Fantom-X OS 2.0 coming at NAMM?

[FatBoyJim]

According to a guy named Slater over at Harmony Central there is a Version 2.0 OS update for the Fantom-X coming out. Nice to see that you Fantom-X owners are getting an OS update and that you will now be in 2.0 territory.

http://acapella.harmony-central.com/for ... did=829512


______________________________________________________________________
Check out Lawrence's Fantom-S website: http://fantom.wilkesworld.co.uk/
Check out Artemio's other Fantom-S website: http://artemiolabs.com/

[nsheldon]

This would be a significant break from Roland's MO, if true. Roland has never released a major OS revision for any of their synths (yes, minor revisions such as OS 1.0 to 1.2 or patch level revisions such as 1.01 to 1.04, but never major version revisions such as 1.0 to 2.0). It would be a welcome surprise.

Regards,

Nathan Sheldon
http://www.nathansheldon.com/

[EuroFantom]

i would be skeptical to that guys credibility considering that the picture of the v synth rack is a phoney but haha i still have my fingers crossed for both the os revision and the rack.. who knows lol

Fantom X6
EMU 1212m
Sonar 4 Producers Edition

[dansgold]

Well, they did upgrade the MV8000 OS to 2.0, based quite a bit on user input. Maybe this is a new era for Roland?

[Keys BeMe]

The Fantom X os 2.0 is indeed going to happen (please hold your questions about whats new in this revision-NAMM's only 7 days away). As is the V Synth XT rack, it is real and will be announced officially at NAMM. Just like the Motif ES rack.

I personally was a beta tester for the MV 8000's v3.0 os (i had to take an oath of silence tho') upgrade which is gonna be a major one and i can atest to the fact that the XT rack is not a hoax. So, i'm not sure where your gettin your info from EuroFantom. And i'm here in the states.

TRIPLE THREAT PRODUCTIONS

"Don't make excuses, Make it happen"

[Septimo]

hello everyone,

I'm wonderin if all this is true, and there is such an upgrade commin, would it 'require' us to upgrade the mother board that i've been tryin so hard not to worry about, as it does not affect me....(yet).. but... if 2.0 does come out and it has extra features, then it's a no-brainer...

peace

Septimo ,'^)

[FatBoyJim]

Thanks for the info Keys BeMe

______________________________________________________________________
Check out Lawrence's Fantom-S website: http://fantom.wilkesworld.co.uk/
Check out Artemio's other Fantom-S website: http://artemiolabs.com/

[dansgold]

Hmmm ... a jump from 1.04 to 2.0 certainly implies new features, as was certainly the case with the MV8000 update.

My understanding is that Roland was getting some flak from the "superstar" community regarding a number of features present on the MotifES and/or Triton, which were keeping it from being more widely adopted for tour use.

Chief among these was in-track sampling, which would be my first guess for a new feature in OS 2.0.

The file system & numbered samples dilemna are likely big up on that list of "required improvements" as well.

My retail-sales sources tell me that the Triton Extreme is getting killed by the Motif ES and FantomX ... and that this is the reason for the recent Triton Extreme price cuts.

There have been key differentiators (not having to do with patch or sound quality) which have kept the Motif ES "at the top" in sales volumes. An OS update addressing these factors could be a HUGE sales booster, as well as showing a commitment on Roland's part to constant improvement of existing product lines.

Measured against Yamaha's dismal record (they abandoned the EX series with several unresolved bugs and have yet to truly address the issues with the Mo Rack) with firmware updates ... this could amount to a significant mindshare-builder!

[abcd1234]

I'm still not sure that there will be any OS v2.0 or not, but the obvious thing is that Roland has spent too much on the X series that can't replace it with a new generation soon (hope to be right!!). Fantom FA-76 had just one model: 76keys. Fantom-S has too models: 61 & 88. But Fantom-X has 4 models: X6, X7, X8 & XR. So it will be a big loss for them to replace it soon.

But they should do something, their still behind Motif ES and with the upcoming Korg keyboard.....

If they announce OS v2.0 it will be just for their business not for the users. And maybe there will be some commercial things for using the v2.0 new features (like the OS v1.5 of V-Synth that you should "buy" VC cards).

Sam

March 14th 1984
Music student at Dalhousie
Fantom-X 7

[dansgold]

"... still behind Motif ES and with the upcoming Korg keyboard ..."

I truly don't get this statement at all. In what objective sense is the Fantom X behind the Motif ES? There are certainly things about both keyboards which one person may like better than the other, but no clear "head and shoulders winner", IMHO.

"... If they announce OS v2.0 it will be just for their business not for the users. ..."

If a version 2.0 OS comes out with new/improved features, how does this not benefit users, but somehow benefit only Roland's business?

[EuroFantom]

i have a suggestion for os 2 (if it exists lol and yes it is much to late to add this in) but i used to own an EM-55 great little arranger first arranger to come with D-Beam but is it me or did the D-Beam of older synths have better features i can think of 2 in my head that are kind of nice.. the strumming harp with ad lib chording and an effect similar to slowing down a tape when a rhythm was playing with accompaniment i'm not complaining about the D-Beam in the fantom but you'd think roland would hang on to cool features like that...


Fantom X6
EMU 1212m
Sonar 4 Producers Edition

[abcd1234]

dansgold:

Motif ES is more popular than Fantom-X, and even the Pro's are mostly using Motif or Triton keyboards.

The question is: If there wasn't any Motif ES or Korg Oasys, would Roland release a new OS?! We are shouting some of the stupid shortcomings of Fantom-X here but no one is listening. They are just adding more bugs in OS updates! Why they are going to release OS v2.0 suddenly?!

Sam

March 14th 1984
Music student at Dalhousie
Fantom-X 7

[2TIM316]

I wonder how it will affect the rack. Well, luckily my rack was damaged in shipping and the store has agreed to take it back, but they still have no replacement unit. So I might go ahead and trade up to an X keyboard since I know I don't want an OASYS, and I don't think Yamaha will have anything earth-shattering other than the ES rack. That leaves only Roland, who, if they are releasing OS2 (which would be a major departure for them, at least as regards their synth policies), would most likely not be at the same time announcing a new workstation to supercede the Fantom-X.

I think the V-Synth rack picture is a fake - looks like the "handles" from one of the Spectrasonics virtual modules. On the other hand they would have had to match exactly the font of the words "V-Synth" in order to add the extra letters, so who knows?

[John01W]

Hopefully in the same way since it(XR) has all of the exact same sampling capabilities besides skip back sampling.

I've been wanting to load my akai libraries since I installed that 512mb chip in my XR and the gb cf card.

It would be awesome if they gave an upgrade for fantom x models that had enhanced multisample support and maybe some akai loading of some kind.

I know Korg has done it before with the Triton Studio os 2.0 that gave full akai loading 2 streaming audio tracks and other cool stuff.

It would be cool if Roland would do something similar here.

Any update significant enough to be announced at namm is sure to be something cool, maybe roland is gonna give us some more sampling support in an os upgrade for out fantom Xs.

(Not getting some of the slight negativity towards the XR here lately, it has everything the X has and more in someways(besides sequencer, and skipback sampling), and is a definite successor to the 5080. The XR is the best rack on the market, even more than the ES rack even before it's announcement. The XR is a spanking module, and would make any X keyboard owner proud(have 5 srxs loaded in mine).

Hopefully Roland will give some more akai or sampling support in an os upgrade(ala korg has done in the past), and some new killer SRX boards. With Rolands current trends(listening more to customers with better support, fixing problems, finally putting manuals on-line), maybe Roland will hook us up good. Personally, I welcome and appreciate any improvement on Roland's behalf.

You know what, Come to think of it, chicken sys released a Triton Studio edition with the Triton Studio just before Korg release 2.0 for Triton Studio which gave full akai loading. Maybe Roland will do the same.

The XR spanks the Motif ES rack and Triton Rack by far.

[Artemiy]

Hmm, this sounds pretty exciting. I suspect that the OS 2.0 for Fantom-X series is really coming out. The reason is that when that Roland guy visited me he asked if there are some features that would be nice to implement is a software update. The only thing I remember I told him is on-demand sample loading, and I clearly remember he wrote that down.

If I recon something more I will tell you. I also asked him if it would be possible to back-port some new features (if any) to Fantom-S series, and he said it would be possible but he's no sure if Roland are going to do that.

So at least I think, X users should expect on-demand sample loading, not because I asked Roland, but because they should have heard such a request from many and many other people.


A.