Did you return your G? If so why?

I returned it because of;

- Piano sound. I couldn't find or make real fine pianos. I even like old Roland pianos more.

- SRX. The FG doesn't have SRX slots. Too many excellent SRX waves cannot be found in the FG. I had to buy a sonic cell or keep old equipment in order to remain some of my favorate sounds. It was not possible to recreate those sounds with the FG-waves

- FX. In live mode there is only 1 FX per patch. F.e. leslie & distortion is not possible (or leslie & EQ)

- EQ. There's no EQ per patch / live program. I couldn't EQ patches within a live-program or even the total live-program. There's only a master-EQ for the whole machine.

- ARX. I had no idea what ARX would bring us, but regarding #1 and #2, I'd rather had SRX waves instead. Adjusting mic-positions is nice but I also want to play with filters when creating sounds.

- Leslie. I hoped the leslie effect would have been approved to an acceptable level. Unfortunaly, it doesn't come anything near the real thing.

- Brasses. I hoped to find some fat and beatifull brasses.

I loved working with the FG. Fast and flexible. Good sequencer, nice pads (except for playing drums). I couldn't live with the sounds and bought an XS. Unfortunately, I so much would have liked this machine.

Twice. The first one wouldn't boot up when turned on. It got hung up trying to load a wav. I didn't have the extra memory installed . When I got it, it didn't help the situation.

The second one I got had some rattling issues. Whenever I played the keys there was some noise , like something loose. I was something under the pads.

The one I currently own is great! Of course I purchased the warranty.

I'm planning on it.. Here's why..

-Midi implentation. Sometimes the unit will not transmit midi. Eeven more, when it does, the unit sends all channels out, when only 1 channel is assigned to a recieving channel.


-Sounds: Piano stinks.. , Fender rhodes good, but, JV 80's ,fm rhodes stink..PADS... Not enough... Real Brass..Stinks.. , Analog Brass (not powerful enough).. Steel string acoustic guitars are not good as on the xv 5080...

-Not enough Voices (128) is not enugh to seqence a full song. Notes are choking out wayy too much..

-The Feel of the G7 keys are not good. They are no better than the G6... There shoud be some sort of mid-semi weighted grade Key-bed for the G7(say the Fantom x8) keybed...


-Slow cpu. I get what roland is trying to do withe the G, but, they skimped on the CPU..

-Pads can't be used as controllers for other midi units...

-Bad USB drivers for audio recording and playback...

That's it..

>-Not enough Voices (128) is not enugh to seqence a full song. Notes are choking out wayy too much..

Can you please post an mp3, I want to hear how it chokes...

I dident know there was a keyboard with more than 128 voices

Yeah there are a few keyboards on the market with more than 128 note polyphony. The Korg OASYS @ $8,000 bucks has 172 voices distributed amongst its various forms of sound synthesis. The Korg OASYS though is officially dead as of July 2008. The M3 is the interim workstation until Korg releases their next beast - hopefully at a MUCH lower price point. The GEM ProMega3 has 320 note polyphony but it's basically a stage piano. The new Ketron Audya will be coming out by the end of this year according to Ketron and will have 197 note polyphony. It is only an arranger workstation, although it will have an onboard sampler and will also include wav audio backing tracks that goes beyond just your basic looped beats.

If Roland would make an ARX card that had, let's say, 128 note polyphony included on it, and Roland devised a way for that ARX card polyphony to be combined (NOT 'shared' with BUT "combined") - with the FG 128 note polyphony, it would make the Fantom G polyphony effectively doubled its current amount and bring the total to 256 note 'true' polyphony. And if money grew on trees we'd all be rich too right? Oh well, it doesn't hurt to dream a little once in a while I suppose. And it never hurts to ask Roland for the improbable because once in a while they will surprise us and give us what we've been petitioning them for. If we didn't at least ask them they would have no way of knowing what their customers wanted from them in the way of added functionality or features on their products. In other words, we have not because we ask not. So ask away fellas. Roland just might be willing to appease us if we're persistent enough in our requests to them; and if they happen to be in a good mood that would also be a big help in getting them to implement our suggestions and wish lists too I would think.

I'm planning too...and buy XS + SonicCell or Juno-Stage + SRX 6 and 7
Some reasons:
- every time you have to load song into sequencer
- weak arpeggiator
- acoustic pianos, saxs, brasses, sucks
- I don't need 128 MIDI tracks (who does ???)
- no SRX slots
I'm able to buy SC and 2 SRX quite cheap now so...

- every time you have to load song into sequencer

You have to do the same thing with the Motif XS. OTOH, with the Fantom G you can actually "demo" a song before you decide whether or not you want to load it into the sequencer. You cannot do this with the Motif XS i.e. demo a song prior to loading, as far as I know; unless Yamaha fixed that anomaly with an OS update.

- weak arpeggiator

The arpeggiator on the Fantom G is different from the arpeggiator on the Motif XS. Does that in itself necessarily make it 'weak' in comparison to the XS arpeggiator? You will need to get your hands dirty to setup, tweak, and edit the arpeggios to use with the FG arpeggiator. But in so doing, your possibilities increase manifoldly with greater flexibility and more complexity in the arpeggios and with also, needless to say, better results. Don't judge a book only by its cover as they say. Also, beauty is more than just skin deep. You need to get "under" the surface of the Fantom G and start to swim in the depths of its true power and beauty. OTOH, I think the Motif XS arpeggiator is great sounding right out of the box and it is a very musical and inspiring tool that any keyboard musician can utilize to his or her benefit with little or no effort. Because of that fact the Motif XS may be your best choice, especially if you're not one to get your hands dirty and all.

- acoustic pianos, saxs, brasses, sucks

There again - with the acoustic pianos, you may find much greater fullfillment if you tweak the presets and/or start to layer the pianos together. I have personally found that it has really made a big difference for the better. I agree that the Sax's are weak but the possibilities increase when you edit or layer them too. A nice Brass/Sax/Woodwind ARX card could sure come in handy though, eh? Roland??

- I don't need 128 MIDI tracks (who does ???)

What does it hurt to have 128 MIDI tracks on the Fantom G??? If you only need 16 or 32, okay. But isn't it great to know that if you happen at some point to need more you have them at your disposal??

- no SRX slots

Many of the best of the SRX are already included in the Fantom G. If you want more of the SRX sounds, you can petition Roland for more and maybe they will eventually produce an ARX SRX card. Or maybe they could put some SRX waveforms on a USB stick and sell them at $100 a pop? Or as you said, you could get a Sonic Cell and fill it with a couple SRX boards. I bought my Sonic Cell way before the Fantom G was even announced to the public and it has come in very handy as a great little addition (extra) for my Fantom G7.

I'm able to buy SC and 2 SRX quite cheap now so...

I got a great deal on mine too. Plus I have the SRX 06 & SRX 07 installed in it. Great minds think alike they say.

I hope you are happy in whatever you decide to get. That is the main thing of course... that you are happy and satisfied with whatever you decide on getting for your music making needs. If you don't think the Fantom G fits in that category then who are we to persuade you otherwise?

“- every time you have to load song into sequencer”
I agree with keysme

“- weak arpeggiator”
The FG arpeggiator isn't strong at all, the XS arpeggiator is excellent, can be inspiring and very usefull in writing a song. F.e. the guitar arp's.

“- acoustic pianos, saxs, brasses, sucks”
When tweaking I found very usefull brasses, but I really couldn't make decent pianos at all.

I create lots of sounds but a normal piano should be good out of the box. I tried lots of things, I compared them on "high end" headphones, on a PA and monitors to other synths (older Roland, Korg and Yamaha). Yamaha sounded much better to me, I like the older Roland more and the Korg Triton pianos are bad.

Also the other members of my band didn't like the FG pianos at all.

“- I don't need 128 MIDI tracks (who does ???)”
I agree with keysme. The extra audio tracks are very nice indeed.

“- no SRX slots”
I don't understand this Roland choice. If they had this ARX-SRX card on the shelve okay. As many keyboard players, I want less equipment, not more. SRX cards have many beautifull waves which cannot be found on the FG.

I have a XS now and I love the sounds, the filters, the voices. But I miss the FG work flow, intuitive control, impressive display, pads and sequencer.

Maybe I'll buy the the next generation fantom G. When it includes more SRX-waves, better patches, 4 ARX slots (hammond!!). I'll be in heaven when Roland succeeds in making the next G8 - weighing 18 kg.

Keysme, you own SonicCell and SRX6 and 7. That is what I am thinking about As javaj said in another thread: SC+SRX6,7=85%FG but I wonder if sound quality is the same ?
I mean if a patch from SRX (inside SC) and the same patch from FantomG got the same sound quality (of course if EFX is the same) ?

-Midi implentation. Sometimes the unit will not transmit midi.

What???????
MIDI implementation are the MIDI Features/Parameters/Functions included in a MIDI instrument operating system. That has nothing to do with "not transmiting MIDI". That makes no sense at all. No MIDI transmition can be caused by a simple defective cable.

Eeven more, when it does, the unit sends all channels out, when only 1 channel is assigned to a recieving channel.

Say that gain???????
MIDI Transmit and Receive channels are 2 completely DIFERENT things.
Really, If you don't know how to use MIDI, don't judge the G by it.

Not enough Voices (128) is not enugh to seqence a full song.

I guess a lot of Roland, Yamaha, Korg, Kurzweil, to name only these, suffer from NEPSD-Not Enough Polyphony Stress Desorder

-The Feel of the G7 keys are not good.

Thats a matter of taste. I can agree.

They are no better than the G6...

It was never supposed to be. Only size is different. That's no reason no to like the G

There shoud be some sort of mid-semi weighted grade Key-bed for the G7(say the Fantom x8) keybed...

The X8 keybed is on the G8. The finishing on the G8 is different since it has the "Ivory Feel". Both are FULLY weighted PHAII keyboards BTW.

-Slow cpu.

Yeah, right.

-Bad USB drivers for audio recording and playback...

You say that based on your system. This has also been reported by other users. I understand it. But you also have to understand that driver perfomance depends on the system you use it. You can't say it is bad 'cause it does not work for you.

- every time you have to load song into sequencer

You can play SMF files directly from the SMF list. I don't know why we can't do it from the Song list. That's weird, yes.

I don't need 128 MIDI tracks (who does ???)

Great, you're planning to return the G because you don't need 128 tracks. So if the G only had 16 of them you would keep it?

- no SRX slots

We knew that from the very beggining.

No V-CeeOh, I don't wanna sell my FG because of 128 MIDI track but, just my opinion, (unlike Yamaha) it seems that Roland doesn't listen to there customers. OS is very strange and doesn't fit my needs completely. Because of Roland's sounds that I like very much I'll buy second hand SC with SRX 6,7. This way I save my money for Motif XS that is way better masterkeyboard.

alpha_C
You were the one who gave the "128 track" reason for returning the G. If you don't like the sounds or don't feel confortable with the OS I can accept that as a reason to return a G. But the fact that it has 128 tracks really makes no sense

yeeh, you right, my bad,

but it makes sense if Roland spent some money putting 128 midi track

we all wish have more SRX patches instead of this