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Roland Fantom |
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The Roland Fantom has changed over the years evolving into one of Roland's finest and most popular synthesizers. It's been designed to integrate performance and composition to inspire and excite your creative energy. The synth's sound engine is based upon the XV-5080, which has 64 voices with 16 channels of multi-timbral sound playback. There are currently a large ever increasing number of sounds available. You can expand the number of sounds using 4 SRX sound expansion modules.
The current Fantom is the 'X' series which has 128 voices and is available in 61, 76, and 88 note keyboards. The 88 key version has progressive Hammer Action which feels just like a normal piano. The synth engine supports up to 544MB of RAM and comes with 32MB. The RAM is used to store your samples/sounds. You can backup your samples via a PC card slot with up to 1GB of wave RAM storage. It also sports a split stereo piano with each note being individually sampled at multiple volume and level intensities. The large color LCD displays a highly interactive menu driven user interface that combines simplicity with utility using an icon based system. The Fantom also has a number of drum/rhythm sets with an arpeggiator and rhythm generator. It offers real-time control using the front panel knobs, buttons, and the new light-sensing D-Beam. Some of the newer features include Skip Back Sampling, Dynamic Pad Bank and V-LINK video control. As for effects the Fantom X has 3 MFX digital effects processors which have a dedicated reverb, chorus, and mastering processors. You can record into the unit using 2 (stereo) 1/4 inputs or a 24-bit S/PDIF input. There are also 4 1/4 inch outputs which can be configured as 2 Stereo or 4 mono outputs. The FantomX has USB functionality which allows you to store your wav samples and MIDI via a PC or Macintosh computer. The Fantom-X has continued the Fantom line responding to musician's specific needs and stylistic preferences. Designed to integrate performance and composition. The Roland Fantom features the XV-5080 sound engine. It features 64 voices with 16 channels of multi-timbral sound playback. There are 1,024 patches where 640 patches are presets and then 128 patches are USER and then also 256 GM sounds. The Fantom also has 29 rhythm sets with a new arpeggiator and rhythm generator. It offers real-time control using the front panel knobs, buttons, and the new light-sensing D-Beam. The Fantom also comes with a built-in sequencer that uses phrase sequencing. This is what really makes this keyboard stand out from the crowd. You can build riffs using different keyboard, guitar, bass, and drum riff phrases. Combine them in all sorts of ways. The other great feature of the Roland Fantom is its Large and angled LCD display. This is a big plus in the easy of use category. With soft keys you can navigate around the menus faster than before. It is more intuitive than other Roland keyboards. The built-in digital effects processor runs at 24-bit 48 kHz sample rate. It comes standard with 24-bit reverbs, choruses, and 90 different multi-effect patches including Roland’s famous COSM amp modeling algorithms. This is truly a fantastic sounding instrument. After playing this keyboard for 5 minutes I found the Funk Groove and then selected the Steve Vai guitar as the lead instrument. I'm no guitarist really but I must say I sounded pretty hot. It's really easy to use and the sounds are just fantastic. You can expand the number of sounds by adding two more Roland SRX Sound Expansion Boards as well as room for one SR-JV80 expansion board. The number of sounds and ways to modify them is then utterly endless. As far as sound quality the Roland Fantom using 24-bit D/A converters at the output or you can connect to the Fantom's SPDIF output and bypass the converters for pristine digital signal path. You can store your user data using a floppy disk. It comes with a cool and groovy titanium chassis - WOW! Features
A new Concept in Workstation Keyboards The coolest thing about the Roland Fantom is its arpeggiator. It allows you to play whole sections of music and loop them. It also has a Rhythm Generator function that allows the real time control of midi sequences. This is truly the keyboard for making modern soundtracks. XV-5080 Synthesis The XV-5080 is Roland's most enhanced synthesizer engine. It allows you to have four stereo sounds per patch. This four stereo sounds architecture produces a wide variety of sounds form the most wild to very natural sounding. If you get a chance play the Steve Vai Guitar Patch and you'll hear what we're talking about. With the XV-5080's matrix control added to the Fantom all sorts of possibilities open up. The Fantom has a stereo piano that was sampled using two mics. This makes for a much more realistic piano sound. Also the better than real strings sound awesome. The XV Synthesis also gives you that FAT analog sound that is so sought after today. The Roland Fantom is a workstation that for music production. It comes in the Fantom, Fantom-S, and Fantom-s88 models. It features both MIDI and audio plug advanced sampling. You can time stretch and sample chop and use the new skip back sampling function. The Fantom-S adds a dynamic pad bank so you can easily arrange and trigger your audio. Roland has added all new factory sound and an on board digital audio mastering effects as well as the new USB file exchange. This really gives the Fantom-S the sophistication needed to do high quality music. The Fantom Features one of the most advanced music production keyboards made. It integrates MIDI with audio through the use of ROM waves files and as well as sampling technology add to this the real time stretching functions and an all new sound s and rhythm sets. All this is built-in the 64MB of wave data. IT also has 32MB of sample RAM that is expandable to 288 MB and has WAV and AIFF file format compatibility. The Fantom uses 16MB flash RAM cards to retain your sound parameters as well as an optional SmartMedia storage card. The Skip back sampler means that you won't lose another idea again. The 16 pads make up the Dynamic Pad Bank. Roland has added 3 MFX digital effect processors to the Fantom plus a dedicated reverb, chorus and new mastering algorithm. There is also room for 4 SRX-wave expansion boards and a USB port to transferring wav and AIFF files between a Macintosh or windows computer. There are 4 line outputs that can be configured as either 2 stereo lines or 4 mono lines, there is also a Stereo line input used for sampling you own audio. Plus the 24-bit, 16-bit SPDIF digital output for bypassing the analog to digital converters in the Fantom, Fantom-S, and Fantom-s88. There are a whole bunch of new sounds in this Roland Synth. You can now explore a whole new synth world of symphonic, ravonic and techonic sounds and sound sources. The new 64 MB ROM found in the Fantom has samples created in some of the finest studios in the world. Kelly Industries has used this keyboard in there surround sound plug-in promotional videos as well as other corporate and non-corporate music events. The New stereo sounds are the best way to start building your new music ever brought by Roland Keyboards. You can just jump right in and start creating using the very inspiring Fantom samples and sampling. This new set of samples is truly one of Roland’s finest they have ever done. You can create music that is up to date and geared towards the future of music. This Fantom is a MIDI and Audio Powerhouse of a synthesizer. The main idea of the Fantom is to remove the technical mumbo jumbo through using intuitive menu and sound parameter editing. There is an emphasis on inter-relating MIDI and Audio in a single compositional environment. You can sample audio using the Fantom's analog inputs or import samples in from you computer using the USB port. You can then sequence (re-sequence) the audio along side the MIDI. The Fantom will automatically stretch your audio to match your tempo. Roland goes beyond sampling by carefully thinking of a way to make this keyboard even more productive. They do this using 32MB of sampling memory that can be expanded to 288 MB which is more sampling memory than the Korg Triton or Yamaha Motif for instance. You can use standard SIMMS for this as well which makes upgrading the memory on the Roland fathom’s motherboard rather simple and inexpensive. You can actually re-sample and rework a complete song in the memory of the keyboard. Apply different effects and create some of the most out of this world sounds ever possible. You can then burn this song directly to a CDR or distribute it over the internet. You'll be famous and get great looking girls (or guys) if you have this keyboard. The Fantom-S has 16 pads that can be used to trigger samples using Roland’s "Dynamic Pad Bank". You can map your samples or song segments to a pad and then hit on the pads to trigger the sample. You can turn on the real time quantize function that will quantize it to the tempo and MIDI Beat resolution you have chosen. You can also you the Fantom Dynamic Pads for playing back the keyboards Built-in ROM sounds or RPS patterns for unheard of control and song generation. This is because of Roland's Skip Back Sampling which continuously samples what ever you are playing and will let you stop recording and then use what you just recorded in your performances. Create layer after layer in tempo expansive just expansive what this keyboard can do. The new mixer view screen makes editing on the Fantom have much more of a real mixer look and feel. The mixer is very intuitive and you can easily using the graphical interface setup mix and multi-timbral sounds easily and intuitively. You may never have to read the manual :) You can use the 4 real time knobs to control your mix down by assign the knobs to a volume or pan position for example. You can also mix both audio and midi information together like dedicated digital audio recording workstations. All of this can be done right in this Roland keyboard. It gets easier because Roland has made the performance setups using a layer view screen for quick and easy graphical editing. No going through a small window of that shows 2 lines of text. This is a graphical keyboard editing environment that is state of the art. Nothing can beat it. This really makes the Roland Fantom and Fantom-S series synth more like a music production studio rather than just a keyboard. You also get a Digital effects processor that can be used for a wide variety of effects including digital audio mastering capabilities. You get a 23-bit 48 kHz reverb that is based on Roland’s digital effects. You also get a host of professional rackmount quality digital audio plug-in that are built-into the fandom’s digital effect processor. You get a dedicated reverb, chorus effect that has a very rich and pleasant sound. There is also flanger phaser digital delay and compression. There are three digital effect processors. They can do tempo delays and beat slicing as well LoFi effects as well as the Roland COSM guitar amp modeling. Also the Roland Slicer, Isolator and Beat algorithms have been added. Last but not least you have the dedicated mastering multi-band compression plug-ins that can be used to master your compositions right in the Fantom. Then just burn it to a CDR or export it using the USB port. The USB port Roland provides is used for direct sample exchange between the synth and a Macintosh or windows computer. You can import as well as export your sounds, samples, and songs with ease. It works with either WAV or AIFF sound file formats. You can save your complete sample library to your hard drive and then load it back in just seconds. The digital audio software that is used for this uses the simple drag and drop method so you can easily edit your Roland Fantom samples. You can also you your audio as waveforms within the Fantom that opens up the keyboard to a whole new universe. You may even find god and ascend into the stars. You can also export your mastered songs to your computer for burning to a CD or for creating your own MP3 files. Roland has come up with V-LINK which is an onboard Video Control feature for the Fantom-S. You can integrate your own video clips and the music that is on the video in with Fantom for some very interesting and alive performances. You can also use the optional Edirol DV-7PR Digital Video Workstation to trigger video clips from the synth's pads. Any audio and video elements can be integrated together and then recalled by triggering one of the 16 pads for some never before seen sonic and visual performances. |
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