Using FM7 for effects, but not working
I was born recently into the MIDI world with a Yamaha DX7 synth. It is old and not many effects are in its memory, so I got FM7 which is kind of like a sequencer I guess. Here’s what I want to do–I want to play the keyboard but record the sounds coming from FM7 with n-track. That shouldn’t be too much to ask should it? But I have looked around for days now and still remain a little clueless, so if anyone has ANYTHING they can help out with, that would be great. Thanks!
Since the FM7 is a software synth maybe you’ll need to do it the same way MIDI to wave is done. I’m not sure that can be done in real time, so you’ll probably have to record the MIDI first then convert it to wave.
This? http://www.vintagesynth.org/index2.html
The easiest thing to do may not be an option. You’ll need a multi-input-output soundcard. Set the FM7 to play out one pair of channels and the rest play out another pair. Route the FM7 pair back to an input and record that.
All that said, and if it doesn’t work or I didn’t explain what’s in my head well enough (very possible) the idea is to have waht you are playing along to going out one out put and just the sound of the FM7 going out another, and using a loopback to record just output.
There’s ways to monitor the FM7 as well. I hope this isn’t too confusing.
First thing you gotta do is get n-Track configured to respond/record the MIDI data coming from your Yammy. Easy enough. MIDI cable from MIDI out on the Yammy to MIDI in on your PC soundcard. Now go to Preferences in n-Track and make sure the MIDI port you connected to is selected and enabled. Go to the main view and choose Track > MID > New Instrument Channel select FM7 from the list(s) that pop up. Now go Track > Insert blank track > MIDI. Right click on the new MIDI track and choose Properties. Select the MIDI port you are using as input and select the FM7 as the output. Close that dialog. Click the LIVE button and peck a few keys. You should hear the output from the FM7. Arm the MIDI track and click RECORD. Play your masterpiece. The MIDI track should now contain the performance DATA. When you play the track back, the DATA is sent FROM the MIDI track through FM7 which generates the sounds. Make sense? It’s great because once you have the performance down, you can tweak the instrument sound all you want without having to re-record a thing!
TG
PS If I missed something…somebody will chime in…I hope…
ALRIGHT! That is great! I had selected FM7 to be the instrument, but I didn’t know I needed to switch the output. This is the best news I have had all week! Thanks for the responses! Take care.
Well, I’m stumped again and I seek the wisdom of one of you wonderful experts out there. I can record now with the output thru FM7, but when I add more than one track, the whole thing goes to ####. Is there anyway to save the FM7 preset to a certain track so that it sounds like that everytime instead of changing with each new track??? I hope this makes sense. If you need clarification, just let me know.
I’m not familiar with FM7 but you probably need to read up on how to configure the MIDI track(s) in question to play through the proper patch in FM7. You may be able to run more than one instance of FM7. I’m betting figuring out the mapping to the correct patch is what your after.
TG