Roland Fantom-S 61-Key Sampling Music Workstation

[The Bastard]

anyone her rock this? i am getting an amount of money rangin up to 1500 before the summer and i want to buy a nice piece of hardware so i can start learning how to produce and sequence on hardware,i was thinkin of goin wit the masses and buyin either a triton or mpc but i seen this and i gotta say the main thing that attracted me was the fact that it had pads on it to trigger samples and its usb computer connectivity,for anyone here that has this how do u like it and do u think it can hang with the other popular boards

 

[Sober]

It suppose to be a really good keyboard and competes well with the triton and motif. Triton, Motif, or Fantom -S which everone you get you will be happy. They all have one thing better than the other.

One thing i would like to mention is that a lot of people that are acustom to using FL and clicking away making thier beats have trouble at first with hardware. this is because they have no music thoery or experience. what is to learn when your clicking with your mouse and opening wav files in folders?

I warn you hopefully not to scare you, that once you get your equipment its going to take some time to learn it and you WILL! have many days of frustration. This is ok, just remember that this is a growing process and you will be a better producer from it. The main thing i tell starters is to get to know the timing of notes, 1/4 1/8 1/8 (3) 1/16 1/16 (3) 1/32 etc etc. Anyways good luck and i would advise get that equipment! you'll love it once you master it!

 

[J-malice]

yo straight up. get the phantom. you'll be alot happier with it. i just bought a triton in october. and now i wish i had the phantom. the triton is nice dont get me wrong, but with the roland you can save up to 16 or 64mb (dont remember) of samples includin your drum kits. with tr triton if you turn it off you have to reload your drum kits and them drum pads will come in handy. tha touch screen on the triton makes things easy but the fantom is a better choice (if your producin style is anythin like mine) meanin you like to just turn on the keyboard and work with your drum kits instead of havin to load shit up all the time and resettin shit.

 

[The Bastard]

WORD THANKS FOR ALL THE 411 I WATCHED THE MPEG PROMOTIN THE FANTOM ON MUSICIANS FRIEND AND THEY WERE PLAYIN SOME TECHNO ON IT AND I KNOW A LOT OF GEAR THATS USED TO MAKE HIP HOP U CAN MAKE TECHNO ON BUT I JUST WANT TO MAKE SURE THIS ISNT A TECHNO BASED PIECE OF EQUIPMENT I WOULDNT WANNA GET IT AND HAVE ALL TYPES OF TRIPPY LASER SOUNDS ON IT AND NOT BE ABLE TO DELETE THEM ,THE PLUS IS YOU CAN LOAD YOUR OWN SAMPLES ON THERE, BUT ANYONE KNOW WHERE I CAN PEEP OUT THE SAMPLES THAT STAY ONBOARD?

 

[Sober]

hmmm ...well you can try like musiciansfriend.com or zzsounds and then goto the keyboard that you want to sample and listen to one of their sample tracks they made with that particular software.

 

[The Bastard]

yeah i did that its all techo demos,anyone here know first hand how the board sounds makin hip hop beats

 

[God]

You should try one out somewhere. The pads aren't as big as the MPC, people complained about that.

 

[DJFANTOM]

Did some 1 call my name?.lol all this talk of the fantom. Lol

Yo 3 words BUY THAT KEYBOARD.
If I had $1500 I would have it right. Now

I was in samash and one of the developers for roland was there and he was demoing it . Yo he did a hip hop beat right there on the fly. You can assign drum kits to the pads and strings to the keys @ the same time and play them simultaniously. Yo but the clincher (dat none of the ohters have) is the "skip back sampler"
See the key board is always recording even when ur not meaning. If ur just practicing or thought you hit rec and you didn't you can hit the skip back button and it will have the last 30 sec(I believe) dat you played. SICK.

Yo believe me its worth the money.
It even has on board mastering affects and you can plug a mic in or line source and sample and incorperate on the fly as he did when demoing it.

Yo in 5 minutes he had a complete radio ready mastered beat complete wit samples effects and programed sounds. And the pads feel just as good as the mpc.

I got a korg microkontrol and it has the same pads belive me they realy feel as good as the mpc. Altho a lil smaller.

Oh and last but not least. It has my name ( I had it way before this thing existed tho) lol.

 

[The Bastard]

thanks bro when i hit the big score im gunna cop one,should have it around the start of the summer

 

[joblack00]

yo I just bought the Roland Fantom today and already I have a love hate relationship with that thing... It was a cinch to hookup....and the first sound I played I really liked so I started making a beat with it...I am a fruity loops user and cool edit...So all that pointing and clicking stuff spoiled me....I know how a loop should sound but recording on the board took me hours to figure out and I aint even figure it out all the way...so I left it alone

Yo whoever said the stuff about music theory and it being frustrating I am living it now...The board looks beautiful and I named her after this girl named Jennifer who tried to play me... (HEHE) But just like the chick she is difficult to manuever.

It's like I wanna turn the damn thing on and start cranking out beats but there is a HUUUUUUUUUUUUGE Learning CURVE... and it's kinda disheartening but for the $1,400 I payed something gotta give...

Any advice or guidance on how to master this thing I call Jennifer...

 

[Cold Truth]

i dont have the board, so my advice will be somewhat limited.

roland is notorious for not having the most efficient-to-use sequencers. as with everything, there is a definitive curve when learning a new method of doing something. just remember taht the essentials are the same.

learn the sequencer, and learn what it takes to record your phrases on different midi channels. learn the step recorder as well- that can be very valuable when you get the hang of it on any sequencer.

i went from the mpc to cubase. in the mpc i could have an 8 measure, basic drum line in a matter of minutes, every time. when i switched to cubase it took me forever to learn the thing. now i am at a similar speed as when i had the mpc. you just need to spend time with the board. the curve is about the same going from hard to soft as it is from soft to hard, i know because i have done it. point-and-click may seem like that is so much easier, but the reality you are simply using a different method to achieve the same results.

just focus on learning the essentials of the actual sequencing and wait until later to explore the extras.......

 

[dacalion]

This is what I've been told by the self proclaimed "keyboard pros"...

If you want the best sounds that a keyboard can give as far as instruments....Yamaha MOTIF

If you want the best "overall" keyboard, get the TRITON

If you want the most versatle keyboard with hella editing and functionality...ROLAND FANTOM.

dacalion