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mojkarma

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Everything posted by mojkarma

  1. Yup. All gone. It kinda makes sense -- many folks won't care about user samples nor even downloadable patches. Actually, it doesn't make any sense at all. We don't know who the "many folks" are, personally all my friends who play a Kurzweil, use samples. Besides that, Kurzweil sample based sounds are actually ancient and stemm back to the K2000. There were some additions in the string section, and lately in the piano section. But generally acoustic sounds are on the level of the nineties, mono and with just one velocity level. So, being able to load user samples is the only way to get better quality samples when needed. I have no idea who should be the potential buyer of this keyboard. It is something between a PC and SP. Kurzweil continues with to much variety and rehashing the very same product. There most certainly is a memory chip on the motherboard, it is just cut away thru the OS.
  2. 1st rule for Kurzweil buyers: Never ever use the Soundtower editor software for a Kurzweil keyboard instrument, regardless which model !!! This might be true, but Kurzweil is here clearly to blame because they promote the editor, yet there is some very very strange relationship between them and Soundtower and the customers are the one who suffer from this. I had some very nasty artifacts on my Artis with the soundtower editor which destroyed all my user programs after using it. Kurzweil doesn't use touch displays, so using a computer editor is the only way to do some heavy editing without stressing to much the buttons on the keyboard which tend to fail after some time. And it is a sad situation that this very editor is not recommended to be used.
  3. I'd say, it's the Kronos action minus aftertouch. Certainly better then those keys on the Krome, but I myself didn't like them to much and think that Roland and Yamaha offer better synth action on their flagship models (This is of course my subjective opinion). Korg developed this action for the M3 and at the end of lifetime for the Triton series when they stopped using Yamaha keybeds and know it is used in the Kronos 61 and obviously Nautilus 61/73.
  4. Maybe I'm missing something here, but there already is a vast editor for practically every Kurzweil model from Soundtower and it is free. The problem is actually that Kurzweil and Soundtower don't cooperate very well together and the editors often have some very nasty bugs which can even destroy all your existing programs in the keyboard. Soundtower is also painfully slow in sorting out bugs or adapt the software to the actual state of the keyboard (does the editor still show only four parts in the multi mode for the Forte?) but a computer editor definitively exist.
  5. While the solution works for you, it is basically a cheap excuse for a cheap design. Because, while I'm on stage, I can hardly control the power conditions there and where I can (safely) plug in my keyboard.
  6. Not really, at least not for me. For just a little more one can buy a MoDX and get a five octave keyboard, 8OP FM, including a sample based enging, sample import abilities and a lot of other goodies, not to mention the multitimbrality, bigger screen, controllers and touch display and so on.
  7. FB is just such a terrible platform for support/information, because there's no good way to search the posts, view complete threads, etc. Exactly!
  8. What did you expect from Apple? I'm using Macs and Apple products for almost 20 years and with the last ios and ipados update, one can use a mouse with the ipad. But only their Magic Mouse 2 is supported. Not the older Magic Mouse 1 which is about 5 years old although it is practically identical to the newer one. At the same time, every third party 5 dollar mouse will work. I am extremely pissed off how they make their own hardware so fast obsolete.
  9. Wow dinna know dat. Super lame. Why? I would say: kinda of a bad attitude because "we are a big company" and there is no standard anyway, so we are not wrong in producing narrower keys. It is the same why they refuse to implement a software polarity switch for the sustain pedal. You have to buy a pedal with the right polarity, otherwise, there is no way to change the polarity in the keyboard itself. There were two three situations where I forgot my sustain pedal and there were other keyboards and player on stage and it happened that the sustain pedals they used were not compatible with my yamaha keyboard.
  10. Unfortunately, these days "very light" doesn't mean that the keys are not semiweighted. It is not a clearly defined term so the manufacturers use it when they find it convenient. Yamaha also states that the MoDX6 and 7 have semiweighted keys. Maybe they really have some kind of microweights attached to the keys but if you tried those keys, you'll know it doesn't feel anywhere similar to the Montage or similar keybeds of higher quality.
  11. I always use onboard effects. And I don't use a lot of them. A littlebit of the eq, chorus, compressor, delay where needed and almost no reverb because I play live, mostly in big spaces and it is not needed. I don't see why the hassle these days with external equipment besides if it is much better than what is there internal. And in most cases it is not or doesn't make an audible difference.
  12. Another Setlistmaker (Bandhelper) user here. The app is IMHO terrific, very flexible and has everything one may need. It sends program changes on 16 midi channels simultaneously, it can even send control messages to devices and activate/deactivate certain functions. One can even create multiple midi presets for different song parts within the same song and switch between those presets either with a bluetooth pedal, or by using certain swipes on the screen. In short: it is a mature, well written app and I couldn't imagine to select the sounds I need on stage without it. Arlo who created the app is also very helpful and responds in a short time when one needs help or an explanation.
  13. NW2 is 2600 Euros at thomann.de
  14. There is no point in asking Ed. Ed is a kind guy from Roland US and does his best to promote Roland products. The decision is made by Roland Japan and we don't know when and if and I'm sure that even Ed doesn't really know what will be released and when. I agree absolutely here with Lady Gaia. I remember a time when I and other Fantom G user discussed on the Roland forum about what will be the next ARX Expansion for the Fantom G. It turned out that there was no new ARX Expansion and Roland introduced the Jupiter-80 with a bunch of new SN Sounds and Fantom G turned suddenly and unexpected to a legacy product. I don't say this just for the sake of complaining, but I wouldn't buy a keyboard where essential sounds are intended to be released at some later point, all that based on a rumor from facebook. Releasing additional sounds for the sake of variety is fine, but releasing a keyboard where the acoustic sounds are based mostly on a 20 years old WaveRom, being 64 Mb in size, well, I simply don't see a point in that. The same is of course true for any other manufacturer
  15. Ah, the perils and pitfalls of ever-advancing technology. In case I wasn't completely clear, this free Ozone Element software will stop functioning in a couple of days when Apple releases its new MacOs Catalina which will accept only 64bit software.
  16. Thank you for the info! I downloaded the Mac version and it shows me the warning that the software may not function in a future update. Hopefully Ozone will be updated to the 64bit version.
  17. When we were discussing this on RC clan and before I had my Fantom, I thought the scene contained tone programming settings too. They said scenes recalled the entire state of the machine. Here's a better example of no modes. Working in Kronos SEQ mode, you want to edit a voice. What happens next? First you need to remember the patch location/name and enter program mode, find the patch then find the parameter you want to adjust. But what happens when you restart the sequence? Nothing because you aren't in SEQ. Fantom you press the parameter button of the section you wish to edit. Sequence still plays. Nothing against a comparison with the Kronos, although let's not forget that the Kronos is quite an oldie here, so the Kronos obviously lags behind its new and fresh competitors, the Fantom and the Montage. But, I don't see a point here and it doesn't explain or correct what I already said about the new Fantom. If you can't edit the tone right inside the scene down to the oscillator level (instead of just doing offset), than it doesn't really count in my book as not having different modes. Since obviously tones have to be saved separately, I'm also curious how many user slots are there for own tones. There are 3500 or so preset tones, but how big is the user area?
  18. Ok so just to make sure I'm understanding this - you can't alter an actual tone and save it as a new one? Not that I do that much but it seems a pretty big shortcoming although maybe that's what the new Jupiter is for.. Available offset parameters saved in a scene are on page 12&13 of the parameter guide. Editing anything beyond those requires saving as a new tone. If that is the way how it really works on the new Fantom, then the statement about not having modes, as they say on their official web page is simply not true and very misleading IMO! As an example where I would say it is done in the correct way is the Montage/MoDX: There is only a performance mode and a part equals to the tone in the new Fantom. Whether you edit the whole performance or just a single or a few parts, it is just a performance. You don't save a part. You can save a performance with just one part if you want to have some kind of a template for a certain often used sound, but a performance is simply a multitimbral setup where anything is edited down to the sample level.
  19. I don't own the Kronos (had the Montage), but I was a long time Korg user, including their Triton line and since Korg didn't change the sample format and file system, I would say that the Montage handles sample files a lot easier, thus better. Korg uses three different file extensions, one for the single sample, a second one for the multisample, and a third one which is kind of a script file (.ksc) which tells the System which multisample is connected to which program (patch). Every time when you add a new multisample to the Kronos, you practically have to save a new script file because you connected a new multisample to a new program. It is a hassle. I don't know if Korg changed it, but on the Triton one couldn't even simply overwrite the old files by selecting the save all command to make the process faster because one couldn't overwrite the old .ksc file with the same name you usually use for your files. On Montage, there is just one single file which contains the samples and the multisample data. Once loaded and connected to a patch, you don't need to care about anything. If you add new multisamples at a later point or delete old ones, there is nothing to reconnect, there is no script file to save which multisample is connected to which patch, it is all done by the system and the user can easily add or remove multisamples to/from the system without worrying.
  20. Here are my 2 cents: I sample my own material and create my own samples/multisamples for more thant 20 years now. The last time a sampled on a hardware device was around 2000 on an Akai sampler. These days I would completely abandon sampling on a keyboard. It is not worth the hassle. If you buy a Montage, you get a special version of Sample Robot for free and can use it to automatically sample from other sources. I owned a Montage and it is a very nice keyboard overall, however, it is veeeerrry bad as a slave keyboard if you want to control it from an other master keyboard. The Montage has fixed midichannels for the parts which are controlled externally and that means, if you want to access more then one part on the Montage, your master keyboard has to be able to control external devices on more than one zone. Korg Kronos would be another good option. You don't get a special software, but I would personally rather use Wavelab or Soundforge on a computer for sampling and creating my own samples. Even the cheapest version of Wavelab has the necessary tools to create good looped samples (here you mostly need the loop crossfade function to even out the loop points and correct clicks on material which is harder to loop). The advances of the Kronos compared to the Montage are that Kronos can stream samples directly from its HD. That means, you can use larger samples. Because of that, you maybe don't need to create loops on the individual samples, instead you simply sample the sound for a certain key for some 8 to 10 seconds and use it unlooped because the probability that you will press a single key for more then 10 seconds is probably very low. The Kronos is also a better slave because you are free to set any midichannel to any of the zone/part. The downside is that the Kronos has quite a long boot up time (about 2 minutes) compared for example to a Montage (some 10 seconds). But this is up to you to decide whether it is important for you or not. The Forte is also worth mentioning. It has 3,2 Gb of Flash Ram. That's almost the double size of what you'll find in the Montage. Here you can also use unlooped samples because the space for user samples is also very huge. The downside for me: The Forte is old school, no touch display, be prepared for a lot of clicking while programing your own stuff. Some can live with it, I could and did, but I really prefer touchdisplays. The name giving alone can be a very tedious work on keyboards without touch display if you have to do it often and alot. A final thought: I wouldn't record/sample stuf with 24 bit resolution and higher then 44.1 kHz. It just wastes your sample memory and you will definitely not have any advantage in using higher resolutions and bit depth, especially not if you plan to use the samples live on stage.
  21. @GregC, I'm not talking about the higher prices here in Europe compared to the US, I'm well aware of the reasons. I'm talking about the price differences between the Fantom and its competitors on the same (European) market!
  22. yes, $4000 is a lot of money. Initially. and also right in line with other top of line boards. Fantom-8, Montage 8, Forte 88, are all $4k. Kronos a little less at $3800, Nord Stage 3 88 higher at $4500. Not at all, at least not hear in Europe. I checked the prices, here they are in $: Fantom 6: 4042$ Montage 6: 3086$ Kronos: 3076$ That's almost a 1000$ difference!!! Fantom 8: 4630$ Montage 8: 3777$ Kronos: 3222$ The prices at thomann.de do fluctuate a lot and right now the difference between the Fantom and its competitors from Yamaha and Korg is ridiculous high. The Kronos 88 is still almost 800$ cheaper then the smallest Fantom. Maybe the prices are different on the US market.
  23. No progress here from Roland. File management consists of two instructions: backup and restore. That's it. Backup saves all, restore loads all. For some reason it's still all or nothing. That means, no possibility to load individual patches or banks from other users or third parties.
  24. RD-700GX. No Supernatural. Correcting: Even though the RD-700GX was not Supernatural, they did make an add-on SN piano upgrade for it, and I guess they included it in this carryover, because in the Sonic State demo, he says it's Supernatural and from the RD-700GX. I owned the RD-700GX and I would say that it was particularly Supernatural. It had SN E. Pianos and the Organ (I believe they called it TM-Organ) was also Supernatural. The Organ on the RD actually had more capabilities than the Jupiter-80 in its first edition because one could combined two inserts on one sound, unlike the Jupiter-80 in its first release. One of Rolands oddities...
  25. I could be wrong, but I suppose that most people who buy keyboards these days, do it because they play live. In the studio you can replace everything with the computer, not just the multisample option. Now, if you take the bigger picture, worldwide people will miss some specific sounds (probably mostly ethnic type natural sounds) which are not present in the Fantom and can't be added later. So, they will skip the Fantom and buy a Montage or Kronos instead. But you could be right, they are probably targeting the electronic music scene. Another bad decision IMHO because an all purpose keyboard like a Fantom should be targeted to a wider range and there is not a lot missing to achieve that.
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