Reason why I love Fantom G

[rolandlover]

Hello there folks,

Just got the Fantom G 2 months ago.And here are some thoughts.(Oh yeah I am going to give an answer to all those Fantom haters!)

Realistic evaluation of Roland capabilities vs. Korg Kronos
Pros:
1.Roland Fantom G allows 16 independent patch level effects PLUS 2 additional optional 2 Master Effects(MFX) and includes Chorus and Reverb(which can be bypassed.)

Now Korg Kronos allows 12 effects, 2 master effects(which can be a chorus and reverb) and 2 total effects(which could be mastering effects)

Roland as a matter of fact defeats Korg Kronos in this department except for the problem of having minimalistic reverb and chorus(which doesn't really matter to me).Because the other variations of choruses available as Patch EFX does not need to be in every patch and each patch can have different effects.For example a guitar can have a speaker simulator, strings a chorus(which can be done through patch level EFX) and so on...
2.Sequencer:

Definitely blows Korg Kronos away since you can record 24 audio tracks and 128 midi tracks(although the actually no. of sounds which can be used is 16 but it is enough for even a serious composer).Now I have been hearing a lot about how you can record only phrases,remember you can change the setting to record midi too!

3.Arpeggiator
Ok this is where Roland Fantom G kind of loses to Korg Kronos because Korg Kronos has 1000-2000 arpeggiators whereas Fantom G has only 700-800(variations inclusive!).BUT!you can record as many arpeggiators as you want and you can create your own arpeggiator from phrases!

4.Tone Quality:

I have heard the tones of M50,Yamaha Motif and Roland Fantom.Overally there is marginal differences in tone quality except for the fact that Korg and Yamaha have included better and more variety of drum sounds, but Roland pretty much defeats them in guitar sounds department I mean the guitars actually sound like you're playing a real guitar!

So all in all I think both keyboards have their plus and negative points , but PEOPLE please don't be stupid enough to sell this keyboard for a Korg Kronos.Good music creation is still possible although a little bit harder than when done with Yamaha or Korg Keyboards(Karma, arpeggiator amount!Drum sounds).

Remember to get the best out of your Roland Fantom G:

*Upgrade the OS to 1.5
*Upgrade the internal ram to 1 Gb
*Add the ARX01 Drum expansion
*Try to be creative

[MOX6USER]

While doing some online research on the Jupiter 80,I came across this post and I could not believe what I was reading.

How on earth does the Fantom G blow away the Kronos in the sequencer area?128 total tracks is a false & flashy marketing trick,because most PC's cannot even use this many tracks without crashing.
Let's say for arguments sake,the Fantom G had enough expansion options available to handle all those tracks....who on earth is going to utilize 128 tracks?
Does the Fantom G have a built in 30GB hard drive and 24 bit audio recording like the Kronos?NO,it doesn't.
Perhaps if you were going to record the entire Phil Harmonic Orchestra,then yeah,128 tracks would be useful,but no professional recording engine in their right mind,who use a Fantom G for the task.

In terms of effects,Korg routing & allocation of their effects makes the 12 insert effects more than adequate and it's a very rare day,when I even use this many insert effects in my Presonus S1 DAW.

Yeah....let's talk about tone quality,but let's keep it all in reality,shall we?I mean,you are speaking on behalf of your delusional fantasies.
Realistically,good tone quality is contingent on the amount of WAV ROM and the Fantom G only has 256MB of factory ROM....are you kidding me?
The Korg M50 is HALF the price of the Fantom G and has the SAME amount of ROM....my Yamaha MOX6 has 355MB of ROM and it is half the price of the Fantom G.

There was a time a few years ago when I had considered the Fantom G,so I listened to the demos and they were decent enough sounding to warrant a trip to my local GuitarCenter.....but in listening to the presets individually,it's a whole other story,as I spent an hour going through the program presets and couldn't find a single one I really liked.
The Yamaha Motif XS was cheaper and I was impressed from the very first program I listened to on it,but being a long time Korg fan,I stuck with Korg,because it was cheaper in price...though I wished I had gone with an XS....which is why I was so thrilled to discover the MOX series.

Another reason why I stayed away from Roland,is due to their extortion tactics,as they entice the prospective consumer with big,flashy screens,a ridiculous amount of track recording and porous keys to absorb the sweat from your fingers and then sticks a bunch of crummy factory sounds in,which forces the user to buy into the ARX library and at the time,if you were to buy just 2 ARX cards,you have now paid a grand total of $4,000 for a 61 key workstation.
Yeah...now the ARX cards are $100 a piece now,which just goes to show how overpriced Roland products are.

Some others things you so conveniently left out to support your false p*ssing contest,which is that the Kronos has DOUBLE the amount of polyphony,314MB of SAMPLE ROM(which does not include all of the extra sounds you get form the multiple synth engines) and for the price of a Jupiter 80,you can get the same tone quality and polyphony AND actually have a WORKSTATION,as supposed just a live instrument with a built in MP3 player.

Now that Korg has the same size screen as the Fantom G and a touchscreen at that,Roland has no real advantage over Korg.

As for us Fantom haters,our hate is completely justified,as we have more than sufficient reasons to back up our grievances towards Roland,but you have absolutely no legitimate reasons for trying to discredit the competition as your statements are utterly unsubstantiated and just replete with rhetoric.

By the way,let's not forget all of the stories floating around the internet,about Fantom G locking up and crashing and the endless complaints with regard to Roland support.

The one thing that the Fantom G series does excel in,is the amount of customer returns of this product.

[piaknowguy]

Welcome MOX6USER.

You may or may not have some valid points. Regardless, I find your first post here to be in poor taste. I'm sure that you would feel the same if I were to go Korg-bashing in my first post at a Korg forum. You want people to respect your opinions? Show some respect and tact.

My point is not whether you are right or wrong, it's how you handle it. You walk into Roland's house and kick over all of the furniture. Not cool.

[jur451c]

I have a Fantom G & don't want a Kronos.
Controversial, I know.
Just for the record, judging what a synth engine can do by listening to presets is a bit like judging how fast a car can go by looking at how fast it's going in the show room.....

[Leh173]

I'm with you, jur451c. Just been programming my live sets. Loving it.

Can't we all just agree that the Fantom G, Kronos and Jupiter-80 are all great machines? It's up to the individual what works for you.

Forums are very poor places to be when people just let rip at each other or a piece of gear relentlessly. so lets not let the Rolandclan get that way. There's some great people here, so let's all keep it classy.

Oh and jur451c, nice to see Frost will be coming back, hey? Saw you on the Frosties site!

[mojkarma]

Just for the record, judging what a synth engine can do by listening to presets is a bit like judging how fast a car can go by looking at how fast it's going in the show room.....

I'd agree on that one, it's just that car comparisons rarely apply here.
People are different and while some look at the programing potential, others expect good presets out from the box. A fact is that quite a lot of patches on the FG were programmed without any love to details, to proper controller settings, with weak joystick modes applied where it doesn't belong, weak and unnatural vibrato settings,unnatural ADSR settings and quite a lot of patches are just a duplicates of the same with a slightly different effect setting, just to keep the numbers high.
Regardless what our personal approach is, people go into music stores and try keyboards out. The first impression is important for a buying decision. Besides that, I expect that the company gives me really well programmed patches, instead of forcing me to finish the work which they have done in hurry just to fit to a release deadline.

[V-CeeOh]

As for us Fantom haters,our hate is completely justified

oooh yeah, so justified that it makes you register on a Roland forum just to show us Fantom G lovers how wrong we are.

[MOX6USER]

Welcome MOX6USER.

You may or may not have some valid points. Regardless, I find your first post here to be in poor taste. I'm sure that you would feel the same if I were to go Korg-bashing in my first post at a Korg forum. You want people to respect your opinions? Show some respect and tact.

My point is not whether you are right or wrong, it's how you handle it. You walk into Roland's house and kick over all of the furniture. Not cool.

When I was on this forum 3 years ago,I found it in very poor taste that the mere mention of other brands in this forum got people so upset,that they had to give me hard time about it,just because I was in the process of determining whether or not to buy a Fantom G,by illustrating the strengths & weaknesses of one brand to another.
Obviously it's expressly forbidden here to point out the shortcomings of a Roland product or to make comparisons with other brands,regardless of how respectful or in good taste the opinions are conveyed.

I may,or may not have some valid points?Of course,you would never actually do the research and spend any quality time with other brands to confirm what I am saying,because then you would be faced with the pain of realizing how much money you wasted on your Fantom G.
Roland doesn't respect it's users,via their lousy product support & overpriced toys and Roland Clan members in general,aren't respectable or rational enough to do the proper amount of research,before they make attempts to smear the competition,while being completely oblivious to the fact that Roland is being smeared by the competition.
Go ahead,feel free to stroll on into a Korg & Yamaha forum and "kick over all of the furniture",as I won't be upset over it,because any false statements you,or any other Clan members would have to say,will not discredit the truth that Korg & Yamaha speaks,in terms of sounds,recording & value.

[MOX6USER]

I have a Fantom G & don't want a Kronos.
Controversial, I know.
Just for the record, judging what a synth engine can do by listening to presets is a bit like judging how fast a car can go by looking at how fast it's going in the show room.....

A completely futile analogy,as the quality of the presets indicate the heart of a workstation's synth engine,revealing the number of oscillators per voice,without it's characteristics being masked by a bunch of other tracks and multiple effects.

[MOX6USER]

Just for the record, judging what a synth engine can do by listening to presets is a bit like judging how fast a car can go by looking at how fast it's going in the show room.....

I'd agree on that one, it's just that car comparisons rarely apply here.
People are different and while some look at the programing potential, others expect good presets out from the box. A fact is that quite a lot of patches on the FG were programmed without any love to details, to proper controller settings, with weak joystick modes applied where it doesn't belong, weak and unnatural vibrato settings,unnatural ADSR settings and quite a lot of patches are just a duplicates of the same with a slightly different effect setting, just to keep the numbers high.
Regardless what our personal approach is, people go into music stores and try keyboards out. The first impression is important for a buying decision. Besides that, I expect that the company gives me really well programmed patches, instead of forcing me to finish the work which they have done in hurry just to fit to a release deadline.

It's very atypical for a Fantom users to defend their keyboards,by saying that good sounds can be coaxed out of the Fantom,if you know how to utilize it wisely.
Truth is,that in terms of some Roland stand-alone synth instruments like the V-Synth & Jupiter 80,they focus a lot of attention and effort into making excellent sound quality,but when it comes to workstations,they cut too many corners and apply their budget to everything else BUT the sound quality.

[MOX6USER]

As for us Fantom haters,our hate is completely justified

oooh yeah, so justified that it makes you register on a Roland forum just to show us Fantom G lovers how wrong we are.

It's fascinating how you imply that the registration process is somehow,a long,arduous & tedious task to undertake....very amusing.
Actually the whole action takes about 30 seconds,provided that one is literate and can type more than 5 words per minute.
In fact,this is the quickest,most seamless registration process on the internet,so it was no bother for me at all.

[V-CeeOh]

When I was on this forum 3 years ago,I found it in very poor taste

Really? Strange. How come you came back?

Obviously it's expressly forbidden here to point out the shortcomings of a Roland product or to make comparisons with other brands

Oh, bla bla bla bla! We already know that crap talk. I would be able to waste a little time just to proove you otherwise but you just don't look like worthing that.

Roland Clan members in general,aren't respectable or rational enough to do the proper amount of research

And you base your statement exactly on what? What's up with users of both Roland, Korg and Yamaha at the same time on their setup? Did they make the same "mistake" ?

the truth that Korg & Yamaha speaks,in terms of sounds,recording & value.

Ok, great! Now that we let you do your add can you please let us poor Roland Clan users with our low value Roland gear do our thing?

It's fascinating how you imply that the registration process is somehow,a long,arduous & tedious task to undertake....very amusing.

No, no, no I would not give you credit for beeing able to register here. I like the fact you found it easy to do since if a guy with such a quick temper like you can do it, other type of guys will certainly be able to do it to. What I found intriguing was fact you actually wasted the time to do it. But now understand and I wont waste MY time with this. If you want to stay and actually compare keyboard features, sounds or what ever comes to your mind, great. Otherwise, please leave and go vent your Roland hate back to the Korg or Yamaha forums.

[worthbeer]

I have had a G for a couple of years, not a pro,
Had a Korg before that, and upgraded because i felt technology had moved forward enough
(the Korg had floppy disks ya?)
I was drawn to the Roland because it looked usable and fun.
judging by what I have seen from the kronos, korg has grown but not changed..
I will stick with my G call me a fanboy : )

[MOX6USER]

When I was on this forum 3 years ago,I found it in very poor taste

Really? Strange. How come you came back?

Read the top of my initial post again,then you'll know why I stopped by

Obviously it's expressly forbidden here to point out the shortcomings of a Roland product or to make comparisons with other brands

Oh, bla bla bla bla! We already know that crap talk. I would be able to waste a little time just to proove you otherwise but you just don't look like worthing that.

This is just a feeble excuse,because you know perfectly well you don't have a legitimate argument...as the saying goes,you can't polish a turd and the Fantom G is a turd.

Roland Clan members in general,aren't respectable or rational enough to do the proper amount of research

And you base your statement exactly on what? What's up with users of both Roland, Korg and Yamaha at the same time on their setup? Did they make the same "mistake" ?

As just one example,the person who started this ridiculous thread,did a piss poor job of researching the Korg Kronos.

the truth that Korg & Yamaha speaks,in terms of sounds,recording & value.

Ok, great! Now that we let you do your add can you please let us poor Roland Clan users with our low value Roland gear do our thing?

Sure...no problem,but I will point out that you,nor anyone else in this thread "allowed" me to "advertise" here as you put it,but rather,you had no means of preventing me from posting.

It's fascinating how you imply that the registration process is somehow,a long,arduous & tedious task to undertake....very amusing.

No, no, no I would not give you credit for beeing able to register here. I like the fact you found it easy to do since if a guy with such a quick temper like you can do it, other type of guys will certainly be able to do it to. What I found intriguing was fact you actually wasted the time to do it. But now understand and I wont waste MY time with this. If you want to stay and actually compare keyboard features, sounds or what ever comes to your mind, great. Otherwise, please leave and go vent your Roland hate back to the Korg or Yamaha forums.

This thread turned out to be very entertaining,so it wasn't a waste of time for me at all,but it sure was a waste of time for you.
If this thread is such a waste for you,then perhaps you should have ignored it altogether.

[Mystic38]

MOXUSER

The regulars here would never put me as a Fatnom G fanboy but puhlease.....

Yes your mox6 is half the price.. made like a toy, half the polyphony, cheesy keybed, crap screen.. it SHOULD be half the price... and dont get me started on the (very weak) synth architecture of the motif line..

Unfortunately there is not an "ignore post by user".. or you would have leapt to the top of the list.. I have not read such drivel in months.. Its just sad that you have so nothing a life you get your rocks off this way..

have a NICE day :)