G8 With27" Maci7 and Logic Pro 9

I am using Logic 9 and have been happily for a couple of years now.

But if you are transferring from a sequence in the Fantom world to recording in a DAW world, it is not a trivial change.

For instance DAWs mostly these days (Logic included) kinda assume that for your MIDI parts you will be using virtual instruments. Because, by and large due to the fact that they are not resource constrained, your samples (if you are using samples) can be huge, (Orchestral stuff particularly) your VAs can be very exact, and there are lots of rather clever developers out there doing interesting stuff - A Fantom (love it though I do) could never do some of the things Alchemy can. The VB3 is an incredible recreation of the Hammond B3, etc, etc.

Plug in instruments are not one dimensional pale imitations now. Some of them are amazing.

Not to say that there isn't a place for hardware. Nobody quite nails that Roland sound for pads like, well, Roland, and I have a bunch of favourites in my Fantom that are my 'go-to' sounds.

But DAW makers have not made it easy to bring this stuff into the DAW world, and Roland did themselves absolutely no favours with that half-assed Fantom plug in that lets you manage the Fantom nicely from the DAW but not actually play it via the plug in (Thanks Roland)

For me I could never be without my hardware synths. I would never bother with the sequencer on the Fantom now, but it is a nice controller, and I still use a lot of it's sounds.

Your milage may vary

Yeah.. when you find a DAW that works for ya it does wonders for the fantom range and leads you into other dimensions.
I finally have moved to not relying on the fantom sequencer and now hardly use it.
in fact its at a point i don't even save sessions, I have created some really complex stuff over the years when it comes to sets etc... but now i just load up as quickly as i can with an empty project and start production..
As i said in previous posts i tend to not use any of the mfxs either and they have been set to OFF at boot time.
Its a whole new worlds when you start producing outside of the box. :)

Thanks all,

Your input is much appreciated! And as I suspected the purchase of a $2000 plus synth AND the i7 with Logic would be a waist of money (at least $2000 worth anyway) so I'll go the controller route and use the sounds I aquire via software and the like.

Maybe one day i'll find someone willing to let go of there fantom X or G for just the right price.

Okay here I go into the world of DAW!

Thanks again.

The software route is a good one.. however in my search i have yet to find a software package that covers the bread and butter sounds like pianos brass sax flutes strings and those real sounds..
Most synth packages sound thin or toyish bar 1
"Omnisphere" is about the best real synth engine in software on the market and has some bread and butter sounds to that are very useable too but some are missing but because of its power you can probably mimic what is missing very well.
In the end may have to stay with the fantom for those real sounds that need to kick for quite a while yet.

"In the end may have to stay with the fantom for those real sounds that need to kick for quite a while yet"

Yes agreed! I may go the Motif rack and XR route for those meaty patches - I can also pick both up for less than I would pay for the fantom board. =)

Couldn't agree more guys. I was in the "workstations are a waste of time" camp but after going fully software for live I came back to hardware and the Fantom G is my first workstation, but I bought it with an eye to use it standalone live and in conjuction with Logic and my other hardware and software instrumentsin the studio. It works very well. And the G has that immediacy when I need it. Best of both worlds!