Is the G a save buy?

[SRUT, BUT...]

Quinnx, you said:

Yes it will be different but its still on the edge of Obsolete before its release because it NOT that much of a step forward.

So...
You say: G is "a step forward".
You say: G is "obsolete".

So, if G is obsolete, but at the same time better than X, the X must be even more obsolete, right?

And what would be your advice in that tricky situation?
"Don't buy the G because it's obsolete!"? Or in other words: "Better buy the X, even though it's not as good as the G!"? Which again means "Get the weird X file system" that you have fought against and suffered from so many years?

[Quinnx.]

By comparative methods and what was said before..
given the X was several years in develoment that means the tech was years behind the current,.

Giving that the G is 4years in development and still uses SDRAM its tech is not current.. (on the edge of obsolete)

ARX is the move forward in the direction as stated but needs to happen quickly to catch up or it too will fall behind with the passing of time.
We can have ARX which is current being 4 more years in devlopment for it to become obsolete and now we have roland releasing another workstation in 2012 which could have been made in 2008.

[Solitary man]

Fellas,
Do what I have done, keep the Fantom X and get a Alesis Fusion!

Goto the alesis website and listen to the Hollow sun demo's. I was blown away with the sound quality, absolutely awesome.

I mean it when I say the Fantom X/G doesn't come close to these sounds, trust me y'all.

Sol.

[V-CeeOh]

WOW
for someone that did not listen to the G yet, that's an "awesome" statement!

[madAhorn]

I don't know about any new sounds, but last year I tried a fusion and it was the biggest let down in any synth I had ever tried!

I loved my Alesis Quadrasynth Plus and owned it for years, but this Fusion is very underpowered and did not sound good at all. Very little velocity sensitivity built in to the patches and it took time for each patch to load, especially the added samples.

I was very sad, because I wanted the Alesis to be the best...I always pull for Alesis ever since the Quadrasynth. Sadly, that was the most they ever put into a synth..."Synth" then the quality has gone down hill IMHO.

Sorry if my opinion is the opposite of yours...
I do come from a keyboard performance mentality where the feel and realism of "keyboard" sounds is most important to me...let alone instant access to patches. (Even the Fantom X needed a new motherboard before the patches changed quick enough)

[Quinnx.]

Lets not look at the G as a brand new sound board but rather a new development of the X.
Its strongest part being the ARX potential.
If you don't have an X get the G unless money is the problem.
If you have the X and want the potential ARX and the G can offer.
keep the X and get the G don't try to split, it wont work.
I’m waiting to try before I buy if I can but I wish Roland would give us some more advanced ARX cards soon.
I feel Roland using ARX for wav form add-in cards like Srx is a complete Waste! of 2 ARX slots.

[Jimknopf]

Sorry, solitary man, but I agree completely with MadaHorn on this.

The overall Fusion sound is a muddy plastic sound, and they try to cover that with some some fat synth basses they push foward in some of their audios.

But have a listen yourself to pianos, epianos, organs or strings audios on exactly the site you mentioned (including e.g. the hollow sun strings): most of them just sound really *dreadful*, and the hollow sun stuff is just slightly above, in the lower medoicre range - from my ears.

Don't get me wrong: I would anytime support an instrument against negative hype, if I felt it was better in reality. But the Fusion case is hopeless from my view: nice specs for the bucks at first sight, but then no good sounding, good designed instrument at all...

[V-CeeOh]

Lets not look at the G as a new sound board...

That's the way I look at it - a new sound board. No problem at all. An yes it's a development of the X, just like the X was a developement of the S wich was a development of the FA76 wich was a development of the XP wich....

[thekeymaster]

Well i'm going by the "there's never a safe time to buy" with any hi tech piece of equipment. Weigh up what it can do for you,see if you like its sound and features ,when it actually lands in the shops,then make a decision based on your needs.

No one would ever buy anything if you were always looking over your shoulder on what will come next.I thinkI get good mileage out my gear...if i get 2 to 3 years of top quality usage then I'm happy.For some that might seem ridiculous.I'm not one for holding on to keyboards ,I always strive to push forward.

The only synths I've held on to over the years are the D-50,its an absolute classic,my Supernova 2 and probably the OASYS will stand the test of time.

Everything else I have upgraded,including a hell of a lot of Roland equipment.W-30 to XP's to X's,JV's to XV's, Trinity to Triton's,DX's to SY's etc etc....its all about progression.There's never a safe or right time to buy.Just go with what you think is right for you and your needs.

[The Audacity Works]

Quinnx,

You keep forgetting that the G is a new synth, at least from Roland ROMpler standards. It uses a brand new DSP chip—Roland ROMplers from the XV-88/3080/5080 to the Fantom X were all based around the XV chip. The Sonic Cell, Fantom-G, and I believe the ARX boards are based around the new one.

Whether or not this chip delivers radically innovative features this early is moot; The X pushed the XV chip's capabilities to the max. There simply isn't enough headroom to add much more—and even if there was, Roland ain't updating it just because you don't like their G.

So much of the garbage on this forum appears to stem from the following sentiment:

"I own and X and with the G, I don't have the biggest newest Roland workstation on the block any longer. It's time to bust out the big guns to make me feel better."

The lack of multisampling is inexcusable; you'll get no debate from me on that... and PC133 RAM is certainly odd... but most (not all, most) of the other complaints are a constantly moving target consisting of banality.

[Solitary man]

Ok I appreciate what madhorn and jimknopf have said about the Fusion, I won't argue about it because as we all know sound is subjective.

I too thought the Fusion was a badly designed, full of bugs, ugly synth when it was first released and there was no way I was gonna buy one at the £800 asking price in 2005. But now it is nearly bug free, the Hollow sun patches dooooo sound sooooo goooooooood to me and it's now £400 brand new with a 80 GIG hard drive then it's very, very hard not to buy one.

It complements the X very well indeed.

Something that IS puzzling me is the fact roland still haven't put any descent demos of the sounds out yet, I phoned DV247 yesterday and was told they expect the Fantom G in store in a month so come on Roland for christ sake let's hear the bloody thing. ))))))

[The Audacity Works]

I've heard really good things about the Hollow Sun patches, but every Fusion I've had the chance to hear not only doesn't have them, but is broken or something.

On paper, the Fusion's amazing. I'm just amazed at how poor American aesthetic design and usability can be. Its potential was insane.

Unfortunately, Alesis didn't display a single keyboard in their booth this past NAMM. I used to love that company:

/Quadraverb GT (first FX ever owned)
/MEQ-230
/MidiVerb 4
/Wedge
/Monitor Ones (first monitors ever owned)
/RA-100
/AI3
/airFX
/airSynth

[Quinnx.]

I never said i don't like the G (I have yet to test one to come to that conclusion)
I think for the most part I have been exploring its possibilities while highlighting its failures too... (a balanced view point)
And to brand people is getting personal which posts should never be.. by saying things like that, and telling everyone else here they are crying because they can no longer claim to have the best guns on the block any more..
Come on..
Where did that come from..?
You obviously have a passion and excitement for the G, thats good.
Share it.. but dont criticize others for not sharing it.

[Jimknopf]

Solitary man,
the price and the bug fixes made it just as interesting to me as to you, so I had a second look at the Alesis Fusion myself. But actually testing one has lead me away again. The Hollow Sun patches are clearly better than the rest, but still don't convince me, because there's something about the basic sonic character of the device I don't like (not talking of the overall design which is not to my taste at all).

But I have no problem at all to understand your decision, and yes, you are right about subjective sound feel (despite some criteria one could name). Just have fun with the device!

[Septimo]

My goodness....this disease is infectuous...do you really mean that?..Strut...what ever you said in your post lost all merit once this line came out of you. Let's see, I didn't upgrade to VISTA from XP....Am I making a mistake not to???? and defending such things makes you worse and you are proudly admitting that....And no, n-n-n-no....YOU are missing audacitys point and are trying to make it seem like what he said to Synthia was not rude and in fact philosophical...lol....Audacity then followed your post with a ...."Y- y- yeah Septimo it was Sarcasm Jeez..." because even he also knew better and thats why that was his only response. He aint dumb.....And I've been around here 4 years already>>>My part of whats "become" of the Clan was in place back then as I haven't changed my stance on anything...when someone says something that don't make any sense, If I catch it, then I've always said something to couter it,,wether popular or not, and that has been true since I got here....So what is "becoming" is new and aint got nothing to do with me...And no this isnt a "Septimo VS Audacity" This is common sense vs stupidity...not a 'X is better than G so stick to X'...I aint that dumb... And I apologise when I'm being rude but how else can I reply? The truth aint always polite..I try to..at least I don't start calling you guys vulgar names ...I know better than that.

Audacity...you know that feeling well huh? lets flip that to when is was about you and your pops sentiments four years ago..........

"I own and S and with the X, I don't have the biggest newest Roland workstation on the block any longer. It's time to bust out the big guns to make me feel better."

So now accuse those who don't upgrade or those who see it's short lifespan of that as well huh...

I think everyone here can see that it's better than the X(except in waves and patches of cousre) Everyone here can see that...but not everyone here is as titied up as you are or as impressed with it as you are...So accuse everyone of your own past sentiment...there's a saying in spanish that in translation goes..." a thief judges others according to his own conditions " dig it> in other words if you're a liar, then to you everyone else has to be one too....I don't feel that way about the X and the G....Maybe I'll fell that with the next board, but by then I'll buy it cus I'll know that by then theyll have all the shortcomings of this G figured out as they did with the X over S.

I've seen both sides....Now I see that there is a need for this board to some and to others not so much...That is not my argument anymore...if y'all dont see that...I don't know....I don't care who buys one or who doesn't...Me I was going to get one until I thought about it without thinking "It's A NEW FANTOM X!!! YIPEEE!!! " Like most here also as well....(if preordered one without hearing it you fall in to this category automaticly) But that's besides the point....


Afte all this I've come to respect QuinnX alot..as he is one of the few people who says what is what without defending a company who don't give half an ass about you. And I don't have to agree with everything he has said in the past, cus we've had our share of differences but he is one of the few who has the stones to say it. And most of you act as if Roland gave you a keyboard and owe allegiance to them or something....Strange....I never defended the X's flaws when I bought it just cus it was mine...I defended what was in fact good and spoke against what was in fact bad....shouldn't eveyone be this way? common sense?

I think Audacity should send Roland a resume' and get it over with...except when the next board come around, he'll be fired for saying that the "V" is not as big as what the G had to offer....Let's see.....time will tell the tale of the prophet...

So all the G lovers dying for me to shut up.......Do yourselves a favor and keep your ignorance in check. Then I wont have to respond with...Are you serious??? So please don't try to respond with the same of "Septimo, You're wrong to think that we shouldn't get a G" or "Septimo, Give us G's a break were just excited" because those are not the reasons for my responses..I don't care what you do.....The G facts are not my argument, dumb ass ill satements are. I know that G 'for me', isn't going to help me any..For some of you it will make you a better musician...that's fine with me...And if you talk about the G without saying that "not buying one is a mistake" or that "waiting is funner than making music" ( a sarcasm for "music will not be anygood without the upgrade") then you can keep me shut. I promise. and I still love y'all but remeber bootyism brings on more bootyism...