Fantom-06: My first impressions

[Tarkov72]

I've had my Fantom-06 for about a month and a half so I figured I'd chime in with my first impressions after some use (and I'm still far from an expert):

Workflow: I'm already getting around pretty quick on it. Editing is fast and I like how the shift + button can get you to screens quick. The sequencer is fun and fast to use. I had an MC-101 so I'm familiar with Roland's current sequencing ways. Switching between clips with the touchscreen I find a little finnicky and for people looking for a "groovebox" type experience on this keyboard could be disappointed. Fortunately, I am not looking for that and interested more in recording and playing back my performances chained together so this isn't really much of an issue for me. I find the whole experience faster than a DAW (but I'm not great with DAWs anyway) which is largely why I like having a workstation.

Sounds: I'm coming from Roland Juno-G so the sound is a massive upgrade. Since I did have the MC-101, I already heard Zencore and liked the way it sounded compared to the Juno-G, which had this kind of muffled quality to it. Zencore has a more crisp, airy, hi-fi sound to my ears. VA stuff is solid for synth sounds. But I agree with most everyone else about the acoustic pianos. I'm not that impressed with them.

Build quality: I actually like the keys. The Juno-G's were awful, and I didn't like the Yamaha MODX I tried before this either. So these keys for me are just on the right side of "good enough". They aren't too noisy or clacky, which is pet peeve of mine. The knobs and sliders are pretty good and don't feel too cheap but aren't rock solid. I don't know about anyone else, but my front panel button holes are cut in such a way that many of the buttons are off center. It doesn't affect the functionality, but it makes the board look a bit cheaper. Maybe this is just an early adopter thing. Anyone else's this way? Looking at the Juno-G the buttons are all right in the center of the holes. It's a very minor thing though.

Touchscreen: If you couldn't use the buttons and knobs to control the majority of things I would have a problem with it but you can bypass it so much that I'm fine. The screen can be a bit finnicky especially when tapping stuff near the edge of the screen. but I also have fat fingers. Getting a stylus seems like it will be very helpful.

Overall I'm very happy with this one and feel like if I'm going to buy a Roland workstation every 15 years then I picked the right time to do it.

[dpulver]

I own a Fantom 06 now 2 weeks. Before i had several Roland keys (Fantom FA-06, Fantom X6, Fantom 76 - in this order!). The best of all this gears of the fantom series was really thy first earliest Fantom (76) !! The new Fantom 06 has several improvements, but also a few less good points.

The built quality, keyboard, knobs and faders are very good. The screen is very good and sharp and in my opinion the touch sensivity is also very good. For me it feels like on a iPad and also start/stop the patterns on screen works fine for me.

The most people - also so did i - don't just realize, that the Fantom 0 series is not a workstation - like his brothers before! So the expectations could be higher than the reality will be with this gear. There is no sequencer - even recording an audio track is not possible. Only through the sampling function. Well - an extra sequencer/DAW is still needed for those, who want to record longer, linear solo tracks or voice from the microphone. If we don't focus to these points, then the Fantom 0 is a really good instrument.

[anotherscott2022]

Is not a driver issue, but something that can be solved with a firmware update on the keyboard itself.

I'm not sure about that. Yamaha MX was originally not class compliant for audio, and then the MX was revised (no change to the model name) and that feature was added, but it could not be added to the earlier models, apparently it required different hardware to work, so you need to have a later MX to have that feature.

[Español]

Got the Fantom-07.
Make system upgrade quickly to release 1.01 (22.03.2022 bug fix and other things)
Synthesizer is not bad for this price but memory amount is a shame 256Mb for samples and expansions. Exsn01 Exsn02 Exsn03 are already loaded .
Added added Exz008,Exz015 (free on roland cloud) 184MB used now.
Zenology lite only VST3 no VST2

I have seen that version 1.02 was released in July.