FM7 newbie question

I would like to get FM7 and need to know what else I need. What other software/hardware do I need to record the sounds in FM7? I have Cakewalk Home Studio 9 & a SoundBlaster Platinum sound card. Do I need a physical keyboard? If Home Studio will not work to record what other software can I get to do so(reasonable)? I am new to this whole computer audio recording thing so bear with me please.

 

Well, that's not an easy question. I think for the beginning you could work with the standalone version of FM7 and using a midi loopback driver but working that way shouldn't be a permanent solution. Since you already have CW Homestudio you could upgrade to Sonar and using the DXi Version than can be used within the sequencer and is also a part of the FM7 package. But I'm not sure about the latency (the time the card needs to play the processed sound) of the Soundblaster platinum under Sonar...

But maybe you first tell me more about your Computer, Processor, RAM etc...
What OS are you running? Windows 95, 98, ME, 2000, XP???

I hope this at least helps a bit...

 

I have a Pentium III 800mgz with 1GB RAM running Win 2000 Professional. So I am correct in assuming that you need some other type of program to record the sounds of the FM7 as wav files for instance. Now someone told me that Cubase has a version of their software that is only like 49 dollars and would do the trick as well. If this is true which one would you recommend? So I do not really need a physical MIDI keyboard to play the FM7 I can just use the one on the screen. Thanks for your help and the info.

TC

 

You will probably want a midi keyboard. I think you'd get tired of clicking on the FM keyboard after a while, plus you are only going to be able to click one key at a time.

 

FM7 - FM7 newbie question -

Cubasis Go 3.0 is 40 Dollars (http://www.steinberg.net/products/ct/pc/cubasisgo/index.phtml?id=030208&language=on).
There´s also a free version called Cubasis Inwired (can be downloaded at
http://www.inwire-studios.com/cubasisinwired/), but I´m not shure whether VSTis can be recorded with that.
Joachim

 

Can you recommend a MIDI keyboard that would be relatively inexpensive, but also work with FM7? (How many keys should it have?)

 

Well, your PII800 should be fast enough, but as far as I know the creative labs Win 2k drivers for you soundcard aren't quite sufficient, so you probably have to get another soundcard or the free WDM driver package you can download from the following page.

http://www.nix-lab.spb.ru/index.php

It also supports the ASIO Interface that you need for Cubase to play virtual instruments in real time. Also FM7 isn't multitimbral so you need a software that is able to run multible instances of the software and mix them into one wave file, so when it comes to Cubase my guess is that you need at least Cubasis VST 3, since this version seems to support VST - Instruments. Well I don't think the smaller version do, at least according to the descriptions I found on the steinbarg page...

I also find that a MIDI keyboard is a good thing to have, even if it's only a small one. Since even if you never had piano lessons you're going to get used to it and after some time recording the midi data (note on/off) with the keyboard gets much faster than inserting the notes with the mouse or a virtual keyboard.
You might try to get a used Keyboard from the 80s like a Roland D10, Kawai K3, Casio CZ-1 or VZ-1 ... They don't cost much more than a little MIDI - Keyboard, have a 5 octave range and create sound even without a Computer...

 

First of all I really appreciate your help Summa you have been a tremendous help! It looks like my best bet is to go with Cakewalk Sonar 2.0 since I can upgrade to it a lot cheaper than Cubasis VST 3.0. Do you know if Sonar 2.0 is compatible and will work with FM7?
I also have access to a Roland 303 Groove Box which I believe should cover my MIDI keyboard issue. Thanks again for all your help! TC

 

Hi TC,

I hope you don't mind, but in my opinion the MC303 hasn't exactly something that I'd call a Keyboard, in this case I guess even my little Casio GZ-5 Keyboard for 20 bucks would work better than this... Well, not that I'd recommend that little Casio toy...

Here's a picture ...

http://www.cweb.com.br/br/..\comercio\imagens\GZ-5.JPG

When it comes to Sonar 2.0 it should work with the FM7 DXi - Plugin, what is part of the package...