Debating Between the Fantom-S & Fantom-X

1 Oct 2006, 02:00

Alright, I'm finally ready to get a fantom. Basically I plan to use it with my MPC 4000 & Pro-Tools M-Powered. Now, at the moment I don't have enough money to afford either of these boards new so I'm going the ebay route. Obviously, I'd like to sequence on the MPC & pretty much do everything else on the Fantom. Now, I've looked at the differences between the two and the only thing that really bothers me is using smart media cards with such low storage (128 MB) as opposed to being able to use 1 gig compact flash cards with the X series.

My biggest question & concern is :

Is the Audio Track Expansion a necessity owning a Fantom? Like is that a "must have" to truely get the most out of this board? Cuz I've read that it also fixes a few minor bugs and adds a few more sounds along with the 8 audio tracks and whatnot. If it's not a BIG deal, then I may just stick with getting the Fantom-S & saving myself a few hundred dollars.

Any advice would be appreciated, thanks

Re: Debating Between the Fantom-S & Fantom-X

1 Oct 2006, 02:29

Given that you have ProTools, audio tracks may not be that important for you especially that you want to save some dollars and go for Fantom-S. I have a Fantom-S and it has all the bells and whistles of the X as to me, except for the color screen, improved pad feel and 128 voices. However, if you plan keeping the keyboard for a while, go for X. Having more never was bad.

Re: Debating Between the Fantom-S & Fantom-X

1 Oct 2006, 10:34

One thing I ran across that bothered me a bit was not being able to use the pads for track mutes on the "S" version. Does that bother you much?

The pads don't much matter to me since I'll probably be using the MPC's.

And I would like to get the X, I guess it'll all come down to how much I wanna spend when I do find a deal.

Re: Debating Between the Fantom-S & Fantom-X

1 Oct 2006, 11:03

Well, track mutes via pads is very useful, I'd really like to have them. And after all the price difference between used S and X will not be that significant.

Re: Debating Between the Fantom-S & Fantom-X

1 Oct 2006, 11:15

One more thing :

I've read that if you expand the memory to the full on the S that you can't use all for SRX slots, is that the same for the X also?

Re: Debating Between the Fantom-S & Fantom-X

1 Oct 2006, 13:05

Yes, on S you either have 192 MB RAM and 4 SRX or 256 MB RAM and 2 SRX. On X there is no such limitation (though I never really saw this that of a limitation

).

Re: Debating Between the Fantom-S & Fantom-X

2 Oct 2006, 20:25

Cool, the SRX's shouldn't be a problem seeing as how It would take me a GOOD amount of time to use all the current presets then make my own. I doubt I'd have need for an SRX right now.

It's so tempting to buy an S right now since they don't go for more than $800 on ebay (bare). I could just upgrade a few months down the line to an X version by selling my S and paying the difference. But if I'm gonna go through all that, I may as well just save for the X.

ARRRGH

thanks tho, you've been very helpful