Full audio integration with Logic Pro, MainStage & Ableton Live
The Roland FANTOM-06 is a powerful synthesizer workstation with sequencer, sampler, audio interface and extensive synthesizer functions. The FANTOM-06 skillfully combines the mobility and low weight of the FA-06 with the workflow and sound design of the FANTOM-6; making it the perfect solution for anyone who wants to travel a lot with a modern workstation. The extensive and expandable sound memory contains over 3500 high-quality sounds of various coleur as well as over 90 top modern drum kits. The sound offer is composed in good parts of Roland's current sound generations ZenCore, SuperNATURAL and Virtual Tone Wheel Organ. In addition, the sound archive is expandable and compatible with content from the Roland Cloud. The sequencer comes up with realtime, TR/step sequencing and clip sequencer. OneShots and Loops can be playfully triggered via pads in the sampler and incorporated into your own creations. Another highlight in the FANTOM-06 are the scene memories, which are organized in four banks of 128 memory locations each. These act as quick creative memories and hold everything you're working on. Whether it's a handful of patterns, a song you've started, a sound you're still creating, various settings linked to your current project in the DAW, or all of the above at once, handwritten notes and "it has to stay on because I can't save" are definitely a thing of the past. Anyone who has already worked with Roland instruments will quickly notice that the operation leads faster to the result in the FANTOM-06, not only thanks to the tidy interface and above all very intuitive menu navigation.
Sounds & Synthesis
Roland has dug deep into their spendy pants with the FANTOM-06, equipping their synthesizer workstation with over 3500 sounds and over 90 Drum kits, as well as a Mix of their current synthesizers ZenCore, SuperNATURAL and Virtual Tone Wheel Organ. Thrilling synthesizer sounds, rich basses, strings, organ, piano, guitar, brass, choir, wind instruments and more; the selection in FANTOM is sheer remarkable! The typical Roland sound architecture has been retained in that each sound can still consist of up to four parts. However, the parts correspond to a complete, extensive synthesizer voice at FANTOM, including their own oscillator and filter models, envelopes, modulation assignments and, of course, their own volume and pan settings.
Effects
A whole 90 multi-effects are just waiting to change and refine the generated sounds individually or in parallel, respectively serially, per part. The selection of delay, reverb, chorus, flanger, distortion and real uniques with wow character should leave nothing to be desired. In addition, each part has its own equalizer. Superior to the main output is the Master compressor. The microphone input is equipped with its own effects processor, which largely coincides with the selection of the synth part effects and also has a 32-band Vocoder implemented.
Sequencer & Sampler
The sequencer of the FANTOM-06 offers parallel different recording and composing concepts, which perfectly support the "genre typical" recording methods. Instead of recording all tracks in one pattern "like before", the FANTOM offers the possibility to combine the 16 tracks freely and to use them independently. Songs can be arranged classically linear or in the clip sequencer (comparable with Ableton Live). The TR/step sequencer, which also masters sub steps and ratching, is ideally suited for programming rhythms. The perfectly played piano or the funky organ can be recorded in real time, optionally with or without note quantization. The same applies to the 16 pads, which fire off individual sounds from the internal sound generation, or their own samples. This way of working of the pads is known from Akai's MPC series. The sampler is also hidden behind the pads; with eight-fold polyphony, four banks of 16 pads each can be assigned. Sounds and Loops can be up to 2GB in size, time stretching is of course also offered for Loops. Likewise an extensively equipped Arpeggiator and a Chord Memory function belong to the refined play-in aids of the FANTOM.
Complete DAW integration
The FANTOM can be completely integrated into the workflow of a DAW (including Ableton Live, Logic Pro, MainStage). Thanks to the USB audio interface, 16 stereo tracks can be recorded, edited and, above all, processed in parallel in the computer. This ensures maximum convenience and audio quality at the same time with a minimum of cabling. Many DAW functions can also be operated directly at FANTOM. Thanks to several USB ports, it is of course possible to connect further devices in addition to the connection to a computer and an external storage medium such as a USB stick. For example, you can connect a second keyboard for double-manual playing, a Breath controller or a fader box.
Connectors:
L/R 6.3mm jack mainout
Stereo sub output
Stereo line input
Microphone input with level control
2 headphone outputs
USB for host and external hard disk/USB stick
2x USB for external storage and controller
3 pedal inputs
MIDI In & Out
Power connector (power supply)
Roland FANTOM-0 Series Synthesizers | FANTOM-06/07/08
Had this unit for about a year now and really love it, once you get your head around the functions you will love it too, only downside is when using the Mod Wheel during record mode, it gets a bit confused with its DAW and have to come out of the DAW to reset it. Hopefully Roland will fix this with an update.
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Price/Performance
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