ARX Plans

but they at least give you a heads up of what's in the works...

and they do. They just don't do it in public forums where "each and every user" thinks he/she has the right to see his wishes fulfilled, meaning, they do it in the proper places.

i understand that it could open a can of worms to announce what their plans, OTOH, you create frustrated users who in the end find alternatives while waiting. if the X came out with audio tracks from its release, or they had the promise of audio tracks, maybe (just maybe) some people wouldnt have gone directly to the MoES or Triton extreme.

- "Name me a company that comes into general public and says "Hey guys, we're planning to build a new XYZ product."

Roland did. they introduced us to ARX. pubbed it as a new expansion feature. then said nothing. what is Roland thinking. are they that scared of accountability??? at least put a rep in the forums from time to time to answer and dispel and wrong info thats being spread in here.

A little transparency is all i'm looking for.

chicks:

Roland did. they introduced us to ARX.

Uh, along with two ARX boards, which were officially announced at the same time.

Manufacturers don't announce products way ahead of time, because their competition will either attempt to beat them to the punch or tweak their marketing to undermine the new products by the time they're released.

Holy crap! Earthquake!

I respectfully disagree ... Unless there are sales figures to prove me wrong, Roland should be thinking "damage control" with the Fantom-G and not necessarily sticking to the normal gameplan ...

ARX is a big part of that "damage" ... you don't wipe out a popular expansion format and replace it with two really lame offerings (by everyone's account ... and neither appeals to me whatsoever anyway ... ) and no word about what's next ... It smacks of the VC cards ... Or is this different somehow? Or 4-5 years ago is somehow a lifetime ... ?

Roland is free to do whatever they want ... but the upshot of their secrecy is that people are indefinitely putting off consideration of the Fan-G ...

It doesn't matter anyway. If Roland were to announce ARX-03: EVERY SRX BOARD ON THE PLANET! and ARX-04: THE ENTIRE V-SYNTH GT!, they wouldn't be available until well into next year. If they'd be ready before NAMM, they would've already been announced.

Moreover, why would anyone buy ARX-01 or ARX-02 if they know ARX-03 and 04 are coming? Why would Roland bastardize their own sales? What you think is "appropriate" or "damage control" may also be bad business.

Besides, people bitching on an internet forum isn't necessarily damage to be controlled. We may affect sales, but we don't affect SALES.

Here's something from an article about Adobe's new Photoshop ...

"One of the big reasons why Lightroom has become such a phenomenon among serious photographers is that Adobe built it with the input of a very vocal user community," said Scott Kelby, president of the National Association of Photoshop Professionals (NAPP), in a statement.


BTW ... What do sales of ARX-01 and 02 have to do with 3 or 4 ... I would imagine many people are not buying 1 and 2 because they simply have no interest in that rather narrow subset of sounds (eps and acoustic drums) ...

yeah ... it is unfortunate there's only two ARX slots ... that's probably going to be the thing that dooms the G more than anything else ... just a really bad decision on Roland's part (and it doesn't really matter what the reason is ... )

>Holy crap! Earthquake!

Are you ok? In california??

Well, if ARX-03 and ARX-04 are really cool, people wouldn't buy 01 and 02 because all four wouldn't fit.

I agree that it'd be great if there were better communication between Roland and the rest of us in the trenches, but you have to admit, we can be a pretty wily bunch. If I can get my product line off the ground, it'll most certainly have a sponsored forum, and I'll be a HARDASS. As in you'll see tons of "I won't buy Audacity Works' gear EVER because he's a JERK! He has absolutely no concept of customer service! He said I was a moron and I should buy something else. Whaaaaaaa!"

jessej:

Are you ok? In california??

Thanks, yeah. I was actually in the middle of that post when the quake hit. One of my Mackie speakers almost landed on my V-Synth.

First quake I've experienced, so it was a little weird. The veterans here all blow it off like it was nothing.

>First quake I've experienced, so it was a little weird. The veterans here all blow it off like it was nothing.

Well I wouldn't even had typed 'Holy crap! Earthquake!'. I would have been outside trying to find a safe spot and trying not be buried alive into rubble... I hope you do that every time too. Earthquakes are scary stuff and should be.

Well back to the ARX... I'm looking forward to some new ARX announcements from Roland really soon, as the Gs built in pianos and EPs are good enough for me atm, and I work with several real drummers and have access to recording studios so no use for the ARX-01 drums for me either. Also I really like EZ Drummer and the new ver 2.0 of it looks awesome and it is on the buy list.

Yeah! I REALLY felt the quake here!!

Well back to the ARX... I'm looking forward to some new ARX announcements from Roland really soon

Me too jesse! >> At one point Roland announced "several" SRX boards at once, not only to further entice people to make the move to buy a Roland product that supported SRX, but also as an incentive in launching their new SRX boards into the public's eye and further promote the quality and uniqueness of the SRX board technology along with its great features.

I feel the same thing might happen with the ARX boards too. Although it could take a while before they could launch several of them at once. Unless of course Roland is way ahead of the game and they already have several other ones produced and on hand and are just biding their time waiting for the right moment to indundate us with them. Either way though, I think at some point (more than likely we won't have to wait too long) that they will announce 4 to 6 at once just like they did with the SRX boards, and with the same purpose in mind, that is - to make the public more aware by bringing it to their attention on a grander scale, thus making them (us) more aware of of this new audio/sound expansion board technology and the possibilities associated with it on Roland products that support the technology. So far we have just the Fantom G but depending on how well ARX gets accepted into the mainstream we may be looking at several other new ARX compatible products down the road in the not too distant future.

the first problem with ARX implementation is that usage seems dependent on that bloody big screen ... how many other Roland products do you think are going to sport that bloody big screen ... ???

the only other solution would be VGA outs ... but again, not so common ... And not exactly a "gigging" solution ... (Although, admittedly tweaking is probably more appropriate in the "studio.")

And remember, ARX slots ADD to the cost, size and weight of the unit (much more so that SRX did even when x4) ...

So let's see how many other products inherit the ARX technology ... The only other obvious pick would be the next MV-series ...

But even so, the fundamental problem with ARX (at least so far) is that the "sound expansion" capability it extends is deep but far too narrow when you can only add two ...

... and because ARX cards are relatively large and generate heat to a significant degree, we may not ever see a unit with more than two slots ...

What I am expecting from Roland:

- Update to the Fantom G OS that fixes a lot of issues.
- Update to the USB drivers, a stable version.
- Update to the Fantom G Editor that includes fixes + multisamples
- Announce of several interesting ARX boards

I think Roland should deliver all of this until the end of this year (2008). If not, I will sell my G.

He is working on the Solaris synthesizer and asks for suggestions all the time from those on his message board and made pre-orders. I suggested that they look into the Kurzweil super ribbon for a controller. Use for this will be included on the final product.

He basically laid out what the synth will be and was open to suggestions and works with his techs to implement what he feels will work. It's gonna be an incredible and very unique synth. None of the big three would ever do anything like this during development. I think it's great for boutique synth designers.