Roland Fantom: Assignable Sliders, Knobs, Buttons & Footswitches

While similar features are available on other products, the Fantom makes assigning various controllers straight forward and relatively simple.
THE RULES:
1. Discussion is encouraged, but please stay on-topic: If the video is about a particular feature of a device ... discuss that feature, not some other feature you don't like. Off-topic posts may be deleted without notice or recourse, at my sole discretion.
2. Critical, thoughtful commentary is also encouraged. It doesn't have to be all "happy talk" Bickering and overtly hostile posting will be dealt with quickly ... the delete button and ban-hammer are used when necessary.
3. This is an amateur effort. Keep that in mind. Comments about how I should have done something differently are not helpful. If you want to show me how to do it better, please link to YOUR videos where you do so.
#Roland #Fantom

[@pgtips4240]

I really hope you do more videos on the Fantom, I know it's been out for a while now but it's a deep instrument and your tutorials are THE BEST available by a long way. I am currently binge watching all your videos on Fantom and I am learning sooooo much. Thank you for making these videos. I so appreciate them.

[@ellekappa5692]

Salve, anche io ho preso un Fantom 7 da poco. Vorrei chiederti se sai come far funzionare il pitch bend. Le ruote Wheel 1 e Wheel 2 ho capito come si programmano ma il pitch bend rimane muto. Grazie

[@mattsynth]

I spent two hours yesterday trying to assign 4 sliders to partial volume on one zone and completely forgot to change the sliders to assignable 1. This post made me see my mistake, thanks.

[@ursullavandenbord2322]

Really great video !!! Thanks. Hoping for a new firm update in 2023 !

[@PaulJohnsonUK]

Without doubt the best how to I’ve seen about the Fantom. Please keep these coming. A revelation.

[@andystahl7770]

Thank you for doing these videos! I recently bought a Fantom and sadly there is not much material out there that explains how to work with it, even the manual doesn't have that much infos. But your tutorials help me understand this powerful instrument much better!

[@mikeflick4091]

Extremely helpful, ZT! I've had my Fantom for six months - and I have only begun to explore its assignable controller features. Really useful info here. Thanks! As others have mentioned, Roland has really done a phenomenal job on the Fantom UI - from the responsive touchscreen to the "ten ways to do one thing" capability, it really is a breeze compared to my Montage.

[@jr6786]

I dont even have one of these anymore but I respect what you're doing. Very good tutorial. Thanks relighting my gas.

[@christianthompson1473]

Great stuff, keep it coming 👍

[@BrJD-ii4iv]

U r a Blessing! I’ve learned a lot fr you! I just wish the V-Piano engine when switching sounds be SEAMLESS like all the other sounds 😕

[@von_Apa]

Thank's for doing this! It's nr 1. on my wanna have list. And I hope Roland is giving you some payback, considering this kind of tutorials are rare and so needed! (This is not only a Roland issue it's the same with a lot of brands. They spend lot's of money on making the gear but don't care about useful tutorials. It's very out of time. Most people that look for music gear are musicians and not tech guys.

[@FugaziSB]

Fantom is not an easy buying desicion, it's expensive, it's missing some basic features for now, and you hear many complaints about crushes and reliablity problems. The light at the end of that tunnel are videos like this, showing how easy and flexible this instrument is already. Thank you for sharing this valuable information, it's much appreciated!

[@djjas764]

Shai Berger The company confirmed that we are aware of bugs, freeze / crashing users are experiencing. They are working on them, soon the new firmware update will come. So no need to return the instrument or get panic. We bought one unit and we get panic so easily by these little issues / error ( yes I agree freezing is a big issue ) but apart from that everything is little. Roland has to sell thousands of units or more and also they spent lot of money and time and creative efforts to make the Fantom. So they are far more worried than us. So do not worry just take it easy. Roland won’t spoil their reputation like that. Yes indeed Fantom is expensive and it’s missing out some basic features which must be added at the launch of Fantom. Which is hard to digest that why they did like that and throw the beta tester, but surely these all features will be added this Namm 2020. Like in piano roll basic features are missing like deleting group of notes at once, selecting grouping of notes and moving them to the desired place, copy and paste group of notes, deleting single note also fails my times, but ya it gets deleted after few try if it's not deleting in first try, velocity tab isn’t working properly like when in a piano roll mode you can see the value of notes for example kick n’ snare but suppose if one wants to edit the velocity of a snare by going into the velocity tab after selecting the snare note in a piano roll from grid. Than hit Velocity tab and change the snare velocity and go back piano roll. This changes the kick velocity as well same like snare and that’s really frustrating.

[@marctronixx]

don't get caught up in hearing negative stuff about this instrument. people dont post up to explain how great something is, only to find out how to fix an issue. there are hundreds of thee out in the wild and many people are not having issues. ive had the F8 since launch and ive not experienced any crashes or major bugs in my workflow.

[@LammensB]

Thanks for the tutorial. I centainly learned some things today :) If possible, I would love to see some stuff on the mic input and what the options are (sampling/sequencing)

[@jamartin73]

Great video - I am considering the Fantom- Is there an assignable setting/CC to mute and unmute zones? A simple example would be to mute and unmute a pad while playing a piano - hand's free from a pedal. I use this ALL the time on my Kurzweil but I think it is something like CC164 (Kurzweil specific?). I see the manual only supports through CC 90 something. Thank you

[@thomascook2535]

Very very cool ZT Audio. Please also upload the sequencer tutorials? Heartily thanks to you :-)

[@AJBlockVideo]

Thanks for the great tips. How do I assign effects, such as a delay and its parameters to the cc positions so I can get them on the assignable knobs and faders?

[@bice8635]

Nice video! I'd love to see more on the Fantom! Question, is there a setting i'm missing to activate the LED lights on the knobs and sliders? Those seem to be off by default in my case

[@EliveltonFagundesADV]

Can I use one of the knobs on a 2 layered sound to change between the sounds, like you do on the yamaha montage with the super knob? I mean crossfade between parts

[@PnutKid]

I want to play bluesy guitar on my Fantom 7 and think that this video is close to showing how to bend notes with a footswitch . Could you do a video on bending notes with a footswitch?

[@ellekappa5692]

hi. can you explain how to assign the pitch bend lever? I have many difficulties. it is more convenient to use the lever than Wheel 1 or 2. thanks

[@amrsbadawi]

Hello, how do we activate the aftertouch? Is it off by default?

[@tonylucchino1951]

I have a Fantom 06 and most of the tutorial does apply to my 06. My question...can I assign my volume pedal (control pedal 1) only to the "master volume" and not affect the volume of each zone that I have set at specific volumes?

[@Ibanizt]

Great video! Is it possible to assign one of the S switches to get the same function as the "Keyboard Hold" button on a Yamaha Montage M8x?

[@ZTAudio]

Yep ... hold the SHIFT button down and then press one of the S buttons. That will call up the menu where you can assign the S-button functions. "Hold" is CC64.

[@Ibanizt]

@@ZTAudio That is awesome! So it also mutes the previous chord when grabbing a new one?

[@benignocalvo4077]

Hello, thanks a lot for the video. I have been trying to assign parameters from effects ifx1 and 2 but only thing I find is the on/off Is there any way to add things like drive, or any parameter within them to any knob or slider ?

[@ZTAudio]

I've done an entire 3-part series on the Fantom's FX. It's right there on my channel.

[@benignocalvo4077]

Hi ZT, went through the videos already a couple of times, but can’t find the answer I am looking for. Can parameters within IFX1 be assigned to a slider? The only thing I have found assignable is the on/off of ifx1 (or2), can’t see any option to assign any of the parameters of whatever effect is used in IFX1 to anything. Sorry if I have missed something obvious. I have searched and not found anything in Roland’s site either.

[@iceclimbingaustria]

Dear ZT Audio - thanks for the video - ONE BIG question I could not solve up to now: Is there a way to switch on and off multiple zones with a knob, pedal without using complicated sysex messages and an additional device? Many thanks an BR from Austria!

[@marcpalacios2953]

Can you save the assignment slider for the system or is it only for the scene?

[@icroby]

Good morning, first of all I want to thank you for your videos. I wanted to ask you if it is possible to insert a distortion in a slider in order to increase or decrease the distorted effect on a hammond organ. it would be nice if I could do a tutorial. Thank you

[@ZTAudio]

Many effects parameters can be controlled through "Matrix Control" ... and sliders can be assigned accordingly. Please see my video on Matrix Control. It will walk you through the basics, and the rest should be pretty straight forward with a bit of poking around.

[@icroby]

@@ZTAudio ty

[@garyusinger]

Are you familiar with the Behringer FCB1010 pedal board? Any way to use that with the new Fantom?

[@ZTAudio]

The FCB1010 send MIDI. The Fantom receives it.

[@krisspiteri7531]

Can you attach en external controller to control the Fantom through USB? Like for example a Korg Nano Kontrol to control Zones 9 to 16

[@ZTAudio]

Yes, and depending upon the power requirements of the controller, it will power itself over USB as well. For instance, I have an IK Multimeida I/O 49. I can just plug it into one of teh USB Device ports, and I am god-to-go. I just have to set which MIDI channel I want the I/O 49 to send on. My Akai Advance 61 seems to work ... lights up, but ultimately does not work owing to the Advance requiring too much power. As long as the controller is "class compliant" and doesn't draw too much power ... your fine. The Korg Nano series should work ... the latest series anyway. The original series were not class compliant.

[@natancopeincraft]

Can someone please help me here...when I record a 4 bar loop with strings, I can only use my two hands to record the strings in, then I want to add the modulation after the fact, but I can't hear the modulation that I am recording until the loop goes around once, then I can hear what I modulated, but this is not doing me any good to not be able to hear what I am doing in real time as the loop is playing? Is there any way to hear what I am modulating in real time with mod wheel 2 over the strings while I'm recording it? I can't hear the modulation at all, but then when the loop is done, I can hear it, but I want to hear it in real time as I am playing it in, otherwise I can't hear what I am modulating, and it's almost useless at that point? This is really confusing and upsetting. I can do this on the Roland JD-Xi, so I don't know why I can't do it on the Fantom 06? Can someone please help?...SBN RESONATE

[@shredfantom]

I just got a Fantom 8 and some of the buttons, like the Workflow buttons and some of the parameter buttons seem to be recessed lower than the other similarly shaped buttons on the workstation. Is this normal or a deliberate design decision or does my Fantom need to be returned for a replacement?

[@ZTAudio]

Well, I don't have any specs telling what they "should" be, and I cant' see yours to see what's up. However, I'd say that the buttons are not consistent height on my Fantom-7, Prophet Rev-2, King Korg, etc. I don't know if that helps.

[@shredfantom]

ZT Audio Thanks for the information.

[@mikemo5520]

Hey , how are you!.? Can you make a video on custom making a organ with Leslie organ with rotary and how you assign it to sliders and mod wheel. Thankssss

[@ZTAudio]

I don't see much point in that, as it's likely that an update will include a modeled VK-type tonewheel engine. If that doesn't happen in the next 6 months, I'll reconsider.

[@mikemo5520]

I actually play around with the parameters and actually came with a nice rotary organ... roland sounds are plain out of the box but you have to tweak it to make it sound great... Kronos and the motif have sound already great without tweaking.. I guess this Is more for sound designers... I updated to 1.6 and the woodwind and string section were excellent.... you can change from staccatos to tremolo... this is how all the sounds should be in the roland... very expressive......

[@garyusinger]

Also, can you assign the slider as you did in 7:50 to control cutoff to a EV-5 expression pedal

[@ZTAudio]

There's a HUGE list of things you can assign it to control. It's hard to imagine any parameter which could be controlled by the EV-5 which couldn't be also assigned to a slider , know or S1 button ... or visa versa.

[@garyusinger]

@@ZTAudio Thanks for the video and the reply. Not everyone takes the time to answer questions.

[@ZTAudio]

@@garyusinger I generally try to answer questions related to the topic of the video. Your question "qualifies". :-) I don't usually answer random questions having nothing to do with the video topic, lol.

[@hristodimitrov1755]

Und das mit die audio sample pattern ist immer noch unklar. Habe die 1.10v installiert

[@hristodimitrov1755]

Der Fantom stürzt ab wenn man einen TONE speichern möchte. Und das sehr oft

[@iradgeer]

Your vids are good but your restless hands make me dizzy ! So many unneccessary hands moves .

[@ZTAudio]

Easy solution: Don't watch. KZbin is full of content which may be more to your liking. Please read Rule #3 in the video description.