Fantom G and the MC-808

Sounds interesting, please post some video of your performance or rehearsals!

I didn't make it more than halfway thou.. please, do a little text formatting on the above, it was really hard to read it without any line breaks (by pressing return twice).

I would use the Fantom G as the one to rule them all.

MIDI out on Fantom G to MIDI in on MC808.

I would expect that in terms of sounds and parts played they would run independent most of the time.

The Fantom G would normally be used to send clock signals to the MC808, to syncronize play back of patterns and parts (phrases). I would record parts into the Fantom G sequencer to play the MC808 at times.

I would steal phrases from the MC808 and record them into the Fantom G, (I would have to reverse the MIDI connection G out to MC in). Then for play back by the Fantom G, which would send note information back to the MC808, using the MC808 as a sound module for performance. (PS i'd use the MC808 for my own "pattern" generation/recording, but use the Fantom G to record songs.)

Remember MIDI is not sound, only control messages, such as; play this note for this long, or play at this tempo, or to start/stop playing the sequencer. This discussion is not about the analog (sound) output of either instrument.

They are both powerful midi machines and the real issue to solve is to decided which instrument does what for any given performance. The options are almost endless.

When you perform live though you will not want to be making cable changes or re-programming or configuring instruments. So a consistent method or approach should be developed.

Your best bet is to try different configurations until you find the best setup for your intended use. This all depends on what you and your band want the instruments to play, (sounds like mostly bass patterns with percussion and other backing/fill tracks added in)

Good luck, play around with it, then come on back the the forums to ask question and discuss your methods with others.

PS. If you'd rather have the MC808 run the show, post your question on the MC808 forums, you'll most likely get better answers and advice.

I had a MC505, wanted a MC909, and hope to buy the MC808 this year. While I don't use the beat boxes very much, I always been attracted to them.

I have been using the Fantom in favorites mode to switch patches and live set mixes for tracks we play live. I can also put a song file in as a favorite, start it playing, and then switch to my next favorite (a live set with patches already mixed). If I do this and the song file is all audio files, it works great, BUT I tried it once with one of the factory songs and it did not work.

The factory song had tracks created on the midi files, and when I changed to the live set the patches changed also. Ever run into this problem? Any idea how to fix it? I have a thought that I may can keep the song file the same, and instead of switching to a patch with my favorites control, have another track either open or armed with my patch that I want to play.

This way I would not have to change in the favorites, only problem is I am afraid I would have to press record instead of play to hear the output of the track set for my patch.

We need this to work somehow as we are linking to a Roland MC-808, and running sequenced beats on the 808 live that will play along with the Fantom song file (all recorded in midi). I have attempted to get around midi with mixed down audio tracks, but there is simply not enough memory available to do that with all our songs. Midi is really the only answer for us.

Any ideas will be great, or any better ideas about how to run our setup will be welcomed as well.

I think we have gotten down to an idea and setup that may work best for us, being both somewhat easy and flexible on stage. I am just not sure how exactly to set it up. Here is the plan:

1. Sequence the drum track for a song on the Roland MC-808. My drummer has already figured out how to do it and mix parts and all on the fly for live performances.

2. Create a song file on the Fantom G and record all of the other parts of the track as midi files using my patches.

3. THIS IS WHERE I NEED SOME HELP! We want to sync the machines together so that when I press play on my song file of midi tracks, it also starts his beat at the exact same time. I assume if our BPMs are identical everything should then match up well, and he can still do things on the fly as my files will be locked in and playing from the outputs on my Fantom.


Any ideas, especially on the main question of the midi file patches going crazy when we change to a live set with a midi song file still playing, will be awesome. I have a very similar if not ideantical post on the 808 site by the way, good to get ideas from both ends.

By the way, how you doing Audacity Works? Have not heard from you in a while. Things are starting to work out for us, hopefully I won't hound you with questions too much more often


THANKS!!!

If you've got both midi and audio in your song, why not just resample the song to one wav file. Then, set up the wav in a new song on its own as one audio track then assign that song in favourites. This way, when you switch songs, your Live mode setting won't be changed. Works for me.

Ian

It is a space issue. Once we do a few live sets then we will be out of room, and I would like to decide on a plan that will allow us to continue to expand without worrying about running out of room.

Sorry G8owner14, I should have read your post properly.

When you say you've not enough room, what do you mean ? How much sample memory do you have in the FG ? There are a lot of variables, but if you have 1GB in there and say your average wav for a resampled track is 45MB, you could get approx 22 or 23 songs in one project. You may have to load a new project during your gig if you have more songs than this but at least you'd be able to use Live mode as you want without the song changing patches etc. 1GB memory + 8GB thumb drive = a lot of songs.

That is true, and may be how we end up having to do it. I just hate the idea of changing projects and having all this work somewhere out there on a thumb drive, when midi would lock it all into the machine and I could just back it up for safety. We have been playing with the audio side of things for sure. Midi would also give me the ability to remix and recreate the tracks in the future, as well as change mixes depending on venues and issues. I do see your point though, and it is very valid. I just think midi could open aup a lot of capabilities for us, especially down the road. Thanks for the input!