Sweetwater Customer review of Fantom G

QUIXSAND

QUIXSAND

Member
This is from a user's point of view after buying the new Fantom G

Just for peeps who want to know what others are thinking about the new machine



The future is here
by Frank N. Beans from Space, the final frontier, May 2008
Music Background: GURU

Finally, the keyboard workstation joins us in the 21st century. I hereby predict the Roland Fantom G will enjoy the top spot in keyboard sales for the next couple of years. Why? Here are the main reasons:

-The screen is the best in the business. Gorgeous. Love it. No video redraw issues like the XS.

-DAW like sequencer. Plug in a USB mouse and you have computer-like sequencing at your fingertips. Highly robust, reliable, accurate sequencer with 128 MIDI track capability. Unheard of. No button pressing delays like the XS

-Buffet of extraordinary preset patches that are mix ready and can be seamlessly overdubbed together right out of the box. Roland sets up presets ready for your mixes. Drum kits are banging, EQ'd just right. Pianos, organs, rhodes, wurlies, bass (acoustic and synth), leads, pads, brass, etc etc are all AWESOME. Can not wait for new Keyboard expansion card. Incredible.

-No glitch LIVE mode that guarantees no delays between switching performances live in concert. Finally a company listened to us. LOVE IT. Thank you Roland. Live mode is SO cool

-Screensaver (16 to choose from!) and customizable wallpaper. You gotta love this. You can can actually customize your keyboard. Love it.

-Killer controllers like industry leading knob for pitch bend/data/assignable, dbeam, etc.

-PAD MANIA. Oh yes, a whole set of beautiful rubber pads that can be used as numeric keypad, part selection, sample pads, mutes, drum pattern triggers, you name it. Works how YOU want to work. What a concept. Thank you Roland. (PS Roland: please make the pads more sensitive to retrigger)

-AWESOME effects. Man I love all the insane effects. Also 2 LFO's with al kinds of awesome options.

-Best looking board in existence by far. Puts the weird hospital-surgeon-green-colored Motif XS to shame. Yamaha is going to eat Roland's lunch for at least the next two years until Yamaha can put out the board they SHOULD have put out after the ES. Yamaha screwed their loyal clients and now they're going to pay for it. The Fantom is by far and away the best board for the money bar none. I absolutely LOVE my G6 and I can't keep my hands off of it.

THANK YOU ROLAND
 
sounds more like a comparison to the XS than a review of the board. every other sentence was...like the XS. either way..id rather hear a review from an unbiased source. no board is perfect..so no drawbacks? everything is 100% and you couldnt wish for anything more? i think not. sounds like another Roland lover trying to convert. either way the option to add an external mouse is pretty cool.
 
wraith302 said:
oooooooooo screensavers!! ima cop that **** now son!!
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LMFAO...nice selling point. WTF does ALT+F4 do in Windows? I'm not going to hit it but I'm curious.
 
wraith302 said:
Come on, try it. I promise it won't hurt anything.
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I googled it and my guess was correct; Alt+F4 closes the current window
 
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now why dont they list the other 50 things its missing...seriously if you fall into buyin this before the upgraded os comes out your a fool....
 
OK So I went to Sam Ash on my lunch break to hear what all the hype is about. The Fantom G is one of the prettiest and rugged machines around. I mean it looks and feels great.

Sounds???? BORING!!!! This is my initial feeling. I mean when I first sat at the M3 I got goosebumps and the same thing with the XS. I am not excited at all with the sounds in the Fantom G.

The interface with the sliders and drum pads are hott if you use it as a controller for all your VST's I guess. But I will give it the benefit of the doubt that I was rushing back to work from lunch. I will hit Guitar Center tomorrow for another shot at it. But for now it looks like I will be getting the Motif Rack XS.
 
GjB said:
I googled it and my guess was correct; Alt+F4 closes the current window
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Well, not really - it force quits the active program without asking for confirmation.

As for the "review" it's a pretty standard "I don't know sh*t but I'm hyping everything" thing - he doesn't really speak much of the actual features besides boosting some superficial things ("industry leading knob for pitch bend"? :D) and presets, and then goes on to rant about even more superficial things to get it to sound the awesomest of the awesome. Meh. Not that I like these workstations anyway, but people need to learn to see through this kind of stuff...
 
krushing said:
Well, not really - it force quits the active program without asking for confirmation.

As for the "review" it's a pretty standard "I don't know sh*t but I'm hyping everything" thing - he doesn't really speak much of the actual features besides boosting some superficial things ("industry leading knob for pitch bend"? :D) and presets, and then goes on to rant about even more superficial things to get it sound the awesomest of the awesome. Meh. Not that I like these workstations anyway, but people need to learn to see through this kind of stuff...
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yeah, i messed with the thing for the heck of it a few weeks ago. definitely overhyped, i DID enjoy the workflow though. very easy to edit stuff due to the way the menus and FX chains are layed out, which is a pretty nice thing if you get instant inspiration. the sounds themselves did nothing for me...
 
I tried it out a few days ago with an open mind as i have an a X6 and was maybe looking at an upgrade. I saw absolutely nothing that would make me wanna sell my X6 and put extra cash on top for this new G6. It's literally like the same damn board. It's like going from an MV-8000 to an 8800, but the 8000 had a freakin color screen in the first place. Man, what a waste.
 
I haven't had a chance to fully scope one out yet, but I am hearing good things and bad things from early adopters over at fantomized.info

The overall sound quality is supposed to be greatly improved ... better D/A from what I have been told.

That, plus the 256MB ROM is enough to probably get me to upgrade or simply add once the price gets a bit more negotiable.
 
The mouse probably helps a lot. Not being sacrcastic. I love touch screens but I'd likely take a mouse over a touch screen. Just makes things a lot easier. Workstations are hard to beat as far as workflow but editing is out of the questions most of the times because of how long every little thing takes.
 
dansgold said:
I haven't had a chance to fully scope one out yet, but I am hearing good things and bad things from early adopters over at fantomized.info

The overall sound quality is supposed to be greatly improved ... better D/A from what I have been told.

That, plus the 256MB ROM is enough to probably get me to upgrade or simply add once the price gets a bit more negotiable.
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Dan, I played it at Sacramento Guitar Center and it was cool, but I didn't get blown away. I already have a fantom rack, korg karma and motif xs. I had the karma and fantom rack first and I was going to sell the karma and replace it with the m3. I am glad I didn't. The fantom g sounded pretty good, but I am not going to sequence onboard or use the pads so no need for the board version. To me, some categories like accoustic guitars.......hmmm.....i don't know, I think the X might be better.

I am glad I went ahead and got a motif xs before the fantom g even dropped. I don't see enough to "upgrade". It pretty much sounds the same as a fantom x, but with some missing features.
 
youngjboy said:
I am glad I went ahead and got a motif xs before the fantom g even dropped. I don't see enough to "upgrade". It pretty much sounds the same as a fantom x, but with some missing features.
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So you think the Motif is Better? I have both for Reason and I use them both, I don't even get into the bickering my thing is GIVE ME BOTH LOL lol Do you think the horns, and strings sound better in the MOtif?
 
DaNOC said:
So you think the Motif is Better? I have both for Reason and I use them both, I don't even get into the bickering my thing is GIVE ME BOTH LOL lol Do you think the horns, and strings sound better in the MOtif?
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I like the motif;s pizzicato strings, but for full string sets, i kind of lean to my fantom xr
 
I agree...

Milez502 said:
now why dont they list the other 50 things its missing...seriously if you fall into buyin this before the upgraded os comes out your a fool....
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I was interested in the Fantom G (I already have the X) until I dug a lil deeper....

I just copped the Korg M3 yesterday....I think I might keep that and my x
 
BigBrotherMotown said:
I was interested in the Fantom G (I already have the X) until I dug a lil deeper....

I just copped the Korg M3 yesterday....I think I might keep that and my x
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Yeah, i feel the same way. No reason to "upgade"
 
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