Best controller for the Fantom-XR?

[Marius_19]

Hi there! I've recently purchased a brand new Fantom-XR, and I'm now looking for a decent controller. Could anyone here give me some advice on what controller they think will allow me to get the most out of my Fantom? At the moment I'm leaning towards the Roland A37, but I'm *very* open minded at this stage! =P

Any thoughts will be very much appreciated!!

Best wishes, Kyle.

[DarthNeo]

Depends...how many keys you want and if you want fully weighted keys like a piano or not. I just picked up an M-Audio Keystation Pro 88 and love it. I use it along with Reason. I plan on picking up a Fantom xr so you are ahead of me, however I did use it in the store hooked to the Fantom XR and it worked well for me. It also comes with plenty of nobs and sliders that you can program for different functions on the XR. If you don't need 88 keys you can try the 61 key version as well with synth action. Hope this helps.

...I will find a way or make one...

[chick corea]

i m same question here a got fanton x r..

i was thinking P120.

about the m audio pro 88 they say that the keybaord action sucks..
is that true???? becuase i m a piano player soo a
its really important to me the action.
but it does have really nice features and nice price...


any more comments on the m audio... pro 88???



i love the fantom x r!!!

[DarthNeo]

As far as the action, this is a personal opinion area. I would say find one in a store and play it, if you could. I had Guitar Center hook one up for me and I was able to play it with the XR and other racks. What I liked was the fact that I could use the buttons on the KEYSTATION PRO to cycle through sounds withough even touching the knob on the rack. It has nine velocity curves so you can set it to your playing style. It also received the keyboard magazine keybuy award, although I don't agree with all of their reviews, I felt the review was pretty good, since I did get to play it and with all those sliders (9 total), plus 24 knobs, 22 buttons, pitchbend , and mod wheel, 2 foot pedal inputs, and 1 expression pedal input, I just had to get it. But once again, forget what people say and try it out for yourself, thats how I am with everything that I buy.

...I will find a way or make one...

[GregC]

If you need acoustic piano action, the RD 700 is great. It is a digital piano with straightforward midi and setups.

GregC

[markferrell]

I have a Yamaha P120 and an XR. I hooked them together the other day and was having trouble getting the XR to play all of the layers in a Performance. I an new at all of this so I was hoping for some help in this area.

Is there a setting in the XR that I need to change? On the P120, it seems like it will only transmit on one MIDI channel at a time. So if I have a piano and strings layered in a Performance it will only play piano or strings, depending upon how the P120 is set for transmitting.

What am I missing here?

[Igglethorpe]

Mark,

You need to split the patches where you want them within the performance and then ensure that both patches are playing on the same MIDI channel. This is all done from the XR interface. That is how you get around controllers that only transmit on one channel.

In answer to the original question of the thread, I like the new PCRs by Edirol.

[Maureez Plays the Keez]

Igglethorpe: are you saying that it is possible in the XR to assign layers to different zones of the masterkeyboard?
Fantom X plays every note sent by an external keyboard, regardless of the lower and upper key settings...

On topic: I bought a second hand oberheim mc1000 keyboard recently, I love the keyboard action (not as heavy as an RD700) and it is very solid. It has only 2 assignable sliders so that might be not enough for extensive control for lots of parameters. However, it is only 20 kg, and very solid. Ideal for live situations.