FBJ
Yes, I run the Triton Central site with Tapesh. I had the Triton Classic and had a LOT of fun with it. Before Fantom S, Triton was THE workstation to get. But I was always vocal about the limitations of Triton.
Fantom-S opened up a lot of possibilities that Triton couldn't cater. So, when time came to get a second workstation, Fantom-S was my choice. Specially for at that price point, it was THE workstation for me.
Now, I have the Fantom-X on order. KORG also released Triton Extreme.
Let me say something before I jump into this. The sounds of a keyboard are #1 selection criteria. If the sounds don't move you, then don't even consider if it has all other bells and whistles and great features, unlimited polyphoney, unlimited effects...etc. You gotta be comfortable with the sounds FIRST. Once you decide that the sounds, not the overall MIX of the keyboard, but the individual sounds are good enough, then you can go and and look at other features.
I will try to list the differences among Triton Extreme and Fantom-X obectivley here, so people can see clearly what they are and what they aren't.
I think of these keyboards as five parts:
1. synthesizer features
2. sampling features
3. sequencing and mixing features
4. OS and interface, storage etc.
5. keyboards and hardware controls
There are a lot of differences between Triton Extreme and Fantom-X.
1. Synthesizer features.
Fantom-X is better for a sound tweaker and for loop based nonstop recording, Triton Extreme is good for someone who just wants to pick a sound and start composing track by track.
Fantom-X's synth structure is lot more powerful than the Triton.
Fantom-X gives you 4 stereo oscilators per patch vs 2 mono oscillators, with one veloicty switch in Triton.
Fantom-X gives you more filter options than Triton.
Fantom-X has more panning options than Triton.
Fantom-X has more powerful drums sound programming than Triton, Fantom-X lets you have 4 stereo waves with 4 velocity switches, Triton have a mono wave with one velocity switch; Fantom-X let's you have different filters on each drum key, Triton filters all drums sounds with same filter. One feature which is better in Triton. In Triton, you can route each drum sound to a specific Insert Effect, so you can have your kicks going to different effects than your snares and hihats, I think you can't do this on Fantom-X, all sounds go to the same IFX, but you can change the send amounts.
The synth feature that I miss in Fantom-S are:
1. reversing the waveform
2. 4 LFOs and the modulation matrix in Triton is amazing.
2. Sampling Features:
Triton Extreme is good for as an 'insturment' sampler workstation. Fantom-X is limited in sampling features ONBOARD, multisample edit is not there.
Triton lets you arrange samples into useable instrument with more eligent and flexible features. You can edit the multisamples and all indexes with precise control of pitch and keyranges right from the Triton Screen. I used that feature a lot. Specially when you had loops imported on each key, you could then tune each key to fit to exact tempo. All this can't be done on Fantom-X, it's sort of automatic process, but you don't have as much control on the multisamples as you might need.
Fantom-X sampling features are good for loops based composition. Specially the realtime stretch feature. After you import the loop and set the tempo, Fantom will automatically match the tempo to current song. I wasn't too impressed with the quality of realtime stretch though.
My major use of the Fantom sampler was to import drum voices, so it's good enough for most of the situations.
Fantom-X has a HUGE plus on the Sampling memory. 548MB compared to 96MB, no doubt there. So, it's even more useful to import those loops that you can't ever program. Those guitar strums and killer ethnic drums beats.... they sure will require more than 96MB.
I will say here that, Roland is also pushing Fantom-X as an audio recorder. So, if you want to resample whole song and then transfer to computer, you will need that much RAM, so it's handy to have that. But, I don't think you will need to that, specially when you have that digital output, you will just record directly to the computer.
3. Sequencing and Mixing features
Fantom-X sequencer is by far more powerful than Triton, mainly due to is trasparent control to the synth engine. You could edit ANY patch or drum voice parameter right from the sequencer and save with the song. And all those parameters could be modulated. If you like to modulate the filter on the snares of a dance track, no problem.
The other nice feature is the nonstop recording. You can put Fantom-X in 16 bar loops and record all your track without ever needing to stop the recording.
Triton sequencer is not bad too, it does offer some nice features that you can't find in Fantom-X. You can loop each track with different ranges. For example, you could have track 1 looping from measure 5 to measure 8, track 2 loop from 1 to 8. etc.
The song editing functions are about the same on both of them.
Pattern based sequencing is better on Fantom-X, basically because the Fantom-X patterns are 16 channels multitmberal and you can use the pads as patterns triggers. Triton patterns are 1 channels. But on the other hand, Triton lets you play upto 128 patterns at the same time, Fantom-X lets you play 16 patterns at the same time.
Mixing feature are about same on both.
Triton-EX has two more IFX and it's master effects have lot more types of effects than Fantom. The routing is equally flexible on both, except in Drums sounds case, as I mentioned earlier.
Although Fantom-X has two less IFX than Triton, Fantom-X lets you send signal to master effects, even when the track is patched to an insert effect. For example you could have track 1 going to IFX 1, and part going to chorus and reverb at the same time. In Triton, if track 1 is going to IFX 1, no amount of the dry signal will go to the master effects.
4. OS and interface, storage.
Before Fantom-S, Triton was THE easiest workstation to use and browse. Now, Fantom-X is the winner. Specially the way it's all put together. It's transparent, doesn't come in the middle of you when you need to record something. Once you make yourself familiar, it's very fast to get the ideas from your head to a track.
Storage is equally good on both the Fantom-X and Triton Extreme.
5. Keyboard and hardware controls.
Both instruments are loaded with hardware controls. It will be upto your needs and preferences to chose.
Fantom-X gives you those highly noticeable pads, which I hope are improved in Fantom-X. I could use them with vleocity sensetivity OFF on Fantom-S for triggering the patterns. I think Fantom-X has them integrated more with sequencing, for muting/unmuting tracks...etc.
Fantom-X is missing a ribon controller and a number pad.
Triton-extreme has a better joystick and a nice ribon controller and the touch screen, which makes things easier to 'select', but once you select the fields, it's the same as on Fantom-X.
So, here you go. I have put some differences that no salesman will ever tell you. If these things matter to you, it will help you make the decision, if you don't care about these differences, then get what sounds better to you.
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live a musical life
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Fantom-G6, Motif XS6, Korg M3-m, Korg Z1, Roland MC808 and MC909.
live a musical life
