Here is one of the highlights of NAMM. The video is a Real Media (RM) file so you will need the Real One Media player to watch it.

Fantom X Video
Although not an Arranger it is definitely a great Music Production Studio Workstation IMO.

PS: The Acoustic Piano is absolutely stunning! Much better than the Motif ES IMO.

Best regards,
Mike

Mike, thanks for sharing this impressive video demo. - Scott

I don't know that the piano sound is that much better than the ES, or better at all. I simply can't judge that from the demo.

I do like the 303 and other synth stuff I hear on that demo though. I don't remember hearing sounds similar to that on the original Fantom series boards, and even the Motif doesn't have some of those sounds, but again, I need the board in front of me.

Maybe Roland is starting to get the "ship" righted again. They could finish getting it right for me by adding a board or slot that supports "open" technology and allows for a wide variety of Vst type plug ins.

The manufacturer who does that first and adds to an excellent internal sound pallette probably wins my next workstation bucks.

Putting sounds aside for a minute, Roland would have the edge for me going in because I liked the OS of the Fantom a good bit better that the Motif's. Unfortunately the sound pallette from the original Fantom series boards completely drove me away from it.

Thanks for the link Mike.

AJ

Hmmm...looks like the keyboard is not geared towards our kind of crowd here (even for me).

Too much of the 'techno' type of samples.

I'd be curious to see if there are any Pa1x video demo out there.

KN_Fan

The Roland Demo was made in conjunction with the V-Synth (which they had it hooked up to) to showcase how the V-Synth and Roland X can be used together. The V-Synth is just that - a full blown 'Synth' Workstation so that is why they were demonstrating a lot of Synth sounds in the demo. Rest assured that the Roland Fantom X will have ALL the other sounds included that would normally be found in a Workstation, eg., Pianos, Elec. Pianos, Guitars, Strings, Brass, Woodwinds, etc.

But watching the demo you would not realize that except for the lovely Acoustic Piano they played near the beginning.

Best regards,
Mike

PS: The Pa1X will most likely sound "exactly" like the Pa1X PRO. They both use the "same exact" sound system/samples and OS so they should sound identical.



[This message has been edited by keybplayer (edited 01-19-2004).]

Its a pity they didn't play more patches on the Fantom X than the piano, which sounded terrific.
The Fantom X seems to be a very promising instrument, I also noticed that Roland now includes a sample converter, which allows you to convert Akai samples, But I wonder though if it only converts the samples, or also the instruments, so they can be played immediately on the Fantom X (without further programming).
The Fantom XR (Rack module version of the Fantom X) looks interesting too.
Hopefully Roland will put some good demos on their site.


Greetz ,
Marcel

Marcel
You and I are on the same page here. The demo I saw last year of The S blew me away and I bought one.

The X demo this year was a huge YAWN.

Also they demo all the synthy sounds because that is what's hip and happenin' there were plenty of bread & butter sounds on the S anyway.
Terry

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jam on,
Terry http://imjazzed.homestead.com/Index.html