I could sure use the ARX Drum board... looks like a TD on a card. It'll be interesting to see how many more of these they get out quickly. Electric piano one looks good too, but only two slots, so it's decision time (once they have more than two out)...

Still only 128 polyphony (and audio tracks share the polyphony, so deduct how many audio tracks they are using).

Roland state that the FantomG's have twice the waveform of the X, so numbers don't say it all (Roland use a lossless compression on samples, so that isn't 256MB linear)...

Nice that our WS brothers get seamless patch changes (we've always had that on arrangers, because of the simpler engine).

No data yet on load time for the samples (that's still paramount for a live sampler, IMO).

Super Natural is the buzzword Roland have created for SA-type voice triggering, so this ought to be interesting. Mind you, from preliminary Atelier demos using it, I wasn't as impressed as the T2 SA (which, IMO, are even better than the MotifXS ones). Hopefully, Roland have got this dialed in a bit better. I guarantee this will make it to the G-series...

Hopefully, along with the bigger display (although it's not touch sensitive, is it?). I think I'll stick to a smaller touch sensitive screen over this one...

Only 36 lb. (for the 76). Maybe the aluminum construction could be ported over to the arrangers?

I didn't hear anything on the demo video beyond what a FantomX could do (other than the patch changes) so they aren't exactly trumpeting this new ARX and Super Natural (SN?!) voice technology.

I guess overall, one small step forward...

I am still unconvinced that people are willing to pay a fortune for a keyboard with a DAW inside, when for a fraction of the price they can get an immensely better DAW out of their computers. Who, in their right minds, would want to do an entire production on that closed system, when they could have way more power and flexibility with a computer DAW? Trust me, the learning curve will be just as steep...

Keyboard manufacturers of all types are under great pressure right now, as more and more players (particularly home and studio ones) use VSTi's more and more. But what is the keyboard industry's reply? Better keyboards with more live control and easier setup for playing in a band? No... A futile attempt to make expensive hardware keyboards do EXACTLY what the soft-synths can already do, work inside a DAW.

I think it is time the keyboard manufacturers realize they have lost the war... They need to concentrate on what would make a keyboard the best, easiest thing to go out and play LIVE on. Not try to turn them into underpowered hardware DAWs. Fewer and fewer home users are using hardware. And on the gig, you don't need a DAW. Time for the big guys to wake up and smell the future...

Make an über-arranger, with all the WS's loop and arpeggiator capabilities added on, use the arranger control system (Intros, Variations, Fills and Endings), add lots of knobs and virtual analog capabilities, and you have a keyboard that ANYONE can use live with a minimum of fuss, for virtually any type of music.

But don't waste the R&D and budget making crippled DAWs to stick inside crippled keyboards...

Although one cool thing is that you can now use a mouse directly on the new fantoms and move around the screen and edit details with it. I think I read that it is a touchscreen too.

Don likes to assign drums to the multipads. That way he can key them after he tells one of his bad jokes.

Tom

A man gets home, screeches his car into the driveway, runs into the house, slams the door and shouts at the top of his lungs, “Honey,pack your bags. I won the lottery!”
The wife says,“Ohmigod! Really?! What should I pack, beach stuff or mountain stuff?”
The husband yells back,“It doesn’t matter… just get the hell out!”

Ba-BOOM-Crash!

DonM