darkandrew Posted October 13, 2019 Share Posted October 13, 2019 (edited) An ad for the most recent update to the Roland Fantom range of workstation keyboards caught my eye the other day so I thought I'd find out a bit more about it, after all my trusty Kurzweil PC361 must be about 10 years old by now. So I looked it up and the first thing that struck me was the £3k price - where did that come from? With most consumer electronics having actually reduced in price over the last decade I was somewhat surprised by that price tag, I think my Kurzweil was quite a bit less than £1500 when I bought it. Now, I know the latest Fantom does a lot more than my old Kurzweil, but if you take away the built-in DAW functions (that I already have on my computer anyway - and would I want to be using a keyboard with its built-in screen as a DAW?) not that much more! For the time being, I think I'm going to be sticking with my old Kurzweil. Does anyone else think £3k is a bit steep or has anyone here actually used one and can say it's worth every penny? Edited October 13, 2019 by darkandrew Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roger2611 Posted October 13, 2019 Share Posted October 13, 2019 Not tried the latest Fantom but our guitarist has an earlier version which is a massively capable bit of kit, probably far more capable then he is at getting the most out of it, despite it's undoubted abilities we still use Reaper as a recording DAW as it just has far better visibility and sounds wise my System 8 supplies all of the keyboard parts.....is the new Fantom worth £3000? Possibly, but at that price it will always be appealing to a limited market. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BassTractor Posted October 13, 2019 Share Posted October 13, 2019 Well, on the other side of the spectrum, the old Korg OASYS cost like £8,000 when it was released, so what are you really comparing to? Me, I'd need quite some convincing before buying a Kurzweil after their history with crappy keybeds and impenetrable user interfaces. Not saying I can't be convinced - just that I need to be convinced. OTOH I'd have bought an original OASYS on the spot if I'd had the money at the time. Of course, these days one can buy a Fantom, Kronos or Motif for considerably less, but still. Is it worth £3,000? Probably. But as the market segment is tiny, it's bound to be somewhat overpriced, but not by that much. A Waldorf Quantum is more expensive than that. Haven't looked up its direct competitors, but feel secure they're not that far apart. To me personally, saying yay or nay would depend largely on the quality of the offered keybed, as the last time I bought a really good MIDI set, I paid £2,500 for the keyboard alone and £2,000 for the 19" synth module. That's £4,500 with only one synth engine and no workstation functionality. Totally worth it. IOW, I think it's all about reference frame. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CameronJ Posted October 13, 2019 Share Posted October 13, 2019 (edited) Compare the price of the new Roland Fantom to the prices of a Korg Kronos 2 or a Yamaha Genos. I’ll wait. They sit in exactly the same price range. Some Roland fans are reacting badly as the most recent FA series workstations were considerably cheaper. What some folk don’t realise, however, is that the FA series was never a true replacement for the older Fantoms due to lower overall quality. Plastic construction, external PSU rather than internal, less comprehensive I/O to name a few of the major factors. It has been several years now since the FA has been on the scene as Roland’s “flagship” so it’s hard to accept a sudden £1k price rise for the new model, regardless of whether or not it’s competitive compared to other equivalent options on the market. Having previously owned a Roland FA06 for a couple of years, I realised that I much prefer the immediacy of the interface on a stage piano like a Nord Stage or a Yamaha CP rather than the endless UI menus and screen time of a full-blown workstation keyboard. Edited October 13, 2019 by CameronJ 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
itu Posted October 13, 2019 Share Posted October 13, 2019 Our band pianist bought a Nord Stage III for something like £2500 - £3000. It will last for the next 7 - 10 years. During the same time I will probably buy strings for the same amount, so is it that bad? It sounds good and has literally new bells and whistles that he loves to search and try. More sounds, more fun. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
darkandrew Posted October 13, 2019 Author Share Posted October 13, 2019 (edited) The £3k price tag was a bit of a surprise, but before I saw that I was impressed with the demos I'd seen and still am. Maybe it's worth the £3k - there's no doubting it will be more accessible than the Kurzweil but I'm still finding the price tag a bit hard to swallow. Maybe if I am going to update my Kurzweil, I'll start to have a look around for second hand Motifs, maybe that would be a more cost effective option. Edited October 13, 2019 by darkandrew 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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