Jump to content


Please note: You can easily log in to MPN using your Facebook account!

Roland FA-06 and FA-08


Recommended Posts

I was thinking of an FA-06 as a compliment to my Motif XF7, but got scared off by the "meh" reviews of the tonewheels. organs is imo the biggest weakness of my XF.

 

then I went to GC near me and they don't even dlsplay most boards anymore. 10,000 40-ish key controllers stacked floor to celing though...so I'm guessing the market is not me. $600 CND - thats like $600 US?

The baiting I do is purely for entertainment value. Please feel free to ignore it.
Link to comment
Share on other sites



  • Replies 914
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

Top Posters In This Topic

You have to try the organs, see if you like them better than the reviewer did.

Life is subtractive.
Genres: Jazz, funk, pop, Christian worship, BebHop
Wishlist: 80s-ish (synth)pop, symph pop, prog rock, fusion, musical theatre
Gear: NS2 + JUNO-G. KingKORG. SP6 at church.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm in the meh camp. The basic tone actually good. Just that rigging up some way to have real-time parameter is the trick.

 

The VR-09 would be a better compliment if you want a performance organ.

 

But the sample player and total package the FA gives you is a very nice. Depends on exactly how important the organ piece is. Synthwise the Roland sound engine and Yamaha work great together. Their strengths and weaknesses offset each other very well. If you can assign the XF7 faders to run the drawbars on the Roland FA-06 maybe that would work out great.

"It doesn't have to be difficult to be cool" - Mitch Towne

 

"A great musician can bring tears to your eyes!!!

So can a auto Mechanic." - Stokes Hunt

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I like the FA "total package" over the VR-09 for an all-purpose second board ... on paper. I went to try them out and neither is on demo display at the GC in my area. Maybe the bigger GC down by Grossmont Center has them out, don't know. All San Marcos had was a Juno, an XF8 and a kazillion mini controller boards for dorm rooms or djs.

 

Organ hasn't been a focus because I've not had an organ I could focus on. I turned down a DP set because I sat around for several hours dicking with my XF until I resigned that this board won't do that band as it should be done. I'm sort of OCD, I wouldn't do DP without a proper organ sound.

 

I expect I'll add a Vent2 to whatever I get. might go get the V2 now and plug XF into it. the leslie sim is pretty poor in XF

The baiting I do is purely for entertainment value. Please feel free to ignore it.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I like my FA-06 a lot, and now use it for almost all rompler sounds. I think the organ sounds are great but I use the NS2 for the real-time controls (drawbars, perc, OD).

Gear:

Hardware: Nord Stage3, Korg Kronos 2, Novation Summit

Software: Cantabile 3, Halion Sonic 3 and assorted VST plug-ins.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yes. That is a huge question. What exactly do you want to know?

 

I play mainly in pro covers band (top40/pop/rock/country).

 

I use my Roland RD-800 for piano/EP and some pad.

 

Do you think the Roland FA-06 would be a good keyboard for all other sounds? (mainly : organs, brass ensemble, strings, flute, banjo, lead synth, dance pad)

 

Or should a put much more money into a Korg Kronos? Is it worth it?

 

Thank you, your opinion would be appreciated :)

Live : Roland RD-800, Korg Kronos 61

Home : Roland FP-7, iMac 2,93 GHz i7, Presonus Audiobox, Logic Pro X, PianoTEQ

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I use a Kronos 2-88 and a FA-06. I think the Kronos is worth it. I like it from a controller perspective and from a resource perspective. I think the Kronos does a lot of things better. I run Combis with a lot of zones. 8+ zones sometimes. I use the faders to bring zones in and out and to do cross fades. The Kronos is very powerful from a sound design/programming perspective. I like the effect better on the Kronos. I have set up some HUGE brass and string sections with no note stealing

 

If you want to play presets the Roland is great. If know something about synthesis then the Kronos has tons of possibilities and it is way better hardware. I use very few stock presets on the Kronos.

 

The FA has good sounds. I don't like the FA-06 action that much. The APs and EPs on the FA-06 work a lot better from a weighted controller. The sample player pads on the FA are great. There are parts like the string flurishes in Call Me Maybe I sampled and trigger from the pads. In Pop I use the pads a lot. It makes a great MIDI slave and the sound library is good.

 

I got the Kronos because I was out of zones and needed a controller. My choice was down to either the Kronos or Motif XF8. So the price difference was not big for me.

 

I think the Kronos is way better. Is the difference in price worth it for you I don't know. I couldn't do my gig without either one right now. If I didn't have the FA-06 I would buy a Fantom G6.

"It doesn't have to be difficult to be cool" - Mitch Towne

 

"A great musician can bring tears to your eyes!!!

So can a auto Mechanic." - Stokes Hunt

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Kronos may beat FA regarding organs, the overdrive is better. Also synth sounds sound better on the Kronos to my ears, because the Kronos has true VA algorithms while the SuperNatural synth is still rooted in Roland's PCM legacy.

On the other hand, the FA has SuperNatural behaviour modeled strings (and maybe brass), and you can also download EXP packs in many genres for free, contrasted with the Kronos $ample $et $tore. (Though there are not as much.)

All in all the FA-08 is around 1/2 the price of the Kronos, but for that price it rocks. Additional plus point is that it's 1/2 the weight!

Nicopiano, I have a feeling the FA is perfect for you. It does all the things you mentioned very well. When it came out, my reaction was "here's the perfect board for pro covers bands". No kidding.

Life is subtractive.
Genres: Jazz, funk, pop, Christian worship, BebHop
Wishlist: 80s-ish (synth)pop, symph pop, prog rock, fusion, musical theatre
Gear: NS2 + JUNO-G. KingKORG. SP6 at church.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

...

Nicopiano, I have a feeling the FA is perfect for you. It does all the things you mentioned very well. When it came out, my reaction was "here's the perfect board for pro covers bands". No kidding.

 

That is my hunch also. The price is right. The built in SP404SX sampler in the FA-06 is $500 when sold separately. It can be really useful. I quit carrying tablet for my DJ turntable app because I loaded scratch samples into the sampler and use the pads. I do a lot of stuff with the pads. The SD card memory allocation of sampler is dynamic.

 

Studio Sets are very easy to understand and can easily be played from your RD-800.

 

A huge advantage of the Kronos is Set List. You may want to look at this and see if you need this kind of patch control. Both boards are good.

 

Go to 19:44

[video:youtube]

"It doesn't have to be difficult to be cool" - Mitch Towne

 

"A great musician can bring tears to your eyes!!!

So can a auto Mechanic." - Stokes Hunt

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Two other thoughts.

- FA-06 will have a lot of sounds in common with RD-800 while Kronos will of course sound totally different.

- RD-800 can be a "master keyboard", send Program Changes (to the FA) and has an External layer to control other gear from the keyboard.

Life is subtractive.
Genres: Jazz, funk, pop, Christian worship, BebHop
Wishlist: 80s-ish (synth)pop, symph pop, prog rock, fusion, musical theatre
Gear: NS2 + JUNO-G. KingKORG. SP6 at church.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Finally I choosed what would be a long-term option : Kronos 61. The set-list mode is what I need.

 

But I must say, after another try, that the FA 06 is a great sounding keyboard especially for the price.

 

Thank you for your help, sorry for hijacking this thread.

Live : Roland RD-800, Korg Kronos 61

Home : Roland FP-7, iMac 2,93 GHz i7, Presonus Audiobox, Logic Pro X, PianoTEQ

Link to comment
Share on other sites

you can switch from a studioset to a studioset with a pedal, but you lose sound on change.

or you can use setlistmaker and i BT pedal to send sysex message to do all you want, i start to use setlistmaker[on ipod] + airpad [bluetooth transmitter] to controll all, eneble/disable keyboardswith and much more.

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Why the hell did I get the FA06? Borrowed an FA08 to replace the 06 while I try and fix it and it's just SO MUCH MORE USEFUL.

 

A pain to carry but its lighter than most other 88 boards. Action is actually very nice once you get used to it and it's so much easier to create effective splits and layers. Electro over the FA08 is the best feeling rig I've ever played.

 

Also, being able to import all of my samples and sounds between keyboards within seconds with the SD card is a great thing.

Hammond SKX

Mainstage 3

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hey Jordan,

 

I'm curious how you use your boards when you play with the FA 08? Do you have it MIDI'd to the Electro for AP & EP sounds?

 

My current cover band rig is the Electro as the bottom KB for AP, EP, Organ and occasional strings while my FA 06 handles all synth, samples, bells & whistles.

 

I don't really mind playing piano parts on the Electro but have contemplated sometimes changing the 06 for a 08 as a bottom board for a nicer feel. However, I don't really like Roland's AP&EPs.

It's not a clone, it's a Suzuki.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Morizzle,

 

Normally I do the same as you - Electro for bread and butter, FA for bells and whistles. With the FA08 I'm doing mostly the same but using he FA08s acoustic pianos. They cut through well enough, though like you I prefer the electro's pianos. I'm still using the electric pianos on the Electro.

 

If I were doing a gig with my other soul band however I would likely MIDI the pair up and play the pianos from the Nord on the FA. For work gigs though the piano tone is less important so long as it cuts through.

Hammond SKX

Mainstage 3

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Dumb question,

 

how can I make something like modulation permanent on a sound.

I'm working on a studio set for Uptown Funk. The synth brass have a permanent strong modulation, + I'm busy with both hands so I can't work the mod/pitch paddle.

I've tried using the foot pedal for modulation, but I only found the option in "Studio Common" which is a global setting for all patches.

Any pointers, please?

Thanks!

It's not a clone, it's a Suzuki.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yes. You need to learn how to do this. This is a good learning patch. You want to use a LFO to modulate the sound. This would make a good thread. I on the road more later if no one else responds.

"It doesn't have to be difficult to be cool" - Mitch Towne

 

"A great musician can bring tears to your eyes!!!

So can a auto Mechanic." - Stokes Hunt

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Not to be negative, but after using the FA-06 for a few months mostly as a controller for the B3 in the NS2, I made a switch to a Fantom X6 and love it.

 

I found the FA's stock sounds to be vast in quantity, but shallow in variety. Uber Pad 1, Uber Pad 2, ... Uber Pad 47, you get the idea. The clavinet sounds did not have release sampling, and I have been funking out a lot lately (I was using a Fantom XR for most of my sounds). Also the keys were only 5 1/8" long with the pivot point very close. My hands are very large and fingers long (palm a basketball - play a 10th np..) and I wound up hitting black keys way up on the key, which felt harder to push the key and even running into the edge of the front panel at times. Measuring the width of 61 keys from left to right on the FA came up 1/4" shorter than on the X6 as well. It doesn't sound like much but I couldn't get used to it and was fat-fingering my octave runs more than I liked.

 

Yesterday I rehearsed with the band for 5 hours on the Fantom X6 and it was such a joy to play. Longer keys, longer pivot-point, and easier to play the black keys (yes we do one of their songs ;) ).

 

So now my rack is lighter without the XR, and it was a breeze to off-load all my patches from the XR to the X6.

 

~ vonnor

Gear:

Hardware: Nord Stage3, Korg Kronos 2, Novation Summit

Software: Cantabile 3, Halion Sonic 3 and assorted VST plug-ins.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

I found the FA's stock sounds to be vast in quantity, but shallow in variety. Uber Pad 1, Uber Pad 2, ... Uber Pad 47, you get the idea.

 

Yes, how many friggin' Saw leads does one need!! It seems like they just make a slight change to a filter value and that's another preset. And on and on. It does make auditioning a tedious process.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Dumb question,

 

how can I make something like modulation permanent on a sound.

I'm working on a studio set for Uptown Funk. The synth brass have a permanent strong modulation, + I'm busy with both hands so I can't work the mod/pitch paddle.

I've tried using the foot pedal for modulation, but I only found the option in "Studio Common" which is a global setting for all patches.

Any pointers, please?

Thanks!

 

The riser in the pre-chorus can be held by a sustain pedal once the notes are triggered. This frees up my hands to hit pad #4 (a synth/brass split I've made for the chorus) and the S2 switch, which is set to toggle modulation on the synth split, giving me the sound.

 

Editing the LFO and saving the patch as CEB suggested would have been easier, but the above was the solution I came up with when I first learnt the song.

Hammond SKX

Mainstage 3

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I do this tune all on the Kronos now. A low D key is the mapped to the riser/pitch build sound.

 

I do a lot of builds with the FA. If I did this one on the FA I would sample the pitch build and with my thumb on the Hold Button hit the appropiate pad. Make sure the sample is not set to loop. For the Jam and Lewis sytle synth brass patch I would set an LFO to automatically handle the pitch modulation.

 

On the Kronos I manually control the modulation with the stick but I don't cover the horn riffs that are probably occupying your right hand. The guys in the horn section would beat me up if I did.

"It doesn't have to be difficult to be cool" - Mitch Towne

 

"A great musician can bring tears to your eyes!!!

So can a auto Mechanic." - Stokes Hunt

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The riser in the pre-chorus can be held by a sustain pedal once the notes are triggered. This frees up my hands to hit pad #4 (a synth/brass split I've made for the chorus) and the S2 switch, which is set to toggle modulation on the synth split, giving me the sound.

 

Editing the LFO and saving the patch as CEB suggested would have been easier, but the above was the solution I came up with when I first learnt the song.

 

Nice. Thanks for the help guys. I decided to do it via LFO. Was a bit tedious first because I had two synth brass sounds layered, but it works.

I've done the riser with a really long portamento between the lowest octave of the board.

No horns in this band, so I've got do all the parts.

It's not a clone, it's a Suzuki.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Oh, and concerning the criticism of the board... yep, the organ suxxx, the action is awful and the 50 variations of SawLead are a bit much. Then again, I like to layer sounds quite a bit and find it a bit faster to e.g. look for a brighter variation of the same sound than to go menu diving.

My pet peeve is that there seems to be no preset lead sound without a really annoying, wet multi-delay. I've edited that out of sooo many lead sounds up to now...

All in all, I think the board still is a great bang for the buck, countless sounds, easy editing and stacking of sounds. I mean, how many boards have basically paid off themselves after 3 or 4 gigs?

It's not a clone, it's a Suzuki.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

then I went to GC near me and they don't even dlsplay most boards anymore. 10,000 40-ish key controllers stacked floor to celing though...

....and 5 billion guitars. :rolleyes: I get that it's "Guitar Center," but obviously it's a music store, not simply a guitar store. Long peeved how little space they give to keyboards. Sam Ash is similar.

 

 

You have to try the organs, see if you like them better than the reviewer did.
If there's ever been a product to ignore reviews, keyboards are it. So much of it is so subjective.

 

 

Why the hell did I get the FA06? Borrowed an FA08 to replace the 06 while I try and fix it and it's just SO MUCH MORE USEFUL.
I'll bite, how so? (PS not disagreeing just wondering)

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Not to be negative, but after using the FA-06 for a few months mostly as a controller for the B3 in the NS2, I made a switch to a Fantom X6 and love it.

 

I found the FA's stock sounds to be vast in quantity, but shallow in variety. Uber Pad 1, Uber Pad 2, ... Uber Pad 47, you get the idea. The clavinet sounds did not have release sampling, and I have been funking out a lot lately (I was using a Fantom XR for most of my sounds). Also the keys were only 5 1/8" long with the pivot point very close. My hands are very large and fingers long (palm a basketball - play a 10th np..) and I wound up hitting black keys way up on the key, which felt harder to push the key and even running into the edge of the front panel at times. Measuring the width of 61 keys from left to right on the FA came up 1/4" shorter than on the X6 as well. It doesn't sound like much but I couldn't get used to it and was fat-fingering my octave runs more than I liked.

 

Yesterday I rehearsed with the band for 5 hours on the Fantom X6 and it was such a joy to play. Longer keys, longer pivot-point, and easier to play the black keys (yes we do one of their songs wink ).

 

vconnor..

 

I just recently acquired an X6 through EvilBay and I absolutely love the feel of the keys. Never played or even touched an FA06, so I couldn't make a comparison.

Kronos 88 Platinum, Yamaha YC88, Subsequent 37, Korg CX3, Hydrasynth 49-key, Nord Electro 5D 73, QSC K8.2, Lester K

 

Me & The Boyz

Chris Beard Band

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Unfortunately, your content contains terms that we do not allow. Please edit your content to remove the highlighted words below.
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Restore formatting

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...