Fantom-O promises “non-stop” music

Roland’s featherweight ‘0’ series synth workstations pack heavyweight specs

>Roland have released the Fantom-0 series, which contains lighter, streamlined and more affordable versions of their flagship Fantom synth workstations. There are three models – Fantom-06, -07 and -08 – each of which is designed for use in the studio and on stage.

Fantom-0 is designed to bring Roland’s top-tier tech to a new audience, with each model in the range featuring thousands of the best sounds that the company has to offer. You also get a colour touchscreen, hands-on controls and deep computer integration.

Sounds are powered by three Roland engines – ZEN-Core, Super NATURAL and Virtual

Tone Wheel Organ – and further expansions are available via the Roland Cloud. These include emulations of Roland synth classics such as the JX-8P, SH-101, Juno-106 and Jupiter-8, plus n/ zyme, the new wavetable instrument.

As well as the synth sounds, the Fantom-0 is also stuffed with acoustic tones, and users can create custom creative spaces known as Scenes. These can contain sounds, patterns, performance layouts, song sections and more, and you can switch between them seamlessly.

Other features include RGB performance pads, quick sampling and a clip-based sequencer, ensuring that you can do an awful lot of production on just this one keyboard.

When the time comes to incorporate Fantom-0 into your production setup, it can serve as a 4x32 USB audio interface, and offers native integration with Logic Pro,

Main Stage and Ableton Live. This includes touchscreen control.

The 61-note Fantom-06 and 76-note Fantom-07 come with newly developed synth action keyboards, while the Fantom-08 has 88 weighted-action keys. Other than that, all of the models are identical, with each promising to be “ultrarugged” and therefore suitable for life on the road.

The Fantom-06, Fantom-07 and Fantom-08 will be available in April priced at $1,500, $1,800 and $2,000 respectively.