Cloning an old Fantom X8 to a new one

[Waynester]

Hi guys,

I am buying a 2nd Fantom X8
It’s mint condition and hardly been used
Where as my current one has been gigged for 15 years!

my current X8 has 4 x expansion boards installed and the extra 512MB Ram, how do I clone my existing X8 onto my new one?

I’d obviously put the 512MB ram and 4 expansion boards from my old one into exactly the same slots in the new one, but can I copy all my existing sounds and settings so that my 2nd X8 is like my old one?

I have a 512MB Compact flash card in the back
I have saved quite a lot of sounds onto it
But then I have also saved sounds into the internal memory

Can I clone my X8 without having to use a PC with USB cable?
I do trigger a couple of samples from the pads

Any help would be great :)

[Andy Keys]

Hi Wayne,

The easiest way would be to do a full User Backup to a CF card and then just Restore that to the new Fantom.
Obviously, you need a card big enough to store your samples, if you have any,
See Owner's Manual p.235.

Glad to hear you're still out there and gigging your X8.

[rcraven]

Hi Wayne
An extra note:
Same slots for the expansion boards are not necessary as the waves and patches are unique for the different types of SRX cards internally in the Fantom.
The X8 will find them if you have user Patches/Performances that reference the expansion card elements no matter what slots they are in.
All the best
Royce

[pianoman41]

Hi Wayne
An extra note:
Same slots for the expansion boards are not necessary as the waves and patches are unique for the different types of SRX cards internally in the Fantom.
The X8 will find them if you have user Patches/Performances that reference the expansion card elements no matter what slots they are in.
All the best
Royce

This is not correct. While the X will find the patches without issue in Patch Mode, any User Performance that references a specific patch from an expansion card will show as a blank patch if the wrong card is in the expansion slot.

Performances reference patches by location/bank/slot. Here is an example of the reference structure:

XP-A 064 VIOLIN solo

The first four characters represent the location and bank (XP-A/B/C/D=Expansion Slot, PR-A/B/C/D/E/F/G/H/I=Preset Bank, USER=User Bank, CARD=Card Bank, GM=General MIDI Bank, USAM=User Bank Sample, CSAM=Card Bank Sample)

The next three digits represent the patch number (001-999).

Finally, the last twelve characters represent the patch name.

As a real world example, I have two X7s and each has SRX-06 Complete Orchestra installed. Patch 064 on SRX-06 is "VIOLIN solo" and since my first X7 has SRX-06 in Exp Slot A, the patch shows like above as XP-A 064 VIOLIN solo. The second X7 has SRX-06 in Exp Slot B, so it shows as XP-B 064 VIOLIN solo.

If I have a performance in the first X7 that uses patch XP-A 064 VIOLIN solo in, say, Part 1, when I copy that User Performance to the second X7 and call up the performance it will not automatically change the patch to XP-B 064 VIOLIN solo in that User Performance. Instead, when the X7 can't find the patch with that name in that slot, it will leave the patch empty/blank. It won't even reference the wrong patch. In the second X7, I have SRX-07 Ultimate Keys installed in Exp Slot A. Patch 064 on SRX-07 is "Analog Bell". You would think it might leave the location/bank/patch reference and point to XP-A 064 Analog Bell but Roland engineers knew that would not be what the artist wanted so instead they chose to make the patch empty if the reference was not an exact match.

So Wayne is correct--you need to put the SRX cards in the same slots if you want User Performances to work correctly.

[Waynester]

Thanks mate - I was just gonna put my SRX cards from my old X8 into the new one in the exact same slots :) I’m glad I have to do this as it would drive my OCD insane!!! hahahahaha

[rcraven]

You are right, my bad.
I was thinking more of the unique identifiers on the waves on the cards.
Apologies.
Royce

[battlecate]

This is all really great information, and something that I bet few people would ever need to know about. Not many people have the opportunity to get a new keyboard and migrate to it.

Thanks for the civil posts.

--BC