fantom 06 smf player

[mr music person]

i would like to ask if any one has attempted to use the new SMF player in the fantom 06. basicaly it is useless as it doesnt automaticaly select the GM sound attached to the SMF but the original sounds in the scene its assignd to. this i believe is a huge oversite as it makes the SMF player useless. i pointed this out in an email but got a reply that was far from satisfactory basicaly snubing me off. so i would ask any one that would desire a fullt functioning SMF player that automaticly selects the CORRECT GM sounds to email roland and ask for an appropiate os update to correct this massive oversite because as it is with no automatic selection of the corrwct GM sounds the SM sonds the SMF player is clearly useless and of no value what so ever.note my FA06, my previous juno stage/juno Di all played the correct GM sounds from the SMF loaded into them so i simply cannot understand for the life of me why roland software developers have made this glaring error in the os software and i can only hope if enough fantom 06 users email to complain abour this that they will release an os update that will correct this substantial error in the software developers thinking. cheers.

[Oleq]

Hello! Could you post their official answer here?

[mr music person]

sorry, ive had several replies back from roland now, the one being after i sent them back a simerler blunt email where they then said "let me speak to my colloages and i will get back to you" they sent that last week but to date havnt yet got back to me from that email. but ive no idea how to post there replies (several) here on roland clan forum. if u know how to if you give me your own personal email address i can forwarward them all to you and you could then post them. my prefered email address is < carlaylward@btinternet.com > though for complicated reasons that is not the email i use for this forum . ok. cheers.

[Oleq]

sorry, ive had several replies back from roland now, the one being after i sent them back a simerler blunt email where they then said "let me speak to my colloages and i will get back to you" they sent that last week but to date havnt yet got back to me from that email. but ive no idea how to post there replies (several) here on roland clan forum. if u know how to if you give me your own personal email address i can forwarward them all to you and you could then post them. my prefered email address is < carlaylward@btinternet.com > though for complicated reasons that is not the email i use for this forum . ok. cheers.

I guess, the letters won't add much (if anything) to what you've already said.
And while we wait for a more specific answer...
I vaguely remember that some Roland device had to be in GM-Mode in order to play SMFs correctly.
But I didn't find anything about it in the Fantom-06_07_08 Owner's Manual...

[mr music person]

hi in resposs i say my previously owned juno stage and juno Di streemed the SMF's from usb in rearl time which is how all SMF players should. it was a bug mistake compleatly removwing all SMF support when they upgraded to the juno DS keyboards. though in the next upgrade they did the FA06 impliment a SMF player though it had to be laborisably be entered manuarly in2 the player one at a time before you can simply spin the dial and select a SMF from a list. only problem here which i didnt say compleatly true as unlike the previous mentioned keyboards the GM sounds selected in the FA06 where sometimes wrong in one or two files/sounds though easyerly corrected. but the majority of SMF's on the FA06 played correctly. my opinion is roland should have stayed with ther original SMF player and streemed the SMF's from usb.

[Oleq]

The support guy pointed out that
"The concept of the SMF player in the Fantom (in my view) is to overcome the limit of 64 bars maximum for musicians who like to playback longer songs than 64 bars."
But wouldn't it be even better not to have such a limitation in the first place?
To be given a "normal", linear sequencer, capable of catching your musical ideas even if an idea is, say, 300 bars long?...

Should a workstation be that computer-dependent, really?

[mr music person]

exactly. a work station should be stand alone as is my kronos 2. though a big fault in my kronos is that its midi sequencer memory is limited to about 40 average songs. not sure how many notes and is volatile lost on turning off keyboard so you have to save the songs to a different memory in the kronos which isnt volatile. then reload the nonvolatile memory into the volitle memory after you turn the kronos back on before you can play it back. this is a huge misdesign of the kronos as it has 64G SSD which i have exspandid by another 140G SSD which could easyerly hold 1,000's of midi files. anyway i digress. back to the fantom it should have been designed right from the start as a fully functioning sequencer which works like the kronos or in fact my FA06's which can save on SDcard 999 (GM) songs very easyerly to select at a turn of a dile and 1 button presses. and of course you can use another SD card for a further 999 (GM) songs. the songs can be GM or your own non GM sounds if use the sequencer and select any sounds you want in the FA06 from its 1,912 presets or your own 512 user sounds. so on those grounds if you want a GM synth that plays more then the original fantom 0 64 bars then the FA06 is a better buy in that case. though the fantom has 3,857 presets and 2,560 user. so if you require more user sounds then the fantom 0 is the one to get. but as a GM instrument its sadly lacking so i hope that the roland guy i was conversing with will pass on my observations as he said he did. what would be even better would be if the fantom 0 was designd like the juno Di/stage where the SMF (and mp3's) would streem directly from the keyboard. any way you would have read my other obsevations in the other emails i sent directly to you and if you know how to post them all here on roland clan forums that would be great for other fantom 0 users to read. cheers.

[mr music person]

just to say one more thing. the glaring mistake in the design of the fantom 0 is that they negleted to include a GM bank of sounds as on just about all of there previous keyboards. as to why they choose not to do so im absoluteltly bewildered. so lets hope they do an os update to correct this if such a thing can be cured by an os update ? without a change in hardware ?.

[Oleq]

if you know how to post them all here on roland clan forums that would be great for other fantom 0 users to read. cheers.

I believe, the old trusted method should work:
select the text you want to share, copy it and then paste here.
Or did you have something else in mind?

[mr music person]

sorry havnt got a clue how to do on my fone. and my roland clan forum email is google gmail on my fone and my computer is BT. i cannot get gmail on my computer so i cant cut and paste on my computer but no idea how to do it on my fone. and even if i did have gmail on my computer i dont know how how to post it into roland clan forum posts. im a bit computer illiterate, only know the simple stuff like on my computer i know how to attach a youtube video to an email to some one but thats just about the limit of my skills. so if you know how to do it can you post for me. cheers.

[Oleq]

sorry havnt got a clue how to do on my fone. and my roland clan forum email is google gmail on my fone and my computer is BT. i cannot get gmail on my computer so i cant cut and paste on my computer but no idea how to do it on my fone. and even if i did have gmail on my computer i dont know how how to post it into roland clan forum posts. im a bit computer illiterate, only know the simple stuff like on my computer i know how to attach a youtube video to an email to some one but thats just about the limit of my skills. so if you know how to do it can you post for me. cheers.

AFAIK, smartphones allow their users to select, copy and paste "all" or blocks of text...

Anyway, here's probably the most informative part of the answers from the support:

" ... The SMF player using the SMF format has been strongly linked to the GS/GM sound source in the past (from the 1990s Sound Brush and Sound Canvas).

However, technically the SMF format is independent from any kind of sound source and can be used for any MIDI unit.

The Fantom series does not feature a GS/GM sound source that´s why there is no GS/GM-compatible sound selection after starting the playback of the SMF file.

The concept of the SMF player in the Fantom (in my view) is to overcome the limit of 64 bars maximum for musicians who like to playback longer songs than 64 bars.

The working concept is: Create a song with up to 16 MIDI tracks in a DAW triggering the sounds of the Fantom Scene currently selected, save the song as SMF, copy the data on a USB device and playback the song on the Fantom using the SMF player.

Even within this SMF song there is a possibility to change tones within a zone using the appropriate Bank Select and Program change numbers.

However I have forwarded the message to the specialists for future reference. ... "

[mr music person]

hi oleq, thanx for posting rolands reply. and of course the fantom if designed how most people would like it. it wouldnt need a DAW to make full use of the capabilities of the fantom 0. and im not sure of the capabilities of my fone. its an older samsung S10 + would guess it could cut and paste but i dont know how to do it. ive not seen cut/paste menues come up on my fone to date so dont know its capabilities. cheers.

[Pool Guy]

I have not posted or visited this site in years, but this post hits home but I used to visit it on a daily basis back in the day. I am currently shopping for a new keyboard that is lighter to gig with than my several Fantom X’s (X7 (x2) for gigs & X8 in studio). I was pretty excited to see the Fantom O and just about ready to pull the trigger.

I have been using my X7 for gigs for many years with great ease. I work with MIDI file backing tracks that I either play along with or sing with, or do both, so I have literally hundreds of these SMF ‘multitrack’ files where I’ve tweaked the individual instrument patches, changed keys, purchased lots of them from 3rd parties, etc….

It appears that I can’t really use these to the same extent in the new Fantom O’s, which to me would be unfortunate. I would be happy if I could just load them onto a flash drive and load them in (as needed), but it seems like this might be a difficult task as well and might take a lot of time to load when needed(?), which if true, would defeat the live performance requirement. Is this accurate?

[mr music person]

ok, ur correct on the fantom 0 range of keyboards but you could get a FA06 as this has a SMF player. only drawback is at 1st you have to go through a sequence of steps to load the SMF's in one at a time. but once loaded you can select any of the loaded SMF's at a spin of a dial. which mite be tedious. also your limited to 999 songs on each SD card inserted. but it is very easy just to change SD for an additional 999 songs though i must dad that on a few isolated SMF's the FA06 played the wrong sound but this was easyerly corrected with some patch selection info settings. but i would actuarly rearly reccomend getting if you can find one an older juno Di/juno stage, ive owned both. as that streems directly from usb and can theofore hold 1,000's of SMF's on 1 usb. and also plays mp3's and automaticly distingwishes between the 2 and they also allways play the correct GM sounds with no errors like the FA06 somtime does rarely. ok. i hope this helps you on what choice keyboard to buy. im quite happy with my FA0Y's but rearly wish i had kept my Di as it is so more user freindly being able to stream directly SMF's and mp3's directly from usb. cheers.

[mr music person]

also pool guy the FA06 and juno Di are very lightweight. i wouldnt get the juno stage if you want compactness as unlike the other keyboards 61 notes the juno stage is 76 notes so not as portable. ok hope all that info helps in choice of your keyboard.. cheers