Korg Forums

Daz wrote:My first impression of the Fantom G is that it looks like a great platform for making music and it has many desirable features that many of us would be impress with, even Oasys owners. If you have to compete with the Motif XS, Korg M3, Korg Oasys and the myriad software competitors with just one piece, then the Fantom G looks a good stab at taking on all of those.
Daz.

Just spent some 45 minutes checking around the Roland booth and mostly listening to all of the presentations and whatnots of the G. Sound-wise, I'd say that OASYS is a far better choice. But there are a couple of things that I really dig about it - ability to use a mouse (of course, there's no touchscreen), I really like the seamless transition from sound to sound, and the RPS - which has been around for awhile in Roland keyboards, but not many people used it. This transition thing is really impressive and works, which is something that KORG needs to work on the OASYS. I absolutely love the KARMA-fied way of doing that, but this is just - simpler. Click "program up" and off you go...

The thing that I absolutely cannot (under)stand with this baby is this one: "Expansion for sampling memory DIMM: 1 slot, supports PC133, CL=2/3, 3.3 V, 128MB, 256MB, 512MB". Thank you, Roland, for taking us back to 1990's, people are already using DDR3 memory around the world. At least OASYS has regular, v.1 DDR memory, which is bearable. I'll try to ask them what the h**l is going on there in about an hour.

One other thing - I had a long meeting with people from Yamaha. The thing that still rings in my ears is this one - Motif is getting a VST plugin/editor soon. Their efforts in the "integration" area is pretty much visible by now, but this is just the "cherry on the top" thingy.

vEddy would you say the G would be a good choice with the OASYS,I know its doubling up on a lot of things but I could see that being a very,very good set up.

The thing that still rings in my ears is this one - Motif is getting a VST plugin/editor soon.

I wish the Oasys had this sort of integration with DAW:s..

Sure, the touch screen eliminates the need for a mouse, but it would be great if you had the total recall function of a plugin..

vEddY wrote:

tcornishmn wrote: That's what keeps me interested in the lower-tiered stuff. I can't really justify a second Oasys, but in the next year or two I probably need a newer board as a backup.

I guess you could go with either M3 or Kurzweil PC3x? These seem like reasonable "second keyboards" (both in terms of price and performance) to me if OASYS is the primary one?

Does the M3 have the CX3 in it? I didn't think it did. I am interested in the PC3x, but as far as I know it's still vaporware, like a lot of Kurzweil things. Also, generally I play 76-key boards due to the fact that organ glisses are painful on weighted keys and the 50lb Oasys 76 is heavy enough.

thekeymaster wrote:vEddy would you say the G would be a good choice with the OASYS,I know its doubling up on a lot of things but I could see that being a very,very good set up.

That might be the combi, yeah. If you're looking for something different, G and V-Synth XT are - IMHO - very good choices to go "along" with the big O.

tcornishmn wrote: Does the M3 have the CX3 in it? I didn't think it did. I am interested in the PC3x, but as far as I know it's still vaporware, like a lot of Kurzweil things. Also, generally I play 76-key boards due to the fact that organ glisses are painful on weighted keys and the 50lb Oasys 76 is heavy enough.

Nope, it doesn't, which is a bit sad Organs are good, really, but CX-3 is - hm, well - CX-3 It pretty much rocks. As far as PC3 is concerned, I'm gonna check out what the heck they're doing a bit later. Good idea, actually. They're so screwed up, I kind of lost interest last year, but I sure as hell hope that they're not "selling" us slideware, AMD style...

I do agree that O76 is heavy and maybe a bit pricey to be a second keyboard, but in general, I would go with it if you can afford it. I know that doing organ stuff on weighted hurts - hell, I've been doing it all the time - but that's the general tradeoff people have to be aware of when buying either one of those. For me, if it's 76 synth-action, there's no way I could play a piano, I'm a classical pianist so

Kontrol49 wrote:http://youtube.com/watch?v=d_vyw6TjK2Q

Have to admit it, this keyboard looks and sounds really good.

Sharp wrote: Have to admit it, this keyboard looks and sounds really good.

I don't know, man, I don't think it sounds that much different then previous Fantoms... It's the Roland approach that bugs me, they're pretty much saying that G sounds awesome and rest of the Fantoms sound like crap. This is a direct quote "Fantom G just sounds so much better then the Fantom or V-Synth". I tend to disagree, it's not such a "quantum leap" or something...

I think I do remember a similar thing happening with a very expensive Korg workstation a few years ago about it not sounding much different than its predecessor.It wasn't until it was in isolation that it shone through.

Maybe the Fantom G might be like this? Although I do appreciate you have had a listen with headphones Ved.

There have been comments on Roland Clan about how Roland have built the engine from the ground up,perhaps an A/B comparison is the best way to judge....

I still think it will be a good buy though.

Incredibly, I've been chatting on Harmony-Central NAMM coverage of the Fantom-G (comments section); and have just been informed that the Fantom-G can only record Audio to its RAM. It can NOT record to external storage such as flash drives or hard disks.

The sequencer looks fantastic, but it's effectively pointless because it can only record to a maximum of 544 MB ram, pointless over 24 Audio Tracks. Truly shockingly poor.

Kevin.

vEddY wrote:The thing that I absolutely cannot (under)stand with this baby is this one: "Expansion for sampling memory DIMM: 1 slot, supports PC133, CL=2/3, 3.3 V, 128MB, 256MB, 512MB". Thank you, Roland, for taking us back to 1990's, people are already using DDR3 memory around the world. At least OASYS has regular, v.1 DDR memory, which is bearable. I'll try to ask them what the h**l is going on there in about an hour.

That's the ONE spec that puzzled the holy hell outta me too! I own a Fantom-X8 (which uses the same outdated PC133 DIMMs as the G), and let me tell you, not only are those modules getting damned hard to find, they're goddamned expensive! I paid about $300 USD for a 1GB DIMM (yes, the Fantom-X' documentation claims only to support 512MB, but 1GB does work). Don't even ask how much larger-capacity DIMMs go for. Apparently, these DIMMs are still used in some Intel Xeon server architectures somewhere. Yup, that was a head-scratcher for me as well!

Have to admit it, this keyboard looks and sounds really good.

Sure does.....
Those visually intuative GUI 'animations'..very interesting..
Page flipping/data entering is very tiresome - touchscreen or otherwise - for general tweaking...
This visual interface programming could really really take off!
Roland look like the 1st to take this side of things seriously IMO.
I'm not aware of any other synth/WS manufacture even close to Roland in this.
If, and I expect when, this GUI thing does take off - it will date most of the Synth/WS boards out there.
That whole Roland GUI looks alive - it actually looks interesting...
I wonder what type of graphics card Roland are using on the Fantom - LOL
If you cant take the dis-affected muso away from his computer games - bring the fancy graphics to his WS!

Headline - Korg sign deal with nVidia!

Seriously though - I know the 'move the PC to the WS' has been tried before - but not with what looks like a real focus on GUI finesse and innovation.
The mistake may have been trying to fit a computer onto a WS - but this Roland seems like taking whats good about PC DAWS and translating that to a Workstation.
Looks like Synth/WS manufactures are set to get a whole new R&D department - Bhoy would we love that!

Those Debut Pitchbender control elements also sound GRUESOMELY FATAL! ..........
I wonder what other snappy tricks....

The live mode switching sounds very impressive - and even at that U-Tube demo-quality - though I'd want to tweak either the piano spacial or the Guitar patch Hi-end.....
Yet I can actually hear ThaT! from that demo alone!

Graphical audio editing with mouse! - no PC Multi-Player temptations there.

Incredibly, I've been chatting on Harmony-Central NAMM coverage of the Fantom-G (comments section); and have just been informed that the Fantom-G can only record Audio to its RAM. It can NOT record to external storage such as flash drives or hard disks.

Hmmm... just wondering if 'all-ready-mastered' tracks can be streamed from flashdrives or hard-disks - or if it works some way like that with the 24track audio setup?
Possibly the same with Sample data - it mentions on that video something about USB streaming from Fav software DAWs....but the RAM issue - well - surely they've tested that, so that its enough for anything one might be doing 24track wise at any given time.
Mightn't be able to do a whole album or synthphony on it - but enough for each part I presume.
I wouldn't Master an album or compiled work on a WS anyway - not that I'm being snobby - I just wouldn't think it practical.

But hey....128 Tracks! - 24 of which are linear audio - that means 104 Midi tracks!!!??? - does that mean independant of channel?....though even so - 16 external, if they have to be I can live, with - but the extra 88 - Finally?!?!?....

Very interesting Roland.

Peace
Ausser.

PS: Ok - I'd sure need to Try before Buy - and Hear before Here!...
The superNATURAL (Font I notice - nice and PC) Drums as a standalone EXB thang...very impressive looking -
but I didn't see much revelation regarding the Piano EXB -
and I'm wondering about future String superNATURALS and what they may or more particularly - may NOT do...
Presumably the GUI comes coded in the EXB - not that I'm saying for 1 minute that superNATURAL is gimicky - but is it really too near the gimmick fathom line...comparing to what other WS may offer for the same price or a bit more...

Seamless program/combi change is something I always dreamed about since my Triton years.
THAT is something I wish to be implemented in Oasys.
It is easily understood how to manage it with polyphony, but does it work on Fantom G even if all the effects (22) are in use in both the subsequential prgs/combis?
How do they "morph" from one effect to the other?
Damn, that's a very good thing when playing live.......................

Kevin Nolan wrote:Incredibly, I've been chatting on Harmony-Central NAMM coverage of the Fantom-G (comments section); and have just been informed that the Fantom-G can only record Audio to its RAM. It can NOT record to external storage such as flash drives or hard disks.
The sequencer looks fantastic, but it's effectively pointless because it can only record to a maximum of 544 MB ram, pointless over 24 Audio Tracks. Truly shockingly poor.

Yep, that's what I understood from the presentation and a chat with some Roland people. That's what I was pointing out with the previous comment. That kind of sucks Sequencer looks damn fine in general