Is Fantom X the most powerful hardware sequencer?

[HaveIt]

I have no interest in hard drive recording, so I'm thinking of midi sequencing. Seems the Fantom X is the most complete and easy to use sequencer ever made. Roland may never match it's power again and I haven't found a better sequencer from other manufacturers. It is also spot on timing when slaved to midi clock and MTC, not always true of other gear.

Is love blind or is this the holy grail?

B

[Andy Keys]

I don't know about the best. I guess the best is the one that fits your work flow best.

I like it. Can't tell you more than that, really. I'd like it if it had 16 internal MIDI channels and 16 external MIDI channels.
I'd like it if the audio tracks were controllable via MIDI, too.

Andy

[Ricoche]

I have a Roland Fantom X6 and an X7. I have one in the studio and one I take out on the road. Why the redundancy? It is the best sequencer I've ever used. It's pretty complete although I sometimes wish I had more tracks of course. Other than that I'd say it's darn near perfect. Highly recommended.

[canefire]

I think the best hardware sequencer ever is the Akai MPC 4000. The Fantom S and X are very easy to use.
I have used many sequencers, Yamaha QY, SU700, RM1X, Korg Motif ES, Roland MC909. The Akai is easy to figure out, and has 4 midi outs and 2 midi ins. The midi ports give it the edge plus it can record at 24 bit 96 khz.
Cheers,
Ian

[thunderkyss]

I've got a Fantom-X8, & I agree with canefire, there's lots of room for improvement.

I also have an MV-8800, & it's a lot closer to the "perfect" sequencer. 128 miditracks, 16 internal parts plus 8 audio tracks, and two midi outputs. Song mode, pattern mode, you can use a mouse, & a VGA screen..... purty dang cool. A lot more "powerful" than the Fantom-X.

[HaveIt]

MV-8800 does seem very powerful. Wow, happy to be wrong :)

[robertkoa]

I have a Roland Fantom X6 and an X7. I have one in the studio and one I take out on the road. Why the redundancy? It is the best sequencer I've ever used. It's pretty complete although I sometimes wish I had more tracks of course. Other than that I'd say it's darn near perfect. Highly recommended.

It's been 15 years but I used to use the XP
60 Sequencer with an ASR10 and Mopat Turbo and I used to use Pattern Mode and Nested Patterns- I remember setting those to internal/external or Both.( I think?)
I also used to use very high tempos to increase the sequencer resolution sometimes double time or quadruple time...so if it was 112 bpm I would record at 224 or 448 bpm that sequencer goes to 500...lol.
When I would load in patterns from a quadruple time Song into a double time Song they would play at halftime creating some happy accidents.

I am a guitarist who has good timing and chord knowledge but can't really play keyboards or barely...but listening to the sequences tunes...you would never know.

I am thinking of doing some stuff again using Fantom X..
The XP Sequencer had Groove Templates and Velocity Groove Templates and User Templates you could apply a 37% groove and velocity template of Samba or whatever to highhat or percussion parts and get really slick results.

I was also able to nail AKAI MPC Hiphop feels with that sequencer....

However in one way the AKAI MPC Sequencers are much more powerful-
They have 2 separate Midi Ports for 32 different midi channels.

And Some MPCs have 4 midi Ports for up to 64 discrete Midi Channels- so a whole bunch of separate modules playing different parts and sounds.
Port 1 - 16 midi channels
Port2 -ANOTHER 16 midi channels on another module or Keyboard(s) completely isolated from Port 1 etc etc