Fantom-06: My first impressions

[Fantomtom]

After some years using the Fantom-X6, I spontaneously bought the Fantom-06. I got it last saturday from Thomann.

I had some concerns regarding workmanship, haptics and key bed. Fortunately, there is nothing to complain here. The keys are absolutely even, they work pleasantly tight and thus convey a semi-weighted feel. All the faders, pots and encoders run smoothly.

In my opinion, the most weakest point is the display. It has a very high resolution despite its comparatively small size and is razor-sharp (a little bit like Apple's retina displays). However, what is very annoying is the operation of the touchscreen. Some controls are simply too small to be touched safely with a human finger. It is also noticeable that the touch sensitivity decreases at the display's edge. This might also be due to the fact that the display sits in a recess with relatively "steep" edges. I could live with this if there is a stylus that works with the display. My existing styluses (which work fine on other capacitive displays) refuse to work on the Fantom display.

While I'm on the grumpy side: The connection to a computer still has a lot of room for improvement. First, the Logic DAW control plug-in doesn't run natively on M1 Macs. Second, in class-compliant mode the new Fantom only supports MIDI. If you want to transmit/receive MIDI and audio signals via USB, you need Roland's drivers. Audio transfer to/from the iPad via USB is also not possible due to this limitation.

Granted, the current Roland drivers work fine on my M1 Mac. However, I have had very bad experiences with Roland's driver support in the past. Even the tiny Roland MC-101 handles USB audio and MIDI without drivers. Therefore I hope very much that Roland still delivers this by update. But I wouldn't bet on it ...

Well, here and there I miss things that my old Fantom-X6 still could, for example, to define your own chord sets or to create user arpeggios. On the other hand, the workflow for creating songs directly on the device has been greatly simplified on the new Fantom.

All in all, I'm very happy with my new Fantom. Now I have to find a stylus pen which works with the Fantom's touch display ;). And I hope that Roland delivers class-compliant audio soon.

[TheSuperNova]

How do you find the sounds on the board? I'd think if you have had a number of Roland boards before there is no surprises here.

I'd also love Roland to make the Fantom class complaint, would really to combine it with the iPad for pianos because the Roland pianos on this board don't do it for me.


Can you also confirm if the keyboard multisample is 256MB like they mentioned on the Roland spec sheet on the website?

[neomad]

I don't think that drivers can be 'converted' to class compliant as such. Glad to know that keys are good !

[Fantomtom]

I don't think that drivers can be 'converted' to class compliant as such. Glad to know that keys are good !

Roland has managed this with the MC-101/MC-707. At the beginning, they were also only class-compliant to MIDI. BTW, there is nothing to "convert drivers", because class-compliant means "no driver".

Regarding the keys: It reminds me extremely of the Fantom-X 6 key bed.

[neomad]

I understand what you say, I imagine that internal SO needs to change to make it class compliant. Hopefully they will do it.

[anotherscott]

I don't think that drivers can be 'converted' to class compliant as such.

class-compliant means "no driver".

There are no drivers in the keyboard. Drivers are in the computer, or other attached USB host device. The Fantom gives you a choice between using their own ("vendor") driver, if that driver is installed on your computer, or using the standard "class compliant" driver (e.g. already built into Mac and Windows OS), if you don't have Roland's driver installed or if you're connecting to a device that you cannot install Roland's driver on (like an iPad). The issue is that the class-compliant compatibility option that Roland has built into the keyboard is only for MIDI over USB, and not for simultaneous audio over USB.

[Tarkov72]

Thank you for the first impressions. I have one on pre-order and my biggest concern was the display as I have chubby fingers so you confirmed my fears somewhat. I was hoping for the stylus solution as well. Please let us know which stylus you find ends up working! It looked to me like you can adjust a lot of parameters with the knobs and buttons around the screen though. Is this true?

[Fantomtom]

I was hoping for the stylus solution as well. Please let us know which stylus you find ends up working!

Will do.

You can bypass the touchscreen in many situations via the hardware buttons.

Example: The touch button in the upper left corner (which is very difficult to "hit" on the touch screen and often doesn't respond) can be bypassed via the hardware buttons (MENU or EXIT).

Unfortunately, some "shortcuts" like SHIFT + CURSOR LEFT / RIGHT are not documented. Something I also miss is an audible feedback on touch events (like on the Yamaha MODX).

However, I wouldn't overestimate the problems with the touchscreen.

[Tarkov72]

Good to know. I think if there's plenty that can be done with the buttons then it'll be fine. I'm looking forward to this one. It'll be quite a step up from my old Roland Juno-G!

[neomad]

I don't think that drivers can be 'converted' to class compliant as such.

class-compliant means "no driver".

The issue is that the class-compliant compatibility option that Roland has built into the keyboard is only for MIDI over USB, and not for simultaneous audio over USB.

I don't think that drivers can be 'converted' to class compliant as such.

class-compliant means "no driver".

There are no drivers in the keyboard.

Exactly as the FA series. So the problem is in the keyboard built-in config (I was mistakenly calling it drivers) so Roland is the only one that can solve it. Then it goes to back my point: Roland needs to fix the _____ to have the keyboard class compliant, but I am doubtful... is this possible?

[anotherscott]

Exactly as the FA series. So the problem is in the keyboard built-in config (I was mistakenly calling it drivers) so Roland is the only one that can solve it. Then it goes to back my point: Roland needs to fix the _____ to have the keyboard class compliant, but I am doubtful... is this possible?

It's a good questions as to whether it's even possible.

I believe the first board to have this function was Kronos, and then it came to Yamaha's MOFX, Montage, MODX. I'm not sure of the other that boards have it, but something at least all of those boards have in common is that they are built on Linux. So apart from whatever hardware might be required for this (which the Kronos presumably automatically had by virtue of already containing a full PC motherboard), the software side might have been somewhat easy to implement, because Linux probably already has well established code for supporting class compliant audio over USB, so they may not have had to re-invent that particular wheel. Such low-level OS code is some of the trickiest to write, I believe.

So from that foundation, there are a number of possible reasons these Rolands might not have the feature, which may or may not be addressable. Do they have the required hardware? Are they built on Linux? And if not, does Roland's underlying OS have the capability to support that function, and what would be involved in doing so?

But all this is speculative, only Roland knows whether it is feasible, and if so, what kind of effort would be involved.

[Steampump]

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

[Figueira]

Instalei o drive em meu Mac m1 ,reconheceu tudo perfeitamente,porém a função Dawcontrol me mostra que o teclado não está conectado...alguém com esse problema tbm?

[vespina]

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

I don't think that drivers can be 'converted' to class compliant as such. Glad to know that keys are good !

[neomad]

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

I don't think that drivers can be 'converted' to class compliant as such. Glad to know that keys are good !

Thank you. That is what I was trying to say with the 'converted'