We have the E series (E12,E14,E28,E38,E40,E68,E300,E500,E500) replaced with EM15, EM25, EM55.(Here Roland sucks)

We have the G600,G800,G1000 replaced with VA3,VA7,VA76 (Here Roland wins)

I think roland should discontinue the EM series because they are lacking compared to similar priced arrangers from Yamaha.

Roland seriously needs a wake up call. They need to introduce a whole new lineup of E series and they better make next years VA series replacement something special if they want to outlive the competition.

You will give Roland a wake-up call when you buy yourself a keyboard from another manufacturer. (I would). And change your call name to "FormerRolandFan". All our poss here (and attempts to contact the company directly) seem to be falling on empty ears. The only message they will understand is when people start voting with their wallets. I am sure they are getting the message seeing people returning their Fantoms and getting the new Motifs ES instead. I bet they will be dropping prices on the Fantom very soon. I am also sure that their next "high-end" instrument will have features more on par with the Motif. The same must happen with the arranger keyboards for them to come up with the new product.

I have to disagree with you, however- replacing the G1000 with the VA76 also sucked.

Regards

You could say I 'm not planning on getting any motif ES and I will keeep my fantom S. also I haven't heard of alot of people(except for Trtjazz)returning there fantoms for motifES. The roland is just better in my opininon. Roland will probably come up with a new line very soon.and I trust that they learned there lesson(the fantomS is one of the proofs). so just relaxe and wait. I would rather have them not rush things than rushing and loosing at sales.

[This message has been edited by vic83 (edited 09-06-2003).]

Lack of buttons on the VA series was a step backwards so I guess I agree with you on that.

I think people are already voting with their wallets. I checked Rolands sales figures and since the mid 90's sales dont look great.....

How or where did you get there sales numbers?

How can you make such a statement when you have not even played the Motif ES? You can keep your Fantom S but please reserve your judgement until you have at least played the Motif ES Vic83. If you are basing your assertion because of the Fantom S's larger LCD screen and easier to use interface then yes; I would agree that the Motif ES would be more challenging to use and Navigate within the OS because of its smaller screen. But if you are basing your assertion on the quality of sound or other features then I would on the most part have to disagree with you. The Motif ES sounds out of the Box are, from what I've heard, far superior to most of what you get out of the box with the Fantom S. And the Motif ES in many cases runs circles around the Fantom S when you compare feature for feature. Some of those are: 64 note Polyphony (NO expansion of Polyphony) vs. 128 note Polyphony (WITH expansion of Polyphony) for the Motif ES. Up to 288MB Sample RAM vs. up to 1 Gigabyte Sample RAM for the Motif ES. The Motif ES has a Breath Controller feature, and Sliders - which don't exist on the Fantom S. 64MB Wave ROM vs. 175MB Wave ROM on the Motif ES. The Motif ES has a 76 Key version. The Fantom S does not. Peace

Best regards,
Mike



[This message has been edited by Idatrod (edited 09-06-2003).]

I'm basing my views on the demos that I heard at motifator.com. all those numbers the motif ES has are great. But,

1- The fantom never ran out of polyphony and I like to use allot of layers.

2- Navigation are easy and awesome in the FantomS and I tried the original motif and wasn't impressed with the OS and from what I heard(from yamahaUS)the OS of the MOTIF ES is the same as the motif.

3- The SRX expansions are great and you have 9 of them to chose. and you can add 4X of them. should try them if you get the time.

4- The fantom loads your samples when you power up which is a plus comparing to having to load up samples every time you have to power up in the motifs.

5- The MotifES can hold 512MB of samples which is great but it's RAM not ROM and if you want to save it, smart media cards can hold only 128MB so you can't. what's that you say? USB? well you need a computer and you need TIME. AND enjoy the Awesome sample transfer time that Yamaha has(way slow!). can't understand why they didn't have USB2.0 built in it?

I can go more but really it's all an opinion thing and what your needs is and personally the FantomS suits me.

I owned E 20,30,70,66,86,96; G 600,800,1000.EM2000,Va7. The last serious arranger made by Roland was G1000,IMO.
Here in Brazil we are feeling some dark clouds in the Roland arrangers sky.The majority of kbdists,went to Yamaha,Korg and Ketron.

Chico

wow...you've done the full circle