Working methods on the Fantom-G

[comradec]

While a hardware workstation like the Fantom-G has advantages over a software DAW, speed of use when previewing audio loops is not one of them. Not if compared with a program like Ableton Live anyway, where you can import looped beats and see which ones work well together quickly.

If the FG had the ability to keep a hard drive connected and the user could navigate through directory folders to find samples, it would be a lot easier. As it stands, though, importing and auditioning samples, let alone getting them to sync/timestretch, is quite a laborious process - especially as they have to be re-arranged on a computer first so that they are all at the same directory level rather than remaining in their original folders. This requires a degree of forward planning when putting together a track rather than spontaneity.

I wondered, therefore, about the working methods of my fellow Fantom-G users. What's the best way of experimenting with audio loops quickly?

I should say that I'm not expecting the same functionality as found in Ableton Live, nor I do want the laziness that program encourages whereby some people put together tracks from loops they've bought or downloaded without any actual musical input of their own. However, I generally start a song from a beat, and that's usually an audio looped beat, before adding my own basslines and other instrumental parts.

[quebec88]

Great question comradec. I'm getting ready to start making drum loops and samples so that I can have them available as templets on the G when I want to jam to something or if I'm going to create a dance song or something. I know that this is going to take me some time, so I would be interested to know too what the best procedure is.

My plan was that I was going to create 4 bar and/or 8 bar drum loops that I would save as phrases. And then I would call them up as needed. I want to build a library of my own loops. I just haven't had the time to do this until now.

[comradec]

That said, I didn't notice any problem back in the days when I had a Yamaha SU10, which had a maximum sample storage capacity of 19 seconds (at CD-quality), and just a few hundred loops at my disposal.

Now though I've got around 75 GB of loops on my hard drive (not including other types of samples, such as oneshot hits, multisampled instruments, etc) and, according to my folder properties data, there are 96,000+ individual files in there.

But time and technology have moved on, and I would be interested to hear how people use their Fantom-G to put together tracks quickly from scratch.

[Anton]

Having al this technology might be not so good for inspiration.

Back in the old days I only had a Roland D-5 and an Alesis MMT-8. In those days I produced more completely finshed songs than I do now with my FG.

[comradec]

Not many responses yet. So this is a sort of bump, I guess.

I'd just like to know how people work with audio loops on the Fantom-G.

Do you start a composition on a software DAW, working out which loops work, and then transfer it to the FG?

Do you import a few hundred WAVs (or AIFFs) to the FG's Sample List and then experiment from there?

Do you start off with a strong idea of the audio loops you've going to start with and therefore only import a few at a time?

Or do you use some other method of working?

[superchris]

unless your making sampled style beats, you should create your own midi loops inside the fantom g using its patches.....Start with a 4 bar loop or 8 and keep playing the melodies over and over until they loop perfectly to fit your taste and style....

[comradec]

Hi superchris.

I can do that too. Create my own MIDI loops, I mean. Which I do by the method you describe.

But I also like to work with audio loops, especially ones of real drummers playing. And occasionally with rhythm guitar loops as well. It would be unusual for me to work on a piece with more than two parts/tracks of audio loops. The rest I would compose myself via MIDI.

[pjblues]

I start off experimenting with audio loops within a DAW prior to dropping them into the Import G folder.

[dbijoux]

Buy an MPC?

[pjblues]

Had the MPC 5000 and sold it. No way for me this was as good as the Fantom when it came to sampling and chopping, assignment, etc...

[apex]

@ pj.

so you are saying the fantom g is better at sampling functions are better than the MPC 5000?

[comradec]

I've spent a good few hours just now browsing through sampled beats on my computer and collating around 1,000 that I think might inspire compositions. And now I'm importing them to the Fantom-G.

A slow process because it's no use simply importing the whole lot in one go. Unfortunately (unless someone can tell me otherwise), the Fantom-G assumes an imported sample has whatever BPM you had set up at the time you import the sample.

So, if you leave the Fantom-G set at 120bpm when importing, it will do all the timestretch/beat-sync calculations for any looped sample on the basis that it started out at 120bpm - which can be messy. If a sample has imported with the Fantom-G set at a different tempo, you have to adjust the parameters manually to make it work properly.

So I'm having to import the samples in batches based on their original tempo - eg, a batch running at 80bpm, another batch at 90bpm, and so on.

The idea though is that I'll have a whole bunch of looped beats that I can experiment with when composing new material.

But I wish it was easier to import these things. Better still would be the Fantom-G having the ability to recognise folder structures other than its own import folder. If samples could be transferred to a USB stick or a hard drive and kept in their original directory paths, you could browse through and audition them before importing them to the Fantom-G.

Now that would be a real improvement.

[comradec]

I haven't used an MPC, but I know that the MPC500 has its own hard drive where you can store sample material.

Presumably you can browse through and audition samples quite quickly before deciding which ones to use?

That's the sort of functionality that would make a real difference to my experience of using the Fantom-G.

[pjblues]

I am pretty new to the G but having used the MPC 1000 and then the 5000 I personally think the Fantom is much better. What I do is rename my loops, waves, etc. based on the BPM. As an example, guitar chords 98, for 98 BPM. Then when I import them, I preview and then edit, making sure as in this example, the G has it at 98. It seems to work for me.

[SRUT, BUT...]

collating around 1,000 that I think might inspire compositions

a 1000?

boy, you sure are easily insprired!
No pun intended!

Honestly, why don't you shrink down the number of your inspiring beats to, let's say, a hundred? It'll make work 4 ya easier... Filter. Reduce. Abstract. Life isn't THAT complicated! There aren't THAT many unique individuals on earth, that's true 4 beats as well... simplify your life...

...just trying 2 help...