Roland Workstations

I acquired the gear in Italy (I am Italian!!), because I needed a new synth, as I have been using a korg M1 and a Korg 01 for several years. I stated to keep the M1 (old but always cool) and replaced the 01 with a fantom. I paid about 2000 Euros. First of all the presets....more than 1000 sounds with lovely pianos (I am a pianist!!), beautiful organs,synthbrass,etc. A powerful effect section, a 16 track integrated sequencer, the Arpeggio mode. The editing is very easy to use as you can draw the wave shape and keep under control all the parameters. The real time editing: 4 potentiometer and 4 buttons that together with infrared beam allow you to modify the sound while you are playing. The mechanics...the 76 keys are OK, dynamics and aftertouch are on top of level. Finally I like the strength of the keyboard, It is strong enough to support accidents that always occur up and down the stage. Maybe a touch screen monitor would have been useful in live situations, when you have to change quickly a preset or an effect. Absolutely good. The synth comes in a light grey metallic "case", that makes you understand its strength. The potentiometer have a smooth and precise motion. The buttons on the panel are big and strong enough to be "hit" suddenly and several times without break. I think that the Roland Fantom is a good gear for studio music and for live sessions. Its price makes it actractive for a lot of people. The absence of a built in sampler (in reference to korg triton, for example) is not a problem, I mean that if someone needs a sampler simply buys a sampler and not a workstation with a sampler! If I got it stolen I'd probably buy another one. This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

See manufacturer's website. UTILIZATION I bought it two days ago, so it's a bit early to make a full review. After just a few hours everything is clear and intuitive. SOUNDS The sound is very good! You'll find a sound for every taste and you can certainly use it for any music style. My only critique is the price of the SRX extensions, but if you take the time to search on Ebay you'll find some new and not too expensive ones!!! OVERALL OPINION I've been using it for 2 days and I'm having a blast! Its feel is very good and the sound is exceptional so once you sit in front of it you'll keep on playing for hours :). The unit is very intuitive and it invites you to start improvising like a madman. I think the value for money is ok. It's a bit heavy and you'll need the help of someone to transport it! But I don't move it every day. After a few days I'm positive that I wouldn't hesitate buying it again!!! An excellent gear in every respect: look, reliability and sound. I'm satisfied. And the SRX extensions increase the sound possibilities dramatically so that your only limitations are your creativity and fantasy. If you are not sure about the unit, don't hesitate and go for it...And have fun! ;)

The Roland Fantom x6 is a 61 key workstation that has all the bells and whistles that you will need. It probably has more than you will use! I compare this to the Yahama Motif and I feel they are alike and do the same thing. The Fantom sticks out a little more to be because of the screen and flow of the (software). It just seems more put together and easier to operate. It also has pads on the right side that you can assigned samples and such too. That is something that the motif doesn’t have. UTILIZATION This keyboard’s sound editing can be a bit overwhelming if you havent used it before but once you get the hang of it you will be just fine. Or you could pick up the manual and figure it all out pretty quick. The general set up is pretty easy. When it turns on it just loads everything up and you can start working right away. SOUNDS Sounds are great! I love the strings and brass. Some of the sounds are a little dry and thin though. that’s where I feel like the Motif wins at. The Motif sounds are much more full and thick. Also, they could have used a few more sounds that are distinct. I feel like some of these sounds are the same as other previous fantom boards. But I guess that’s what is suppose to happen. OVERALL OPINION Overall, a great quality board. But if you love this one check out the Motif, it will blow you away! This board cost a good dollar though so make sure you can afford it. Most all of the popular workstations cost a good amount of money so be prepared to spend your savings on them. But they will last you a very long time unless you are dropping it or getting it wet. Keep it nice and clean and it will last you a lifetime. Great board, I recommend it.

The Roland Fantom s61 has 61 beautiful semi weighted keys. It also has a big screen so you can work in song mode to create your whole song right on board without having to transfer files and .wavs somewhere else. You can even master right in the Fantom 61. Its an all in one board to take care of the whole musical process. UTILIZATION The craftsmanship is incredible, .pretty solid/heavy keyboard feels very sturdy not so delicate like the Triton. This is the best thing that I've ever bought in my life!!! At least musically anyway. If I had to give everything else up my PC, software, mixer, speakers, mics, processors, etc. I would definitely keep the Fantom and start over with everything else! It really is the heart and soul of my studio! SOUNDS The overall sound quality is superior! Especially the guitars, and synth sounds. Roland always does a great job on creating warm and realistic sounds. I have only had this board for a week, but I really can't complain about any of the sounds. I've worked with several workstations, and the factory drum sounds are some of the best that I've heard. The drum kits are very nicely laid out.(Of course if you want the cutting-edge percussion. well that's where sampling comes in) The Fantom even comes with mastering effects including compression and eq! OVERALL OPINION Overall, The Fantom is easy to start with right out the box you will have no problems setting it up. But in order to know what's really going on, and capture all of it...I really suggest checking out the manual. If only for reference every now and then, reading the manual and not strictly playing everything by ear will help you to understand how the Fantom and operates. Overall the user interface is very friendly for anyone who understands the basic makeup of workstations/synths.

I would not be writing a review about this or any other synth unless there were specifically amazing things, or, unforgivable bad things about the specific instrument. I have two studio workspaces in my home. One is filled with mostly hardware and can frequently be cluttered and has a difficult workflow. Due to all the gear, there’s always a phantom hum, a driver in need of replacing, or some other distraction to keep me from getting to the work at hand. The other is a small, streamlined production station centered around a midi controller, and a small array of hardware. Both of my setups can have gear rotating out of them as needed, but it’s the main studio that I have really been seeking an optimal solution for use as a MIDI controller that checks off certain features. The original controller that I used for many years was the Oberheim Mc3000. Fantastic kit it was, but it was getting old. I fell in love with its successor, the Physis K4, but it was extremely expensive and hard to find, so the next several years have been spent mostly unfulfilled seeking the perfect balance of features and quality. (Long story short I did eventually get my hands on a Physis and loved it. Used it in the production studio and kind of regret parting with it because it was essentially free and I needed to recoup some funds). I replaced the Mc3000 with a Korg Krome 88. I actually was pretty happy with the instrument in spite of somewhat cheap plastic construction, the keybed felt great and the sounds were good, but I didn’t really desire it for it’s sounds, it is still nice to have them. But the Krome lacked tactile control to keep my happy using it as a master. At some point I had a modx7, and really enjoyed the sound engine, a d the day came where I decided to consolidate the collection a bit. The Krome went, the modx7 went, and the intention was to replace them both with a montage 8. When it came Time to pull the trigger, I could t rationalize spending $4k on a board for the sake of a few more features, and I last second decided to go with the modx8. Well, the modx8 keyboard action is ok, but kind of cheap feeling. It also doesn’t have the best tactile control, something I wish in retrospect I’d have gone with the montage… I still have the modx8 but it’s presently at work in the other studio. When I saw the Fantom-0 released, it was pretty clear Roland Followed through with Yamaha’s success with the modx/montage concept, and developed the Fantom-0 in the same vein. I purchased the Fantom-08 and my initial impressions are great. But unfortunately, I’ve had so much difficulty with this instrument, I do t feel confident recommending this synth to anyone. The Fantom is pretty sleek in its feature set. Out of the box, the 88 note keybed has a good feel, quality build with a faux ivory texture to the keys which is quite lovely. It’s display and general UI are nearly identical in functionality to the flagship Fantom, albeit using lesser quality parts and sacrificing minor details to cut costs. In spite of scaling back, the Fantom-0 still presents itself as a professional quality instrument, and it doesn’t feel as scaled down as the modx does compared to the montage. However, one of the most unecessary cuts was memory size, which is important considering the vast amount of expansion available for this series. If Roland truly wre concerned about cutting costs in the memory department, perhaps cutting memory limits would have been fine, but in favor of user expandable external memory. But even with this limitation, the Fantom-0 still seems like a legit instrument. But, it is within its documentation and Roland’s pretty much deliberately confusing use of the RC, as well as, at least with my unit, poor functionality, that I must recommend an approach with caution attitude about this particular synth. The problem seems to have to do with its usb functionality. Fantom uses a non -compliant driver, making it difficult to use with setups that use a midi-specific usb and DIN hub to communicate with each other. After two months of simply trying to get my unit to respond to midi, and trying to install model expansion and sounds banks with no success, I am giving up. The user groups want to think I am the problem. I’m usually the guy giving advise on how to operate gear like this, not the guy pulling his hair out over such things. I am now completely confident that all of my settings are correct, and yet the synth still does not function as it should. Once I initiated a support ticket with Roland, they responded asking me to confirm that the unit is installed corrrctly. I verified that they were correct as per their instruction. I then completely uninstalled the driver, turned off all other midi appliances (specifically my MioXL that has configurations set up for the Fantom that I did not want to overlap/confuse with the Roland factory options) and rebooted my computer. I then again verified the driver installed correctly and attempted to get the unit to respond to midi within a standalone vst (as opposed to within a DAW since the connection is much more direct with less possibility for error). After having no success, I backed up my factory settings and did a full factory reset and tried again. Still no progress. Finally, I wanted to see what would happen setting the audio source to the Fantom, and I get an error code saying it is t installed, in spite of it being available in the menu options. I understand the liklihood this is an issue that can indicate I have a faulty piece of equipment, but this just reinforces my feelings about Roland gear since the mid-2000’s. The problems I have been experiencing with my particular unit seem to be hot topics in the groups, so it appears this synth has more problems than anyone cares to recognize. I can barely comment about it’s sound, as after having it two months now, I haven’t been able to dive into it fully.

The Roland XS 7 was a keyboard that I purchased back in 07 pretty much on a sudden impulse after I fell in love with it at guitar center. After messing around with it for 3 hours (in the store) I new that I had to have it. The sales guy didn’t even have to sell me on it, I whipped out the credit card and purchased it. When I purchased it I had the though that I wanted it to be the main part of my studio with my drum machine and other audio gear coming into it with audio and midi connections, then from there I would export into pro tools in my mac. But after using it for about a month I just didn’t feel like that was the best workflow for me so it then became more of like just a sound module and a midi controller. Which I was upset with because for 26 hundred dollars is a lot of money just for a sound module and a midi controller. So I even though about returning it but I never did. UTILIZATION It was easy to use, if you have any problems there is a website by roland that you can go to that will have a bunch of other users that can help as well or you can go the old fashioned way and crack open the manual and start reading. SOUNDS The sounds are good, there really arnt too many effects that are on board that you can use to add to them though which also surprised me for the price I would think that you would have a ton of effects to work with. OVERALL OPINION Yes you should get this board, this was one of the best boards out and still is even though its around 7 years outdated now maybe even more I can remember exactly when it came out. But its still worth the buy today, it doesn’t cost that much brand new now though. Because of time, the price as came down a good bit.

sweetwater sound. 1499.00 Easy to use. Sequencer laid out nice. Pads are nice for laying drum tracks. Overall good sounds. Piano, drums are great. I like the look of the keyboard as well. String sounds are a little weak. Other than that I really like it. Upgrade of SRX card would solve the strings problem Solid. I feel like it can handle the rigors of road use etc. I think it is a great keyboard. I use it for recording mostly and am generally pleased with the sounds and tweaking abilities also. the pads are nice for certain things. I haven't used the sampler much but what little I have used it has worked fine. This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

The Roland Fantom G6 is the standard for production. Roland always puts out the most creative and warm sounds. Very clean, there is a port to use a mouse so its easy to navigate the screen. The G6 has 5 octaves but you can transpose if you need too. Everything on this board is well built and put together to last. UTILIZATION This board will last you for years to come, and you can upgrade with the expansion board whenever you want to. No need to purchase a new keyboard. The sounds effects are great, it has all of the basic sound effects plus more. I use this with a windows computer, I use it as a vst and it works like a charm. SOUNDS Everything with this board is easy as possible and straight forwarded, you probably wont even need to pull out the manual unless you are a beginner. Setting it up was easy, plug and play. You can browse through all of the presets easy and see everything on a bright big screen. Not like other keyboards where the screen is really small and not high quality. OVERALL OPINION Sounds are extremely realistic and the after touch and sensitivity is unmatchable . You wont find a better board, point blank period! The price is high, but you will need this to take your career to the next level. This is a solid investment that you will need to make especially your in hip hop music or jazz music. This fits that genre perfectly. This was my first Fantom, and I don’t regret my decision at all. This is the best board I have own and this board is one that is hands down one of the best on the market. Well built by a trusted company, beautiful warm classic sounds that are industry ready no matter watch genre of music your in.