Easy Recording...???

The Fantom has onboard recording that’s fairly easy, it is Abelton like in workflow. However there really is nothing wrong with using a DAW, you may have the wrong perception about their workflow from your experience with Ableton. Most DAWs work like standard reel to reel tape machine, only without taking any time to rewind, you just select/make a track, hit record and go. If you have an iPhone or iPad you have a great and easy to use free one right there in GarageBand (though you will need an audio input of some sort as the Fantom doesn’t support class compliant audio).

If you can operate the Fantom you can learn to open, add a track, select the source you want to record, hit record and then save in a DAW.

OP, im pickin up what you're layin' down bro. :)

im old school in that i dont use computers and have no plans to use the DAW functionality of the fantom 8. i instead have hardware and record into a 16 track Akai Dr4d setup. I also have a fostex 24 track HD recorder. this is the most simplest for me because im simple. I also have an analog mix desk with outboard effects, couple hardware samplers and patchbays. once my board is patched, i sub mix out to my Dr4s. arm a track, press record. no mouse no screen.

if i were you I would invest in a external recorder, have a look at Tascams mix desk. there are two options:

https://tascam.com/us/product/model_16/top

https://tascam.com/us/product/model_24/top

in addition to being a mixer, they offer recording directly in built. if I did not have my current mix desk (48 input) , this would be my go to purchase...

marctronixx wrote:

OP, im pickin up what you're layin' down bro. :)

im old school in that i dont use computers and have no plans to use the DAW functionality of the fantom 8. i instead have hardware and record into a 16 track Akai Dr4d setup. I also have a fostex 24 track HD recorder. this is the most simplest for me because im simple. I also have an analog mix desk with outboard effects, couple hardware samplers and patchbays. once my board is patched, i sub mix out to my Dr4s. arm a track, press record. no mouse no screen.

if i were you I would invest in a external recorder, have a look at Tascams mix desk. there are two options:

https://tascam.com/us/product/model_16/top

https://tascam.com/us/product/model_24/top

in addition to being a mixer, they offer recording directly in built. if I did not have my current mix desk (48 input) , this would be my go to purchase...

I am not just "old school" but also "old" too! That plays a biiiig role anything and everything I do nowadays...

In old days I've had a Korg Wavestation and nothing else other than a only and nothing else but a BOSS BR900CD...
Whatever inspired me the night before and played for an hr or two on my keyboard was my commuting music in my car's CD player!
It was very nice and easy to hand a CD to a friend and ask them to listen 10-20 tunes on those CDs and give me their opinions.
Just missed those days!

Per wrote:

The Fantom has onboard recording that’s fairly easy, it is Abelton like in workflow. However there really is nothing wrong with using a DAW, you may have the wrong perception about their workflow from your experience with Ableton. Most DAWs work like standard reel to reel tape machine, only without taking any time to rewind, you just select/make a track, hit record and go. If you have an iPhone or iPad you have a great and easy to use free one right there in GarageBand (though you will need an audio input of some sort as the Fantom doesn’t support class compliant audio).

If you can operate the Fantom you can learn to open, add a track, select the source you want to record, hit record and then save in a DAW.

Oh no, you got me wrong buddy. Let me clarify my Ableton experience: " I only heard the name: Ableton"!!!
That's the extent of my experience.

I was not actively involved in any kind of musical activity since last 10 years or so...
Evolution of technology left me behind like a cave man hitting different size of rocks with my head and hoping it will be a different thud from each one of those hits that I can call my music.

When I received my Fantom 7 and unbox it at home, within first hr or so, my only thought was: "screw it, I'll return this tomorrow. This is ridiculous"

In the last three days I feel like I enrolled to MIT for Electronics Engineering degree!

For the love of God, all I want to do is play music on a keyboard filled with thousands of beautiful sounds along with the nicest realistic drum tracks on the side IN A SIMPLE MANNER without the necessity of obtaining a PhD from MIT!

My father (GBHS) always said: "Expert" is someone who turns a simple matter into a complicated one!
In that regards I assume Fantom was designed pure genius level experts!!!
I have no doubt on that!

While this instrument can produce sounds which could only be heard by dogs and whales, yet, they couldn't figure it out how to make it easy to turn the drum tracks on, for us humans.

I bought it to try for a while to see if it grows on me and it is a big IF... Thanks to GC's 45 day return policy!

Maybe I am really getting old. Music that I love, was meant to be pure and simple like sitting on the steps in front of your home and playing your acoustic guitar.

These Korg, Roland, Yamaha synthesizer/workstation designers/engineers need to look at the world around them a little bit more carefully. They need to get out of the lab and go to a beach or something. In a world where everything becoming automated and simplified these guys are going to 180 degree opposite side.

In my old-timer mind, when I spend almost $4000 on a keyboard like Fantom7 compared to a $700 keyboard like a Yamaha MX, what I am looking is not only twice the amount of sounds, twice the quality, but also capability of doing complex things in a simplistic manner!
That makes a product "great" in my mind.

Look at the iPhone!!
Why and how it changed our lives?
Because besides it has many sophisticated capabilities on its body, while offering to use those things in a very simple way.
An idiot like me can have his first iPhone of his life and become an expert in a day or two and use whatever iPhone offers.

Taking photos, recording videos, checking emails, sending texts, searching Internet, shopping at Amazon, chasing deals on eBay, playing video games, video conferencing and yeah, also making phone calls to...

Before iPhone we all had to know our friends', relatives' and family members' phone numbers or call 411 to ask person's name, city or address to get their phone number from the "operator" Remember???

Nowadays my Mother's phone number is "Call Mom" !!!

Oh well, life!

Expertise is the art of building unsupported bridges. Each step towards the goal is incredibly simple, but its dependent on the previous step and the bigger the step the more tenuous and poorer the foundation for what comes next and the weaker the whole structure will become.

Think about the iPhone. It’s whole interface might seem simple to you now but in fact it’s a far cry from the simplicity of what was there at first. You have gone on a journey over time with your device and you’ve learned it’s way of doing things to the point that you might assume it’s intuitive. It’s only intuitive based on the knowledge and experience you have.

The Fantom appears complex to you not because of your age but because you’re diving in at the deep end and haven’t learned all the little foundational pieces of knowledge you need to understand the machine as a whole.

The same goes for DAWs. At one point in the past when I was using old Roland HD recorders I might have thought the same, that they would be too much work. The assumption comes from the fallacy that if something can do more things it’s automatically more complex to use.

That also makes people make the next mistake which is to over-complicate things by trying to do everything that a tool is capable of the first time they use that tool. Often people don’t realize that just because you can doesn’t mean you have to.

The Fantom is actually very easy but you might perhaps be diving in to partials, zones, VAs and all sorts of stuff that’s actually got nothing to do with the end goal you want to achieve. It’s exciting, it’s cool, but you want to play some sounds to a drum beat, not program a synth sound from scratch. First thing you need to know is that you don’t have to.

Start out by simply finding presets that you like the sound of, just play with them and if you want then try the drum rhythm stuff. After that you might try individual instrument presets in the zones. Ease yourself into its world and see if it’s workflow fits what you’re trying to do.

You might also find that the Fantom isn’t what you want. When you pay more you’re often paying for granular control, but it sounds like what you want is simply accompaniment. Much cheaper keyboards offer good sounds and accompaniments that might be more what you’re after. The Fantom is for people that want control rather than to cede control to a computer. Again you iPhone has great drums (that can be made to follow what you play in like a real drummer after the recording is made) in GarageBand and Music Memos. Most home keyboards offer everything you might want too.

I got you OP. back in the 90s I would do the same thing.. just create some tracks and burn them to disk and play whilst I go on.. I still do that to this day but now i just stream...

I respect a person who still uses old school techniques to record. hardware is just easy and simple, and i wish you the best on it. you picked the right platform (Fantom) to dig into so you are well on your way...