Roland Fantom: Exploring FX, Part One

The FX on the Fantom can be one of the most confusing aspects to understand. In this series, I'll try to demystify it.
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.

[@mscman13]

Great video, but Master FX and Multi FX are two different things… Master FX are global across the scene. Multi FX are specific to the tone. It’s really confusing because they abbreviate MultiFX as MFX, but they aren’t the same.

[@markstein6226]

These are EXCELLENT videos (series of 3). GREAT and clear explanations and very helpful. Thank you!

[@LammensB]

Great explanation. Just one small thing: when you press the AFX button in zone view, the filter knob stays blue. This means that you are using the digital filter. When the filter knob turns red, then you are using the analog filter. This is only happening when the analog filter screen is on the display :)

[@paulmapp8306]

I have the same question I always have... Why no dedicated reverb in the MFX... Having it as a global (TFX or part of the dedicated global reverb/chorus) is fine - and the long reverbs should be there, BUT there should be more simplistic reverbs (plates, springs, small/medium rooms etc rather than long/cavernous reverbs) available for each tone in its MFX. Just changing levels doesnt always help.

[@TeleporterM11]

Exactly, You are right. You have to go up into tone edit and sad just individual reverb then save it baking it into the scene or scenes drum kit. The mixer should have sub mixes like in the Akai Force.

[@Mat-q5z]

Thank you very much for sharing all this, a real eye opener to me :) There is so much brainwork that went into in this powerhouse Fantom. I look forward to the four official roland courses which will be held by end of this september. Thank you very much again for this content, and please continue opening that box :) All the best!

[@stephenhaynes603]

Thank you for your help. I now have rev working within the scene pattern on playback once re loaded ....

[@christianthompson1473]

I call the zone mfx "multi fx" so not to confuse with the new master fx, which appears in v2. Its another set of the same fx but strapped across the main output bus after the mixer.

[@xp50player]

One thing that’s frustrating for me is you can edit the Tone MFX from within the Scene, but not the MIDI controls for the Tone MFX, unless you are in Tone Edit.

[@p4thos]

Waiting for part 2 ;)

[@rickdeaguiar-musicreflecti7692]

Wonderful tutorial :)

[@jszack]

Very helpful--thank you!

[@kiko1935]

I really don't understand why the fantom costs as much as it does? Is it due to the analog filter?

[@thomascook2535]

Good morning. You are back after so long. Hope all good with you in these bad Covid -19 times?

[@CoderCoronet]

Good stuff. Thank you

[@amcthb]

Good tutorial. In your opinion, how transferable is this content to the Fantom-0 series?

[@ZTAudio]

@@amcthb At the conceptual level … almost 100%. The control layout is a little different on the 0 vs. EX, so it’s not going to be 100% at the button-press level.

[@thomascook2535]

Very Good.

[@FugaziSB]

Patches in Fantom don't really stand out and don't have their own controllers, so on one hand you need to add these in scene mode but on the other hand, the tone editing in a scene is saved back to the original tone. This is a bad design in my opinion. Each patch should shine on its own with proper real time control and effects in tone mode, and these should be the starting point when this tone is added in a scene, if you do want to have the tone behaving differently in a scene, the changes you are making should be saved as part of the scene and not in the original tone.

[@DrGargani]

I agree wholeheartedly!!! Having to save each tone that you doctored or tweaked is going to add up after a while and you will run out of slots to put your "user" tones.....seems like it would have been a very simple thing to do to just have it saved as part of the scene....

[@MrMarco33333]

@@DrGargani Agreed. To confuse matters further, once we learn that Tone data is not saved as part of a Scene this is reversed when you Export a Scene. Now the USER Tone data IS saved with the Scene and no matter if the Fantom still has that USER Tone in the same place another copy is Imported and dumped in user memory.... and they call this progress!

[@ricardojsgw]

Completely agree. Just like envelope and other offsets are stored as part of the scene/zone so should the MFX setting (on/off). Many times I select a factory tone for a zone I just want to turn the effects off but now I'm forced to store it as a new user tone.

[@carloasis1495]

That is the reason I am selling this Fantom 6, it is a pain just trying to change something, I got fooled by the demos and the amount of knobs and sliders, when I had it at home and wanted to change some parameters using the knobs I found out it was only for the balance of every zone.... what ???

[@AJBlockVideo]

Is it possible to set up a custom button for a single effect (such as tape echo) useable on any scene at any time? ?

[@natanunorthodox]

What are you supposed to do when you run out of user space to save your tones, that you put effects on and saved? This is not right. I don't know what in the world Roland was thinking with this. Say if I make a beat or instrumental where I used a tone that I changed the sound effects, and then I make another song with that same sound, and go to save it, it's going to overwrite the sound effects from tone's effects from before on a different scene or pattern. I don't know how this makes any sense at all. I love this keyboard, but I might be taking it back just because of this. This is just crazy to me that you can't bring up the sound patch, save it for that pattern, recall it, and not have to worry about it affecting another pattern later. What happens when you run out of room? I just don't get it at all why Roland did this for such an expensive board? Is there something that I am missing here, because I don't want to return it, but I might have to?...SBN RESONATE

[@DougCassellMusicman]

The lights on each of the sliders left of the screen? How do I turn those on?

[@EliveltonFagundesADV]

drag them up, they will light up automatically. However, depending on the sound you've selected or the engine you select, they will already be in a certain position and sometimes one or the other will be lighten up, the same for the scenes you saved with the sliders in a certain position. It works kinda like the RD-2000

[@DougCassellMusicman]

@@EliveltonFagundesADV I dragged them and nothing. Did I miss a step?

[@djimmeemusic]

Hello ZT Audio ! Very nice video, i like your tutos ! I'm waiting for my Fantom 6, that should be delivered tomorrow ! I have a question about the color of the "Selected" LED on track 8 : why is it green ? I've watched hundreds of videos of the fantom where "Selected" LEDs are red. I get it that the color of the "Active" LEDs, below the "Pan" encoders line, can be either Red, Green or Yellow according to the "location" (inner sound, outer gear, or both). So what does the "Selected" green LED mean ? :)

[@davidknight754]

Advanced mode for zone int/ext control

[@stiktougaizeur]

@@davidknight754 thanks ! I found the solution in the meantime… 😉

[@TeleporterM11]

Why is your zone selected button green, mine is red. Is it a preference setting

[@samplidium]

If you go in Menu/System/General/Zone int-ext Contol is Red with BASIC mode and Green in Advanced mode.

[@edgaba]

Great video thanks! I have 4 questions :-) 1. Is there tap tempo for the delays or will it sync with the scene’s/pattern tempo? 2. I couldn’t find ever a on the insert fx are they somewhere else or there is no Reverb besides the scenes Reverb? 3. When you are in a drum patch is there a way to assign different fx to I dividí al drum samples? I also have the Roland JD-Xi and when your on drum mode you can assign fx to each drum sample individually. 4. Can you record automation? I mean I was recording a patch and then I wanted to record filter movement and it would record the filter movement. I tried moving the filter while recording and also moving the filter after the phrase was recorded neither way worked. The JD-Xi could record any knob movement into the sequencer. Is there a setting I need to adjust on the Fantom 0? Thanks, I look forward to your response.

[@DrGargani]

ZT: I have watched every minute of every one of your videos on the Fantom, that being said, and in consideration of the fact that you intended this to be a video for people experienced in the basics of the machine, I still think, unfortunately, that you are moving way too fast, faster, I believe, than in your previous videos.....just a friendly constructive minded suggestion from one of your fans....

[@ZTAudio]

You can slow down the video w/ KZbin's controls

[@DrGargani]

@@ZTAudio LOL.....yes, tried it.....I thought that feature was only useful for guitar solos, etc. but it actually did work with your voice without distorting it too much......thank you!!