I have owned the X8 now for nearly three years and have loved everyhing about it; from it's responce, sound, effects, and ease of use. The Fanton X is a musican's delight and anyone that can play piano and drums like I would absolutly agree! The sounds are very realistic, and the dynamic pad brings them to life. Just recently fooled with the new G series not thinking it could be any better, but I was very wrong. It now has unlimited effects, phantom power, mouse control, and an output for a bigger display to view your recording! Truly, what more could a musican need unless you want the machine to write the songs for ya!

Phantom power, unlimited effects, ARX technology, "custom tuning of all the drums from shell width and diameter" realtime control, and precision key responce! If you dont like the natural sound of the instrument you can tune, tweak, and customize it to your liking.

Big fan of the Fantom X series, and it was very similar aswell, but you will want to invest in an external display. Not everyone will need it but it will definitly help out your realtime recording.

Solid as a rock! Keys feel very real "if you play piano" and the dynamic pad is precise "if your a drummer".

If you want to buy a product that is going to last you a life time than look no further! I have traveled, performed and used heavily durning recording without a problem

Roland's equipment has always worked well for me and all my friends, so we have not delt with them much. THANK GOD!

It's the new Fantom from Roland! Hot!!!!!

Professional Drummer and Pianist

Techno,Trance,Jazz,Classical,Rock

I loooked at several High end boards before buying the Fantom G8. Overall the G8 is a sweet piece. I will not engage in the Brand debate as this will serve no purpose. Compared with other boards of similar ability and price range using the SAME speaker/monitors this board is a winner all the way. Large easy to ready display with loads of things to offer any musician Great bang for the buck

I bought the board separately without accesssories

Yes very easy to use. The mouse interface is sweet

Built like a tank, looks great and well finished

You get what you pay for.

No issues as yet

Definately high on the score sheet

Hobby player, hope to change into something more

New age

Well, let's take into account how truly amazing the X series sounded. I've personally never heard a better board, and have become a pure Roland addict. I can only imagine with the new stuff they've put in, the sounds will even be more intense. I can't wait!

Considering the X series was pretty damn good, I imagine the G series will come in and take the cake. I'm giving them a 9, because the X series definitely had some bugs, which I hope they've worked out in the G series ahead of time. Even the bugs that existed weren't impossible to fix, apparently they just never got around to it. Hopefully the G series will come out more stable right out the box, and any issues can be handled with an OS upgrade.

I basically built my own fantom G using Apple's Logic Pro and USB-midi to the Mac. It's worked great, and there really is a lot of flexibility with the current setup I have. I'm interested to see how the on-board mouse capability works, and how they have setup the use of the sequencer.

Roland never skimps. The X series was built like a tank and I imagine so will this one.

If you want the best, you have to pony up the dollars to do it. Roland is amazing, and I would never compromise the quality they bring for anything.

I've actually never dealt with Roland support.

As long as the on-board mouse pans out, I'm super excited. Surely the sounds are better, so I'm still interested in hearing it in my studio, however that will be the determining factor whether it stays or not.

Active Musician, Producer, Songwriter

Acoustic, Rock, Hip-hop

Since I haven't tested it, I predict synth stuffs will be great but the acoustic sounds will be 'eh' (prove me wrong, Roland :-)

Great if you want to have studio-in-a-box approach. I don't, I usually use my workstation sequencer for ideas and move to DAW later.

Big screen and mouse would help a lot. It'll be a lot of straining though if you put the mouse on top of the keyboard :P

Looks strong and has a lot of Fantom-X design which is built like a tank.

If Roland cleans its acts up and more supportive in fixing its issues, this would be higher.

I used to own Fantom X8 and there are quite some bugs in Fantom-X that weren't addressed in *two* OS upgrades. Fantom-G being a more complex keyboard with its big screen, mouse integration, new ARX system; I'm leery how many more bugs will be there and whether it would be addressed or Roland just comes up with new product and deserts previous users? Remember original Fantom which was a flop and within short period they release Fantom-S? Similar thing happen with Fantom-S to Fantom-X. Of course Fantom-X being a more mature products from 2 flops, they milk it for 4 years (without fixing the bugs) and comes up with Fantom-G. So I guess Roland just look at the sales of its board, if it's not good, don' fix it via OS, just create new ones and screw the current users.

Nope, I'm happy with my Motif XS8 and its Cubase/DAW integration which I bought after I sold my Fantom-X (I did try Korg M3-88 briefly but returned it, it was good but I couldn't stand its piano sound and velocity curve issue).

Active Musician

Jazz, Drum and Bass, Praise & Worship