Fantom G8 (and other stuff rant)

[Adam Burgess]

Wow! Just mended a few broken keys on a friend's Fantom G8. Service is not great here in the Middle East so me and my hammers are unfortunately the best option ;-)

 

That thing is possibly the heaviest, unwieldy thing apart from an actual piano to manoeuvre around once it's in half and ready to be flipped over! Wished I'd have had a helper!

I don't mind carrying lots of gear to gigs, but I'd draw the line at something like this. It's HUUUUUUGE!

 

He also brought a NI Kontrol S88 with one non-working note. Just took off the rubber contacts (kontakts?), cleaned it up a bit and all is well.

The Roland was obviously solid, (being made of mediaeval iron) and easy to put back together but the difference is amazing...

The NI thing couldn't have been more plastic-y and bendy without snapping in half. So fragile. Loved the OLED displays, and the encoders were nice.

Not sure what the point is in having an LED on each key, though!

 

Posted a few ongoing pics on Facebook for my geeky friends and it prompted a few "What's the best 88 controller?" questions.

 

The NI feels god-awful; as do most standalone USB things I've tried. Far too wobbly and light...

Roland too bulky by far and as a controller, maybe a bit limited and too many gimmicks. Never owned one so can only comment on initial findings testing it out.

 

The Kronos is ok but still trying to find a way to send real SysEx to my Integra7 I keep meaning to take out. Most controllers only do CC messages.

Guessing a Kurz could do it? I did mention ages ago about building a nice controller for the Integra. Maybe I still will.

 

Just a rant or a talking point. Feel free to jump in or not.

 

Adam

[Song80s]

Wo

 

The Kronos is ok but still trying to find a way to send real SysEx to my Integra7 I keep meaning to take out. Most controllers only do CC messages.

 

Just a rant or a talking point. Feel free to jump in or not.

 

Adam

 

I will take a swing at this as I have Kronos and the FA. I am pretty sure this is midi related.

 

Kronos will work as a master . You should see " EXT 1 and EXT2 " in whatever mode you work in.

 

Then you need the MSB and LSB implementation chart for Integra.

 

Per the chart you can these #'s and or values in your Kronos and save it.

 

I am not a midi expert so maybe wait for someone to clarify further or correct

the above.

 

 

[Adam Burgess]

Hey Greg.

 

Yeah, I'm aware of the Kronos' EXT 1/2 for Program Changes and it's controller map... But it only does CCs, not SysEx strings which the Integra needs for lots of functions.

Used the Kronos control surface as a MIDI backup for an X32 digital mixer for years incase the iPad wifi went down. Worked great!

 

The Kronos is also fine doing the articulation switches etc on the Integra as that's all just CCs.

 

The controllers that do SysEx I've read about still have trouble with Roland's checksum byte, too. Apart from Roland's own, presumably, which I'm not that fond of.

[Song80s]

Hi Adam, ouch, I think I understand the hassle, or limitation , where ever it exists.

 

Its sounds like you have identified the culprit as Roland, or a sysex limitation on how Integra receives.

 

You know about the Facebook forum for the FA ? Maybe a message to Ed, a Roland keyboard guru might be productive.

 

If its a Kronos send issue, we have the Korg Kronos forum- there are a few folks that are strong on many

issues.