Roland Piano owner manual Main Features, Consolidated interface design with large graphic LCD

Main Features

●A synthesizer with the operability and playability of a musical instrument

The category of synthesizers known as “workstations”—consisting of a sound generator section that creates the sound, a controller section, and a sequencer section to produce music—has taken its own evolutionary path, adding various new functionality that opens up new possibilities of musical expression and creation. On the other hand, access to such functionality has generally been provided through a restrictive, complex interface, which has all too often hampered the creativity of the musician.

The Fantom not only features superb operability for performance, but also is comprehensively designed to support the musician’s creativity in every area, including composition. It lets you work seamlessly through every aspect of the music production process, from performance to composition, allowing you to hold onto your inspiration.

●Consolidated interface design with large graphic LCD

The Fantom features a large quarter-VGA sized LCD. The graphical display uses four levels of grayscale to simultaneously show all relevant settings for sounds or sequencer operations, guaranteeing smooth operation.

Since a large amount of data can be displayed at once, buttons and knobs are laid out simply, letting you access a desired parameter with a minimum of operation. The interface is designed with your creativity as the first priority.

●Top-level sound generator for maximum expressive power

The Fantom contains the same type of 64-voice/16-part multitimbral sound generator as on the XV-5080, acclaimed by music production professionals. The total of 896 preset patches include new patches that have been tuned specifically for the Fantom to take advantage of its keyboard, knobs, and other realtime controllers.

Four-level velocity switching lets you move between four stereo waves, for the same amazing expressive power as on the XV-5080. The spaciousness of the sound field, tonal changes controlled by velocity, and endless details of expressive nuance are at your fingertips. Matrix Control lets you vary large numbers of parameters at once, and can be controlled using realtime controllers such as the knobs and D Beam control. The Fantom’s dynamic expressive power can be controlled by simple operations.

Wave Expansions Boards can also be installed to freely customize your Fantom for your favorite musical styles or applications. Two slots for the SRX series expansion boards allow the addition of high- quality sounds using a maximum of 64 M bytes of high-quality wave memory, and another slot lets you install one of the wide selection of SR-JV80 series expansion boards.

In addition to four parallel outputs, which can be used as two stereo pairs, S/P DIF digital out (both optical and coaxial) is also provided. The Fantom is a great match for any digital recording system.

●Power effects including COSM effects

The effects indispensable for synthesizer sound creation are provided—in studio quality.

For reverb, a DSP equivalent to SRV-3030 quality is built-in, delivering clear reverb with smooth decays.

The total of 90 types of multi-effects (M-FX) include not only effects such as RSS, 3D delay, and slicer, but also effects that use Roland’s proprietary COSM modeling technology, such as guitar amp simulations, guitar multi’s, bass multi’s, and keyboard multi’s.

In Multitimbre mode and Performance mode, three types of M-FX can be used simultaneously, letting you use different M-FX effects on a desired part. What’s more, a two-band EQ is provided for each output jack.

●Comprehensive music production with a superior performance sequencer based on the MRC-Pro

The Fantom contains a 16-track sequencer based on the MRC-Pro sequencer, delivering high resolution that captures every expressive detail of your performance, and providing speedy data entry and editing for both realtime and step recording. In conjunction with the power sound generator, the Fantom is a serious music production environment in a single package.

In addition, the Fantom lets you start recording immediately from any mode (whether you are editing sounds or performing), simply by pressing the [REC] button. You can record your improvisations in real time, and create songs based on your captured inspirations.

It goes without saying that you can use Micro editing to edit your recorded data in every detail. Since the large display lets you view 16 tracks of recorded data at once, editing can be performed faster, more efficiently, and in greater detail than on previous workstations. Sequencer data can be saved and loaded in the native MRC format or as SMF. The built-in floppy disk drive makes it easy to exchange data with another sequencer or computer.

The Fantom boasts a new Multitimbre mode. By displaying 16 parts simultaneously, this lets you quickly create orchestrations, and makes song arrangements simple and intuitive.

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