***ROLAND FANTOM G OS UPDATE OVERDUE***

That doesn't excuse the lack of communication tho. If any other professional company released a dodgy product they would inform their customers what was being done to rectify it.

And Piaknowguy, when something is posted from a person on a forum it is normally their opinion. Just to make you happy tho I will inform them that "this is not opinionated by piaknowguy". Thanks!

I would word it - 'The opinions expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the position
of all Fantom G owners.' (Unless, of course, I happen to be the only one on this forum that Flumster doesn't speak on behalf of.) =)

PiaKnowGuy
Listen to - Pirates Done entirely on the X8!


PiaKnow

See, that's where we are different I suppose. I wouldn't phrase it at all because most people know that what is posted on forums are the persons own opinions and wouldn't need it explained to them.

Also, who said I was speaking on behalf of the forum ?

FANTOM G OS UPDATE OVERDUE

FANTOM G EFFECTS ROUTING REDESIGN OVERDUE

Where's the Fantom G long overdue update?

Guys remember, the more we fight each other the more confused visitors to our forum become. They don’t understand our history, a lot of things that are said mean something other then what they seem to say.

After months of fighting it is clear to me that this debate will not go away until the problem is resolved. It is better if we work together with one goal and a united mindset. If we work together I believe Roland and our visitors will understand or intentions clearly. And we will get faster results with as little damage as possible.

For now I think the top five threads should only contain one thread (this one) concerning updates and the like. That way our visitors will not be overwhelmed with many confusing topics regarding this on our cover page. It would also be good if our post here and (if we are going to do it) outside the forum reflect that of Jimknopf’s first post. Also make sure to help everyone you can (or kind of think you can) with there problems. It’s important, trust me.

One thing is for sure guys, if we keep fighting we will only hurt ourselves and our forum.
We need everyone's support, you don’t have to be a Fantom-G owner. This is about changing the way Roland treats updates starting with the G and every piece of gear after it.

Clan members!!!..... take-up your keyboards and type with us..... now is the time for change!

And Roland? they won’t go down easy, trust me, they will do everything they can to stay in business as long as they can.

Our Focus also support us on Youtube don't forget to rate the video (five stars) and leave a comment.

Please send emails to supportroland.co.uk

Amen to that!

I haven't been here for two weeks (one of you guys told me to go away in a post, so I kindly obeyed...) and I'm amazed to find that the same things are repeated over and over again. If I were new here, I would react exactly the way you (Zephyer) describe. I also think that this is really bad PR for the G, which I think is a shame. It's a fantastic machine, even if you consider the missing features we've read about a hundred times.

Thank you, Dan, for the videos! More tips and tricks is what I want from this forum, not rude comments or complaining abou the same thing over and over again.

JG

JG, I guess you misunderstood Zephyer.

Zephyer reminds us that we keep together in this thread in a friendly manner. and I agreee completely with him.

This thread is not about "complaining over and over", but to put a constant reminder into the forum, so that casual Roland Japan visitors as well as anybody else can see it. It is not intended to be agressive or hostile in any way, just to insist that it is NOT OK to have customers wait for a fundamental bug fix (a missing essetial feature from the original manual, not speaking of some other bugs and really relevant shortcomings) for such a long time after release.

Roland Japan has acknoledged the necessity of the bug fix and apologized for the inconvenience. I clearly appreciate that.

But still leaving us without the necessary update, and not even finding it necessary to give us a hint or rough time schedule concerning the update means:
If they don't communicate, we certainly do!
So this thread is nothing but a reminder, and it will stop as soon as the update is online or at least announced for the near future.

You don't have to like this purpose, but I hope you at least understand now how it is meant.

Oh, I understand completely how it is meant. I just don't think that this forum is the right place for these reminders. Are the users the ones to be reminded? I think we are a majority here and there must be better and more efficient ways to get in contact with the "casual Roland Japan visitors" you mention. Letters and e-mails to Roland Japan doesn't sound like a bad idea to me...

I totally agree when it comes to keeping together, even though I don't like the tone it applies. It's too much of "us against them" and there has been a lot of bad things said about Roland in numerous posts. The friendly manner you speak of has to be used against Roland as well. They'll hardly rush things if they're jumped upon.

A while ago, someone said that I was defending Roland. That is not the case. I'm trying to be realistic about most things in life, even OS updates. All I'm saying is:

1. There WILL be an update. I truly think that Roland are working on it as fast as possible, but it's probably a much bigger one than the 1.10. I can fully understand if the speed they're working at is far too low for those of you who are waiting for certain features, but, once again, reminders in this forum won't make it happen any sooner.

2. Yes, Roland Support IS pretty bad. I have sent e-mails to Roalnd Scandinavia 3-4 times over the years (I know, it's not much, but still...) and I have never heard from them. That is annoying, bad, call it whatever you want. Still, they make fantastic instruments and I would never change to any other brand because of that. Fantastic instruments don't justify bad support, but an unanswered e-mail isn't half as important as a synth that is kicking a**. (However, if the support is as bad when something is broken, I might consider a change... I just haven't had a Roland that has broken down.)

JG, I understand your point, but one of the reasons for this thread is that we don't even have a Roland Japan email adress.

It would be best if they had an online presence including contact. In this case we could all send them our concern. We tried such feedback with local Roland reps, but this seems really uneffective, because Roland Japan decides in the end, and there is no communication or feedback from the central in any form. That's exactly the problem.

I don't doubt that they work on an update. But I hope they release smf export earlier than with a big update which could still take months. smf export just needs a fast bug fix, and after 5 months we don't talk of fast solutions anyway. It just lasts too long.

It is not my intention to kind of hijack the forum, even if I want the topic to stay up. Frankly, I am really bewildered about some strange reactions to this single thread, which is only one of many, uttering one single concern whithout getting in the way of others in the slightest way. It is simply not true that such a reminder could do *any* harm to any user. You can even ignore it, if you don't like it, and nobody has to read a single message from it.

Meanwhile I'm really getting curious how free speech is getting by in this forum. And I did a lot to keep it non-agressive, while suddenly facing (in part offensive) hostility from sides I never would have expected.

I am sorry that you have been put into one of these drawers as "defending Roland". These cliches putting forum members into categories of fanboys or enemies are really something bad from my view, and treating each other in this way puts *much* more damage to the forum mood than any possible critical thread. It should be possible to say something positive when you find it positive and to be critical when you have a reason just as well.

Thanks for clarifying things, Jim.

I visited the Japanese site just now and I can understand why you haven't found an address there...

Surely there must be at least one Japanese user in this forum? HELP!!!

I searched for something like that all the time.
I doesn't have to be on the native Japanese site of course ))

I rather meant the central international Roland site.
It would be good if

a) all relevant updates, informations and helpfiles could be found there (and not in part on local sites and in part there)

b) they had a simple contact form for bug fixing and feature requests. This way they could just summarize the feedback, like:

"Oh, we had a lot of requests concerning Fantom G smf export. seems to be more urgent than we thought. We could possibly put this bugfix online before the major upgrade planned later"...

Just for the record:

From the top 20 theads 3 are about update questions and the like, the other 17 about music making questions, if i counted right. So much for all the needless excitement...

430 views and a bit of discussion forming, also I think we gained a few new forum members too (?)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eTxBd0XYaGc

Also, if you search with 'Fantom G' in youtube search, we climbed from page 3 to page 2, so by next week, we will be in the top search results for Fantom G. So keep on reloading and watching that same video until it reaches #1!

Great your video does so well! And fine to see you cool headed!

You are among the very few who seem to stay just as unimpressed as myself by some forms of hostility in here lately. Even short conflicts can reveal more about the character of persons than long easy "party times".

The metaphors used in the recent discussions were really revealing from my view:
- The expression "the natives are restless" has it's roots in imperial structures of the 19th century, when white colonialists were concerned that their hierarchy and arrogated supremacy could be questioned by "the natives". I don't say that this expression was a conscious choice, but...
- The preference for dictatorship, even taken with a grain of salt, makes me wonder as well. I know democracies have many weak sides. Still they are no heavenly ideal, but the up to now by far(!) best proven form of government in history in the whole real world. With dictatorship it's just the other way round: the ideal of a just king has to do more with heaven than with earth. At least the humankind experiences with dictators from Nero over Hitler, Stalin and Mao up to Pinochet and their dirty little alikes all over the world up to now are not too encouraging to believe in dictatorship, are they???
- Concerning the picture of a party with mere "guests" who have to behave just as the one inviting them wishes, that's another revelaing picture about modern internet forums as "parties" where you can be as loud as you wish if you dance to the music, but can't have any form of serious talk opposing other views. First of all, if forums were nothing but parties, only the dumbest characters would visit them: I at least don't visit a forum just to cry "hooray" and dance to the music others play. If I want a party, I visit a real party, and if I visit a forum, I want to exchange and discuss, including funny and entertaining sides of course. If forum members were treated like "drunk people" for the only reason of repeating a legitimate request, that forum would become a zone of forbidden free speech immediately. Well, a natural solution, if you like all kinds of supressive behaviour anyway...
Internet forums normally have a completely other basic phiolosophy: that of free speech and opinion exchange within the boundaries of non-offensive behaviour. If you leave these principles, you are on your own way to sick forms of dictatorship.

Just not to be misunderstood: Art, of course I know that you don't really behave like a dictator in here, but like a very friendly and moderate forum chief. You just get carried away casually when something really annoys you. But be sure I have not opened this thread to annoy you or anyone else.

Bsck to the Fantom G:
It would really be great to see at least smf export soon on the G.
When I get some inspiration playing around with a certain sound from the G or my outboard gear, or I find a nice groove, it would be so good just to use the G sequencer to record it straight. It would be the most straight and natural solution, with the G as the centerpiece of my setup. Here I really begin to agree with TAW and others that the MV sequencer is superior to the G's, even if the phrase concept has it's own strong sides. Up to now I don't see it really working in everday use.

Instead I have to plan notebook sequencing to have a nice workflow anytime anywhere, and not to find all recorded midi material trapped in the G. And even with my desktop PC at hand, I woud still prefer recording the first scetches of new ideas dircetly to the G...