ROLAND FANTOM G8 WORKSTATION

[Anderton]

You know how virtual instruments love to say "unlimited polyphony?" Well technically that's true, but your computer will run out of CPU power long before you've finished your "Switched-on Beethoven's Ninth" masterpiece. In fact, one of the advantages of hardware is that the polyphony is fixed, so you can always count on a certain number of voices being available. In the case of the Fantom G, it's 128 notes.

 

Now, that may sound like a lot, but it's definitely not "unlimited." That's because a Tone can use two WAV files, so that's two notes right there. If four of those Tones are combined to make a Patch, you're now up to 8 notes, so you can't play more than 16 keys on the keyboard at the same time without experiencing voice-stealing. And of course, if you're in Studio Mode and using lots of parts with lots of notes...well, you can do the math.

 

However, voice-stealing has come a long way since the days of "first note played, first note stolen." You can choose an algorithm that works in that way, i.e., by stealing the oldest note that's still sounding if you exceed the 128-note limit. However, I definitely prefer the other algorithm that steals based on level, where the lowest-level note gets stolen first. This avoids those embarrassing situations where you have something like a pedal-point bass that's been droning on in the background, but gets stolen because it was played early on.

 

Another useful tool is Voice Reserve, where you can allocate up to 64 notes to particular sounds that are "unstealable." For example, in that pedal-point example given above, you could simply reserve one or two notes to the bass so it doesn't get stolen.

 

Now in case you're wondering why I'm talking about polyphony after talking about effects, there's a reason: A lot of programmers design patches with lots of layering to create a thicker, huge sound. However, instead of using two WAV files and detuning them to make a thicker-sounding tone, you can just as easily throw on a chorus and accomplish the same effect - although with the hex chorus, you can do even thicker sounds. (Cakewalk's Rapture soft synth uses a similar trick to provide up to nine notes, spread across the stereo field and slightly detuned, but which use up only one note of polyphony.)

 

As another way to cut down on voice consumption, you can add a reverb effect to give a sound a "tail" rather than doing a long envelope decay. So, with some careful programming and voice management, you can make those 128 notes stretch pretty far.

[Anderton]

Hi all - well, I'm done with the Frankfurt show, finished editing the videos, got really sick with the flu, and did a Harmony Central Confidential newsletter...so now I can get back to Pro Reviews! Yay!!

 

Let's do an overview of the Fantom G8's sequencer, as it's very capable.

 

The main "unit of sequencing" is the song. It can hold up to:

 

128 MIDI tracks

24 audio tracks

Tempo track

Beat track

 

Let's look at each one of these individually.

 

MIDI TRACKS

 

Of course, keyboard workstation sequencers excel at MIDI. However, with the Fantom-G, you have more options that you might expect because of the expansion boards. In addition to assigning a MIDI track to one of the Fantom-G's internal parts, you can also assign it to the up to 16 parts per expansion board, as well as to the MIDI output (again, 16 parts, because of the 16 available channels) for driving an external tone generator.

 

The raw MIDI data can become part of what Roland calls a "phrase," and you can have up to 2,000 of these in a single project. Note that a phrase does not have to be a short loop; for example, it can be an entire, song-length bass part. Nor is it restricted to a single channel - a phrase can have 16 channels' worth of MIDI information.

 

There's a subtle difference between recording with phrases and tracks. When you record into a track, you pick and track and a start time, and go. This type of phrase is "attached" to the start location in the track, and works like a standard linear track. But you can also record into a phrase that has no specific start point; for example, if you want to come up with a bass track by experimenting with several shorter phrases that you assemble to create a track (sort of like how with drum machines, you string patterns together into a song). After creating your collection of phrases, you can then decide where to place them in the sequence. Furthermore, phrases can have a live performance aspect because you can trigger them from the Fantom-G's pads (the "RPS" function).

 

You can export the MIDI data as a Standard MIDI File (SMF), and of course, the Fantom-G can read GM-compatible files. Also note that you're not restricted to real-time recording if your keyboard chops are a little shaky - there's step recording as well.

[Anderton]

AUDIO TRACKS

 

Conceptually, recording audio is a variation on sampling. You can record up to 24 tracks, but that's limited by memory, as audio is recorded into RAM. With an unexpanded Fantom-G, you can record about 6 track-minutes in mono, and 3 track-minutes in stereo - not exactly huge. If you do the 544MB DIMM expansion, though, you're now up to about 54 minutes stereo, and 108 minutes mono. That's really all you need for serious recording, and the fact that it's in RAM is kind of nice, too. As with phrases, there's a limit of 2,000 audio samples per project.

 

High-res recording is not supported; all recording is done at 44.1kHz with 16-bit resolution. Well, it's good enough for CDs, right? However, I don't know if the internal processing is higher...maybe someone from Roland has the answer.

 

One very cool aspect of recording is the ability to use the Input Effects. Although this means the effect is "baked" into the track, with something like limiting or light compression - which might save a track from overloading if you're not careful with levels - you probably won't regret adding these kinds of effects. Another useful feature is that you can bring in audio from the USB connector as well as the line, mic/guitar, and digital ins.

 

BEAT TRACK

 

This is a simple, but useful, option as you can change time signatures within a track. It's easy to use: You just specify the measure where you want the time signature change, then enter the time signature change.

 

TEMPO TRACK

 

Regular readers of my articles know I'm a big fan of introducing subtle tempo changes within a song to add interest - a "flat-lined" tempo is not the way real musicians play. So, I'm glad to see that the Fantom-G has two different ways of dealing with tempo changes. One is simply to record whatever tempo changes you create in real time to the tempo track. The other is to do detailed editing, e.g., specify a time for the change, than enter the change.

 

The latter is good if you want to bump the tempo up or down a bit, but is inconvenient for things like ritardandos. For those, you're better off just recording the tempo changes.

[Anderton]

I think we're pretty much done with the overview aspect, so let's get into more of a review of what it's like to actually play with the Fantom-G8.

 

With a complex workstation like this, the emphasis for me is on the user interface. Let's get real: All workstations these days exhibit a very high standard of sonic quality, and they include so much power that if Star Trek's Scotty had been a keyboard player, he never would have been able to utter the immortal line "I can't give ya any more power, Captain!" So, the biggest issue in my mind is how easy it is to access that power.

 

We already mentioned there are three basic playing mode - Single, Live (the Roland equivalent of "combi" mode), and Studio, which is sequencing/recording-oriented. "Single" is the easiest route to auditioning, playing, editing, and saving individual patches, so it's a good place to start.

 

When you call up Single mode, you're presented with a bunch of parameters on that - I know I've said this before, but it bears repeating - gorgeous "big screen." The first attached image shows what we're dealing with.

 

The top is where you can select banks and presets, but there's a more comprehensive way to do this (we'll cover this shortly). The "top screen" patch selection is, at least to me, optimized for stepping through presets you've already programmed as opposed to searching for sounds.

 

We'll skip over the middle section for now, as it relates more to pad functionality which really deserves its own section.

 

The lower third is the area of greatest interest to me. The eight sliders in the lower left correspond to the eight physical control surface sliders, and the list to the immediate right tells which parameter is associated with which slider. I wish the type for these assignments was a point size or two bigger, but they're bright and readable nonetheless.

 

Of course, the faders aren't motorized, so they don't "snap to" the indicated parameter values when you change patches. Roland uses the "immediate jump" protocol; as soon as you move a fader, the parameter jumps to the fader's corresponding physical position. As far as I can tell, there is no option for parameter "catch" - in other words, the fader has to pass through the existing parameter value before the value changes. Maybe someone from Roland can let me know if there's some preference somewhere that allows doing this. I prefer the "catch" method because it prevents any jumps that could be problematic, like immediately going to cutoff set to 0, or resonance to full.

 

To the right of the fader assignment list, you'll find similar representations of the four control surface knobs, assignable switches, pitch bend, and D-Beam (which is wild - so wild it will get its own section later on).

 

On the bottom, you have a "jumping off" point for less-used, but related, functions. F1, Patch List, occupies a prominent position because in single mode you'll often find yourself looking for patches.

 

To see what happens when you press F1, check out the second attached image. This makes choosing patches very easy: You can scroll through fairly broad categories on the left, then use the Data Wheel (or cursor buttons) to discover the sounds within those categories. I particularly like the Preview button, which plays a short, idiomatic lick in the style of the instrument. With the instruments I've auditioned, it generally includes any expressive options - for example, if you call up Nylon Guitar with Slide, hold the preview button down long enough and you'll hear the slide effect.

 

Sound quality is always subjective, of course, but it's interesting comparing the Fantom-G8 "sound philosophy" with that of the Yamaha Motif XS and Korg M3. Generally speaking, I'd say the G8 goes for lusher, warmer sounds, the M3 for more detail, and the Motif, for a more accurate, clinical sound quality. Each approach has its strengths and limitations; the Motif sounds are more malleable because they start from a more neutral position, the G8 is more about providing polished sounds "out of the box," while the M3 is a bit of a combination of the two - the "out of the box" sounds are very useable, but they also respond well to editing.

 

Of course, all three can be edited to act like the others: The M3 and Motif sounds can be made lusher, and by removing some of the effects, you can make the G8 sounds more "direct." What I'm mostly talking about is the user experience when you're on the instrument's top layer.

[Anderton]

Let's look at some more of the other functions you can all up.

 

If you hit "Control" (F4) from the top Single screen, you can re-assign sliders, knobs, etc. to different parameters. Note that again, we're dealing with a consistent interface (see the first attached image: The F1/F2 buttons select various categories, while the data wheel and cursor controls choose parameters within those categories, and values for those parameters.

 

F7 lets you dive deep into the patch programming, but does so in two stages. The first, "Zoom Edit," shows the most crucial parameters and gives you a simple, graphically-oriented user interface (second attached image). Again, you choose categories, then...well, you know the drill. One convenient feature is that the physical sliders let you edit the slider-controlled parameters; however, the knobs don't see to edit the knob parameters - you need to use the data wheel and cursor buttons for that.

 

The next level, Pro Edit (third attached image), exposes all parameters as numerical values, much like an editor/librarian program.

 

Now, about the editing in general: I'm not always convinced that multi-layer editing options are a good thing - it depends on the implementation. In this case, I think Roland has done a good job of anticipating the needs of casual and pro users. You can do performance tweaks from the top page, program tweaks from the next page down, and drilling down one more level gives the deep tweaks. I think even advanced users will likely find themselves spending most of their time on the Zoom Edit page.

 

However, one good reason to go to the Pro Edit page is you can access utilities (fourth attached image) that are useful for patch programmers - initializing patches and tones, copying tones, and editing multisamples.

 

One thing I'll say about the operating system: Although many functions are immediately obvious, I definitely needed to read the manual to go deeper. However, once you read the manual, you start seeing that there is a very logical consistency in how the interface is handled...the further you explore the G8, the easier it is to figure out advanced functions without reading the manual.

[TrentenLD]

Sheesh, i wishI had the money to get one

[Etienne Rambert]

I really want one.

[isagui]

"I was speechless" ...

What a way to know how to explain it Mr. Craig Anderton, will my greetings and respect.

I have a Roland Fantom G8 since 2009 without using, why not e able to learn their duties as I drive a little more on my Korg Triton and Korg Karma Extreme88.

but because of that, I want to transfer some sequences made ​​in triton extreme to the Fantom G, but still passing them to SMF, I can not edit it in the Fantom G.

I would like if I could explain later as to the conversion to the format roland, so you can save the patch editions and the Fantom G8.

 

a hug and thank you very much indeed!