New Roland Fantom

[theshinenz]

Kinda old news now.... but looks like an amazing performance synth even without including the sequencer which is cool....

Think I'm going to put my NS3 up for sale

[cphollis]

Funny that you put this up at the exact time I was doing a deep dive on this board. The KC Forum is obsessed with this one, as well as the new HydraSythn.

It looks deep, rich, etc. But I doesn't look like an easily a gigging board unless you invest serious time. I'm keeping my NS3 (best gigging board ever, not lame in the studio) and hoping to add a Fantom when the prices come down a bit.

[theshinenz]

I think as a gigging board it wouldn't be much more work to set up than the Nord, I just went through the process of setting up an NS3 for gigging a couple of months ago and found it still takes quite a bit of time to program splits and layers. From the architecture it looks very intuitive to get the the most used functions, if anything like the FA even without a touchscreen it was easy to set up gig sounds.

I'm pulling the trigger on one as soon as they arrive in Australia.

[analogika]

That looks like a Kronos without the nightmare.

I wonder how good it sounds.

[Ivan Jochner]

For me Roland always were good at having click outs on most boards . Now they added wheels+joystick.
I dont think supernatural stuff will sound better then it was on Integra 7 ( the reason i sold it. Grandpianos sounded a bit glassy and lifeless. Saxes played with slides were a nightmare.)

But!

At least for me Its all about Synth section , keybed and Pads ( for samples use) and Click out for a drummer.

The best pads and synth brasses are still with Roland. (Imho)

[Leo Castro]

Fantom is like a powered FA-06, but still without multisampling, for me, it's not a serious competitor.

[analogika]

Wouldn't it be great to have something that measures up to the orchestral patches of the Kronos (which, to me, are the single best thing about the Kronos), but with an operating system that doesn't feel like 9 different VSTs gaffer-taped to a shitty mixer glued onto a Linux PC and operated through a teller window?

The interface looks like a dream for a workstation. Finally.

[theshinenz]

Fantom is like a powered FA-06, but still without multisampling, for me, it's not a serious competitor.

Really? Have you actually read the specs? I am confident that this Fantom will not only have multisampling in the next new months but more features that will make it even better than it looks right now. Nord has a great sound, but is not flexible and cannot layer sounds enough.

[kbrkr]

It's a non starter for me as I didn't see a COSM or VK Organ Modeling engine. It only has VPIANO engine. It actually would complement the Nord very well, but I just don't like carrying two or more keyboards to gigs.

[theshinenz]

Roland have said it’s a platform so expect there to be more engines in future including EP modelling and SNS acoustic sounds. Has been discussed on Facebook with a Roland rep