Host Fantom-6 with MPC Keys 61

Can you make 2 version of the same sequence, 1 with the MIDI data & 1 w/o, so you can tweak it & make it the new main sequence or just a different take.

Thanks for the MFX suggestion. I think I got it figured out, mostly, but that helps.

What I figured out though was I just wasn’t getting into sounds that laid better in a mix. I was starting out going through each sound engine, and you know, I’d find a nice bass, and a nice pad, and a nice lead and so forth they’d sound good individually, maybe even with another sound - but because I was starting out from the models going forward (and I imagine some of the lower number zencore presets were made similarly), I think a lot of those patches were made to be a predominant part of a mix/show off what the engines can do. So, by the way I was navigating I was finding stuff that was in the ball park of the sound, but everything was made to stand out. Even just switching to using the sound type to navigate, even though it still starts me out down in the models, I’m more able to cycle through the large number of sounds to find something that lays better and still sounds like what I’m going for. I’ll have to when I have more time probably edit more patches or build some that are meant to be a supporting part of the mix, but once I get out of stuff that’s meant to be a massive analog poly synth or a big 90’s digital sound or whatever, I’m finding stuff that without too much messing with the MFX, IFX, reverb, chorus, etc. that sits well. I like bass sounds that analog synthesizers I own/have owned are capable of producing, and sometimes you really want a bass that stands out and is at the forefront of your mix. Sometimes you just want it to support the other instruments. Sometimes I want a big pad that’s at the forefront of the mix. Usually you’d program patches, or there’d be patches of those types in a typical analog with patch memory, but there’d also be stuff that’s meant to just sit in the mix. I think with the models, and some of the Zencore presets, Roland was trying to show off how well they can do those big analog and digital sounds, without thinking - hey if somebody’s running 3+ instances of these, will it blend well? If somebody wants an analog bass that’s more subtle, do we have that as well? Or they just figured zencore and editing/creating patches with the models could cover all that.

Now as for Akai/Fantom integration issues:

1) So the Fantom is clearly USB class compliant enough to show up for MIDI control, it is not showing up as an available audio interface on the MPC. I already really dislike the MPC doesn’t let you split its audio - I can’t say, take over a mixer/use it as an interface for input purposes but still output audio over a line (at least allowing use of its main output or headphone outs would be nice) or do the same but for output purposes and record through a line in (frustrating if you have a Mic that requires phantom power, but still want to send audio from the MPC over 6+ channels of a mixer that doesn’t support that; while the solution is use a pre-amp or other device and feed it into a Mixer’s input, it still takes an input on the mixer itself). That said the Fantom has USB audio and a built in audio interface. It seems like if it will show up for the MPC as a USB MIDI device, it should also show up as an audio interface (though because you can’t split outputs listening to the resulting sound over headphones would be less than ideal - it’s audio out would be routed to the Fantom’s USB audio in, so if you were trying to see what something sounded like after applying effects, you’d have to route the Fantom’s audio to the MPC separately from the MPC’s monitoring out, and be able to listen to only the MPC’s input on the Fantom. I’m sure there’s a way - assuming it could be detected as a USB audio interface by the MPC.

Larger point, unless there’s something I’m missing, I’ve got to use line audio in some manner to record audio from my Fantom directly to my MPC, or record it elsewhere then bring it into my MPC - which isn’t ideal in all cases. It would be really nice to be able to record USB audio in this instance, in particularly for recording my synth sounds (I don’t use a USB microphone, so that’s already going through an audio line at least once), but also, the vocoder on the Fantom is kind of a synth sound, and I would prefer to be able to record that straight out of the Fantom and into the MPC without passing it through the Fantom’s DACs, a line, and either the MPC’s DACs or an audio interface/mixer on the Akai, or worse yet, my computer, or recording it directly to the fantom, outputting it to a flash drive or sending it to the computer, then importing it into the MPC. So if there’s something I’m missing here, any help would be appreciated.

2) When I’ve admittedly been running a decent amount of sounds including the models on the Fantom, I’ve had something weird go on a couple of times. It almost sounds like subtle DJ scratching - like if the Roland’s output was played on a record, somebody gave it a very slight wobble, or what I used to purposefully do with a plugin on fruity loops where similar sounds produced by it would interact and e en though they weren’t like an actual carrier/modulator, would sound like they were modulating each other’s frequency when played together. I thought maybe I got some midi notes routed either to a drum kit with scratching sounds, or as notes in the synth part (though while it was coming in around the same time into playing all those sounds, it wasn’t exact, and would happen a second or third time in other random parts, even when it played the first use(s) of the sequence fine), and went through all of my sequences and wasn’t able to find any midi notes that weren’t intentionally recorded in. So it’s like it was kind of playing ghost notes - I think on the ACB model which made it sound more like that thing I used to do in fruity loops or a DJ wobbling a record). I’ll have to go back to the track and see if it still does it.

Just hopping into this thread. I am also a new Fantom and MPC Key owner....

2 things. Have you turned off the local sound of your fantom ?
Second thing. If I connect my fantom with midi cable and connect my fantom with USB on my computer at the same time, some notes aren't played well. I have to disconnect my USB during my mpc session.

Aphter-Glo wrote:Now as for Akai/Fantom integration issues:

1) So the Fantom is clearly USB class compliant enough to show up for MIDI control, it is not showing up

Did you set the Fantom to 44.1 KHz? 48Khz or 96 KHz won’t work with the MPC hardware.

You can't change that. Only with your sound driver but not within the Hardware