Six requests to Roland in august 2021

25 Jul 2021, 05:57

Hi everyone, and specially the Roland developer team,

At first, I would like to thank a lot Roland to making a so powerful and evolutive workstation. It's amazing: good sounds, good tools and really useful for a musician.
When I turn on my Fantom7 - I bought it 3 months ago - it's like a dream each time. Thank you!

In this post, I would add some requests, after having updated my Fantom7 with the 2.5 version (I'm very impressed by the new organ unit on Z2... good job!). Let's go:

1) The possibility to copy/paste a zone inside a scene (and I have read this request by others members). I'm really surprised that a so intuitive tool is not integrated yet. Don't have it slows down my workflow. :-(

2) I'm used to work mainly with two views : just one zone, or 4 zones (and I slide them on the screen). Not the others views. So, it's really boring to have to push the "zone view" button 3 times to come back on my preview. Heavy workflow. Adding navigation arrows would be a solution. But why not using the PAD, linked to the zone view? When I choose the "zone view mode", it will be great to adjust the number of zones displayed on the screen, by pushing a PAD button (between 1 to 16, or just 1,4, 8 and 16).
This possibility could be set up by on option/item in the SYSTEM Menu ("zone view linked to the PAD").

3) For V-Piano (and why not the others): adding a "local touch" setting.
For example, in the "Tone Edit", it will be powerful to add a new tab "Touch". On this menu, we can choose "Default/system" (by default) or change the touch of our piano : Soft/Medium/Heavy + velocity curve...
I find this really important, because I don't expect the same touch with a Honky-Tonk or a Rock piano, and a smooth jazz piano. And it's the reality!

4) The Tempo "menu" : when I click on the Tempo button, it's too poor. It would be useful to have access to others settings. Specially the tempo signature 3/4, 7/8 etc. And a quick access to the system menu for the click (type, accent etc.).
Why not doing that with SHIFT+TEMPO ?

5) PAD Mode "Kb Switch Group": it would be powerful to be able to save others main settings, not only zones on/off.
For example, inside the same scene, I would like to switch between two groups with different levels and reverb sends.
Group1 : piano (Z1, level 100) + Strings1 (Z4, level 70) + strings2 (Z5, level 80)
Group2 : piano (Z1, level 110) + Strings1 (Z4, level 50) + small strings (Z6, level 50)

6) PAD Mode "Solo Group" : it would be powerful to add on option in order to have (if wanted) a solo zone on the "full keyboard". For the moment, it keeps the split settings and it's not what I want.

I hope this post will be read soon by Roland developer team, :)

Guilhome

Re: Six requests to Roland in august 2021

25 Jul 2021, 11:43

#1 I really like. Put a copy-and-paste soft button on EVERY screen!

#2 Using the ZONE VIEW button works fine for me but I would like to be able to control which default view I get when I boot the Fantom. Ditto for PATTERN VIEW.

#3 Touch Adjustment Button - I would definitely find that useful, especially if it was recordable

#4 expanded TEMPO button - neutral on this, BUT I sure would like to be able to adjust the tempo with the 3rd knob over instead of the dial.

#5 recall-able "snap shots" via pads, would be great for live performance

#6 SPLIT/SOLO button, also great for live

My own personal request: I really like S1, S2, S3 definable hardware buttons. Those 16 TR buttons sure look tasty. Why not let us define those as well by SHIFT/TR button 1-16

Re: Six requests to Roland in august 2021

26 Jul 2021, 01:20

#2 I agree with you, PaulGreen, about a "default view".
I forgot to talk about the "DISP" option/item on the screen: it's a "good idea" but not really useful. It's to small and then - when I'm working - I don't like to aim this little item, to choose (1,4,8,16) and next to validate it ! It's require 3 actions just for a come back.
I'm thinking about a shortcut: why not combine {ZONE VIEW + "<"} to go back on a preview?

#S1, S2 and S3 like hardware buttons : I agree too (I ever read this request)!

Thanks for your comments :)

Re: Six requests to Roland in august 2021

27 Jul 2021, 05:59

The most urgent need in my opinion would be VARIPHRASING!
Fantom absolutely need time stretching and pitch shifting NOW!!!

My small wish would be having the waveform invert function made available when working with samples as well.

Re: Six requests to Roland in august 2021

27 Jul 2021, 16:20

Guilhome wrote:

1) The possibility to copy/paste a zone inside a scene (and I have read this request by others members). I'm really surprised that a so intuitive tool is not integrated yet. Don't have it slows down my workflow. :-(

+1000 for this. Would be very useful.

Re: Six requests to Roland in august 2021

27 Jul 2021, 22:00

I agree, I don’t understand why you have to go back to choosing what track count overview you desire everytime…I prefer 16 track view for instance, can’t I just choose a default setting in the main menu?

Re: Six requests to Roland in august 2021

28 Jul 2021, 12:08

Italosynth wrote:

I agree, I don’t understand why you have to go back to choosing what track count overview you desire everytime…I prefer 16 track view for instance, can’t I just choose a default setting in the main menu?

+1

Re: Six requests to Roland in august 2021

3 Aug 2021, 18:16

Guilhome wrote:

5) PAD Mode "Kb Switch Group": it would be powerful to be able to save others main settings, not only zones on/off.
For example, inside the same scene, I would like to switch between two groups with different levels and reverb sends.
Group1 : piano (Z1, level 100) + Strings1 (Z4, level 70) + strings2 (Z5, level 80)
Group2 : piano (Z1, level 110) + Strings1 (Z4, level 50) + small strings (Z6, level 50)

And add a pedal or switch assignment for the pads (SHIFT-PAD (1-16) for ex.). While playing I have no time to reach for the pads to switch.

Pete

Re: Six requests to Roland in august 2021

6 Aug 2021, 11:31

When SwitchGroups do not match your requirements, as it happened to me, try by expanding your performance to several scenes, then use a pedal (any but HOLD) to change scenes.

I gave up using them after realising there was no way to select the desire zone as the active zone.

I said it long ago....

What I cannot understand is that after grouping zones in the keypad, there is no way to specify which zone will be the active one, the one that will be affected by the selection switches... the effects....etc.

You have to press one key in the pad [step 1], then activate the 1-8 or 9-16 zone switch [step 2], and finally select the active zone [step 3]...

And you are committed to do it for as many groups you have made !!!!

http://forums.rolandclan.com/viewtopic.php?f=66&t=57661&p=319800&hilit=switch#p319800

Re: Six requests to Roland in august 2021

6 Aug 2021, 19:16

FGM wrote:

What I cannot understand is that after grouping zones in the keypad, there is no way to specify which zone will be the active one, the one that will be affected by the selection switches... the effects....etc.

You have to press one key in the pad [step 1], then activate the 1-8 or 9-16 zone switch [step 2], and finally select the active zone [step 3]...

And you are committed to do it for as many groups you have made !!!!

http://forums.rolandclan.com/viewtopic.php?f=66&t=57661&p=319800&hilit=switch#p319800

You are correct--you can do it for a Scene but not for Switch Groups within a Scene. When I save a Scene, it will save whatever Zone I have active as the 'active' Zone when I recall the scene. To the best of my knowledge, it has always worked this way. Just make sure the Zone you want to be the active one is selected when you do the Scene save. Also, when you are saving Scenes, go to Zone view (doesn't matter which one) and arrow up as much as needed to make sure the highlighted Zone is the *name* of the Scene at the very top and NOT one of the Zones.

You are correct that if using Switch Groups you can't specify which Zone to make active. But in that case you could just make separate Scenes and step through them.

I've saved all my Scenes this way and when I recall them whatever Zone I want as the active one is recalled that way.

-Matt

Re: Six requests to Roland in august 2021

11 Aug 2021, 05:52

FGM wrote:
When SwitchGroups do not match your requirements, as it happened to me, try by expanding your performance to several scenes, then use a pedal (any but HOLD) to change scenes.
I gave up using them after realising there was no way to select the desire zone as the active zone.

Thanks FGM for this advice.
Using a pedal for switching between my scenes would be a good solution too (ok... a pedal is necessary).

I will test it.

Guilhome

Re: Six requests to Roland in august 2021

11 Aug 2021, 06:55

Well, once scenes will take place of keyboard SwitchGroups (to a great advantage taking into account the expanding orchestration capabilities), we can use S3, as its placement is well close to many chord arrangements, and since it can be set to Increase/decrease (scene change in a chain if scene numbering turns out not being correlative) or scene up/down (not necessarily in a chain or in a chain when scenes are correlative), a pedal might be not finally needed.

I recently received my pedals and still find myself reaching for S3...

The good thing is that the options keep increasing...

Would Roland allow voice control at a later stage...?
A whisper asking for next/previous scene, next/previous zone....

Oh, yes: far much easier, I think, than a colour TV, a Mercedes Benz and Dialing for dollars finally finding me... without forgetting a night on the town.