Alécio Costa - Brazil Posted October 6, 2003 Share Posted October 6, 2003 Hi friends! This Roland release has been around for a reasonable time.. What have been your impressions? I have been very disappointed with Xp80 so I´m being more careful this time. I hope it is not a Xp80+S760. Maybe I´d rather go Reason 2.5 to work within PT Mix TDM 5.1.1/OS 9.2 environment. Many thanks for any info Eng. Alécio Costa Producer/Recording Artist http://br.geocities.com/studiodigitalp Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phait Posted October 6, 2003 Share Posted October 6, 2003 Hi. I'll recommend you to go to http://fantom-s.info - a site dedicated to the Fantom-S. Check out the forum. I'll be getting my Fantom-S within a couple weeks so I can't help you yet, and I'm not sure how many here will be able to help.. "Fantom" is a rare word around this board Definitely check out the fantom-s.info board tho. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alécio Costa - Brazil Posted October 6, 2003 Author Share Posted October 6, 2003 Many thanks bud!Nice week Eng. Alécio Costa Producer/Recording Artist http://br.geocities.com/studiodigitalp Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Synthguy Posted October 6, 2003 Share Posted October 6, 2003 Most people get their impressions of an instrument from the patches on it, which is why synth makers need to cover as much territory as possible. When I check out a synth, I listen to the raw waves, see what the filters do, what sort of effects there are, and the complexity of the synth architecture. It's too bad you're disappointed over the XP-80, because I think it's still a wonderful synth. The Fantom and Fantom-S are based on a greatly reworked synth engine. It's based quite a bit on the older XP/JV series, but with more power, better sound quality and new samples. I love the sound of the filters, even tho they're rather generic. You can still get some Moogy sound from them, especially with a Vintage Synth or Universal Keys expansion board. The synth engine is configurable in algorithms reminiscent of the potent Kurzweil, so it has some almost modular flexibility. The effects are much better too. The clarity is very good. As far as an all-in-one instrument, the Motif ES is probably the best buy in synthesizers, but an expanded Fantom, XV module or XV-88 I'm sure would hold its own against any synthesizer on the market. This keyboard solo has obviously been tampered with! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phait Posted October 6, 2003 Share Posted October 6, 2003 Especially the Fantom's easier GUI.. Yamaha UI's and GUI's are abhorrent. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
burlingame2 Posted October 6, 2003 Share Posted October 6, 2003 Fantom was the last on my list until I checked it out. I liked having dynamics on the rhythm section in a flash, along with the beat if desired. I don`t know if the beats are prommable. but a little performance control can go a long way. ES motif seems to be on everyone`s minds. However, thanks for the reminder to check the manual out(rather, give further consideration to Fantom), and try to come to terms with more Roland sounds, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alécio Costa - Brazil Posted October 6, 2003 Author Share Posted October 6, 2003 Thanks friends. I was disappointed with the Xp80 because of 2 things: a) sequencer acted funny sometimes. Several times I was under the 64 voice limit, it played out of sync even after voice re-assignment.shift clock all the time! My older jw50, whick looked more like a toy, and only did GM stuff, was 100x better sequencer, a mc50 clone. b) the glue under the keys..Oh My God! it happened with many other people here in Brazil. The keyboard needed to be cleaned and the small metal weight under the keys re-glued It happened to xp60´s also. Eng. Alécio Costa Producer/Recording Artist http://br.geocities.com/studiodigitalp Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RABid Posted October 6, 2003 Share Posted October 6, 2003 I have the Fantom rather than the Fantom S, but here are my thoughts. Positives - I love the feel of the keyboard. The joystick is greatly enhanced over the JV series. The assignable knobs and buttons make it a great interactive lead synth. It is extremely easy to switch between mono and polyphonic, glide on and off, change speed of the glide, and tweak filters. Roland has the best expansion ROMs. I have settled on the SRX-Studio, SRX-Keys and JV-Dance (pulled from the market because of copywrite issues with Spectrasonics). In the XV-5080 I have four more SRX boards, World, Piano, and the two strings/orchestra boards. The ROMs sound great and the sounds layer well. The clean sound of the Rolands allows you create a lot of parts without getting mud. The sequencer is very easy to use and the panel makes it easy to tweak patches, or program from scratch. Having an 8x8 favorites speeds up workflow or makes it easy to use live. I assign pianos, organs, pads, leads, guitars, etc to different banks. From the few hours I spent with the Fantom-S in the store I found the sampler to be dead easy to use. The automatic pad assignment makes it useful for live performance. Every loop sampler should work this way. I considered trading my Fantom for a Fantom S for this reason alone. I enjoy playing the Fantom more than any keyboard I currently have, or have owned in the past. It is very comfortable. To me, your primary keyboard needs to be comfortable to play. Shortcomings such as low polyphony can be dealt with by adding rack devices. Negatives Low polyphony. Roland really needs to up the polyphony from 64 to 128 to compete with the other manufacturers. This is my biggest disappointment of the Fantom-S series. I supplement my Fantom with an XV-5080 and a few E-Mu command stations so polyphony is not a big issue with me when sequencing. As an only sound source, this would be a problem when sequencing a complete song. That D Beam controller drives me crazy. It is too close to the knobs and if you stack keyboards then a keyboard on top of the Fantom will affect the D Beam. I cannot find a master command to turn it off. It seems to be programmable per patch. There is a bug in the Fantom and the XV-5080 that I forgot to check on the Fantom S. If you play a factory ROM patch which is a monophonic lead with glide there seems to be a limit on the maximum glide distance. Hit a low note, and while holding that note hit a high note. The glide stops before reaching the high note. This only happens if you continue hit the high note before releasing the low note. I wonder if this has something to do with a limit on how far a sample wave can be transposed? Robert This post edited for speling. My Sweetwater Gear Exchange Page Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alécio Costa - Brazil Posted October 6, 2003 Author Share Posted October 6, 2003 Robert, I went to the USa in 1995 and bought the just released MDC1, which is the rack version of the JV Dance board. I was wondering why weren´t I able to find the board version again, so I could sell the rack ( losing 28 note poliphony) and installing the very same board into my XP. Now you ´ve just answered me... Copyright issues... Very straaaange... Yes, poliphony is quite limited. Have you guys played with Reason? One thing I found a little strange with Roland Xp and specially JV sounds is that they sound already mastered. Oka, we can turn off Reverb, chorus, EFX.... One needs to LPF or define low shelves so as to not have everything overbright. Eng. Alécio Costa Producer/Recording Artist http://br.geocities.com/studiodigitalp Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
realtrance Posted October 6, 2003 Share Posted October 6, 2003 Robert, That issue is present on other Roland synths -- look for a "retrigger" option in the Legato section of the patch editor, and turn that on if it's available in the Fantom (it should be). That way, the multi-sample is retriggered from each note (and thus new samples are triggered up the keyboard when you go beyond the original sample's high end), rather than being stretched/interpolated from the original note-on. It's a feature, not a bug. Best, rt Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RABid Posted October 6, 2003 Share Posted October 6, 2003 Thanks. I'll check for that. Most likely I did not notice it before because the XV is the first Roland engine that sounds smooth enough for me to want to play synth leads. Robert This post edited for speling. My Sweetwater Gear Exchange Page Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
supermanrulez Posted October 7, 2003 Share Posted October 7, 2003 There are some reviews on Harmony Central to check out. While most are unuseful there are a few good ones. The most recent one seems to be the most detailed and gives some drawbacks as well. You may want to look at a Yamaha ES as well. Chris Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alécio Costa - Brazil Posted October 7, 2003 Author Share Posted October 7, 2003 Thanks Sir! Eng. Alécio Costa Producer/Recording Artist http://br.geocities.com/studiodigitalp Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SinisterMinister Posted October 29, 2003 Share Posted October 29, 2003 "Especially the Fantom's easier GUI.. Yamaha UI's and GUI's are abhorrent." Abhorrent? Hardly! When comapred to Korg/Roland is indeed not as user friendly, but it hardly shifts focus away from the music to the UI. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phait Posted October 29, 2003 Share Posted October 29, 2003 As for the D-Beam problems, there isn't that problem on the Fantom-S. You have to press 1 of 3 buttons to use the D-Beam in 1 of 3 ways. I've had my Fantom-S for a few weeks now and I've already released a demo and done a few sequences. The last time I touched a keyboard I was 8. I knew I had alot to learn - but with the Fantom, things came quickly and easily. Surely if I can use this board and have fun with it, anyone a bit experienced should enjoy it, or at least it's ease. About the 64 polyphony - I agree it's not up to date with what's out there (I've even read of a board with 256 note polyphony) but there are ways around this - you can resample tracks into 1 track. I haven't done enough to even consider how much polyphony I'm using yet, and I don't think I will. If my bottom line advice is this, it is do NOT let the "lack" of "better" polyphony prevent you from buying this board. If all it's other features are something you that draw you in, and you like - buy it. Especially since Roland dropped the price to $1500 from $2095. It's always up to you though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CTDOC Posted November 18, 2003 Share Posted November 18, 2003 I have owned the S88 Fantom for months now, and the more I play it, the more impressed I am with it. When I bought it, I had the Motif 88 to compare it to...they are both strong, and you could not go wrong with either. However, (1) I am a longtime Roland fan (2)the operating system of the Roland was easier to manuver through, and (3)the Graphic Interface was tons better on the Roland. This keyboard is the best 88 key master synth and controller EVER !! (IMHO) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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