I hope this message finds you!!! I just purchased a used Fantom 2days ago!!! I was following along with Mr. Ed presentation but my board wasn’t matching his set up!!! Is it because it’s still version 1.3 or that doesn’t matter the version?
Hi Max, impressive playing and thank you for sharing! I started following your channel as I was watching a video of yours playing around on the JV-1000. What an impressive instrument to have on your hands! What made you decide to go for the Fantom Flagship instead of one of the competing models that are currently on the market? Again, thank you for sharing. Greetings from the Netherlands! -Devin
Hi Devin, For context, I currently own a Motif XF8 and a Kurzweil PC4 along with some older boards, so those two are close enough to the current soundsets from Yamaha and Kurzweil for me. I like Korg but my Krome didn't offer anything that was better than the alternatives I already own. Please bear with the long answer. TLDR: great deal, replaced a bunch of legacy gear, but would not recommend as a primary board. I actually wasn't planning on buying a Fantom, but I found one that was a factory refurb for around $2,200 at a Music Go Round in December. The previous year I had attempted to put together a large rack synth rig (Roland Fantom XR with SRX-11 and SRX 1), Roland JV-1010, Korg N1R, Korg X5DR, Emu Proteus/1, Emu Proformance Plus, Emu Mo'Phatt, Behringer CAT), but to actually get a midi controller that could handle enough program changes, zones, etc, I ended up needing to purchase the PC4 (since the Viscount K4EX was discontinued), which pretty much outmoded the rack setup in every way. So I ended up trading in the majority of that rack (I kept the two Korgs and the Proteus/1) plus a bunch of other gear including my Korg Krome and other miscellaneous stuff (4U rack, Novation Remote 25 LE, Line6 POD HD300, an audio interface, and some midi stuff), which brought the price of the Fantom 7 down to $779 including tax. Which can't really be beat for what was essentially a brand new F7. The Fantom 7 is covering most of the sounds I did like from the large rack plus better synths than my other gear, and really just providing a newer Roland soundset to my JV's. However, I would not recommend it as someone's primary instrument; it has too many deficiencies in sounds and various limitations that rule that out for me. Plus some bugs that have not yet been addressed. If I was starting from scratch today and was looking at keyboards in that price bracket, I would go for a Yamaha Montage 7...the midi limitations are annoying, but the Fantom has its own odd limitations, and neither has a real linear sequencer, so that doesn't factor in. The Montage just sounds better across the board IMO. Otherwise the Korg Nautilus is great; the shortage of controls is annoying however; hopefully whatever the new flagship is will bring more controllers back.
For more in-depth commentary, check out the posts from Mighty Motif Max starting on Page 15 of this forum thread: forums.musicplayer.com/topic/173910-new-roland-fantom/page/15/#comments.
@@MaxThompsonMusic Hey Max, thank you for the extended comment! It is truly appreciated. I will have look at the forum that you have shared. Will continue my investigation with the information that you shared in mind. Again, I really appreciate your time. -Devin
De très bonnes sonorités ce clavier 🎹👍. Une très bonne continuation musicale et vive la musique 🎹 Theret Jean-Luc.
I hope this message finds you!!! I just purchased a used Fantom 2days ago!!! I was following along with Mr. Ed presentation but my board wasn’t matching his set up!!! Is it because it’s still version 1.3 or that doesn’t matter the version?
Hi! The VTW organ engine was added with OS version 2.0. Anything before that will not have anything but the old PCM organs.
Hi Max, impressive playing and thank you for sharing! I started following your channel as I was watching a video of yours playing around on the JV-1000.
What an impressive instrument to have on your hands! What made you decide to go for the Fantom Flagship instead of one of the competing models that are currently on the market? Again, thank you for sharing. Greetings from the Netherlands!
-Devin
Hi Devin,
For context, I currently own a Motif XF8 and a Kurzweil PC4 along with some older boards, so those two are close enough to the current soundsets from Yamaha and Kurzweil for me. I like Korg but my Krome didn't offer anything that was better than the alternatives I already own. Please bear with the long answer. TLDR: great deal, replaced a bunch of legacy gear, but would not recommend as a primary board.
I actually wasn't planning on buying a Fantom, but I found one that was a factory refurb for around $2,200 at a Music Go Round in December. The previous year I had attempted to put together a large rack synth rig (Roland Fantom XR with SRX-11 and SRX 1), Roland JV-1010, Korg N1R, Korg X5DR, Emu Proteus/1, Emu Proformance Plus, Emu Mo'Phatt, Behringer CAT), but to actually get a midi controller that could handle enough program changes, zones, etc, I ended up needing to purchase the PC4 (since the Viscount K4EX was discontinued), which pretty much outmoded the rack setup in every way.
So I ended up trading in the majority of that rack (I kept the two Korgs and the Proteus/1) plus a bunch of other gear including my Korg Krome and other miscellaneous stuff (4U rack, Novation Remote 25 LE, Line6 POD HD300, an audio interface, and some midi stuff), which brought the price of the Fantom 7 down to $779 including tax. Which can't really be beat for what was essentially a brand new F7.
The Fantom 7 is covering most of the sounds I did like from the large rack plus better synths than my other gear, and really just providing a newer Roland soundset to my JV's. However, I would not recommend it as someone's primary instrument; it has too many deficiencies in sounds and various limitations that rule that out for me. Plus some bugs that have not yet been addressed.
If I was starting from scratch today and was looking at keyboards in that price bracket, I would go for a Yamaha Montage 7...the midi limitations are annoying, but the Fantom has its own odd limitations, and neither has a real linear sequencer, so that doesn't factor in. The Montage just sounds better across the board IMO. Otherwise the Korg Nautilus is great; the shortage of controls is annoying however; hopefully whatever the new flagship is will bring more controllers back.
For more in-depth commentary, check out the posts from Mighty Motif Max starting on Page 15 of this forum thread: forums.musicplayer.com/topic/173910-new-roland-fantom/page/15/#comments.
@@MaxThompsonMusic Hey Max, thank you for the extended comment! It is truly appreciated. I will have look at the forum that you have shared. Will continue my investigation with the information that you shared in mind. Again, I really appreciate your time. -Devin