New Roland Fantom 2019

[Bachus]

Main problem is price 3000£ for 61 keys for that money you can get Montage plus 1000£ left to spend .

Fantom is a much different beast than Montage or Kronos.

I understand many see this as a battle of " who gets my $4000 ? "

For the next 3-6 months, the price will not discourage. Here is why.

The price will not be a problem for the music studios and early adopters.

Simply, there are many folks that have the cash and credit and have no problem with $4000 on an interesting new w/s.

Then, we will see name performers with the Fantom.

In 6 months or less , there will be a bunch of " Oh. OIC now ".

As said, the 6 month part highly depends on what Yamaha and Korg show at Namm

[GregC]

Main problem is price 3000£ for 61 keys for that money you can get Montage plus 1000£ left to spend .

Fantom is a much different beast than Montage or Kronos.

I understand many see this as a battle of " who gets my $4000 ? "

For the next 3-6 months, the price will not discourage. Here is why.

The price will not be a problem for the music studios and early adopters.

Simply, there are many folks that have the cash and credit and have no problem with $4000 on an interesting new w/s.

Then, we will see name performers with the Fantom.

In 6 months or less , there will be a bunch of " Oh. OIC now ".

As said, the 6 month part highly depends on what Yamaha and Korg show at Namm

why wait for NAMM ? Roland did not. Yamaha did not sit on their hands with MODX. That was launched in October.

I hope Korg is interested in being more aggressive with new concept w/s.

Time to show the cards IMO

[Scott]

7. Ladder/Ring LEDs, most controls lit.

This is part of what I find particularly appealing, compared to Kronos... the entire control surface is better. You're always "blind" on a Kronos... that's not an issue for preset jockeys, but if you want to work the controls "live" everything is always in an unknown and wrong place.

So for example, in the Fantom, the 8 knobs above the sliders are endless encoders with LED rings, so you can SEE how they're set, and when you move the knobs, they will instantly alter the sound exactly how you would want and expect, the knob is never "out of sync" with the sound.

Then there are all the synth knobs on the right... so now you can control your synth functions without using up those other 8 knobs I just discussed (leaving them available for effects or other functions)... and they are dedicated and labeled so you don't have to program them to do what you want nor remember what knob you programmed to do what. And with the dedicated buttons associated with those knobs, you quickly get hands-on access to many more controls even than you have knobs for (for example, your 4 ADSR knobs are really twelve, as you can instantly switch them among pitch, filter, and amp).

Then you've got the trigger pads.

And the knobs and buttons are all easily visible against the background... no more black buttons on black backgrounds, butted up right next to each other, making for difficult targets.

I think I would find this a much more pleasurable machine to create sounds on, and also for playing with the sounds in live performance.

[billysynth]

Yamaha might provide an updated OS for the Montage...I wouldn't expect a new concept work station. They only just release the Montage a couple of years ago.

Korg have already provided a new concept workstation...it's Red in color. Variation on a theme that's the cheapest they can do.

Korg are bankrupt...they got rid of all their staff...they manufacture musical micro toys.

They created NuTube...where is it on their products? Nothing.

vas

[xp50player]

Look where the Zone number labels are on the Fantom too, in the vertical middle, not at the very bottom where your eyes get lost, like the Kronos + Montage. And having the Zone select buttons above the channels, not on the right, buried in a grid of red buttons like the Montage. Also, the Fantom has Parameter screen shortcut buttons in the Filter/Env/Effect sections, so relying on the screen a whole lot less for navigation, making the display size less of an issue. Having the TR programing buttons that double as category search like the JP-80, and everything is RGB, it’s dang genius.

[Bachus]

Fantom is a much different beast than Montage or Kronos.

I understand many see this as a battle of " who gets my $4000 ? "

For the next 3-6 months, the price will not discourage. Here is why.

The price will not be a problem for the music studios and early adopters.

Simply, there are many folks that have the cash and credit and have no problem with $4000 on an interesting new w/s.

Then, we will see name performers with the Fantom.

In 6 months or less , there will be a bunch of " Oh. OIC now ".

As said, the 6 month part highly depends on what Yamaha and Korg show at Namm

why wait for NAMM ? Roland did not. Yamaha did not sit on their hands with MODX. That was launched in October.

I hope Korg is interested in being more aggressive with new concept w/s.

Time to show the cards IMO

I meant to say, if its not anounced by namm, it isnt comming anytime soon..

[Bachus]

According to Ed Diaz on the new Fantom facebook group,..

All super natural acoustic sounds of the integra and jupiter will be added in an upgrade... including some new ones

But also lots of other sound related stuff
And many many new features to the sequemcer too..

AND MUCH MUCH MUCH MORE

[GregC]

As said, the 6 month part highly depends on what Yamaha and Korg show at Namm

why wait for NAMM ? Roland did not. Yamaha did not sit on their hands with MODX. That was launched in October.

I hope Korg is interested in being more aggressive with new concept w/s.

Time to show the cards IMO

I meant to say, if its not anounced by namm, it isnt comming anytime soon..

ok, good recovery

Anyway, if Korg has the development talent and if management makes a next gen w/s a priority, we theoretically should hear something from Korg
in the next 90 days, with NAMM as a deadline

It is not a quick process to produce a new design/ complex music production
keyboard. IOW, Korg " should " have been working on this much earlier.

I am not referring to a slight or incremental improvement to Kronos.

[Jan1]

According to Ed Diaz on the new Fantom facebook group,..

All super natural acoustic sounds of the integra and jupiter will be added in an upgrade... including some new ones

But also lots of other sound related stuff
And many many new features to the sequemcer too..

AND MUCH MUCH MUCH MORE

Thanks for the info, I was hoping this might happen.
I'm really considering the Fantom 8, I love the sound, Roland seems to be committed to this new Fantom.

[Scott]

There's no way on earth I would buy a workstation for 3+ Grand that didn't even have a sampler.

I actually haven't seen them call it a workstation. They seem to call it a synthesizer.

Look at the manuals list at https://www.roland.com/us/support/owners_manuals/

the manuals for the old Fantoms are all listed as "Fantom Workstation" while the manuals for this new one are listed as "Fantom Synthesizer." I also did not find any occurrence of the word "workstation" on the new Fantom's product page.

But it's semantics... either it does what you need or it doesn't.

[Bachus]

There's no way on earth I would buy a workstation for 3+ Grand that didn't even have a sampler.

I actually haven't seen them call it a workstation. They seem to call it a synthesizer.

Look at the manuals list at https://www.roland.com/us/support/owners_manuals/

the manuals for the old Fantoms are all listed as "Fantom Workstation" while the manuals for this new one are listed as "Fantom Synthesizer." I also did not find any occurrence of the word "workstation" on the new Fantom's product page.

But it's semantics... either it does what you need or it doesn't.

Seems it takes time for people to grasp the workflow of the New Fantom
Its more like a montage performance synth.. with a performance sequencer on board..

Many of the workstation features mostly the recording part, require the Daw, thats why Roland has added such a high quallity daw integration..

Same goes for expandabiillity, mainstage and VST controll, are on the next level, its like having a akai vip or native intrumebts kontroll onboard..

And then there is the typical Roland plugins/outs, if you want these, they require the cloud..


However what Roland tried to do is make this whole package feel like its natively on board of the Fantom.. you can perform on stage and have your Macbook closed and still rock around the hourglass of the next Era of workstations

Its fun how people have been asking for a decade now for better softsynth and daw integration, and when its there, many don’t recognise it.

[billysynth]

Hello,

can someone please provide a link to this Fantom Facebook page.

I have done google searches on several iterations but can't find anything..only the old Fantom G/X etc..

regards
Vas

[D575]

https://www.facebook.com/groups/460201417915309

[Devnor]

According to Ed Diaz on the new Fantom facebook group,..

All super natural acoustic sounds of the integra and jupiter will be added in an upgrade... including some new ones

Can you provide a link to this statement? He indicated SN-A is coming but that's it.

[Kevin Nolan]

This is looking like a modern classic already!

Sound engine specifics aside, it looks like everything Montage was trying to be, but didn't achieve.

I'm sure Korg have sit up straight to take notice (?)