Fantom X8 or Triton Extreme?

Personally I love the Ultimate piano sound (I think it is F bank number 9 or 11)

However it needs the MFX resonance behind it.

But you might have to test both and see which one fits in. I'm assuming you have both?????


If you don't x8 has the best piano action in the market.

There is NO competition at all
i have a Korg Triton Extreme, Yamaha Motif ES and a Roland Fantom X8 and the Fantom wins hands down for Acoustic Piano by miles....
get William Coakleys Piano for the Fantom and be blown away even more!
(just MY opinion)

Laters...



Wayne

Professional Keyboardist in UK`s Number 1 Tribute To Bon Jovi

www.wayneharris.co.uk

www.bongiovi.co.uk

When I accompany a singer, just piano and vocalist, the SRX-02 is far and away my favorite. I have the SRX-11, and some third party pianos as well, and like them all, as well as the built-in sounds on the Fantom. But the SRX-02 is, to my mind, the only among them that has the natural softness and darkness that you find in certain very good grand pianos. The usual complaint against it is that it doesn't cut through a crowded mix. Of course not, it's a piano, not a buzz saw.

I'm in the minority however, not too many agree with me about this from what I've seen...

-illiac

Illiac,

many people will disagree, but the question should be viewed from the stand-point: "which sound works best for my particular situation?"

... and in your situation a darker, mellower and more rounded sound is best whereas someone using it for pop with many other instruments will require a brighter thinner sound (why else would the old Korg M1 Dance Piano sound have been so popular... it "sure as hell" wasn't for it's sonic accuracy!!).

Choice of piano sound creates more "antagonism" than the disussion any other instrument sound, probably because piano is the most often used sound and everyone has their own particular idea of "the perfect sound".

Whilst there is a "perfect sound", it is only perfect within the situation it is used and can not be seen as "the ultimate sound for all situations" as no such sound exists.

This is one aspect that Mr William Coakley has strived hard to help musicians with when it comes to piano sounds, remove as much external influence on the piano sound as possible leaving "just the piano" allowing the user to add whichever sonic treatment best suits the situation... which is why some people may initially find the Coakley pianos to sound dry or without character... the situation is that you add the "ambience" and EQ (or whatever) that suits the piece you are creating, thus the one sound can be used in more situations that a piano recorded with ambience and all the external influences at the time it was recorded.

Personally I'd love to hear a song recorded using Wiliiam's piano(s) mixed with all the required additional EQ and ambience by a good recording engineer and compare it to a similarly recorded soft-synth style piano (one of those ones with Gb's of multi-samples on CD/DVD). I think this would be a much fairer comparison of the sounds as it shows off what you "can" end up with. Instead William is always extremely fair in his presentations and always steers towards presenting his demo pieces recorded dry so that he can't be seen to be unfairly enhancing the piano's sound after recording. Same goes for the SRX-11 and SRX-2... lets hear them recorded with additional processing to show them in their best possible light. Obviously, it would also be good to know what additional processing was used so that we might try to emulate it ourselves!

Sorry if I've gone off track a bit here!

)

Dave

http://www.drstudio.demon.co.uk/
"Musicians fall into three categories: those with a physical block, those with a mental block and those with a wooden block". Unfortunately, I'm in the 1st category!

Thx guys for your replies. Ive been having major problems logging into this site. Seems like it can only handle upto 27 people online at a time

On the Fantom X....'The' Grand piano patch you say requires MFX treatment. But by default doesnt it load up the 'required' effects per patch? Or do you have to manually dial in effects to each patch?

Basically, what im looking for is an expressive, general purpose piano sound that can be used for pop music and ambience. From what ive read and heard its hard to make a desision !

Ok, last question. If you were into ambience and film scoring...what expansion boards do you think Id find most useful? The piano one and...???

Once again....cheers for your time and input

DS

Sound Designer

* Analog synths - Jupiter 8, Prophet 5, Pro-One, Korg Mono/Poly

* Digital - CZ3000, DX7 MKIIFD

DS, from your list of gear you already have the analog sounds covered, so for film scoring and probably for ambience too, I'd recommend the SRX06 Complete Orchestra board plus possibly the SRX09 World Collection. I have both boards (plus the SRX07 Ultimate Keys) and find the sounds to be good and will provide a rich source of options for sounds for film scoring.

Regarding the MFX, you don't need to dial up the FX, they are certainly stored along with the patch when playing the sound in patch mode. In performance mode (16 part multitimbral) you will need to assign the 3 available MFX to 3 of the 16 parts as required.

HTH

)

Dave

http://www.drstudio.demon.co.uk/
"Musicians fall into three categories: those with a physical block, those with a mental block and those with a wooden block". Unfortunately, I'm in the 1st category!

dboulden........you're absolutely right, a particular piano for a particular job........why more musicians don't acknowledge this when comparing these "romplers" is a mystery.

If you're playing Carnegie hall, you want a Bosendorfer, a Fazioli, a Steinway maybe.....if you're playing the local pub, with a drummer, 1000watts of Guitar and Bass, and a David Lee Roth wannabee, bring a Fantom with you.

Or if you're producing a record with Janet Jackson, or touring with Madonna.........take a Fantom.

FantomX8
FantomS
AW4416
Now all I need is talent.
Anyone selling any talent??
member # 55
registered 21 May 2003

tundrkys98@yahoo.com Yahoo messenger: tundrkys98

Yeah, I agree (concerning variety of piano sounds). I sometimes use a brighter piano in a pop mix. I have the Coakley piano and I like it although the very long sample loading time of the Fantom makes me leery of using it on stage (power loss = 5-10min of recovery time).

Anyhow, I can say this: there is a wonderful variety of piano sounds for the Fantom.

-illiac

Illiac, yes, I agree about the loading time. This is of course down to the somewhat older card reader spec used by the Fantom rather than the large size (compared to other Fantom samples) of WM's piano samples. Let's hope the next generation of Roland workstations has faster loading from CF or better still a built in HD!

)

Dave

http://www.drstudio.demon.co.uk/
"Musicians fall into three categories: those with a physical block, those with a mental block and those with a wooden block". Unfortunately, I'm in the 1st category!

I play both the Fantom X8 and The Triton Studio. I use the Triton for playing live, only because it is a keyboard I feel most comfortable with in regards to performance. I will say for piano, I'm a bigger fan of Yamaha-only because it has more balls on the lower end. I used a Motif at a performance on New Years Eve and really enjoyed how the piano cut through.

The Fantom X8 piano patches however, have exceptional tonality and clarity. The Korg Triton is above average, but comes in third place for piano, in my opinion.

The best keyboard for sound track stuff? The Fantom X8. It has the best sounds and features to choose from for that type of application.

hey guys,

its a long time i have contributed to the forumm.........

i use a triton studio at the studio and own an FX6 myself.......

Pianos r the best on the fantom...and feels great too....keys r much beter than the triton......stock pianos on the FX is simply superb.....' So True' is my fav...i havemnt played the motif yet......buddy ...its FX ))

regards,
Stan

Keep playing till till the music kills you!!!!

I've got a Triton Extreme and a FantomX.
I agree with most of the other replies. My opinion is that the FantomX Piano is light years better in realism than the Tritons Piano with the following observation:-

In a "Solo" situation the piano and indeed all of the other acoustic / solo instruments of the Fantom are better than the Triton in realism. But they are also very compressed sounding and lack "depth".

In a mix situation however, ie either playing with other instrumentalists or in a layer on the keyboard etc the Fantom's piano and other solo sounds get a bit "lost" and also because of the other instruments playing subtle nuances of the sound end up inaudible anyway. This is where for me the Triton scores well as it's sounds are much more "In Your Face" and although synthy and not as realistic have far more depth and punch.

So I think it's a case of horses for courses!