On the Fantom, a number of the MFX blocks are actually chains, with a couple functions put together. I’ll tell you though, that the Kronos’ 12 IFX chain blocks can go fast if one part is using 3-4 blocks, which is the case for many factory sounds on the Kronos. The Fantom gets a bum rap for effects compared to the Kronos/Kurzweil because the effects structure is fixed and you only get one MFX per part. For live use (or you can make that judgment for studio use too), a little menu diving and you can experiment with how much each partial is really contributing and disable accordingly. For studio use, you may need that and may have to resample, record outside the unit, or whatever to get enough of what you need. I have a fair bit of time on the Kurzweil Forte, and IMO that has way worse note stealing issues than either the Kronos or Fantom.Īs I mentioned, I think a lot of sounds in the Fantom are programmed for a “wow” factor where a lot of voices are used for that last 5% sparkle. YMMV and whatever, and keep in mind I’ve owned my Fantom for 6 days so far, but for the way I play, they feel about the same for note stealing. Stacking up unison voices on the Kronos starts eating into this pool, too.
The Kronos does about 140 polyphony of HD-1 sounds (similar to the Z-Core structure), and about 80 of their VA sounds. I’ve been a Korg OASYS/Kronos guy for the last 16 years.
I'd keep both, just because the XV-5080 is the pinnacle of this Roland era, where hardware and software where closely tied.Īnd the front panel UIs were thoroughly covering the entire machine (not just the bits Roland wants you to see). Not sure the Fantom are any better in this regard. There was an attempt about evaluating this for the ZC and the ABM models on the Jupiter-X/m (rated at 256 voices max over 4 parts+drums), which is not pretty: It's hard to monitor the real-time voice usage on a ZEN-Core synth, while the JV/XP/XV all have this wonderful MIDI Information pages in the Perform menu (F6). Not to mention the ability to load and playback sample libraries. The real XV-5080 is 128 voices over 32 parts, indeed. This is more like an approximation, that can be good enough for most presets. The hardware ZEN-Core XV-5080 does not have all the structures from the original (the software XV-5080 does). One reason to keep the 5080 would be for extra polyphony. Tjcornish wrote: ↑ 11:51, 6 November 2021Most or all of the XV-5080 sounds are indeed in the Fantom. I’m a little worried that I may not be able to do this… hmm.
I was mainly looking to write on the fantom and avoid my DAW as much as I could. I’m interested about the Expansion Models though, you mention them and I’m assuming you are implying they are polyphony hogs? I hope not because those were a huge selling point, and a big reason why I pulled the trigger on the Fantom! VPiano not eating up polyphony is nice to know. Thankfully I use a lot of piano so that’s free, but for live work, I can often cut back some of the partials that make relatively small contributions to the sound and that significantly reduces the strain. I do live playing where I layer a bunch of stuff. The trouble comes when you want to use the models or if you want to stack up a bunch of partials. For equivalent tones, I believe the Fantom is no worse than the XV-5080, and the fact that the VPiano doesn’t use any of the main pool helps a bit if you use any piano sound. I think Acidizer is being a little pessimistic.
The XV3080 and Fantom XR are practically equal in fidelity.Tjcornish wrote: ↑ 04:32, 7 November 2021 I dont agree with the only other alternative is the 990 in terms of fidelity.
I mean, whats a 2080 worth these days?$200-250: hardly worth selling unless your money is tight. You might be in a situation that you will need the extra voices our outputs, maybe relegate the 2080 to things that the better fidelity isn't the prime concern as the 5080 was Roland's flagship module. It's a hard decision to let it go, you know But do the JV waveforms sound exactly the same in the XV-5080? Or do you think there is any other good reason to keep the JV? Please let me know.
Now, as far as I know, it contains all of the sounds of the JV-2080 (and newer stuff of course) so my question is: would you keep the JV-2080 anyway if you had a XV-5080? Obviously it makes no sense to keep it since the XV-5080 contains all the sounds and I can even install my JV-expansion boards in it. However, since the XV-5080 is so cheap thease days, I'm gonna buy one this week.