Roland Fantom-07 Synthesizer

General

As software becomes more and more integrated in studios, hardware starts to lose its purpose. From that perspective, Roland have been outfitting gear with their self-developed ZEN-CORE engine for years. This extensive sound-generator plays on the same level as the best virtual instruments on the market when it comes to parameters and nuance, which is great for keyboardists who want a solid stage-synth under their fingertips instead of a boring laptop. It all comes down to feel, and that's why hardware-synths still have a right to exist. Fitted with a small army of buttons, sliders, encoders and other bells and whistles, and blessed with the superior performance of the ZEN-Core engine, the new Fantom-07 from Roland offers the combined potential of excellent hardware and software.

The Roland Fantom-07

In addition to that small army of controls, the Fantom-07 features a 5.5" touch display (1280x720) and, of course, the 256 oscillators/voices that come with the ZEN Core engine. You're free to do as you please with the voices, just bear in mind that things like layering reduce the number of voices you can use, as does the complexity of your sounds as it increases. When you keep things simple, you'll have all 256 voices at your disposal - plus the sounds of the built-in SuperNATURAL engines. For future upgrades, it's also worth knowing that expansion packs are available via the Roland Cloud.

Other Highlights

Roland have also built-in two gigabytes of storage capacity so you can sample away, playing the keyboard and the pads. Meanwhile, the MIDI-compatible audio interface of the Fantom 07 supports a smooth link-up with your computer, and there's a multi-track pattern sequencer you can use to create grooves. What also shouldn't go unmentioned is the gigantic stack of included effects, plus a vocoder you can use with your line microphone to brilliantly bizarre effect. Add it all up and it's safe to say this synth will take a fair amount of time to get to know deeply - as it should.