NEW FANTOM-G, PLEASE TALK HERE

[nookid]

Hi, sorry for the dumb question here but I noticed alot of people complaining about the polyphony on this thing (128). I thought polyphony was simultaneous notes being played... Is this not correct?

[Solitary man]

will it have dedicated EQ on each track?
Will it have anologue functions like Oscillator sync, pwm, etc?
will the loading times for samples etc be speeded up?
will it have true 128 note polyphony and not 16 if you use heavy structure waveform,patches?
will I be able to save one song with its own samples audio tracks?
will I be able to insert the expansion boards without the aid of a block and tackle and a small workforce and still get the base covered in scratches?
I see it only has 2 sets of stereo outputs! bummer.

Don't get me wrong I love my FX6 but seriously............

[Patrick_]

I just bought the X six months ago, and I won't be thinking about a new keyboard for years and years. I used to read Recording magazine and Keyboard magazine, but cancelled my subscriptions years ago because all they ever talked about was the gear I didn't have. I like talking and reading about the X because I have it. The last thing I need at this point is to become dissatisfied with what I have just because there's something better out there. I don't want to sound like a party pooper but I'll never have everything. You can't always get what you want, but if you try sometimes, you just might find you get what you need.

[thekeymaster]

Thats a fair point Patrick and a very sensible way at looking at it but bear in mind some people have had the X for many years and just see the G as a natural progression.

Enjoy your X mate.

[Septimo]

That's right...keymaster

I've had the X since the end of april 2004...And although they didn't impress me with their New G, I'm just getting bored of the X...I still like my results on the X and I know that the G won't improve or make my music any worse, but I know what it will give me, and that's the interest again amd more motivation to keep on going...Sometimes inspiration comes with a fresh outlook...Another thing is it'll give more comfort in working with the mouse and fresh grafical display...Wave editing on the Audio track is what is convincing me to go that way...I wish the MV8800 had that instead of trying to edit white bars with no wave display on them...It's virtually impossible to do so on an MV8800, so i don't record live into that machine at all...One day they'll have a perfect machine but it looks like until then, the G will have to suffice. Not sure if I'll jump in right away,,maybe,, but I'm sure some time this year I will end up with this one...G is my first initial of my name so I'ma have to!

[wodeh]

I, too, bought my Fantom X8 about 6 months ago. Alas I have an absurdly short attention span and very little patience when it comes to the godawful Fantom X8 GUI so I started advertising my X8 for sale the day after the G8 was announced.

I certainly don't need the G8, but I have good reasons to go for it. I've been whining about the lack of sliders and USB host since I got my X8 and have, thus far, avoided the sequencer because software is far, far easier.

The G8, for me, will be unlocking features of the X8 that I never explored simply because they were buried beneath a GUI that I couldn't bring myself to sit down and learn.

A USB mouse will be the first thing I plug into my G8, I have nothing but praise for Roland wisely not choosing to implement a touch screen... I don't know about you but I don't frequently sharpen the ends of my fingers into the points it would take to accurately work with an arranger.

I'll never have everything either, but damned if I'm going to stop trying to!

[rezfactor]

To all of you who made recent Fantom-X purchases, I hear you! I'm in the same boat. I purchased my fully-loaded Fantom X8 almost EXACTLY six months ago. I knew Roland's flagship workstation was due for a "model refresh" this winter, but I just wasn't willing to wait until now to find out! Well, Roland came through, and produced a pretty nice new flagship.

The single thing selling me on dumping my X8 for a new Fantom-G (aside from the enticing promise of an all-new sound engine) is its improved file system. I'm still deciding between Wodeh's decision, and Patrick's position. Although I'm likely to either sell or trade-in my X8 for a G7 or G8, I'm still not sure. I know I have little time to decide if I choose to sell it. I was just about to buy an X6 to use as a second recorder in another location in the house, so there's ample reason to keep my X8 as well.

[shakil]

wodeh,

There is no internal hard drive.

[rezfactor]

Do we still not have a definitive answer on the per-track EQ control feature on the new G?

[thekeymaster]

Do we still not have a definitive answer on the per-track EQ control feature on the new G?

If you mean like an OASYS then I dont think so.You could use the MFX for each part as an EQ but I dont think thats what you mean is it.

[Graeme]

to nookid's question:
Hi, sorry for the dumb question here but I noticed alot of people complaining about the polyphony on this thing (128). I thought polyphony was simultaneous notes being played... Is this not correct?

No, not really. Polyphony is the number of simultaneous waves that can be played. So a patch that uses 4 stereo waves will use 8 waves per note. 128 divided by 8 gives you a maximum of 16 notes at a time.

In practice, I 've found this is only a problem if you use a lot of these "wave intensive" patches with sustained notes, or compose elaborate orchestral pieces.

Roland's response is that you can re-sample a wave-intensive patch and what was 4 x stereo becomes 1 x stereo. While this is a terrific feature, it's quite time consuming to record, find loop points, set up a multisample, then re-load them when needed.

Hope this helps.

[Hugo]

One comment regarding resampling in order to free up polyphony; resampling whole sequences should be very quick and intuitive on the G. Resampling for the purpose of creating instruments is another, more timeconsuming process, but bare in mind that you in fact can do this in the G. The Yamaha Motif XS lacks essential sample editing tools such as loop crossfade, so just forget about it. The M3 has all the necessary tools, though.

For me, 128 voice polyphony is more than enough.

[rezfactor]

DUH! I meant to ask, "Do we still not have a definitive answer on FADER MEMORY?"

[PauloF]

Hi guys, I've been "eating" all these Fantom G threads, and from what I could read... Roland did it again !!! maybe not what some guys were expecting, but all in all, a very good looking, compreensive follow-up for the X (at price tag similar to the competition).

I'm eager to get my hands on one...

About the ARX boards, does that not resemble you something like the V-synth GT's sound generator ? just wondering...

[Doug Crazy]

LOL.. hmmm.. 24 tracks of audio . OK nice !...but Wait.... wheres the hard drive to store it on. Hmmmm ok... seems there is no hard drive. So is Roland trying to say that the 24 tracks goes into the 544 meg ram max? Hmmm. seems like they are. Well... umm.... ok... i see there may be some bad crack being smoked in or around the Roland Lab. 10 megs per min stereo is standard wav recording. 24 tracks would make that 544 megs disappear like David Blain was using it Do i need to say anything else?