Roland Fantom G6 Specification sheet

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© 2008, 2010 Roland Corporation U.S.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form without the
written permission of Roland Corporation U.S.
FGWS02
Power User Control
®ÂØÒňήWorkshop
Fantom-G Workstation Keyboard

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About the Workshop Booklets
Roland’s Fantom G6, G7, and G8—the Fantom-G family—set a new standard
for excellence in workstation keyboards, with spectacular sounds and
incredible built-in effect-processing muscle. A beautiful full-color LCD
display and innovative performance features make getting around a pleasure
and make the G6, G7, and G8 a dream to play. For recording, the Fantom-G
contains a powerful 128 MIDI/audio track sequencer. Each Fantom-G can
also host two Roland ARX SuperNATURAL™ cards whose breakthrough
modeling technology provides sounds with amazing sonic detail, expressive
possibilities, and sound-design opportunities.
Each Fantom-G Workshop Series booklet focuses on one Fantom-G topic,
and is intended as a companion to the Fantom G6/G7/G8 Owner’s Manual.
This booklet requires Fantom-G Operating System v1.30 or higher. You can
download the latest Fantom-G O.S. for free from www.RolandUS.com.
About This Booklet
With its front-panel controls and a connected mouse, there are lots of ways
to get things done on the Fantom-G, no matter how you like to work. This
booklet starts you down the road to becoming a Fantom-G power user.
The next booklet, Power User Control 2: The Pads, finishes the trip with a
discussion of the dynamic pads, a world unto themselves on the Fantom-G.
Understanding the Symbols in This Booklet
In this booklet, you’ll come across information that deserves special
attention—that’s the reason it’s labeled with one of the following symbols.
A note is something that adds information about the topic at hand.
A tip offers suggestions for using the feature being discussed.
Warnings contain important information that can help you avoid
possible damage to your equipment, your data, or yourself.
Flexibility and Speed
In this booklet we’ll present some of the less-obvious ways of operating
the Fantom-G. As you’ll see, there are often several ways to do the same
thing. Roland’s designed the Fantom-G this way to make it fit naturally into
anyone’s workflow. As we go along, we’ll mention some interesting control
combinations for you to consider using.
While changing sounds as you play is a form of control, that’s not
the kind of control we’re talking about here—you’ll find that kind
of information in the Manipulating Sounds in Realtime Workshop
booklet.
Using a Mouse with the Fantom-G
The Mouse You Want
The Fantom-G is designed to work with any USB
mouse you might use with a computer. To get the
most out of the Fantom-G’s mouse support, you
want a USB mouse with
two buttons—
• since left-clicks and right-clicks
do different things on the Fantom-G.
a scroll wheel—
• for moving quickly through
a list.
The Fantom-G works most reliably with a
corded mouse, though some cordless mice
will also work.
Either a PC or Mac
mouse is fine.

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Connecting Your Mouse
Connect your mouse’s USB cable to the USB
MOUSE jack on the Fantom-G’s rear panel—
that’s all the setup you need to do.
Mousing Basics
As with a mouse on a computer, an
onscreen cursor shows the current
position of your mouse.
We’re going to assume you already possess sufficient mouse skills that
you know how to click and drag with a mouse.
While we’ll mention special cases throughout this booklet, your mouse
basically performs as follows.
The Left Mouse Button
The left button acts as your main clicker—if we say “click your mouse” in a
Workshop booklet, this is the button we mean.
Use the left button to interact with things onscreen, including:
parameters—
• whose values you’d like to adjust.
Click a parameter’s value to highlight it, and click
and drag it to the right or upward to increase its
value, or to the left or down to lower it.
things appearing in lists—
• such as live sets, studio sets, patches, songs,
parameter values, and so on.
onscreen F-buttons—• instead of pressing their physical counterparts
beneath the display.
scroll bar handles—• to navigate up and down through lists.
zoom bars—
• to change the appearance of certain displays.
icons—
• that do various things.
These three icons are always available in the top-right corner of the Fantom-G display. Click the
left icon to display the Menu window. Click the center icon to exit the current screen, where
applicable. Click the icon on the right to open the Shortcut Menu window.
The Right-Hand Mouse Button
As with a computer, the job of the right-hand mouse button on the
Fantom-G is to provide quick access to useful options based on what you’re
doing. Therefore, when you right-click your mouse on
a live-set name in Live mode—
• the Live Set List window opens.
a patch name in Single mode—
• the Patch List window opens.
a parameter most anywhere—
• a list of available values for the parameter
appears.
Once a right-click has revealed a list of options, the right-hand mouse
button operates temporarily as a left mouse button so you can quickly
grab what you want from the displayed list without switching buttons.
For this reason, the right-hand button is actually the only mouse
button you need for most editing operations.

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In general, the right-click gets you a list of related options for the item you’ve
clicked on. The best workflow for one Fantom-G operation may not be the
same as for another, so you’ll find some exceptions to this as you operate the
Fantom-G. Here are some key exceptions:
To invoke the Patch List window by right-clicking a part in the Live Play
•
screen—select the desired part first with a standard click.
To edit a track parameter in the Song Play or Song Edit window—
• use the
3or 4button to highlight the parameter before right-clicking.
There are also a few cases—such as setting sample start, end, and loop
parameters on the Sample Edit screen—where a right-click does nothing at
all, since any list of values it opened would be unusably long.
The Mouse Scroll Wheel
The mouse scroll wheel’s function is simple, as we said earlier: It scrolls
through a displayed list.
All Together Now
As you become comfortable with your mouse, consider using its three
elements together. For example, a right-ciick is always a fast way to get to a
list of values, and there’s nothing more immediate than clicking on the one
you want it the list. On the other hand, the scroll wheel is helpful when you
want to look through a range of options.
QWERTY Searching and Naming
One of the things a mouse connected to your Fantom-G allows you to do is
to take advantage of the Fantom-G’s pair of QWERTY features:
QWERTY searching—
• allows you to locate patches/rhythm sets/sample
sets, live sets, and studio sets by name.
QWERTY naming—
• allows you to quickly name things you create and
store in the Fantom-G’s memory.
When a QWERTY feature is available for a task you’re performing, you’ll see
the Fantom-G’s QWERTY icon onscreen.
QWERTY icon
Whether you’re searching for something or naming something, the QWERTY
features work the same way. Here’s how to use them:
Click the QWERTY icon to open the translucent QWERTY-keyboard
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window.
Click the keys in the onscreen keyboard to enter the desired2
characters—the characters you enter appear at the top of the
onscreen keyboard and in the screen’s Search field below the
QWERTY icon.
Search field
Filtered list
As you can see here, when you enter characters, the list you’re
searching is filtered to hide any items whose names don’t contain the
string of characters you’ve entered so far.

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You can also enter spaces using the spacebar, or go back by clicking
the Back Space key. Click Shift to enter capital letters or alternate
characters for the number keys, or click Clear all to start over. You
can close the QWERTY keyboard at any time by clicking the “X” in its
upper right-hand corner.
When you’re done, click OK in the onscreen keyboard to complete3
the process and close the QWERTY keyboard window.
To clear the Search field and cancel a search, click the Search field’s
“X.”
Using the usual methods, select the desired item you’ve found or4
complete the storage or naming operation you’re performing.
The Magic Controls
Typically, the Fantom-G’s realtime control knobs and sliders
allow you to manipulate sounds in realtime. The fourth knob
and eighth fader, meanwhile, have a second identity as the
Magic Controls. The Magic Controls help you navigate the
Patch List screen:
Knob 4—
• quickly selects patch categories.
Fader 8—
• quickly selects patches from the current
category.
Turning On the Magic Controls
Press the MENU button.1
Press or click F2 (System).2
Press F2 (3 Down) to display the Knob/Slider parameters.
Make sure that the Knob Assign Select and Slider Assign Select
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parameters are set to Screen, as shown here.
If they’re not, set them to5 Screen, and then press or click F7 (Sys
Write) to save your changes. (To turn off the Magic Controls, set the
parameters to FIX.)
Reconfiguring the Magic Controls
To change the way the Magic Controls operate:
Navigate to the System screen as described above.
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Press F2 (2 Down) to display the Magic Control parameters.
Select the job you’d like the knob to perform by setting the Magic3
Control Knob parameter as desired. Set it to
OFF—
• so Knob 4 doesn’t operate as a magic control.
CATEGORY/BANK—
• so Knob 4 select banks on the Patch List
screen. (This is the default setting.)

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SCROLL FINE—• so Knob 4 scrolls through the patch list in small
steps.
SCROLL COARSE—
• so Knob 4 scrolls through the patch list in
larger steps.
Set the Magic Control Slider parameter as desired. Set it to
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OFF—• so Fader 8 doesn’t operate as a magic control.
CATEGORY/BANK—
• so Fader 8 select banks on the Patch List
screen.
SCROLL FINE—
• so Fader 8 scrolls through the patch list by smaller
increments.
SCROLL COARSE—
• so Fader 8 scrolls through the patch list by
larger increments. (This is the default setting.)
Press or click F7 (Sys Write) to save your changes.
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Using the Knobs and Sliders for Editing Parameters
When you’re editing patches, effects, or
samples on the Fantom-G, you can often save
time by adjusting parameter values using the
four control knobs or eight sliders, which are
often pre-assigned to important parameters.
When you can use a control knob for editing,
you’ll see the knob’s number next to the
parameter whose value it adjusts, in red.
Control slider numbers are in blue.
Here, Sliders 1-6 adjust the LO,
MID, and HI Attack and Release
settings, while Knobs 1-3
adjust the LO, MID, and HI Level
parameters.
The Shortcut Menu
At any time, you can press the DISPLAY button located at the
display’s lower-right-hand corner to show the Shortcut menu.
The Shortcut menu allows you to jump to the current mode’s
Play screen, as well as to some important other screens you’ll
often want to visit.
While the Shortcut menu’s items are
determined by the Fantom-G’s operating
system software, you can use the dynamic
pads’ customizable Bookmark mode to jump
to most any screen you want. We’ll discuss
bookmarks in the Power User Control 2: The
Pads Workshop booklet.
Favorites and User Groups
Since this booklet’s all about speed, the Fantom-G’s Favorites and User
Groups features certainly deserve a mention here. With a little setup, both
features allow you to get instantaneously to what you need.
The basic idea is this:
You “register” something as a Favorite or in a User Group.
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You “recall” the Favorite or User Group item, and the Fantom-G2
instantly grabs it for you.
It’s important to understand that when you register a Favorite or User
Group item, you’re not actually re-storing the item in a new memory
location—you’re just creating a shortcut that points to it.

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The Difference Between Favorites and User Groups
While Favorites and user groups are similar in that they both allow you to
collect your most-used items in one place for quick selection, they’re also a
bit different. Here’s what we mean. With
Favorites—
• you can instantly recall your most-used patches, rhythm sets,
sample sets, live sets, studio sets, or even songs, regardless of whether
you’re currently in Single, Live, or Studio mode. When you select an
item, the Fantom-G automatically jumps to the required mode.
User groups—
• you can quickly recall items in your current mode. In
Single mode—
• you can instantly recall patches, rhythm sets, and
sample sets.
Live mode—
• you can instantly recall live sets.
Studio mode—
• you can instantly recall studio sets.
Both Favorites and User Group items are organized into “banks,” each of
which contains 16 Favorite or User Group memory slots. There are 16
globally available Favorite banks. Single, Live, and Studio mode each contain
four User Group banks.
Why We’re Not Really Getting Into User Groups Now
User Groups are set up and recalled in the dynamic pads’ User Group pad
mode. Since a full understanding of pad modes is required for an explanation
of working with User Groups, we’ll get to them when we discuss pad modes
in detail in the next Workshop booklet, Power User Control 2: The Pads.
Using Favorites
The Two Favorite Screens
Pressing the FAVORITE button leads you to
two screens on which you work with Favorites.
On the:
Favorite Play screen—
• you recall your Favorites.
Favorite Edit screen—
• you register and set up your Favorites.
The Favorite Play and Edit screens look a lot alike. The main difference is the
F buttons. On the Favorite Play screen, the F buttons recall your Favorites. On
the Favorite Edit screen, they’re devoted to setup operations.
The FAVORITE button itself helps you know which Favorite screen
you’re on—it lights solidly when you’re on the Favorite Play screen and
flashes when you’re on the Favorite Edit screen.
Other than their F buttons, the screens have the same basic layout:
16 Favorite slots in
the current bank
Currently selected
Favorite
Text display area
Favorite banks
Current sound Current Favorite’s level
When a Favorite is a patch, rhythm set, or sample set, its slot is
blue. If it’s a live set, the slot is orange. If it’s a song, it’s purple.
If a Favorite slot is unused, it’s gray.
Default Project Favorites
There are seven Favorites banks already set up in the Fantom-G’s default
project, the project that loads after a factory reset. As you can see above,
these banks also contain onscreen instructions for using Favorites.
In the default project, Favorites Bank 07 contains all of the Fantom-G’s
demo songs for quick and easy loading.
For a complete list of the default project Favorites, see Page 7 of the What’s
New in the Fantom-G’s Operating System Version 1.30 ReleaseNote booklet,
which you can download by clicking here.

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Setting Up Favorites
Registering a Favorite
Here’s how to register a patch, rhythm set, sample set, live set, or studio set
as a Favorite. The process for registering a song as a Favorite’s a bit different.
We’ll explain it in the “Registering a Song Favorite” section later.
In
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Single mode—• select the desired patch, rhythm set, or sample set
as your keyboard sound.
Live mode—
• select the desired live set.
Studio mode—
• select the desired studio set.
Press the FAVORITE button twice so it blinks and the Fantom-G
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displays the Favorite Edit screen.
To select the Favorite bank in which you want to register your3
selection, press F1 (Bank/Up) or F2 (Bank/Down), or click the desired
bank’s name with your mouse.
For now, press F2 (Bank/
4 Down) to select the unused Bank 08, as
shown in the following illustration.
Selected the location in which you want to register your Favorite5
using F3 (←) and/or F4 (→). The currently selected Favorite location
has an orange underline—in the illustration above, it’s the first
location.
Press or click F8 (Regist) to complete the registration procedure.
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To un-register, or “remove,” a Favorite, select its location as described
above and press or click F7 (Remove).
To clear the entire current bank of Favorites, press or click F6 (Util
Menu), select Remove Bank, and then press or click F8 (Select.)
To quickly switch the Fantom-G’s pads to the Favorite pad mode—where
they can be used for quickly recalling your Favorites—press or click F5
(Dynamic Pad) on the Favorite Edit screen. We’ll explain the various
pad modes in the Power User Control 2: The Pads Workshop booklet.

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Registering a Song Favorite
Press FAVORITE twice to display the Favorite Edit screen.1
To select the Favorite bank in which you want to register your song,2
press F1 (Bank/Up) or F2 (Bank/Down), or click the desired bank’s
name with your mouse.
Selected the location in which you want to register the song using
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F3 (←) and/or F4 (→).
Press or click F6 (Util Menu).
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Select5 Set Song from the Utility
menu, and then press or click F8
(Select) to open the Select Song
song list.
Choose the song you want to register,
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and then press or click (F8 (Select).
Recalling Favorites
The fastest way to recall Favorites is by using the pads, as we’ll explain in
the Power User Control 2: The Pads Workshop booklet. However, you can also
recall them from the Favorite Play screen. Here’s the best way to do this:
Press the FAVORITE button once to light the FAVORITE button and to
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display the Favorite Play screen.
To select the Favorite bank in which the item you want is registered,2
press 6or 5, or click the desired bank’s name with your mouse.
At the bottom of the screen, you can see the names of the first eight
Favorites registered in the current bank. Each of these eight Favorites
is assigned to one of the Fantom-G’s eight F buttons.
To recall:
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one of the first eight Favorites—• press or click its F button.
one of the next set of eight Favorites—
• hold down SHIFT to display
Favorites 9-16, and press or click the desired Favorite’s F button.
Setting a Favorite’s Level
The Fantom-G lets you set the volume at which a Favorite sound plays. To
do this:
Recall the Favorite.
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Navigate to the Favorite Edit screen, and then select the desired2
Favorite’s slot using F3 (←) and/or F4 (→).
Using Control Knob 4, set the sound’s level as desired.
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Press or click F8 (Regist) to re-register the Favorite at its new4
volume.
Displaying Text Onscreen
You can display text in the text area of the Favorite Play and Edit screens, as
you can see in Favorite Banks 01-07 in the default project. This can be any
kind of text at all, including:
lyrics• • set lists
things you need to remember as you play the Fantom-G—• such as chord
progressions, song structures, and so on.
club-owner or wait-staff/bartender names
•
To do this, you import the text you want from a plain-text file (with a“.txt”file
extension) created on a computer. Once the text is displayed, you can scroll
up and down within the text using the Value dial or 5and/or 6buttons.

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Here’s how to import text into the Favorite screens:
1 Turn off the Fantom-G.
Start your computer and create or locate the text file you want to
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import into the Fantom-G.
Connect a USB cable from the
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Fantom-G’s USB COMPUTER jack to an
unused USB port on your computer.
Power up the Fantom-G.
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On the Fantom-G, press MENU, and then5
F3 (USB Storage).
If the currently loaded Fantom-G project
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is stored
in the Fantom-G’s internal memory—
•
press or click F1 (Internal)
on a USB stick—
• press or click F2 (USB Memory).
We’ll discuss projects and internal vs. USB memory in depth in the
Saving Your Work on the Fantom-G Workshop booklet. If you’re not
sure where your current project resides, press or click F1 (Internal)
now.
The storage area you selected in Step 6 appears on your computer as
“FANTOM-G.” If your computer is running
Windows Vista or XP—
• FANTOM G appears as a removable hard
disk in your My Computer area.
Mac OS X—
• FANTOM G appears as an external drive on your
desktop.
Once the Fantom-G and your computer are communicating, it’s
critical that you don’t turn off either device—or exit the USB Storage
screen on the Fantom-G—until you’ve un-mounted the Fantom-G from
your computer. Failing to do so can damage your data or your USB
memory device. We’ll explain how to safely disconnect everything in
a moment.
Double-click the FANTOM G drive on your computer and open the7
IMPORT folder.
Drag the text file from Step 2 into the IMPORT folder.
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In9
Windows—• right-click the FANTOM G icon in My Computer, and
select Remove.
Mac OS X—
• drag the FANTOM G icon to your Trash.
On the Fantom-G, press or click F8 (Exit) twice to leave USB Storage
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mode.
Your computer and Fantom-G are now no longer communicating via
USB, so you could turn either one off if you needed to.
Press or click the Fantom-G’s FAVORITES button twice to display the11
Favorite Edit screen.
Press or click F6 (Util Menu), and select
12 Import Text.
Press or click the F button you hit back in Step 6 to display your text
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file.

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Select the file and press or click F8 (Select)—the Fantom-G previews14
the text in the file for you to make sure it’s the text you want.
Press or click F8 (Execute) to import the file.
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Once the text is imported, it appears in the text area of the two
Favorite screens.
You can switch between two text typefaces, or “fonts,” by pressing or
clicking F6 (Util Menu), selecting Font, and then pressing or clicking
F8 (Select).
The End
We hope you’ve found this workshop helpful. Keep an eye out for other
Fantom-G Workshop booklets available for downloading at www.RolandUS.
com.