Very annoyed after purchasing a Fantom 8 from Roland that I have to download a DRIVER from MICROSOFT via WinDoze Update!

Just as an update on this I followed the instructions, (selected USB VENDOR, Saved , Restarted etc....) and it did not install the driver for this correctly. It shows up in Windows device manager but I cannot see it anywhere else. And believe it or not the installation and trouble-shooting readme file from Roland is 4500 words! At least if I had the downloaded driver unpacked I could point to it and force an install. Unlike my Behringer UMC404 download / Run / Installed and works!

Hi!

it is very strange that this happens. Still being I am not a Windows's fan, the windows 10 driver installation is seamless. Also setting Fantom in Vendor Mode (recommended) the driver is installed without user intervention. I don't remember if it was downloaded from internet during first detection. But for sure don't needed a windows update for got it.

You will get not only MIDI devices, but also 16 digital audio tracks that you can redirect PC audio output thru these ones.

Not sure what happened for you but I didn't have to download a driver - it was done in the background when I first attached the Fantom to my PC. All automatic, no effort on my part and has perfectly ever since after several OS updates on both Fantom and PC.

Yes it did finally update today but my argument still stands, you should not have to download a driver for a $6000 hardware device from Microsoft if it is not a Microsoft device. The problem I assumed was that it installed when it showed up in 'device manager' as the Fantom device and funtioning correctly, under 'sound, video and game controllers' . This however is not the actual driver, that appeared under 'Programs and Features' as 'Fantom-6 7 8 Driver' when it finally was offered to download and install. The Fantom driver only actually installed as the LAST ITEM after all of the Windows Updates, and then all of the 'OPTIONAL' other updates for hardware drivers were updated, although the computer was working without a fault. The Fantom driver did not even appear on the optional drivers download list or anywhere else untill all of the other updates were completed. I.E., after it updated all of the other garbage like Microsoft Edge and the XBox services that I had already removed or disabled. I did this so that my Windows 10 installation starts up and shuts down in about 10 seconds. I will have to now go back and re-remove some of their bloatware otherwise not only does their junk use a lot of overhead which I could be using for audio processing; it makes Windows 10 run slow, look like a mobile phone operating system, and an ad server.

So to sum up (LOL) I wanted to download one driver from Roland, but had to risk Windows installing the small single Roland Driver completely last, when everything was already running fine, only after it updated everything else which did not need updating. Luckily it still seems fine, although Windows has been known to corrupt complete installations after minor updates.

Why don't you try a Mac if having and using Windows is soooo bad.

Oh poor you.

Would you like Roland to send someone to play it for you as well?

They could probably wipe your arse while they're there, if that's too much trouble for you!

That's life when you're still running cracked software. Welcome to the forum.

So many trolls on here, I thought it was a legitimate gripe.

boxerdad wrote:

Why don't you try a Mac if having and using Windows is soooo bad.

Yeah then the Access Virus TI2 Polar I own and paid $5000 for won't work properly in the latest update as Apple changed the audio drivers, check on this.

JeffB63 wrote:

Oh poor you.

Would you like Roland to send someone to play it for you as well?

They could probably wipe your arse while they're there, if that's too much trouble for you!

If you are 'under the age of 13 [you need] to have written parental consent or some other method of legal guardian acknowledgment' in order to post on here, I think this applies to you (see COPPA).

Devnor wrote:

That's life when you're still running cracked software. Welcome to the forum.

I don't run a cracked version of anything, Windows 10 Pro came with the laptop, but runs like rubbish as it was installed out of the box, so I stripped it down to run better. I have been using computers for a very long time, that's why I had the gripe with Windows 10 NOT installing something as trivial as a driver easily. Maybe the server was down at the time, the point is and was that Roland should supply it not Microsoft. I have actually had to write my own drivers before.

Synth Robot wrote:

So many trolls on here

Nope. Just you.

I wouldn't blame Roland if they have to comply to the computer OS providers hardened drivers policies in the first place (be it Microsoft or Apple).

The Windows Hardware Developer Program allows you to certify your hardware for Windows and sign and publish your drivers to Windows Update.

Microsoft is changing the process for signing your kernel-mode driver packages
Starting in 2021, Microsoft will be the sole provider of production kernel-mode code signatures. You will need to start following Microsoft’s updated instructions to sign any new kernel-mode driver packages going forward. To lean more, see our knowledge base article—Microsoft sunsetting support for cross-signed root certificates with kernel-mode signing capabilities.

And I wouldn't blame Microsoft if a tweak I blatantly made on my system broke something the driver needed to install automatically.
I'd reinstall the system first, before requesting support at Roland Backstage if needed.

Anyways, one can quite easily find and backup the Roland drivers files once installed on a system, by looking into "Program Files/Roland" which hosts the RDDP1***.EXE control panel.

Just open the according RDIF1***.INF file into a text editor to get the binaries names.

E.g. for other Roland gear from the last year:

TR-6S:
RDIF1218.INF
RDWM1218.SYS
RDAS1218.DLL
RDDP1218.EXE
RDCP1218.CPL
RDAW1218.DLL
RDAH1218.DAT

Jupiter-X:
RDIF1211.INF
RDWM1211.SYS
RDAS1211.DLL
RDDP1211.EXE
RDCP1211.CPL
RDAW1211.DLL
RDAH1211.DAT

Should be quite the same for the Fantom.

It's a legitimate gripe, but the way it was written made it sound like a temper tantrum. I don't mean any disrespect, but rather I am just pointing out how it seems to the casual reader of this forum. I would suggest in the future to state your problem and kindly ask for help rather than scream at everyone about your unhappiness of your situation. I wish Roland would come out with their own updated driver also. It is a little flaky for me, but works most of the time.

thorr wrote:

It's a legitimate gripe, but the way it was written made it sound like a temper tantrum...

No I wasn't angry, I was laughing when writing it at how stupid I thought it was to trust Microsoft as the only source of a driver.

Just for reference, if people want to back up all of their drivers in Windows 10, it's easy.

1. Make a directory, e.g.,

c:\WinDoze10Drivers

2. Right Click and Run Powershell as 'admin'.

3. In poweshell type:

Export-WindowsDriver -Online -Destination c:\WinDoze10Drivers

The Fantom driver directory should start with something like like 'rdif1205.inf_..............'

Ironically this driver is according to Roland is v1.0, and made in 2018, and also only 1.2Mb as a zip file when extracted and compressed, this is including all of the readMe.html files. So there is no reason not to have the 1.2Mb on a server somewhere else in case (~14000 times smaller than the average 16Gb USB stick you can get for $5).

Synth Robot wrote:

So there is no reason not to have the 1.2Mb on a server somewhere else in case

The reason is mandatory hardware certification and kernel drivers signature.
That's an industrial and engineering process, not just a matter of hosting files.

Thanks for the rdif1205.inf reference.

Yes, that's a bit strange. They should just provide the drivers on the Fantom homepage. In the end it worked out, bute that's very uncommon.