Roland Fantom X6- any thoughts?

[Tone Laborer]

Excuse the bump, but this is an intelligent thread and I've been looking at the motif v fantom so I'd like to see if anyone had any more thoughts a few months/years later.

I played each one recently, a ES6 and FantomX7, for about 30 mins each.

The motif had some stunning sounds, organs, brass, winds, keyboards, but I was slightly dissappointed with the acoustic pianos. They didn't sound much better than my Korg SP100, which isn't bad but I guess I was expecting more.

The Roland had some nice sounds as well. Warmer as opposed to yamaha's clean. I spent more time on the Roland. Ease of use is a big deal to me. I thought the Roland played better.

And the new Motifs will have a price increase. so...it's a tough decision.

Again, just quick 1st impressions. Any more thoughts from more experienced users on these two keyboards. Overall, both killer I thought.

[Versatile255]

the motif is way easier to use if thats what you want the fantom is kinda of difficult. You gonna spend sometime trying to figure the fantom out if you with the fantom. As far as sounds and stuffdepends on what music you do and what you are lookinf for.I was was in the same situation recently and went with the motif.

[Jon Kubis]

You just answered your own question --

"Ease of use is a big deal to me"

The Yamaha, for all that is has going for it, definitely has a less intuitive UI.

That being said. I own a Triton Extreme 61, a Fantom-X6, and a Motif Rack ES. I also had a 4 year steady gig on a Motif ES-7.

The ES, hands down wins in the sounds department. The rhodes, and virtually everything else wins hands down. One thing to note though, if you do any programming, almost all the great potential the Motif has has already been squeezed out of the box with brilliant programming.

The Fantom on the other hand has the potential to sound almost as good with some tweaks. My personal feeling is that the Motif ES can't touch the Fantom-X with the SRX-4 (Strings), SRX-11 (Piano), SRX-12 (Rhodes), and SRX-7 (Vintage Keys) expansions installed. Then again, you've just added $1k worth of expansions to your synth. =)

In any case, the Fantom delivers every sound I need on any gig, be it studio, or casual. I've even got some custom B3 samples loaded for live.

The Triton... not even in the same class. Nowhere near it. While they invested the time and money to include all the orchestral samples, most of them are useless and just don't hold up to the current generation of synths. It's damn near impossible to wring a convincing B3 from it, and I agree with the other comment earlier that the whole board has the audio equivalent of a pasty filmy residue across all of its sounds. I can see why it was the R&B board of choice for years, and I can also plainly see why the Motif is everyone's choice.

If you're a 'stock patches' kinda guy... the Motif is gonna win out 9x out of 10. That's why the ES stays in my studio... when I need a quick workstation-y kinda sound... it's great for that. It sucks for dialing up performances and making quick edits live.

[Tone Laborer]

Thanks for the responses.

Was I just not hearing the acoustic pianos in the Motif right? It was in a store through some cheap headphones. But they sounded thin, plastic, no better than some cheap prosumer grade keyboard. I don't know, maybe I need to listen again through better speakers.

I'm looking for one decent, versatile, gigging keyboard, so I don't have to lug the 88key Korg. Gig wise, I do the usual variety; rock, country, standards and some top 40 dance stuff. But no rap, hiphop or techno.

Sometimes I do small duet gigs. In this case I would love to be able to have a swing drum pattern accompany me for standards and such. I know both these will do that, but I can't find much info on how easy it is to do. On fly, that type of thing.

It would also be used in the studio to flesh out demos, and embellish other productions. I feel like I've got my hands full keeping up with a DAW, and software etc, so I'd like playing the keys to be fun and relaxing as oppposed to continuously pouring through manuals. (if that's even possible in this day)

[kingchong]

i bought the fantom x6 a little over a year ago and im not very happy with it. dont get me wrong its a nice synth but i dont like having to go through menu upon menu just to edit the sounds.. im more of an analog synth type of guy i guess, turn a knob and the sounds change. to me the fantom seems like an expensive gm module. it also has features that i dont use like the sampling and sequencing. i do all that on the computer, so i paid for features i will never use. i also thought i would use the pads alot but they are very hard to hit. i like the feel of the mpc better, much easier on the fingaz. but ive been lookin at the expansions and im gonna get a few of those, hopefully that helps but i hate shellin out that kinda money for somethin i already dropped 2 g's on. well take it for what its worth but even though ive made some good tunes with it, i wish i wouldve got somethin else.

[daillman]

i use both the fantom6 and motif with my mpc the both sound good but different,they are two different beats but nice in their own rite,its kinda like fantom ih more hiphop and the motif is more rnbish and jazzy,i love them both.

[edham]

Motif xs vs. Fantom X

Piano sounds - motif (if you can live with the top velocity layer being a bit doinky sounding).
Rhodes - Motif but the fantom with srx 12 is a bit better.
Drums - motif if you like very R&B sounding drums. Fantom has a wider pallette
Organs - Motif hands down.
Strings - tie.
OtherAcoustic instruments - motif
Synth sounds - Fantom hands down.
Ethnic cools sounds - fantom hands down.
Pads - fantom by a wide margin

Editing GUI - Fantom. Motif is a convoluted mess
Sequencer - Ditto
Loading your own samples and creating your own patches - Motif is a mess. Fantom.

The advice in this thread has been excellent.
If you are using these boxes just for the sounds - buy a rack of each. You'll be glad you did.
If you use the hardware sequencer - Fantom
If you want to load and tweek your own samples Fantom.

The really odd thing for me has been that the Motif sounds over time have not aged well. They impress upon first listen but over the last few years I find that I turn to them less and less. the Rhodes sound that I loved when I bought it - I no longer use. SRX 12 has more depth and I even prefer the Logic EP to it.
At first I prefered the motif es piano to the fantom. But after adding an eq to the fantom piano (nice mid cut) I have been using the motif much less. Same with drums. Same with basses. really odd.

Motif owners were really hoping for a new motif from yamaha at namm.
Korg owners REALLY wanted a new triton/affordable oasys.

When Roland had no new Fantom ..... I couldn't have cared less. Happily using mine more and more. My motif es rack - haven't turned it on this week and I am in the middle of a big jingle project.

[Jamz]

edham
Man I wish all magazine reviews were as concise and honest as your post.
Nice job.
Thanks.

Originally Posted by edham

Motif xs vs. Fantom X

Piano sounds - motif (if you can live with the top velocity layer being a bit doinky sounding).
Rhodes - Motif but the fantom with srx 12 is a bit better.
Drums - motif if you like very R&B sounding drums. Fantom has a wider pallette
Organs - Motif hands down.
Strings - tie.
OtherAcoustic instruments - motif
Synth sounds - Fantom hands down.
Ethnic cools sounds - fantom hands down.
Pads - fantom by a wide margin

Editing GUI - Fantom. Motif is a convoluted mess
Sequencer - Ditto
Loading your own samples and creating your own patches - Motif is a mess. Fantom.

The advice in this thread has been excellent.
If you are using these boxes just for the sounds - buy a rack of each. You'll be glad you did.
If you use the hardware sequencer - Fantom
If you want to load and tweek your own samples Fantom.

The really odd thing for me has been that the Motif sounds over time have not aged well. They impress upon first listen but over the last few years I find that I turn to them less and less. the Rhodes sound that I loved when I bought it - I no longer use. SRX 12 has more depth and I even prefer the Logic EP to it.
At first I prefered the motif es piano to the fantom. But after adding an eq to the fantom piano (nice mid cut) I have been using the motif much less. Same with drums. Same with basses. really odd.

Motif owners were really hoping for a new motif from yamaha at namm.
Korg owners REALLY wanted a new triton/affordable oasys.

When Roland had no new Fantom ..... I couldn't have cared less. Happily using mine more and more. My motif es rack - haven't turned it on this week and I am in the middle of a big jingle project.

[edham]

Hey Jim,
We actually know each other.
Years and years ago, when I was a kid - I worked for Benny. Think I hooked you up with an MPC. (950 if my recollection is correct).
Your site looks great and its cool to see you are still cranking out hit records! Checking out the pics on your site was seeing all the guys I grew up playing with. donald robinson, Ron K, etc. Now I'm homesick for my hometown.

ed hamilton

[ozraves]

Originally Posted by edham

The really odd thing for me has been that the Motif sounds over time have not aged well.

That's a fairly good insight.