Hi, everybody, this is David Ahlund
from Roland, and today we're looking
at how easy it is to use the FANTOM
alone to create a song from start to
finish. Now, as you know, the FANTOM
integrates really well with your
DAW.
We have the DAW control mode, we
have individual channels via USB,
and so on. But that's not the theme
for today, because today we're using
the FANTOM alone.
Now in this video, I'm also going to
be using a lot of real time control.
I'm going to be using the different
pad modes for editing
separate parts of the sounds, for
jumping in between sections of songs
and playing samples, and so on.
So a lot of control right
on the panel, basically.
So let's get to it.
OK, so let's start with a big bang.
I'm going to hit record.
I have my recorder set the way I
like it, which is WAIT NOTE and
input quantize.
I want that set to eighth notes.
So now whenever I
start playing, it's going to start
recording automatically.
So I'm just going to record a big
bang here.
Now that's recorded and it's going
to repeat every sixteen bars.
Actually, I want to keep this for
something. So I'm going to save this
into a group as well, which
I just did now.
So that is
the big bang, which it's going to be
accentuating every sixteen bars.
And now we can start getting into
the actual drum programming.
Right. So I'm going to start with
the TR-REC.
Now, the TR-REC is, of course, a
reference to our classic drum
machines, like the TR-909
and of course, more recently, the
TR-8S, and so on.
So we can program this just like
the drum machine now.
We have 16 steps and you simply
choose the sound you want by playing
it. So there's my kick,
and I'm going to put it here on
those steps.
And now we've got that looping.
And now I want to add some hi-hat
to this by simply playing
the hi-hat, I've now chosen that as
well.
Now, if I want some weaker hits,
I'll simply play it in a more weak
way like that.
And now we have our little ghost
notes there.
Maybe we want a little
snare ghost notes there as well.
And now I want the main snare.
And there we go. Now we have a basic
beat going.
What I want to do now is actually
just do a little quick edit because
I want to show you something nice we
have here, which is the microscope
edit. And if I go in here, I can
see all my events, my notes, my
velocities, and things like that,
and I can actually just go in and
surgically change whatever
I want. So let's say I want to
change that hi-hat to something
else, I can easily do that
by just turning the dial here.
Or I could just by playing the new
sound I want like this.
So now I change that to a pedal
hi-hat.
Now, we got that going,
so that's the foundation of the
drums, and now we want to add
some more drums to this, and I'm
just going to jump to a different
track. I actually have the same drum
kit assigned to this track, but I
like to keep them separate because
that leaves me in control of levels,
and separation of sounds, and
so on. So I'm just
going to now go into TR-REC
again on the same drum kit with
different sounds. So here, for
instance, I have a ride.
Maybe you want a little bit of
tambourine as well,
and also some weaker tambourines.
Good.
So now that it is finished and
I'm going to go to a third drum
track, actually, and this one
I want to do something different
with. So I'm going to go into
Realtime Record now and I'm going to
play the pads over here so
I have some chopped-up drum loops.
Again, this is actually on the same
track. So this is my,
those are my main drums and the ride
I recorded. And up here, I
have some chopped-up drum loops, so
I'm going to just play these because
basically the pads act as a keyboard
as well if you want to, and you can
actually send these notes to
different channels if you want.
But I'm just going to use it for
these drum loops now.
So here we go.
Like that. So now I'm going to
record this live.
And again, my sequencer
is set to WAIT NOTE so I can start
whenever I want.
And there is my drum loop.
Now,
what I want to do is change the pad
mode to mute.
Now my pads are actually
mute buttons for
the different tracks, and this is
really useful for my next bit.
So I'm just going to actually turn
the main drum off there and just
keep the drum loop.
And then I'm going to add my final
bit of drums here.
So we'll go into TR-REC
and I'm going to make a little snare
fill. I have my little
909 kit here, and now I'm
just going to put that all over the
sixteen steps.
And I've changed the length here to
be two bars so I can
simply go to the second bar there
and do the same back.
So if we play this back now,
now we just have a long fill.
We can easily change the scale to
thirty-second notes.
So if I want the end of this fill
to be a bit more intense,
we have something like that.
Now, finally, of course, this sounds
pretty, pretty stiff right now.
So what we want to do now is to
get some dynamics into this.
And we can go into
a different type of editor than the
one I showed you earlier, which in
this case would be the piano roll.
So here's the piano roll.
You have a nice overview of what's
going on with the velocity and
everything. So if I just hit
velocity here, I can easily change
the dynamics by just simply
drawing on the screen my
desired velocity curve.
So if you play this back again
now, it sounds way nicer before we
can do something like this.
I think I prefer this one.
So now I have a fill that I can drop
in and out whenever I like
and now the full drums
are back. So this is a really nice
way of just kind of live jamming
and arranging
stuff live.
So that's it for the drums.
And now I think it's time for some
bass.
So I've got a pretty cool bass sound
here.
And it's got actually quite a lot
going on, so I want to switch to pad
mode to partial switch and select,
which actually lets me switch
on and off the different partials of
the sound.
And also it lets me select whatever
sound I want to work with as well.
So I'm going to turn
all off except for number one.
So here you can have a basic
just a sine wave on number
three, just an octave.
But on number two
I have a distorted sound, and that's
possible because every patch has its
own effect unit, but
you can choose what partial goes
into the effect and what doesn't.
So these two
are dry.
And this is distorted,
even though I only have a single
effect unit.
And now finally on partial four,
I have the step filter,
and this is actually really
interesting. We can go and have a
quick look at this.
I'm using the Step LFO.
I'm going to choose partial four.
And here we can look at the Step LFO
shape.
And we have a lot of stuff going on
here, a lot of different shapes.
I can quickly make some changes
if I want to.
And I can also control the overall
filter with the mod wheel.
Now, let's put all of these together
again.
And let's record some bass into the
track. So once again, I'm going to
do Realtime Record.
Just hit the record button.
I've got my settings made here
already.
Again, I have WAIT NOTE, so I can
start playing whenever.
So let's go.
And there is my bass.
Now we want to add something else,
but first I want to save this into
a group just like I did earlier.
And I'll explain later
what actually what that means and
why I'm doing it.
So I think we need some piano
right now.
So I'm going to go over to my piano
track here.
So this is basically a kind of lo-fi
piano that I made using random LFO
on the pitch just a tiny bit and
also have the
chorus level on the mod wheel.
So let's record a little
bit of piano in real time again
on top of this.
OK, so there's my piano, and now
once again, I'm going to save this
into a group. So that's going
to be number two.
And again, I'll explain this a
little bit later.
And let's move on.
Now, some pads.
So I'll just jump over to my pad
channel here.
And actually, this one is quite nice
because I'm controlling the filter
with a mod wheel here.
And also I have a nice and wide
pitch-bend range.
So let's just put that into the
track and see what happens.
And there we go.
Now, of course, you can also do all
of these things without stopping, so
I'm just stopping to explain.
But you can actually do this all in
one take if you want.
OK, so that's my pads.
And let's just yet again save
this into a group.
This is going to be group number
three and we'll get back to that,
like I said before.
OK, so the next bit is actually
going to be a little bit special
because I thought it would be cool
to have a vocal sample.
Sadly, I couldn't get a singer, so I
have to do it myself.
But it's really easy thanks to the
lovely sampling menu we have in
here. So we can sample to keyboard
and I can check my settings.
We can sample the keyboard itself if
we want to. I can actually just
record and sample all of this
if I want to, and make that into an
audio sample.
But what I want to do now is, of
course, sample the input.
So I have my sample mode set
to input and I've set
my original sample to be in F#,
because that's what I'm going to
sing roughly.
And we have a bunch of other
settings as well, but I think we're
good for now.
So I'm just going to start Realtime
Recording and I'm actually going to
mute a couple of tracks.
And then now I can
play the music as a background to
what I'm singing, but I'm only going
to record the vocals.
So, fingers crossed.
OK, so now that's recorded.
Let's see how it went.
We'll just give it a minute to
calculate the sample, to render the
sample, and
then we'll set the start point and
endpoint and they'll be that.
OK, so now that that's recorded and
saved, the FANTOM has already made
a patch for me with the sample in
it, so we can now play this sample
easily on the keyboard.
But I don't want to use this patch
because I've made another patch
already, which is way cooler than
this one and has lots of interesting
assignments for the sample.
All I need to do first is edit that
patch and just put my new
sample onto it.
"Hidden behind your eyes"
"A quiet devotion"
Right, but what I want to do is have
some fun with this, and that's why I
have preassigned some effects to it,
like the DJ effects looper.
"Hidden behind your eyes."
Which I can also control the loop
size of using this
mod wheel. "Hidden behind your eyes."
"A quiet devotion."
And of course, I can also do this
while playing it melodically.
"Hidden, hidden, hidden, hidden..."
So that is my patch and now
let's put this into the arrangement.
"Hidden behind your eyes a quiet devotion"
And there we go.
So now we have most of the
sections for a little song, I think.
I'm going to save this into a
group for which I'll get back
to later.
But first,
I'd also like to add maybe
just one more section.
So let's see
if we can add like an alternate
piano part, for instance.
OK, cool. So there is my alternate
piano part.
And once again, I'm going to save
this to a group.
This will be number nine.
And finally, I just want a little
break as well.
OK, so for the break, I'm going to
go with one of these full parts
that I had, and then I'm going
to mute a few bits.
So I'm going to mute number
nine and ten.
So basically the basic
drums. Oh, actually,
yeah.
Number 10 I can keep and
I will remove the bass as well.
Something like that, maybe.
So this could be a nice little break
and I'm going to save that as group
number five.
Now we have basically four
kind of full parts.
We have one break and
we have an ending as well.
So now that we have all of these
elements, it's really easy to,
of course, build a full song by just
putting different groups in a row.
But what I like to do is to perform
them live and just trigger them
live. And thanks to the pad
mode, that is really easy.
Again, like I said, we have
a bunch of different pad modes here
that can do a lot of interesting
stuff. And in this case, I've chosen
group play. So now I can hit any
of these 16 pads and they will
trigger those groups that I was
making before.
So if you remember, I had just
drums and bass on number one.
I had added piano on number two.
And for instance, I had my B-section
on number nine.
So as you can see, it's really,
really easy to switch between these
in realtime as well.
So let's finish off by triggering
these different groups and also
playing some nice sounds on top.
So here I have a nice, distorted,
almost guitar-type sound.
And a nice velocity-sensitive
vocal sound, someone actually jumps
between different important samples
depending on the velocity.
I have a nice kind of vinyl
Rhodes with a DJ effects looper
again.
And of course, I'd like to start
with the vocal sample I just made.