Roland Fantom X7

Relatively easy if you're used to Roland stuff. The commands are pretty much the same as in my old XP80, only accessible thru different menus.

However, big complaint about the knobs. The old sliders were much easier to use live. Changing a part's relative volume live, in a dark stage, with the tiny knobs and all the other stuff in the way, is a huge pain. Whoever designed this had no idea of ergonomics -and sure never played a gig.

128 voices? Yeah, sure. Too bad each patch uses up to eight, with three being the average. Sequencing a complex song hits the polyphony limit pretty easily. I wonder how they can get away with the blatant "voice" lie. All musicians care about is actual notes being played. And that polyphony is a variable number, often around 40/50.

The effects are powerful but menus are weird to navigate. The sequencer is easy to use, being used to the XP series. Not haing to depend on the darned floppy disks is a relief.

And how about them sounds? Acoustic pianos are great. Much improved over the tiny, anemic pianos of the XP series. Guitars are better. Analog synths are nice and varied. Can't say about techno and dance because that's not my job, but judging by the huge variety, that must be good. Trumpets are good. Mallets (I use vibes a lot) are improved.

Everything else is terrible.

How can a top of the line workstation have only one clarinet patch? (name is clarence.net) The XP series had many, and I had a few more in the Classical expansion board. The Fantom appears to have no clarinet sounds anywhere, not even the expansion boards. I play swing and jazz, so I need clarinets a lot, and the only patch in the Fantom is not even adequate.

That's only one example. Saxes are anemic,lacking bite and presence. Trombones lack oomph. Strings are abysmal. I can only assume they want you to purchase the Classical expansion board -which I hope is better, but why should I pay $200 or more after paying much more for the workstation? Electric pianos are weak, and they all sound alike, Rhodes, Wurlys, Pianet, as if they were similar. Organs are the worst ever. You would expect the Modulation parameter to add vibrato/tremolo to them, as consistently happened with the XP series: instead, some of them get a wacky echo delay. Who programmed this thing?

Looks like pretty strong stuff. It better be since I gig a lot. The spinning wheel to select parameters is unreliable just like it was with the XPs. The Play, Rec and Stop buttons don't make the satisfying click sound others do. I hope they don;t go berserk any time.

Ha ha, customer support from Roland US, that's a good one.

If I had it stolen I'll get my XP80 out of the box and would not miss the Fantom much, except for the deeper, rounder piano patches.

Indeed, if I could fit a hard disk or a flash card to the XP80 so I don't have to depend on the floppy disks anymore, I'd sell the Fantom with no regrets.

I have use Roland products for 15 plus years now and this unit is one of the most intuitive of them all! I would suggest for new users to invest in the DVD video because it cuts the learning curve into 1/100! I really didn't take me but an hour before I could lay down a multi track sequence for the first time, with the video at hand. Beginners should get this unit because it is going to last you for years to come, given it's onboard sampler, one can always make your own samples from scratch or resample other sounds. BUY IT!

The features are excellent on this unit!!! The sampler is solid, the sound editing is also, the inputs and outputs are great, however, I would have liked to have optical outs and ins also, but the coaxial work well along with the main outs which are analog. the mixer is great! The ability to be able to set up performances with 16 tracks of instrument you choose and instantly pull them up is the greatest asset to me. For example you can create and save a performance for each kind of tracks you like to produce and (BOOM!)when your ready to do a Dirty South Track it will take you five minutes to create a loop that you can expand out to a full track easily using the editing functions or even faster by using the mute functions, on the fly.

The sounds are really good in this unit! Every time Roland creates a new keyboard/synth they make it sound better and build on the sound library that they have previously established. The downfall of this unit is that it is so popular that thousands of people have the same sounds you have. However, the wonderful thing is that you can easily edit the sounds to your own personal likening, resample them with other sounds to make them full or just play them in your own style. I would say that 90% of the top producing studios for Hip-Hop has this board and has used it on numerous tracks over the past five years and can and will continue to use it for the next five or ten years to come.

This Keyboard still looks, feels and sounds brand new and I have bought, lost it to a girl friend and bought it back since I got it in early 2006. It is now late Aug. 2009! I have never had a problem with it at all! I have owned two other Roland keyboards, the original Fantom and The XP 50 and they were both excellent boards, but they did freeze up every once in a while, which caused me to loose some loops and ideas, but this unit has not glitched once! Everything is solid! I quite often use it as a table, though I don't recommend that you do that yourself!

Overall, I have had excellent experiences with Roland product support and customer support! I also own a MC 808 and when I first got it I was interfaceing it with the computer and I din't have the settings right. I thought Roland had boomed, but to the contrary I call product support and they tried to help for a few hours and then they just sent me a new one. In exchange for the one I thought was broken, but when I hooked up the new one the same problem was occurring. I called them again and this time we found that there was a loop happening in the setup of the input and output of the interface and bam I was up and working. I feel they went the extra mile or the extra 1000 plus miles, by sending a new unit all the way to Florida, that they didn't have to go to help me in that instance. That is not my only great experience with there product and customer support, but it is the most out standing of my experiences. they don't know everything, but the will help you out of your problem if you have faith in them.

If you are new to producing, buy it! If you are a producer who has been around for years, buy it! If you just want to have a great sounding keyboard for live performances, buy it! If you are debating rather to buy this unit verses any other keyboard other that the roland G keyboards, buy this one!!!! You will not be disappointed!!! This is simply the best bang for your buck!

I love my Fantom X7, its one of the best all around boards out today even with the new G7 around. You still see the X7 on stage with a many professional touring musicians. it is extremely easy to use and find sounds on this board especially with the well designed favorites list. The preset sounds are AMAZING and very easy to edit on the fly. I never really use the manual but it appears pretty easy to use. The user interface is very nice and intuitive. Big nice color screen to aid in sound editing, sequencing, etc....

Looking at the surface says it all, touch sensitive touch pads (perfect for drums, triggering samples), amazing preset sounds and editing features, 128 Poly, assignable switches, 4 expansion bays (SRX), great sequencer and ability to record other instruments/vocals, etc. The board has a pretty nice keybed and is constructed pretty solid. One other noteworthy feature is the SRX-12 Classic EPs feature its an interesting feature allowing you to edit the EPs, Pianos, etc to simulate a suitecase rhodes, various clavs, grand pianos with open or closed tops, etc..

Hands down Roland has some of the best sounds on the market, the Fantom works well for any genre of music period. Great effects and EXTREMELY expressive sounds. The EPs, Pianos, FX sounds, Orchestra sounds, Organs, Guitars, Electric Guitars and leads are the finest out there.

Great board for gigging I have used mine of a few gigs and no problems at all out this board. Very well constructed and extremely reliable PERIOD.....

Have not had to use them as of yet....

One of my favorite boards period, I have owned Motif ES7s, Triton Extremes, Kurzweil PCs and the Fantom X leads the pack in all around features and sound quality. I LOVE my Fantom X, one of my best instrument investments todate. I recently purchased an M3-73 but still find myself leaning on the Fantom X7, it is so well thought out and laid out for performing. IMO the Fantom X soundset is one of the best workstations ever released by any keyboard manufacturer. If stolen I would call my insurance and immediately replace it.

The new G7 is out of course however, I have no desire in upgrading, the X7 is such a delight to use and play... I have spent some time on the new G7 but nothing on it inspired me to upgrade from the X7.

This is difficult to rate. Why because it's a little of both? There's so many features it kind of makes it hard to use. But at the same time it's easy to use as well. Just about everything is so intuatively laid out. The software version is 2.10, I've upgraded several times since I bought it. Editing patches is not too difficult, IF you have had some experince tweeking pacthes or you know the architecture of Roland synths. The manual is alot of reading but quite useful, it's gotten me around.

What? This thing has tons of features: 8 tracks of audio (works really well for laying down ideas, hell for recording full songs too for that matter) Realtime Phrase Processing, programable arpeggiator, an onboard sampler with tons of sampling otpions just to name a few. I've had it well over a year and I still haven't tapped it's full potential as of yet. I might add that I spend more time creating beats than exploring. 128 note polyphony. Keyboard action is okay for me, then again I'm not a concert/trained pianist. This keyboard has 5 effects processors (1 reverb, 1 chorus and 3 insert with effects-78 multi-effects). I love the effects. This thing has great expansion capabilities. Tired of the factory sounds? You can buy expansion boards with all new sounds although they are sort of expensive I have two (Studio and Supreme Dance boards). If you sample a lot you'll probably want to get some RAM expansions (supports up to 512MB of SDRAM and a 1 Gig for smart cards that add more storage). The RAM is a must for most of us. Get it! I haven't used the midi capabilities too much other than auditioning sound via USB and Editor/Librarian program. As far as the sequncer: I left my synth a friend's house for a few days (what came over me?) and he was able to create tracks on this thing with very little help from me prior to leaving it.(too easy to use). Can you push rewind, forward, record and stop? Then you know how to use the sequencer. It's that easy. I love the micro edit feature it's off the chain. And it saves soooooooo much time don't always have undo and rerecord , it's really deep. Love it. Love it! Also you can record panning and fader movements in the performance mode. Too cool!!

Here's what we buy keyboards for - the sounds! This thing has some ass behind it. What I like is it's so easy to get to the sounds in performance mode to sound like they do in patch mode. As you all know these (patch mode)are the sounds we tinker with in the music store anyway. The sounds react to velocity and aftertouch well. Lets talk more about the sounds though. The guitars (acoustic, electric and distorted) are my favorite sounds of all, for a synth they sound great. The piano button, another great feature makes the synth sound as close to a real piano as I've heard. Love it! Great EPs too. They're a staple with my recordings. Strings are okay but not enough. I think Roland wants you to buy the string expansion board it does sound great though. Basses are excellent. Synth basses okay I like my XP-80 synth basses much better need more variety in the Fantom. Leads same thing. The other sounds are good. Hell with the sampler you could virtually have any sound you wanted, right? You're only limited to you imagination. The only draw back though is it can only read wav or AIF extensions. That sinks. The Fantom excels in all genres of music, I hear it all over the radio. I play rap, hip-hop and R&B. The onboard effects are pretty good too, as stated eariler there's over 70 of them with 3 insert effect processors to use them in.

What? This thing is just about the only thing I can rely on in this cruel world. I said JUST ABOUT though. I rely on some people too.

Haven't dealt with customer support other than going on line and getting upgrades. Which for the most part aren't too noticable other thanthe latest v 2.10. If you want some real support go the the fantomized website (fantomized.info)you get patches, tips and guidance on how to use the fantom all for free!

If it were lost or stolen I would find out who took and dig their heart out with a spoon. I think it's definetly worth what i paid for it. I've been playing for about 14 years or so. I also own a fully expanded Roland XP-80 (Session, Hip-Hop, Techno and House boards). It's been slightly abandoned since I bought the Fantom but I can't part with it (too many sounds the Fantom doesn't have). Although I heard the platinum trax board has all those other sounds in it. I love just about everything in the fantom from the 8 tracks of audio (off the chain) to the color LCD. I wish Roland would have given the Fantom more sample RAM only 32MB or atleast allowed the users to upgrade that. The 512MB is only flash RAM, which is good but could have been allocated for other things. Also the sampler should have been able to read different formats AKAI etc. I didn't compare it to any other products because it a R-O-L-A-N-D!! The Fantom is virually all I use to make music. What more would I need? I wish I could have a KORG Oasys if I were given the choice to use anything else as long as it was free.

OS? Purchased 10/05
Editing is easy but tedious.
The manual is a bit contrived.

128 voice, good FX, typical spring loaded plastic keys.
The key is to fill it up with SRX boards as the factory sounds, although well programmed,have mediocre fidelity.
As I use this for live gigs, and Im a pro, I have no use for the crappy onboard sequencer. The drum pads are fun to bang on live and annoy the rest of the band.

As this is a diverse instrument so are its applications.
The patches are very responsive, and I dig the push/pull bender.
The FX are more than adequate but the verbs sound grainy.
Routing the FX can be confusing.
The main piano sound on the SRX 11 board when played below a velocity of 40 triggered uber reverb with no way to change it.
The Dbeam has never worked properly for it doesnt reset when switching patches.
The screen is large and colorful and easy to see on stage.

Roland builds them as well as anybody, confident to take on gig withou a back up.

A Plea For Roland

As you may have noticed, the professional keyboardist was finally targeted by a major manufacturer of musical instruments. Korg, listening to its customers (we can assume at least in part), has designed and built the Oasys keyboard without its retail cost being the primary concern.
It has been a longtime consensus by those in the musical community that they felt abandoned by the major manufacturers as very little of their professional requirements have been addressed.

Yamaha has not made a TRULY significant contribution since the DX7 , Alesis has never really been a serious player, Peavy failed, Waldorf went belly up, EMU no longer makes hardware synths or samplers,and Moog died.
While there are several boutique-style companies still in play, their products (with the exception of Neko) focus on one function e.g. The Poly Evolver and the Omega are formidable poly analogs, Nord,Access, and Novation make stylistic pseudo-hybrids, Synthtech makes an audiophile modular, etc.

Korg, without creating a "pro "division within its company, has bravely taken the plunge into waters that have not been truly charted since the days of the Fairlight, Synclavier ,PPG, Wave Frame and the ilk.
Korg has proven (whether by design or chance) that there are many of us willing to pay $8,000 for a keyboard that actually utilizes (to some degree) modern processing power and memory. The Oasys is selling well.
This is not to say the Oasys is by any means a perfect keyboard: Its still a 16 bit machine,16 part MIDI, polyphony runs out when pushed hard,its unbalanced,and most importantly- extremely counter-intuitive.
From a marketing standpoint, it is difficult to comprehend who Korg was marketing this unit to. As only a professional could afford the Oasys, this same professional has no use for the inferior sequencer,Karma, and hard disk recording functions on board.(Yet alone the extreme time intensive programming it requires to pool all of these functions together in a real and usable fashion)

Which brings us to you Roland. I'm sure we can all agree that the success of any manufacturer depends heavily on its ability to sell many units that the general musical population has a desire for.Supply and demand. The fact that your doors are still open when many others have closed, at least in part, indicates you have been successful in addressing those needs.However its obvious to professionals that your products along with Yamaha and Korg ( if we universally agree you are the 3 main players) target semi professionals. This observation is supported by various factors: limited memory, processing power, inferior op-amps, unbalanced outputs, companded and loop released samples, limited polyphony, small screens, limited interface, and to a certain degree - genre specific machines which usually target dance or hip-hop ( Juno-G & D, SH-201), Oh!, and yes- the all mighty workstations!

In the past you made some items that were excellent starts to something wonderful but soon after abandoned them before expanding on them OR later reducing them to strict semi-pro applications. e.g.,
(1) The S770 sampler (arguably one of the best samplers ever made) has finally been reduced to a sub function in the Fantom XR. The many thousand of us who have custom Roland sample libraries have had to either abandon their sounds and count their losses or try to convert the library into the computer which is no easy feat and often doesn't retain the loop information OR the fidelity. While the Variprhrase technology you created was very good it was hardly useable as a hardcore sampler and you have never forayed into 24 bit like Akai did.
(2) The JD990 DID get developed eventually into the XV5080 (via the, JV880,JV1080, JV2080 and XV3080) but you pulled the plug on that one THEN reduced it as a sub-function within the Fantom XR which has a 1"X3" screen, only 4 outs, and relies on a computer to readily access what's under the hood.

While the V-synthXT is arguably the best piece you have designed since the XV5080, the Fantom (even fully expanded) seems like a tinker toy next to an Oasys.

The hardware synth is not dead. Buying a dedicated computer,monitor,hard drive, configuring it, installing software, i-Loks, and authorizations only to end with latency issues and an inferior sound is no match for a dedicated hardware piece which has none of those problems, setbacks or compromises. We an only assume you feel the same way as you have only entered this market with the VSC-MP1despite your enormous resources to do more.

It is time for Roland to enter a true professional piece in the market, conceived BY pro's, built FOR pros.
I have interviewed dozens of colleagues for determining what is they want in pro keyboard. Here are my findings:

- 88 semi weighted keyboard (Why semi? Fully weighted is only best suited for piano sounds and not for synth,clav-type, and organ sounds)

- Switchable sampling rates up to 24 bit/96kHz

- No companded,squashed or loop released-to-death samples.

- The ability to accurately load ALL sample formats, via USB and/or Firewire and easily integrate them into any part of the sound building process.

- FM(additive), Recombinant, Vectoring,Wave Sequencing,PCM, and Analog synthesis types- all interchangeable

- Organ,guitar, string, brass and woodwind modellers

- User defined operators(more than 6) and algorithms(more than 16) in the FM section

- External monitor support/ Touch screen with user defined soft keys

- User has ability to draw wave forms and envelopes

- Envelope template library

- QWERTY Keyboard-inputing titles can be VERY cumbersome)

- Built in super drive (DVD/CD read & write)

- (16) TRS or XLR balanced outputs. (8) Digital i/o (SPDF and AES/EBU), analog sample inputs,WORD, mic input

- Audiophile-quality converters, and op amps

- High resolution filters/Oberheim & Moog modellers

- No aliasing or zippering

- Fully programmable bi-polar controllers: levers switches, ribbon, breath, D-beam, external pedals

- Live fader controll for customizing MIDI CC paramaters/templates

- Live fader controll for immediate accessing programs within a performance/combination

- Comprehensive channel strips for Pan, EQ, FX

- Immediate ability to mute,solo or edit andy given partials/tone within a program/patch

- Fixed hardware knobs for envelope generators

- Arpeggiators and LFOs that actually sync to MIDI clock

- User created arpeggiation/sequencer libraries

- Polyphonic glide, glissando and arpeggiation

- 32 MIDI channels

- 256 stereo voice polyphony (minimum)

- 4 GIG of RAM, 4 GIG of program ROM/ 250 GIG hard drive

- NO sequencer or hard disk recording PLEASE! We already own a computer based sequencer and hard disk recording system. Workstations are for semi-pro's period!

- FX that can easily be routed to separate outputs

- No compromise vocoder

- Intuitive interface- no funny languages or abbreviations- its okay to use the same words as your competitors.

- Intuitive disk command operations

- Easy to read manual with index. It should explain usages and commands instead of merely telling us WHAT functions it has.

- Ships complete! No funny add-ons or memory or bug fixing software updates. Controller pedals too.

- A DVD tutorial

- A responsive, humble, and helpful tech support which is available via phone and/or answers emails in a timely fashion.Your not making bombs, so enough with all of this secrecy.

ROLAND!, This is your wake up call to enter the pro market. Korg has proven there is a market place, and we are confident your designs and subsequent success could surpass that of Korg's.

Using version 2.01. This update adds the audio track expansion (8 audio tracks). It's the ultimate Roland beast. If you're like me, a fanatic of Roland sounds you'll love it and will be your creative heaven from now on. You got various ways to editing patches, if you only want to make a couple of basic tweaks, you got now an added screen with all the most common parameters at once. Of course you have the "Pro edit" when you want to create a sound to it's minimum detail. It's a complex instrument but easy to use if you think about the vast possibilities it offers to you. Manual is written in Roland's classic style (you know what I mean...)

Uff, features... There are tons of features inside this box! I think that 128 voice polyphony is good, keyboard semiweighted action with velocity and aftertouch is superb, FX are stunning (except distortions that I don't find usable), USB connection, PC card port, internal SDRAM is expandable to 512MB with DIMM modules... As I said, a BEAST. Sequencer is not bad, but I don't use it. I prefer Cubase, with it I can make detailed editing far easier.

There are a lot of categorized sounds. You can make virtually any type of music from classical and jazz to cutting-edge electronica. You got sampling and resampling, and that means you have an unlimited sound module for any kind of project. I like to sample all kinds of sounds and experiment with them for making my own patches, and with this kind of wavetable synthesis you can achieve sounds never imagined!I always thought of Reaktor as my advanced synth for this purposes, but in the Fantom is incredibly easy to synthesize amazing new sounds if you experiment with sampling and resampling, sometimes it takes me a few minutes to create a new incredible sound! Talking about the preset sounds, as I said, if you like Roland's sounds you will love this machine. It's Roland maximum. Special mention to the "UltimateGrand" piano patch, it's totally amazing. When you make a 16-part arrangement with this sounds and effects, it sounds like the glory of God.

I owned a lot of Roland machines (synths, grooveboxes, sound modules...) and all of them always have the same thing in common: very solid and confidence-inspiring construction, built like a tank.
I never had a problem with Roland.

Well, I never dealt with them. Generally people say they're not friendly at all, but I think you have to be very unlucky or very careless to have a Roland machine that needs a repair. They're very solid and prepared for the road.

Ok. I can't be objective. I always liked Roland's way and Roland's sounds.I played their machines for years, and that's the reason now I have a homestudio consisting of basically 2 pieces, a laptop computer and the Fantom X7. As a sound module it works superb, and if you like to create your own sounds, it has a lot of amazing possibilities, I use it with Cubase and what I got with this union, it's an incredibly powerful system very, very easy to use. I know I'm not being objective, but I know that other Fantom, Triton or Motif users can understand me. For me, the Fantom X is the BEST of the BEST!

It defintely took me a while to feel comfortable with the effects routing and other features. It seems daunting at first because there are so many operations included: sampler, sequencing, apreggiator, pads, etc. etc. etc. I never felt overwhelmed, though, knowing this was going to be a tool I'd use for years to come.

Now that I've had it for about five months, everything seems fairly logical once you attune yourself to "the Roland way."

Still, even though I'm pretty comfortable with it, there still seems a wealth of features that I haven't dived into yet: multisample editing, phrase sampling, patch editing, etc. The list goes on.

I love just about everything ...


but there are at least three things missing: polyphonic aftertouch, touchscreen (which may or may not improve menu diving), and the effects, while good, are limited to three. Just not enough in my opinion, but I suppose at some point I'll buy a module and that will help I imagine.

This board really has just about everything -- more than you need really, but that's OK by me.

The polyphony is great ... the sequencer works fine (it's no substitute for Cubase. But for getting ideas down fast, it's better than using a computer-based sequencer.)

I love the Skip Back Sampling -- basically it samples the last 40 seconds of whatever you're doing so you can grab it; you're always recording.

But with 500 megs of sampling ram -- WAY more than the other workstations -- why limit it to 40 seconds. I would have preffered up to 3 minutes. And, it would be nice if in addition to capturing the actual sonics, it would be great if it also recorded the midi notes ... of course there's always a workaround ... With the Fantoms 400,000 sequencer --twice as much as the other workstations -- it really no trouble to just record MIDI forever ...

I'm really looking forward to getting my first SRX sound expansion board ... probably the orchestral stuff ... I'm a sucker for strings and all the different bowing techniques and combos .. You can add up to 4 boards (although they're not cheap -- about $200 a piece). The good things is, you don't really need them right off the bat, but it's nice to know they're available.

It could stand to add a few more knobs and sliders -- but the uniquess of the pads and their versatility make up for that a lot.

In general, there's enough of everything ... great-sounding "acoustic" sounds, tekky stuff, classic synth sounds, whatever whatever whatever.

I haven't even delved into the SRX boards yet and I have over 1,500
patches on my Fantom X7. Really, it's sick, and I love it!

What some people mention about the Fantom, and I'm inclined to agree, is how the Fantom sound "go together." You can't always judge a sound in isolation. You need to consider it against the sonic soup you're making. The Fantom does this very well IMO.

My style of music is very much about contrasting the organic with the synthetic, and the Roland Fantom X is great at both, where I feel the Korg excels at synthetic while the Motif is better for acoustic-type sounds.

Seems like a truck. I baby it with a hard case whenever I take it out of the house, but still it seems like something that will last through the ages.

It never crashes, and because there's no hard drive, there's really nothing moving that can break. The buttons seem like they'll last forever.

I'm not gigging right now, but I wouldn't have a single concern about using it without a backup.

I've called a lot to ask a lot of questions. Sometimes they get answered, other times you have to deal with Roland support arrogance masking a lack of product knowledge.

At least it's easy to talk to someone live ...

I would die if it was lost or stolen. I've gotten very attached to my Fantom X7. It's somewhat pathetic, but sometimes I just ... look at it. To me, it's absolutely beautiful, and inspires me to make make the best music possible.

Of course, I considered the Motif ES and Triton Extreme, which I'd love to own as well either in keyboard or module form, but the uniqueness of the Fantom is what really sold me: the pads, the looks, the great mix of sounds (e.g. The Motif ES has NO harpsichord -- shoot me if I'm wrong but I'll be damned if I could find it.

Plus, the Fantom has the reputation of being the "other" workstation, which is fine by me since less people are going to be using it. The Korg and Yamaha, by contrast, are everywhere, and if you like using presets out of the box -- which i admit, as much as I like the thought of tweaking sounds -- which the Fantom absolutely excels at -- I just haven't had to do it yet. There's so much good stuff in there.

Plus, if you visit Fantomized.com, you can easily slap another 500 patches in the board (free).

Which, of course, this board is not. It took me a long time to save up, and the truth is, computer synthesis and sequencing have ALOT over the Fantom and other workstations, which in many ways are not very sophisticated and speedy concerning their processing power.

But the point it, everything is there underneath the keys. Eveything you need to complete the song. Flexibility is what it's about. If I feel like doing it all without mousing around, I can. If I feel like using Cubase more, I can.

What I like about the workstation concept rather than computers is that it encourages you to PLAY the keys rather than fooling around with piano rolls and whatnot.

The Fantom X is an amazing instrument. No doubt, Roland will come out with something even more amazing in the future, but if this was the last keyboard I ever owned, I'd still consider myself pretty darned lucky.

BTW, finally saw one on TV ... Stevie Wonder was playing -- a Motif, of course -- but really singing more than anythig else. The guy who looked like he was doing all the work, though, was playing a Fantom X7. Gorgeous!

.Using os 1.00
.The preset sounds are quite good not much editing required in my books.
*Editing patches are a bit difficult initally but you get to learn your way around.Really nice graphics show you what your actually doing to the voice when the parameters are changed.However I can't seem to find out how to adjust the bass,mids and hi on each seperate tone per patch on this thing as yet..One-four voices could make up a patch.
*Have not used the patch editor for this thing yet,but why should I need to when it should be made easy on the board in the first place.
*The manual is very very easy to use..Can't get better than that..

*Polyphony-128.(Minimum standard)
*The action is excellent.Semi-weighted. Feels just like the XP80.
I played a motif 7 and the keys on that thing are just horrible.The keys feel really light and are not the correct size too.They are a bit smaller that usual.You make alot of mistakes playing on that thing.
*The built in effects sound good but not enough.Can't remember the number but to few.The effects are very easy use.
*The fantom X can be expanded up to 544mb Ram and 4 srx cards.A pcmcia card having a max of 1GB can be installed.You need to get a pcmcia to smart media adapter and a 1GB compact flash card.
*The fantom can do a lot of midi stuff but I don't use it.
*The onboard sequncer is as easy as ABCD.It is very flexible and ease to edit.
*What I love about the fantom is that it comes with 32mb flash memory built in on the board.You can store sequenced songs,user info,even sampled phrases and chordes on this baby. With the motif you need to back it up to the smart media card or external drive.

*I use the fantom x for praise and worship at church.
The sampled grand works well and can be used in alot of songs.
Like from Brooklyn Tab.- HE'S BEEN FAITHFUL.

The motif's power grand is really not what i'm looking for neither is the jazz grand or dark grand-which actually is a shade of the power grand but would need it to do M.W.Smith THIS IS THE AIR I BREATHE.Brooklyn tab. SOON AND VERY SOOD,Some of Fred Hammonds music too and some others..

The JD piano is also another famous sound used by Darlene Chzhech - (did I spell her surname right?) WORHTY IS THE LAMB, and Kirk Franklyn's -NOW BEHOLD THE LAMB.

*I was searching for a rich FM sounding electric piano for the longest while and could not find it or tweak it out of my motif8.
The Fantom X has it!!
It's called 1983EP.
I had to tweat the fantom just a tad to get it.The oiginal preset is not far from it.
Songs in which the voice is heard
1.Ron Kenoly - All honour
2.Kenny G -
3.Beauty and the beast
It is an excellent voice for praise and worship.
The voice responds well to soft and hard playing. I love it.!!

The bass guitars are good

The guitars are good too. I can do Brooklyn tabs,LORD I BELIEVE IN YOU.The motif8 nylon guitar is a joke..

The brass is bad!!! It's a 10/10. When you strike the key hard that brass falls! The brass sounds real..Good job Roland.

The flute cannot compare to the motif's.

Strings - Some really good some not so good.

Organs,organs,organs. Everyone's beating roland with this stick a i'm beating to.They are really poor... 3/10.The leslie effect,horrible!
Like Roland forgot to do their homework in this area.
The motif organs are 10/10.Very good spin up and spin down..
All sorts of organs under the hood!
Roland when are we going to get really good sounding useable organs?
Is the SRX-12 going quality organ card?

The board woks well and. I can depend on it
I use it gig. The motif8 is taking out my back! I love the weight keys but my back is moe important.

The company I bought it from was very helpful.
I downloaded the latest os but i'm waiting for the pc card first.

I would buy another fantom x if it were stolen

I think on this issue, opinions will some what differ from musican to musican. Why? Well, if you're a well versed keyboard player with an already established sense of familiarity with synthesizers and workstations, things should be fairly easy. The Fantom X series are well designed and are user friendly and very hardy to top. If, on the other hand, you're a novice, remember to keep an open mind! It will seem overwhelming at first but you can persevere.

I have very mixed "feelings" about the presets. Some of them sound very good and go a long way in getting attention in live settings(read a bit and it will make more sense!) others leave much more to desire. I like a few of the grand piano sounds but have difficulty reconsiling what my ears hear to what my fingers feel... The X7 probably is not the best platform (with its light keys) to utilize for purely piano sound based performances, unless you're fully comfortable and experienced. I think the X8 with its "heavy" keys probably would go much further in making the player feel more at ease and less awkward. I have a pair of modest Roland KC-350's (right/left channel) and well, though these little guys do well in many aspects, they fail to "convince" me in the accuracy department with the piano sounds. Things workout just fine in small venues/rooms but, larger venues, look out! Perhaps a pair of KC 550's would go a long way in resolving some of the sound related issues (surely a pair of KC 1000's would address any large bar/club venue setting but would be an over kill and fairly expensive.) At any rate, I'm still pleased with the some of the better piano patches. The guitar sounds (both acoustic and electric) I find lacking... I am also a guitar player and perhaps this "gets in the way" of things... I just can't get comfortable and well, to be honest, I'd just rather use the "real-thing" and save my final mixes to an external device/recorder. The brass sounds too leave me a bit "confused." In the hands of a very competent player, I'm sure these sounds would be just phenominal however, in the hands of "less experienced," things just become unexceptable. Perhaps, with more and more development in the artificial intelligence in computing area, one of the by products will be the advent of extremely "intelligent" keyboards that can correct and "polish" musical performances with little or no prodding by the player. This would be nightmarish in live settings yet invaluable in a compositional setting.

At any rate, when you feel comfortable in your command of this very powerful workstation, you can always experiment and tweak your sounds... Surely, it would be possible to "cure" many of the stock patches.

I am a live performer with little or no time left (so much to do and so little time...) for home use/experimentation with this unit and so, I've not done much in terms of patch creation and editing (beyond very basic stuff.) To make matters worse, I also utilize another keyboard (a Yamaha) which has very little in common with this Roland and have to also play the guitar (both electric as well as electric/acoustic and operate the "processors" that go along with them...) So, much to learn and so little time means I can't become very proficient with this wonderful, powerful workstation.

User manual? Well, it is useful but I think could be better organized/worked out. I don't mean make it into "Keyboard for Dummies" but, take lesson from "easy learning" series and go from there. Perhaps an "interactive" manual (why not utilize a cd rom for this!) would go a long way in making things much more easy and fun? Why not? Simply offer varying manuals! Perhaps make them available via the Roland website and gear them specifically to certain categories of musicians. Composers vs. the live players, jazz musicians vs. the rockers, rappe

Polyphony is sufficient (128) to allow for a competent recording and should be enough for the 99% of users.

Built in effects? Of course! Three signal processors, filters galore, etc., etc. Easy to use? Yes but only after you've taken some time reading the user manual or experimenting.

The answer is simple enough; much has been crammed into this wonderful machine and well, you have to "dig" at times to get to something. Be patient and persistent, eventually things will workout.

Expansion capabilities are there but can be pricey! I bought my Fantom X back in late summer, early fall of 2004 and now I HAVE TO PAY to get the software upgrade? As for other "expansion" capabilities; one can opt for more modules containing sounds (piano module, ethnic module, etc.) to better complement what is already supplied. And one can increase the memory size which would be advisable if one is expecting to push this unit to its extremes. Then again, it is hard to imagine buying such a machine if one did not expect to "use" it in a relative manner. After all, you don't buy a Ferrari to run off to fetch groceries, right? So, it stands to reason, there will be times when one would want to "open-up" this wonderful keyboard/workstation, and to push it a bit. And did I forget to mention the pc card slot? Well, you can store samples, etc., a full gigabyte! (So long floppy disk, hello pc card!) But, before rushing off to buy all these goodies, remember, it will cost you a princely sum! The sound modules aren't cheap by any means and the memory modules will cost you more than the standard desktop ram or a bit more pricey laptop ram counterparts.

There is a USB connection as well as a standard midi connection and well, in my opinion eventually USB will be the only connectivity route left open to any keyboard or instrument. It takes a bit of tinkering to get the Fantom "introduced" to a computer workstation but, again, persistence pays off in the end. I think Roland would do well to better simplify things in this arena. I think one of the better examples to follow would be the route taken by manufacturers of "other" devices (such as Linksys and their wireless routers...) and to provide the purchaser with an interactive software that would serve to simplify the whole connection process and to make available, trouble-shooting software (via the Roland website) which the customer could use to resolve connectivity related issues.

Some people prefer the Yamaha piano sounds but "pas moi!" not me! I'm fairly happy with some of the piano sounds and also with most of the synth sounds. As for the people who complain about some of the synth sounds being aged; folks you're missing the point here!

Lots of sounds means increased search time for a given sound. However, if you're like me, you will have created a "list" of "preferred" sounds anyway and this would not be much of an issue. You just have to spend some time "looking" for sounds that appeal to you and list/graph them on to a handy list.

This keyboard does well with musical styles utilizing electronic sounds and as such, it is perfect for dance music, techno, rock, rap, etc. The fairly large sampling capability, especially should make many users very happy.

Should you run off to a classical recital with this workstation? Absolutely not! Unless you're making a point of sorts... Again, I loved certain piano sounds yet, there is a rift between what my ears tell me and what my fingers sense... This is not a Steinway grand and no matter how well you amplify it, it will never be a Steinway! Don't get me wrong, in the hands of a highly competent/experienced performer, this thing could re-create Mozarts Requiem and yet, for most performers I think the result would be frustrating at best. This was not a machine built to play Chopins Piano Concerto #1 but, something built to "move" people in a different way. There's a reason why Madonna takes SEVEN of these on the road and the San Francisco Symphony owns NONE!

I'm fairly happy with the onboard effects which I have so far toyed with. I think if one were not happy with them, well, one could always "tack-on" a laptop and Cubase,etc., and EXPERIMENT! :)

It does "react" to ones unique sense of playing but, only after some experimentation and useage. You have to learn to play it. I find some difficulties switching between the Yamaha and the Roland and as a consequence, have began to "ween" myself from my now ageing Yamaha workstation. Is it "static?" Well, to be honest, most machines in this price category tend to be much more than just "static!" The Yamaha Motif series and Korg current workstations are often used as a comparison by almost all previous contributors to this forum and well, for a reason; they all push the envelop in some fashion or another! So, "static" it is not. It will seem so, to the lesser skilled players, perhaps but a competent keyboard performer will bring this little jewel to life, no doubt! (Now if only I could edge myself into this category!)

Velocity and aftertouch related issues are not present with most keyboards retailing at these price levels. Of course this particular machine has to try and wear many hats and some "issues" do surface as a consequence; as long as you have a fairly defined idea what you're trying to do, to create, you should have no serious issues.

So far, so good... Knock on wood!

I do use it "on gigs" but, NOT without a backup!

The reason for this is not one of reliability but one of necessity as:
a. I'm switching from an older Yamaha workstation and it takes time to workout all the bugs, to fine-tune Yamaha based midi's to work seamlesly with the Roland, etc.
b. Just in case, something "freak" causes a failure, I HAVE TO be able to continue my gig. Power spikes, drunk customers careless with their drinks, accidental dropping, etc. can and do happen, occasionally! I do MUCH to anticipate/prevent such occurances but, one has to go to the bathroom at times or talk with management, etc., and well, you'd be very surprised what some customers can feel "entitled" to do!
c. Even after working out all the bugs, I will, out of habit, take along my trusty old Yamaha, just in case. :)

I have not dealt with Roland in the past on service related issues so I can't really comment on this.

I still need to make my operating system/software upgrade and well, am not happy about having to spend money to do so.

Where would Microsoft be if they charged for their patches/upgrades? In hot water!, that's where! :)

Roland, please take note: You're a well established and respected company; you can afford to release upgrades, without a charge, to customers who've paid so much to buy one of these wonderful workstations!

Would I replace it if lost or stolen? Yes, I would have to.

Would I buy it again? Well, probably but I may also have a look at Korg or Yamaha as well before doing so. Only common-sense, right?

I've been playing for sometime now... (since the early 1980's) I also own an Adamas SMT, Ovation Custom Legend and Ovation Celebrity acoustic electric guitars, a Les Pauls copy electric guitar, associated effects processors (i.e., Digitech GNX4 guitar workstation, Yamaha AG Stomp, etc.) a Boss BR1180CD digital recorder, Genz-Benz Shenandoah 200 amplifier, pair of Roland KC-350 amplifiers, etc., etc.

I love the styling and leading-edge reputation of this workstation. I like many of the sounds and its amazing sequencing abilities.

I hate that software upgrades are charged for when, they should be offered as a matter of courtesy. (Much like driver upgrades for computer devices and software.)

I have luke-warm feelings regarding computer-connectivity of this unit. Perhaps Roland could "communicate" with Microsoft and well, it would not be an issue to just "let Windows install this device for you!" :)

I love it that it has USB as well as a pc card slot.

I hate it that it does NOT have a built in CD RECORDER/PLAYER!!

I hate it that it does NOT have a built in HARD-DRIVE or a slot for such an option!

I love the serious sampling ability.

The color display is a plus! I wish there was a connection for large computer screens for those of us with some what ailing eyesights! :)

I have mixed feelings about the drum pads but at the same time, like it very much that they can be used to control Edirol devices, etc.

Cheaper sound modules would be nice? This is not a cheap keyboard by any means and well, with the memory and sound module upgrades, cost can easily accumulate as much as 50% in addition to the original cost. Why not introduce a series of sampler modules as well? Though one could argue that the internal sounds of the Fantom are the "sampler" offerings, it would still be nice to have a reinforcing sampler module with a mixture of sounds from the full line of modules. May be have Jazz Sampler modules or Dance/Techno Sampler modules or Rock/Pop/Rap Sampler modules, you get the idea...

I wish there was a built in CD player/recorder!!!

I wish there was a built in hard-drive!!!

I wish there was some sort of wireless (bluetooth?) connectivity option. Surely this will happen sometime within the next five-to-ten years, all across the board? I wish there was some sort of a video card like output source for an external monitor. (Come to think of it, is this possible, without using a laptop or a computer workstation?) My eyes aren't what they used to be and I would love to be able to connect a flat screen monitor to view the Fantoms display.

There're so many other things that I wish it had but, surely in time, these things (such as keyboards powered by artificial intelligence engines) will be incorporated in to the Roland workstations to come...

I wish there was an interactive (cd/dvd rom?) owners manual!

How about downloadable lessons a la Digitech's GNX series workstations? With the GNX4, the performer can download lessons from the internet, into the workstation and well, do so much! Can this be done with the Fantom? Have I somehow omitted seeing it in the manuals, etc.?

Does it halp me "make music?" In time; I'm still learning to use this unit. It does NOT get in the way though, it simply pushes me to think a bit more and a bit more differently. It is light years ahead of my now ageing Yamaha workstation and I have more options, in many ways.

Only the individual customer can decide if they truly need something with so much abilities. If you're a live performer, playing looser, more improvised gigs, you may want to opt for something much cheaper however, if you work with a midi structure; like to go for more rigid and structured performances, well then you may want to buy

The most easy to use workstation. With the latest 2.0 OS released in march 2005 it's a pleasure to edit sounds.

Preset sounds are OK and there are a lot of them from very natural
sounds to vintage sounds.

The manual is very very good and easy to read and for us Belgian people in Flemish (dutch)language!

It has a big color screen which is a great plus!

Polyphony is 128 so enough to create a song without loosing voices.
With the 2.0 OS you even have 8 extra stereo tracks. The effects are OK, chorus and reverb for every track + 3 assignable but like I mentioned, with the built in 8 track recorder 3 FX's are enough.
4 new sampleboard can be built in and I can recommend the srx 07 which is great for vintage + organs + rhodes. The fantom X is also a sampler, with the digital in/out you can sample software synths without any noise which is superb! I did some tests with the alturia minimoog.
I still use a PC sampler editor as cross fade editing is not possible the X7. The USB is very easy as it can do midi or datatransfer (USB 1.0 so rather slow)but not at the same time, you must switch manually in the synthsmenu. I have a CF card with PC adapter which fits in the slot where I store samples and songs. It's rather slow storing on a CF card but it's better as 1.44 flopy's ):Also very nice is the live settings:
This is how it works:create with the built in micro edit bank and patch changes on the sequencer to other synths or synthmodules. Shift+enter load/save the live setting + press play and all sounds+volume are adjusted automatically.superb and fast. You can store 20 presets x 16 subs...
You can also use the extra drum pads for starting samples.

You better put 512MB SDRAM 100MHZ or 133MHZ in this workstation as
you will need it to use the 8 audio tracks.

The keyboard is the greatest you can find on a synth. Just check it out...

Natural sounds are very realistic, escpecially the piano's and accoustic guitars, vintage is all right, brass is OK, it's difficult to tell, just check it out yourself.
The built in compressor is very usefull. For pads and strings I still use the JD800 or JD990's which are the warmest sounding roland synths ever! The fanom X is a rompler but because of longer samples sounds are more realistic but you can create superb new sounds if you like to program

I never had problems with roland synths.

Benelux support in Europe is very good and Stephanie at the desk in Westerlo is nice looking person.

If it was lost or stolen, I would buy it again (it's march 2005 now) but I don't think I would buy one in 2008 as it would probably be a fantom Z or an alesis fusion.
I have it for 3 months now and with the 2.0 OS i think this is a great sounding synth/workstation/sampler with great features. Because of easy of use I can recommend it to anyone. The keyboard is it's biggest +++. It's also good looking. I played the "yamaha motif es" and the "korg tritons" too but I don't regret chosing the Fantom X7.