About New Successor of the FA Series

Maybe, but not all musician are interested in bringing a computer to a gig either. I know I'm not. In the studio, no problem. My point is that since this is supposed to be a "successor" to the FA, one would expect added features to the FA not a shrunk version of the Fantom. Roland probably figured that marketing wise this direction would attracts more buyers than the other way around. This essentially may put an end to the FA where they could have improved with a new firmware and not have to reinvent the wheel. The Zen-Core engine, the few added Super Natural sounds and the added buttons and sliders are really nice but from what I'm reading, the memory and sequencer limitations plus the pretty steep cost to add Model Expansions modules does not seem to please new users that much. Plus to add the Model EXP you need to remove the preinstalled Expansions which Im sure is frustrating.
I think the FA is a great board and the use of the SD card for memory is great. I have different SD card for different gigs and can even upload a new back up in between sets which provides a lot of flexibility . They should have tried to build on that approach instead but what to I know? I'll stick with mine for a good while still. If I need some fancy sounds for recording in he studio, I'll connect to the Roland Cloud or other online VST. For live, I'll live with what's in my FA sound wise and take advantage of the linear sequencer and other features.

Cheers!
GP

Tiguspca wrote:

Maybe, but not all musician are interested in bringing a computer to a gig either. I know I'm not.

I don't bring computers to gigs either. But I don't use sequences, I just play. There's often a sequencer in one of my boards, but I have no use for it. Different strokes...

Tiguspca wrote:

My point is that since this is supposed to be a "successor" to the FA, one would expect added features to the FA

It's not just Roland or just this model, this happens a lot. As I mentioned, the MODX similarly did not have all the features of the previous MOXF (even though it added many others). The Nord Stage 3 and Electro 6, as good as they are, are also missing useful features that were on the Nord Stage 2 and Electro 5. When I got a Korg M50 years ago, while I appreciated its advances (e.g. touchscreen, more effects), I was also disappointed that it didn't have all the features of the TR it replaced (i.e. aftertouch, assignable outs, and sampling). There are numerous other examples. You simply can't assume that a model's replacement will do everything its predecessor did, it often doesn't.

Tiguspca wrote:

The Zen-Core engine, the few added Super Natural sounds and the added buttons and sliders are really nice

While the new SN Acoustic Tones are nice, it's also notable that it's missing a bunch of the ones that are in the FA! It's missing the SN guitars, acoustic basses, clav and wurli, I think. But it adds brass, choir, harp, winds, and solo strings.

But besides the things you mention, I think some other significant benefits over the FA include the touchscreen patch selection and editing, the much improved seamless sound switching, the keyboard-playable user sampled sounds, and a better tonewheel organ implementation (e.g. in chorus/vibrato and rotary/overdrive).

Tiguspca wrote:

but from what I'm reading, the memory and sequencer limitations plus the pretty steep cost to add Model Expansions modules does not seem to please new users that much.

It's obviously the wrong board for someone who needs an FA-style sequencer. With Yamaha also omitting that from the MODX, if you wanted to move up to a higher end board with sequencer, you'd have to look at a Korg or Kurzweil. As for memory, it's a cup half-full or half-empty scenario. Sure, it's less than what's in the Fantom, but it's more than what's in the FA. And people never like paying for expansions, especially if they are free on other models. But even if you bought every expansion, Fantom-0 is still over a grand less than the Fantom with "free" expansions (i.e. you're still kind of paying for them, one way or another). And of course, those expansions are not available at all on the FA.

Tiguspca wrote:

Plus to add the Model EXP you need to remove the preinstalled Expansions which Im sure is frustrating.

There is a limit on how many expansions you can load without removing something. But if you look at the SRX-based expansions that are available for both the FA and the Fantom-0, the new model lets you load more than the two maximum you can load on the FA, where again you'd be in a situation of having to remove something to add something else. So again, it kind of depends what you're comparing it to, too.

For a different perspective, if someone were choosing between a Juno DS and FA, there was a similar issue... moving up to get the improvements of the FA, you'd also lose some nice advantages of the DS, like the keyboard-playable user sampled sounds, the ability to switch from one Performance (Studio Set equivalent) to another without the sounds cutting out (though there could be effects glitches), and dedicated sliders for the volumes of different sides of a split. With the Fantom-0, there's now a board that has almost everything the FA has, and almost everything the DS has, and more. But yeah, it's not 100%, and that may not be much solace if one of the things left out is something you use a lot.