Fed up with Fantom-X

Please switch to Triton or Motif as soon as possible! They have MUCH better LCD connectors, though not that great sounds... but who cares!

Is your Fantom-X6 on a warranty?

This post is interesting, and raises some questions. How are everyone's Fantoms holding up? What problems have owners noticed over time that aren't related to abuse and so on...??

Anyone have any reliability issues with the Fantoms.

Squeak

There are no problems with my X8, it's built like a champ, i've had it about 2 yrs now. I added a 2 gb card and have a nice AKG mic I record into a mackie mixer then into the fantom. This keyboard is bitchin, I know the crew from bone thugs n harmony use it as well and cash money has one in his studio. here's a cool video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yRBwJ78cYG8

Thanks Art. The warranty is up. I agree that I should and probably will switch to a Korg Triton. I think the sounds are comparably better than Fantom but that's just my opinion. The best sounds on the Fantom are actually a couple of sound boards that I bought that did not come with the Fantom. The Fantom was my first workstation so I had and I emphasize, "had" an affinity for it but it's time to move on.

Perry L.

Perry,

I wish you luck and hope you find what your looking for. I'm sure there's more to your wanting to switch than the LCD, right? I was just the opposite of you as I tried other workstations and came to the Fantom X. There's something misleading about taking the Korg Samples and creating your own sounds with them. I created some decent ones but was never able to catch that sound I was after. I will say the guys who program the combi's are good and while I had some good sounds, I was surprised how much work I put into it and how average the sounds were. I also owned a Yamaha S90 and S90ES and was always able to get great sounds out of those with not nearly as much effort. I think the trick to getting great sound out of the Korg stuff is to really undertsand how to manipulate the effects. The only problem was that I needed a workstation. Anyways Good luck!

My X7 display connector came loose about two weeks after I got it. I openned up the back and put it back on with no problem, making sure it was in good and tight. This was December 05. Since then, it has had no problem.
X7 was just sold this weekend, and the X8 will be on the way this week.

Carl
Fantom X7 (soon to be X8), RD-300s (for sale)

My Fantom X8 seems to be bullet proof! No problems yet in almost 3 years. I've got a big road case and use a two wheel hand truck.

Mark

In cold weather both my Fantom and Triton don't feel like turning the LCD on for a while. The Triton once took 10 minutes and the Fantom could be 3-5 minutes with half brightness. Annoying when you are in the mood.

Silver Dragon Sound is quite right, the preset sounds are fantasic but only because they are skillfully programmed. When you change a few parameters the magic fades and you have to remember you can only play one stereo sample in a program not 4 stereo layers on the Fantom. This is why combos are so important on a Korg. Layered performances on a Fantom are not so important.

If you can stand the load time of samples from CF, I would suggest you build a quality multsample library of your own on the Fantom. That is true with any of the workstations. BUT you are up for a considerable wait every time you turn it on.

"The grass is always greener" applies to keyboards. You will always think some other workstation is better, but you will be surprised over the simplest things which the others don't do as well. Buy every workstation out there so you know what I mean

Cheers,
B

Thanks. I appreciate the benefit of your experience.

Perry L.

See that's the same problem with my Fantom. I travel with it a little bit and I handle it with kid gloves so it should not have been coming loose like that. I'm not saying I hate the Fantom I just don't like being without a workstation because it's the only one I have at this point so while I have this frustration point I am thinking this may be the time to jump off and try something else.

Perry L.

Good luck... The only problems that I have had or have read about is a problem with the knobs needing to be resoldered. The first FX6 I got had this problem with the fourth knob. The knob just wouldn't repond right for me and every time I removed my hand from it, the controll would go to zero. Luckily, I had just taken it out of the box and was able to return it to get another. I have since read of this problem a few times and one very recently. It also sounds like an easy thing to fix as well. As far as the screen, mine has been great. It did come with a note saying that if the backlight did not come on right away, that there was nothing wrong, though your problem sounds more severe. The only other thing is, one time while chopping samples, my X6 froze. I then looked up Quinx's bug list and found a bug from chopping, but was unable to repeat it. No big deal, but Freezing just scares the hell out of me. Good luck...

wudsiba
Fantom X6
Audio exp.

Perry:

Actually I meant the Fantoms have better sounds. But anyway, if you do not like it really, a working LCD wouldn't have helped I guess...

Heres a perfect example of why the Fantom editor should have alot more screens of the fantom its self including the sequencer, rthme, arp etc.. all editor screens should be accessable.
at least then you could still have a functioning unit.
Its a real shame it has not got all these screen.

now is there any way to wire up VGA out from the fantom??


X-Bugs.org

Results not Excuses

My Setup


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This is taken from the motifator forum.

"Friday night on the way to a gig, my Honda Civic was rear-ended by a truck going about 70 mph. I can still feel where my Motif hit me in the upper back. The back end of the car was completely V'd in all the way to the rear windshield.
As I opened the case with dread....
Only the top C was cracked! No damage to the insides, and only minor scuffing on the endcap!
Hey Yamaha guys... way to make a product that sounds great AND takes a lickin! That thing's a tank!"

And here's the original link to that
http://www.motifator.com/forums/showflat.php?Cat=1,2,4&Board=Live&Number=316432&page=0&view=collapsed&sb=5&o=&fpart=1