#Cr78 emulator mac pro#

While the sequencer may not be a big selling point for pro players (most of whom use a DAW to create their MIDI sequences), touring musicians may be attracted to the idea of a keyboard they could use to quickly record ideas without having to rig up a computer. This souped-up sequencer will be welcomed by keyboardists who need to create high-quality song backing tracks for their gigs, and the Ableton-style clip-based sequencing could be a great asset for EDMвЂ“based acts who need to vary live sequences on the fly. Other facilities include solo, mute, percentage quantise, input quantise, a loop length setting, a dedicated 16-part mixer and the ability to import and export MIDI files. The changes automatically happen at the top of the next bar, so you can't accidentally create Trout Mask Replica-style rhythmic mayhem. Playback is interactive on a level I've not seen before on a workstation: you can start and stop patterns simply by touching them on screen. You can save the scene you used to compose your arrangement, after which that scene will load with all your patterns, groups and songs in place.

The combination of patterns created for each track is called a group, each of which can be labelled as a song section ('Intro', 'Verse', etc) Groups may then be arranged into song order. I hoped I could exploit this for a bit of advanced polymetric experimentation, but was stymied by the fact that time signatures are limited to 4/4 and 3/4! Regardless of bar length, patterns play as a loop. Sequences can have 16 tracks corresponding to the 16 zones used in a scene, each of which holds up to eight patterns. (Tracks 9-16 are shown in the picture.) Each pattern plays as a loop, and you can start and stop patterns simply by touching them on screen. The sequencer has 16 tracks, each of which can hold eight patterns of up to 32 bars long. In a nutshell, you can record patterns of up to 32 bars length in real or step time, or use the 'TR-Rec' feature (which ingeniously turns the 16 tone-category buttons into TR-808-style illuminated selector switches) to create rhythm patterns or bass lines. Like all well-brought-up workstations, the Fantom includes a sequencer - in this case, an unexpectedly powerful one.

Global effects (IFX1, IFX2, Chorus and reverb) can be applied to the whole scene, while a third layer of master effects (including so-called mastering compression and EQ) can be applied to the whole shooting match. It's good to see emulations of the classic Boss CE1 chorus pedal and SDD-320 Dimension D included, adding their distinctive, floating analogue swirl to the effects menu.Д®ach tone in a Fantom scene can have its own effects settings. The usual suspects (phaser, tremolo, delay, auto-pan, rotary speaker, flanger) are all there, along with auto-wah, ring modulator, bit-crusher, pitch-shifter and various distortion and compression options. Ninety effects are available, ranging from simple EQ to combinations such as 'Amp Sim/Chorus'. I'd imagine 'JP' stands for Jupiter - you can guess the others. It's interesting to note the JP, MG and P5 settings, which (in Roland's words) 'are suitable for reproducing synthesizer sounds of the past'. The Fantom has various filter types, including low-pass (three types), high-pass, band-pass and peaking. In addition, there's a vast miscellany of instruments which would require an encyclopaedia to evaluate. Orchestral sounds have improved greatly in the new Fantom, and now offer usable woodwinds, a good selection of brass solo instruments and ensembles, passable saxes and some useful pizzicato and spiccato string sections. There are 90 or so drum kits, which include many classic Roland drum machines (CR-78, TR-808, TR-606, TR-909, TR-707, TR-727 and TR-626), along with a comprehensive selection of Latin percussion. As ever in Roland workstations, the bass sounds are strong, comprising excellent acoustic, electric and synth basses. The clavinet is a little thin-sounding for my taste, but some of the vintage organs (notably a Vox Continental soundalike) are robustly authentic. Other highlights include an excellent Fender Rhodes that matches the V-Piano's playability. In the synth department, I was gobsmacked to discover that oscillator sync and cross-modulation are implemented, enabling me to create banging, ripping analogue-style timbres strongly reminiscent of my beloved Prophet-5.

The sheer sound quality of the pads' sumptuous, soft, analogue-like waveforms (which draw upon Roland's Jupiter 8 and D50 pedigree) makes you forget that this is a digital instrument. My first impression on hearing the Fantom was 'wow, nice piano', swiftly followed by 'wow, great pads'.