Audio Recording

Synthesizer is an important virtual musical instrument in modern music production. Whether it is rock, pop or house music; you will commonly hear greatly produced music with synths on it. This is a tutorial on how to produce the best sounding synth for free using Native Instruments FM7 in Adobe Audition. Take note that Native Instruments is available for purchase however you can still use the demo versions to produce some music of your own. For example this house instrumental music that I produced is entirely created using this synthesizer (except for the bass drum and hi hat loops) in trial version:

The following are the steps:

1.) Download the trial version of Native Instruments FM7 synth here:
http://download.cnet.com/FM7/3000-2170_4-10228859.html

Install it to your computer. This will work and tested only in Windows XP.

2.) After installation, launch Adobe Audition. Go to edit view. Go to File – New. Under “New waveform”, select the desired bit depth and sampling rate for the recording. The most recommended is 96 KHz, 32 bit float. Although if you have limited hard disk space, you can use 44.1 KHz sampling rate/32bit float. Click OK. Adobe Audition is now ready for recording your synth sounds.

3.) Configure your sound card software to record the computer/windows system sound. If you are using Creative Audigy soundcards, this can be accomplished by going to sound card mixer control panel and configuring “REC” to “What you hear”. See screenshot:

Adjust the volume to near max but not using the maximum volume because it might clip.

4.) Go to Start – Native Instruments FM7 Demo — FM7 Demo.
5.) It will show its limitations as trial software, just click OK.
6.) If you see “Soundcard properties” just click “Cancel”.
7.) Then go to “System”, click “Stop Audio”. Then under “Demo Song”, uncheck “Play”.
8.) Go to “System” again and click “Run Audio”. FM7 synthesizer is now ready to be used. This is how it looks like:

9.) It’s time to create your basic drum loops. In the above example, I use bass drum ultra and hi hat loops using Hotstepper drum sequencer then export the WAV to create the drum foundation in Adobe Audition multi-track editor (just click “Multitrack” view tab). This is how it looks like:

10.) Compose your favorite synth loops in the FM7. Once you have decided on a specific arrangement, go to Edit view in Adobe audition and hit the record button to start the recording. Play the synth piano keyboard. Since you have configured your sound card mixer to record the computer system sounds, it will be captured in Adobe Audition.

11.) After recording. Select all, right click on it and click “Insert into Multitrack”. If the signal is too low, you can even boost it by amplification.
12.) The recorded synth sounds will then appear in multitrack.
13.) Repeat step 10 to 11 until you finished recording all your synths for your song.
14.) You are now ready to mix the synth. The same audio mixing tips can be applied when mixing house/synth music. You need to decide which tracks to pan right, left, center. You can also implement EQ on it as well as compression if necessary.

If you want to see the complete/whole screenshot of the FM7 multitrack project in Adobe audition, click here. Play the music above, it reflects how the FM7 synths are being arranged in the multi-track. This will give you an idea on how to do this on your own. The following are the synth sound library I use for the above sample audio track:

a.) Bit bites
b.) Warm atmos
c.) Breakdance

There are some VST/direct x plug-in effects I used in addition to producing the above sound. That includes wah-wah-wah and Antares Tube overdrive to Bit bites, Leslie cabinet sound to break-dance bass and multi-tap delay for Warm atmos.

15.) You can then mix down the tracks and master it. If you are very happy with FM7 trial version, you can buy the full package for around $160 in Amazon