G newbie questions

Your going to get bias answers here towards to fantom
but i have been recently looking at the motif
dont know what it sounds like but one of the things i do like is its conectivity..
it has usb firewire and LAN
the LAN allows you to make te motif available to your pc and also allows you direct access to all your computer drives for storage and retrieval..
not too sure about synthesis, everhing else is a given
and rps/patterns work in a slightly different way and maybe a little better..
but do your own research..

Hi Gary,

The most important thing is how the keyboard sounds, bar none. It doesn't matter how many bells and whistles a synth has—if you don't like its sounds, it's not the beast for you.

So the first thing to do is sit down with each one and play.

That said, the Fantom G's sequencer, workflow, interface, and usability are worlds ahead of the Motif.

But again, who cares? It's all about the sound.

Yep thats it in a nutshell.

The first thing you will do when trying a board is listen to it,if the Yamaha sound is better for you than the Roland,go with the Yamaha.

You'll have to wait a few months before you can A/B them though.

Well, I agree with what you've both said, the trouble is, in a shop you don't really get the feel of what the keyboard is capable of , its limitations, workflow etc. That's why i like to research by listening to other owners of similar products to see what they're saying once the honeymoon's warn off.

Now, on a connectivity front, i use Sonar and I'm not switching to Cubase for anything and I'll talk to the Yamy guys about MLAN and Sonar etc.

Sounds, can anyone point me at some good Fantom-X mp3s in any style? Are there any Fantom-G audios up anywhere yet apart from the backing audio to the video intro?

From what you know of the X, will the G sound largely like the X but fuller/crisper etc or are there many new patches/waveforms in the G.

Thanks again - if it's the G then i'll be pre-ordering this week probably.

Prior to A/B them in the store, read both G and XS user manuals, in order to get some first impression about the available features and workflows,
xsprt

It's hard to know, because not only you probably would have to play both at the store, but they'll behave differently in a band situation (even depending on the musical style).

I really prefer the sound of the Roland pianos to the Yamaha pianos, but the Yamaha pianos have an attack to them that just makes them work when you play with distorted guitars.

Yamaha is also widely preferred by jazz musicians (that is, until the X, now with the new "supernatural" EPs and the new piano, they could just as well flock to Roland). Film/classical/new age composers will usually go to Roland if they do hardware. Euro-metal bands will usually prefer Korg because everything sounds synthesized and that turns out to be good when playing with mega-distorted guitars.

So it's not just a question of which one is better, but what are you going to be using it for (i.e. do you need sequencing and multi-track recording) and what kind of music you are playing.

Comment
billkeller
Guru

Posts: 734


(03/03/08 06:48 PM)

Edit - Reply
i am going to buy fantom-g...sorry yammie!
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after long decision and having seen/heard one (don't ask me how - its through a source), i have to say i absolutely love the fantom-g: crystal clean sounds, great character (more depth than fantom-x), some similar sounds to fantom-x (srx waveforms), but programmed better, and also many NEW samples (ofcourse, the sampler is so amazing and easy to use, and ofcourse you can import any waveform you like). for whatever reason, the patches sound more realistic than the fantom-x, eg: sax or guitar sounds are better. (i am sure some of you motif guys may find it inadequate).

the crowning glory though is not acoustic sounds, but rather synth sounds...roland in all its glory folks! great phat resonant sounds::: the sound quality was excellent especially in mix mode now because of so many simultaneous effects.

this keyboard is truly the only keyboard that DESERVES the label 'WORKSTATION'....korg may have invented the concept, and athan may have found the term, but sorry Sir Athan Billias, roland fantom-G is the true deal: finally an amazingly programmable arpeggiator, a grid-style piano roll sequencer, audio recorder...lighted 16 trigger pads, XLR input for condenser mics!!! option for a standard mouse, vga out for bigger monitor, dbeam, vlink.

the screen is brilliant with vivid colors, looks just like a vst plug-in, better than the v-synth gt... its pretty much all i need folks. only thing i don't know is whether it can act as a standalone sound card (audio/midi interface), it might not...but that's not a concern for me, because i have top quality interface.

now, i didn't hear the arx expansions because the keyboard didn't come with that, however, this keyboard is set to take my stage. be out in april i think.

"Politicians are like diapers. They should both be changed frequently and for the same reason

very unlikely the G will come close to the motif XS sound,
but when it will - G is the winner. Wouldn't count on that though...

Did he say "VGA out"



LOL....

I saw that when i read this at the motiforum site,I guess he didn't read the manual yet, got caught up looking at that big screen at namm or where ever he saw it. Iam sure he could have ask if it had a VGA out put. His discription on how the Fantom G sounded was infectious!

cuborg:

very unlikely the G will come close to the motif XS sound.

Why would someone want the Fantom G to sound like a Motif? If the Motif represents the benchmark that all others should aspire to, why not just keep the Motif?

However... It's not like there's some magical perfect piano (or guitar or harp or bass or lead or pad) sound that's perfect for everybody and the Motif is empirically closer to that sound than the G.

It's not like if BMW works really, really hard, they'll make a Mercedes. Or if a blonde works out every day, she'll become a brunette.

Some people prefer BMWs. Some gentlemen prefer natural brunettes.

>>>It's not like there's some magical perfect piano or guitar ...

actually there is one - acoustic grand piano or guitar...

actually there is one - acoustic grand piano or guitar...

No, there's a Bosendorfer, Steinway, Yamaha... There are patches programmed to cut through a mix or sound great alone... There are those which take many GB of memory and sound like ass and those made of only a few MB that sound amazing... Those with lots of natural ambience and those mic'ed closely...

There is no ONE piano or guitar, because there are differing opinions on what that one piano or guitar should sound like.

If Yamaha absolutely perfected the solo-Yamaha-9-foot-grand-piano-in-a-jazz-club-filled-with-cloth-seats-with-the-lid-open-mic'ed-with-Neumann-M149s-from-four-feet-away-right-above-the-strings-with-6-milliseconds-of-air-before-each-raw-sample-and-slightly-compressed, someone will inevitably say "That sucks."

wrong again:

there's Steinways and Bechsteins and Faziolis and...

p.s.
sorry to interfere, same thought...