Fao8 v Fantom08

[Vene]

Hi there,
I’ve owned an Fao8 now for several years and have been very pleased using it on its own gigging in a Uk covers band. I’ve found the sounds good & have added Axial (2) keyboard and orchestral (10) sounds as well thereby giving good choice for organ, sax, strings etc Really like using the keyboard switch group function & having no drop off of sound, setlist function etc. I’d love to hear from people who have changed from Fao8 to Fantom 08 and whether it’s worth it. I know Fa is now discontinued and won’t get updated but can’t decide whether it’s worth changing or not. Is the keybed of Fantom 08 much different to Fa08? Thanks in advance

[xp30]

The following topic contains some good information about the differences between the FA-06 and Fantom-06: https://forums.rolandclan.com/viewtopic ... 72&t=68927

I can't say anything specifically about the 88-key models, because I have owned neither of them.

[Vene]

Thanks for providing that link which has answered lots of my questions. Can you please clarify whether Fantom o has ability to save scenes in order for a setlist. Fao8 enables favourites to be created in banks which is brilliant for a setlist. I think the Fantom has scene chain which does something similar. Does the Fantom o enable this? Without it, it would be v difficult moving quickly from scene to scene when playing live.

[Cabijista]

Hi there,
I’ve owned an Fao8 now for several years and have been very pleased using it on its own gigging in a Uk covers band. I’ve found the sounds good & have added Axial (2) keyboard and orchestral (10) sounds as well thereby giving good choice for organ, sax, strings etc Really like using the keyboard switch group function & having no drop off of sound, setlist function etc. I’d love to hear from people who have changed from Fao8 to Fantom 08 and whether it’s worth it. I know Fa is now discontinued and won’t get updated but can’t decide whether it’s worth changing or not. Is the keybed of Fantom 08 much different to Fa08? Thanks in advance

I’ve owned both. The PHA4 action is more much responsive than the ivory feel g on the FA. You can control dynamics more and repeated notes are easier as the keys snap back faster (though the PHA4 is still not the best action in this regard).

Other advantages of Fantom-0 include:

The dedicated zone buttons and faders. It’s A LOT easier to mix and match sounds with these than on the FA.

The step sequencer with TR-Rec makes drum sequencing a lot easier.

The Zen synthesis engine is better.

The organ is better (though I wouldn’t say a lot better), and being able to use the aforementioned sliders to control the draw bars and/or touch screen is much better than on the FA where your best option is controlling 6 of them on knobs or menu diving and controlling one at a time.

The dedicated 1024 step high resolution cutoff and resonance knobs are a nice addition.

Scene chain is fantastic function that greatly improves set list organization from the FA.

The menu design is similar but is easier to navigate on the Fantom, owing in no small part to the addition of the touch screen.

—

There are a couple of things that the FA arguably does better though.

Many people prefer the linear sequencing of the FA to the clip based sequencing of the Fantom. I think this really comes down to personal taste, but something to think about.

The supernatural sounds have more tweakability on the FA. With the pianos you have the option to tweak string resonance for example, on the Fantom-0 you don’t.

Though the PhA4 action is superior, it is prone to creating clicky-sounding keys. I’ve own both a Rd-88 and Fantom-08 - which both use pha4 - and both of them developed clicky sounding keys pretty quickly. This doesn’t affect how the instrument plays mind you, but it’s annoying.

[keego73]

Thanks for providing that link which has answered lots of my questions. Can you please clarify whether Fantom o has ability to save scenes in order for a setlist. Fao8 enables favourites to be created in banks which is brilliant for a setlist. I think the Fantom has scene chain which does something similar. Does the Fantom o enable this? Without it, it would be v difficult moving quickly from scene to scene when playing live.

All 0 series have a feature called chain mode which allows for scenes to placed in a running order. You can the. Use the 16 instrument select buttons to select each chain or use a pedal to scroll through.

[xp30]

I’d love to hear from people who have changed from Fao8 to Fantom 08 and whether it’s worth it.

The Fantom-08 costs atm about 1,500 GBP, and I guess you might get 600-700 GBP for your FA-08 if you sell it on the used market. That means you have to invest around 800-900 GBP into the upgrade. It would be interesting to hear from you why you think the upgrade is worth it.

I can think of some reasons. For example:

(a) If you spend a lot of time creating and tweaking tones, then the Fantom-08 might save a lot of time, because the touch screen and the encoders below the touch screen make it much easier to edit tones.

(b) If you are interested in buying sound packs for cover songs, then it might be easier to find them for the Fantom-08, because it is newer, and because it is (mostly) compatible with the big Fantom.

[jazzmammal@gmail.com]

I'm an example of people having different needs. I'm a long time B3 organ guy, I only play in live bands and maybe half the time I'm playing bass so I'm loving the Tone Wheel Organ. I recently sold my FA06 primarily because the organ is very weak, no C/V, no live controls, weak Rotary, the TWO on the fantom is simply much better in every way, it's very close to my Hammond SK1 which is great for organ, weak for the limited Extra Voices soundset. So close in fact I'm going to selling that as well. On the FA I had different organ drawbar settings in a Studio Set that I had put as keyswitches onto the pads but they were simply drawbar presets, no live control available. When I became aware of the Fantom O7 I jumped on it. I've been using 61 key keyboards for several years and got tired of it. I had a 76 for years and just needed to go back to that. This Fantom is priced right, has a great organ and way more sounds than I'll ever need. I just posted some questions about Zone Select that I'm sure I'll figure out with some help but other than that for my needs, the Fantom is definitely superior to the FA.