Roland FANTOM-0  ·  Source: Roland

Roland FANTOM-0  ·  Source: Roland

Roland FANTOM-0  ·  Source: Roland

FANTOM-0 takes its sonic power and fluid workflow from the flagship FANTOM synthesizer workstation and works it into three lightweight designs for the FANTOM-06, FANTOM-07 and FANTOM-08.

This is a big standalone workstation synthesizer keyboard that can do the whole lot from its vast range of controllers, performance pads, patterns, sequences, sampling, touchscreen display and built-in USB audio interface. But unlike the original FANTOM that takes three people to carry, the “Oh” series is designed to be lightweight, portable and more affordable than the flagship.

Roland FANTOM-0 – see, you can totally carry it.

The sound system combines Roland’s ZEN-Core, SuperNATURAL and Virtual ToneWheel Organ technologies and offers further expansion through Roland Cloud of all sorts of historical Roland models. It comes with over 3,500 tones and 90 drum kits.

You can build “Scenes” full of patches, patterns, layouts and songs that can be instantly recalled with no gaps or glitches. There’s a whole multi-sample sampling engine in here both across the keyboard and the performance pads with up to 2 minutes and 44 seconds per sample up to a maximum of 60 minutes to fill the 2GB of storage.

On the controller side you have a bank of 8 faders and control knobs, pitch bend and old school Roland mod push, wheels, buttons, functions and a 4×4 pad. For connections you’ll find main outputs and sub outputs, mic and line inputs, MIDI and USB connections. You can use the FANTOM-0 as an audio interface for your DAW and route channels directly into and out of your computer.

Importantly, the main difference you’ll find, compared to the original FANTOM is that the weight is now more than halved! Clearly, that’s an indication of how the physical build has changed. You can see that the controller configuration on the surface has changed and the screen is a bit smaller. They don’t quite have all the connections on the back and you can use fewer multisamples per instrument. Oh, and no analogue filter or aftertouch.

Overall, however, you get the stuff that makes FANTOM great in a more versatile form for less than half the price. The three sizes refer to the number of keys on the keyboard with the 06 having 61, the 07 having 76 and the 08 has 88 weighted keys. The keyboard on the 06 and 07 has a newly-developed synth-action.

The FANTOM-0 series will be available in April for $1,499.99, $1,799.99 and $1,999.99 for the 06, 07 and 08 respectively.

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No Plug-Out support. Shame. Roland’s ACB tech sounds incredible. Zen-Core doesn’t even come close. We need a Plug-out/ACB based workstation.

I hope Roland have improved the keybeds in their cut-down keyboard range. They always make great sounding synths and workstations but the long-term reliability of some of their keybeds leaves a lot to be desired. I’m talking from experience with two D-50’s, Juno-D, JP8000 and JX8P. And a JD800 which dripped red resin all over itself after I’d left it on its side in the attic (the heat melted the resin holding the key weights in place). I never had any issues with the rock-solid keybed used by both Yamaha and Korg throughout the 80s and early 90s.

Only has flimsy, fragile DC external PSU adapter for mains cable, instead of a strong IEC kettle socket. Makes it basically unsuitable for serious professional stage use / touring. Yet Roland saved maybe $15…

I know what you mean, but personally I don’t mind wall-warts. I’ve had internal PSU’s fail before (expensive / complicated to replace) whereas an external PSU can be easily replaced for under $20 usually. Annoying when you get them mixed up though !!

Ahh but thats how they make you think the keyboard is lighter.. Until you put the transformer in your kitbag.

Similar to MONTAGE/MODX strategy, but MODX has everything that Montage has….

Not true. MODX has less sample storage space, no aftertouch, less knobs/sliders and cannot do full 16 parts like the Montage can. So this is pretty much the same in comparison, as is the Nautilus/Kronos

Someone needs to tell Roland that the Monty Python Spam sketch was never meant to be used as a business model.

I DON’T LIKE SPAM!

Not everyone is in the market for a workstation. Some of us still play our instruments and compose our accompaniments. Make me something WITHOUT Spam, akin to the XP-30, Roland’s last “players’ instrument” from 1999, but with those great new(er) Fantom sound engines.

So anyone who uses a workstation cannot play keyboards? Up yours, jerk-weed. I use workstations for the purpose of writing & composing entire songs and as far as auto-accompaniment goes….I sometimes use that as a source of inspiration to create(when I’m low on ideas.) Also…hardware workstations are great for maximizing precious storage space & CPU power on PC’s…as you can do the bulk(or all of a song)…on the Roland itself, without ever needing to touch your PC. Roland isn’t going to cater to your absurd request….so get over yourself.

Wall wart kind of a no go for me.

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