I have been thinking this lately myself but I did not think that it was necessarily the case until after reading some comments from some other people on this forum and now I see that I am not alone in wondering what Roland is doing in regards to further supporting the FS. I see that the V-Synth and the MC-909 have free patches that you can download from the Roland US web site yet I see no free patches for the FS. Roland admitted in the very beginning that the owner’s manual was rushed and poorly done but where is the new manual? Roland claimed that the FS was Windows 98 compatible but where is the USB driver to make this happen? Roland claimed that the FS read sample formats wav, aiff and others. What are the “others” and when if ever will the FS be able to read these “others?” I am still very happy with my FS but I will admit to being more than a little unhappy with Roland right now.
You the man, Artemio!
Roland, where is the support for the Fantom-S?
Re: Roland, where is the support for the Fantom-S?
Also, Roland created specific sites for the V-Synth the MC-909 - why not for the Fantom-S/S88?
gtds
gtds
Re: Roland, where is the support for the Fantom-S?
Roland will not create a Fantom-S site, because it will never beat mine.
Re: Roland, where is the support for the Fantom-S?
I will agree with you that they could not do a better job of building a FS web site. Web sites in general seem to be a problem with Roland right now. I have tried signing up for the bi-yearly RUG magazine several times over the last few weeks and have yet to get the submitted form to be accepted.
You the man, Artemio!
You the man, Artemio!
Re: Roland, where is the support for the Fantom-S?
Welcome to the world of Roland. Meanwhile over at Motifator.com the Yamaha reps continue to respond to various posts on an almost hourly basis.
Re: Roland, where is the support for the Fantom-S?
No big surprise as Roland has become a marketing geared company. Im sure support isnt on the top of their list.
At work i got a call from one of the roland reps, one of the big cheeses in vancouver.. he asked me if i had the SI-24 connected up in the store. It wasnt and i told him so.. we didnt want to take it out of the box since it would be harder to unload if the chance came around. He then told me that if i connected it in the store to our G4 and played the demo song to him over the phone he would send me a roland jacket. Heh.. my manager didnt seem to like that very much and decided to not set it up. Roland isnt playin like everyone else, and id be very concerned about the intentions of that company.
At work i got a call from one of the roland reps, one of the big cheeses in vancouver.. he asked me if i had the SI-24 connected up in the store. It wasnt and i told him so.. we didnt want to take it out of the box since it would be harder to unload if the chance came around. He then told me that if i connected it in the store to our G4 and played the demo song to him over the phone he would send me a roland jacket. Heh.. my manager didnt seem to like that very much and decided to not set it up. Roland isnt playin like everyone else, and id be very concerned about the intentions of that company.
Re: Roland, where is the support for the Fantom-S?
The main Roland site with the orange color is poorly maintained by Apollo Interactive. Maybe the other sites are handled in-house or outsourced. There is no way of knowing.
Despite the visible shortcomings of Roland, you will never be able to fix them. That is a curious thing about business. Sometimes an outsider can see clearly what is wrong. Unfortunately, that does not mean he will be allowed to fix it. Great businesses recognize that it takes an outsider with related business experience to come in and eradicate whatever is wrong. Good or very good businesses can still survive over the long term by doing enough things correctly and managing risk, even if they do not handle everything as well as the excellent companies.
Concerning the manual, I like it a lot. I keep reading and re-reading it every day. Before I returned those other S88 synths I examined the manual product ID for changes. There was a slight change in the IDs printed on one of the manuals. I could not locate any differences inside the manual, so the difference in ID's on the back could have reflected something like a printing run number or the print shop that produced it.
I have 2 old Windows 98 machines that I plan to throw away soon. Maybe next weekend I will try installing the Roland software on one of them to see if it works with the USB driver. I use XP on my main computer, and 2000 on the other secondary computer.
Despite the visible shortcomings of Roland, you will never be able to fix them. That is a curious thing about business. Sometimes an outsider can see clearly what is wrong. Unfortunately, that does not mean he will be allowed to fix it. Great businesses recognize that it takes an outsider with related business experience to come in and eradicate whatever is wrong. Good or very good businesses can still survive over the long term by doing enough things correctly and managing risk, even if they do not handle everything as well as the excellent companies.
Concerning the manual, I like it a lot. I keep reading and re-reading it every day. Before I returned those other S88 synths I examined the manual product ID for changes. There was a slight change in the IDs printed on one of the manuals. I could not locate any differences inside the manual, so the difference in ID's on the back could have reflected something like a printing run number or the print shop that produced it.
I have 2 old Windows 98 machines that I plan to throw away soon. Maybe next weekend I will try installing the Roland software on one of them to see if it works with the USB driver. I use XP on my main computer, and 2000 on the other secondary computer.
Re: Roland, where is the support for the Fantom-S?
I've owned Roland gear since 1985. They've always struck me as somewhat arrogant and obstinate in terms of the amount they do or don't listen to customers. However they make great equipment, even though many times they only get 90% of the way there, which IMHO is the case with the Fantom S.