." It helps to turn the sensitivity down by going back to the Mixer and pressing Menu -> System -> D-Beam and changing the sensitivity to about 25-35. Now, when you run your hand across the D-Beam, it will have the same bending effect. Honestly, it's much more practical to use the actual pitch bend, and gives you better results, but if you want to show off to those people who think the D-Beam is the coolest thing in the world, this is one way to do it.

If anyone can show me how to turn the D-Beam into a Wah for this setup, I'll be very much obliged. Please don't say AutoWah... I really dislike AutoWah.

[liuyelian]

You can do this in Patch mode, but I suggest you do it in Performance mode. This way you can save a specific set of chords for each song.

[EDcase]

Says video is unavailable :(

[Solitary man]

Thought I'd share this little trick. It does involve spending some wonga but you will get your money back when you re sell the SRX cards. I just left this message for another forum member but this trick will work with most SRX cards.

If you have some dispossable income buy the SRX-06 complete orchestra card. There are some awesome choir patches on that card. I bought this card saved all the descent choir patches to the user memory then re sold the card.

Now those patches don't make any sounds! So all you need to do is find the choir samples inside the Fantoms internal memory and replace these samples with the ones on the SRX-06 board you have now sold.

The choir patches I now have on my fantom x are awesome.

The strength of the patches isn't in the samples but the programming itself.

Hope this helps.

[Andy Keys]

Not sure if this one has been done, but here you go:

One Knob Performance Mixer

I was creating a setup for some Guns n Roses songs where I wanted to be able to control the volume of all the orchestral Patches in relation to the piano easily on stage, without a mixer.

If you put all the Parts that you want control over to go out of Output B (3/4), and then hook up Outputs B to the Audio Input jacks you can then use the Audio Input level knob to control the volume of all those parts together in one go (and the volumes of the individual parts stay the same relative to each other).

You can also edit the Input settings to determine which MFX module (if any) the input will go through, so you don't have to miss out on MFX through using Output B. Double win. :)

Which was useful in Live and Let Die when I realized I'd set the levels of the orchestra way too high. ;)

[bennyseven]

This could also be done using EXPRESSION for all parts which should be under level control. Could be controlled via knob or d-beam or a simple switch.