History of the Roland Fantom G

[Tweak]

History of the Roland Fantom from the JV30 to the Fantom G

Can be read here:
http://www.tweakheadz.com/review_of_the ... fantom.htm


Excerpt:

The current version of the Fantom was introduced at Winter Namm 2008 and is now in the stores. It no longer features SRX expansion boards but has a 256 MB Rom, which is supposed to include the best material from the SRX series. You can expand the Fantom G with two ARX expansion boards. The display is 8.5 in wide color LCD with the ability to use a mouse to navigate it. Other convenient features include combo XLR and TRS connector, phantom power for condenser mics, Hi-Z input for guitar and bass, and line input. So you don't need a mixer or a preamp to record audio on the G.

USB functions are improved and supports audio as well as MIDI. You can use USB to connect to software editors and to USB memory devices for backing up your data.

Roland simplified the terminology with the G. Instead of Patch, Mixer and Layer/Split mode, the G calls them Single, Studio and Live Mode. How refreshing!

[synthologist]

Sounds like a nice workstation, but I read on another forum that GC reported buyers are returning 3 out of 10 Fantom G's.

[Tweak]

That is interesting. Do you know what the problem is?

[synthologist]

There was no definite reason given. I'd like to find out more about it......get the facts.

[Tweak]

Could be a hater. I can't imagine a GC employee that valued his job making a statement like that, even if it were true. I can imagine it being just a false negative statement. I did google up some posts from other forums. Its funny, the first one found was when the Motif XS came out. Someone was claiming there was an unusual high rate of returns at the GC.

[davidaltemeier]

My motto:
never trust the banjo-hut any further than you can throw it....

[synthologist]

I can imagine it being just a false negative statement.

I asked the poster to back up his story. I'm waiting for his response.

[Lewis]

I don't know if it was as many as 3 in 10, but a lot of people returned their FG's because it was rushed out the door by Roland.

When it was released, it did not support multisampling, and the sequencer needed a lot of work.
Many people were very disappointed with the piano sounds, and there were various other problems.

The Lack of SRX support upset a lot of people, however I think this would contribute more to the lack of sales, rather than the influx of returns.

Roland have since released multisample support and various other bits with their 1.2 update.
While this pleased some people, there are still some features people would like to see. (cut and glue tool in the sequencer particularly)

Hopefully Roland will keep ironing out the creases, and we will have one of the best workstations out there when they are done with it!

Come on over to the Roland Clan forums if you want more details on the Fantom G, there is a lot of useful stuff over there!
http://forums.rolandclan.info/?action=show_all&fid=8