8
Sizing Up a Song
A song’s size is measured by the number of “MIDI events” it
contains—every MIDI message captured by the sequencer
counts as one MIDI event. When you play a note, that’s a MIDI
event. When you spin a REALTIME CONTROL knob, a stream of
MIDI events are generated for the knob’s in-between positions.
As a result, a song’s length in time is pretty much irrelevant as a
measure of its size. A 24-hour song with a sparse arrangement
might be dinkier than a super-busy explosion of notes that
lasts only a few minutes.
A Fantom-X song can contain 400,000 MIDI events. A typical
song contains roughly 120,000 or less. In any case, it’s unlikely
you’ll ever run out of room when you’re recording a song on
the Fantom-X—400,000 events is a
lot
of events.
Patterns
The most straightforward way to record on the Fantom-X is
to record each track from the start of the song to the end,
perhaps copying some sections to multiple locations. This isn’t
necessarily the easiest way to work, though.
In many songs, there’s lots of repetition, with some instruments
playing the same thing at various song locations. You can
record these repeating elements as “patterns,” single-track
mini-sequences you can re-use as often as you like.
A pattern is recorded and edited the same way as a track. Once
you’ve created a pattern, a track can trigger it anywhere in the
song, sparing you lots of repetitive sequencing. And every
pattern edit you make automatically applies to each use of the
pattern in the song, a real time-saver.
We’ll explain how to program a pattern trigger—referred to as
a “pattern call”—later on.
Though a pattern can hold data for all 16 MIDI channels, most people find
it simpler to record each repeating element in its own pattern.
The Fantom-X’s RPS feature also uses patterns, as described in the
Workshop series booklet
Performing with the Fantom-X
.
Before You Record
When it’s shipped from the factory, the Fantom-X is set up so
that it automatically loads its demo song at startup. Clear this
demo song before you begin recording your own music.
Clearing the Demo Song
1. Press SONG EDIT.
2. Press F3 (Song Clear)—the Fantom-X asks if
you’re sure.
3. Press F8 (Exec) to finish clearing the demo song.
To Turn Off Automatic Loading of the Demo Song
If you don’t want to have to clear the demo song every time
you record, you can turn off its automatic loading.
1. Press PATCH/RHYTHM, MIXER or LAYER/SPLIT.
2. Press MENU.
3. Turn the VALUE dial to select System, and then press
ENTER.
4. Press F2 (
↓
) and/or F1 (
↑
) to select the Startup tab.
5. Set Load Demo Song at Startup to OFF.
6. Press F8 (System Write) to save the new setting.
