Roland Fantom X6: Don't Like Synth Bass? Record Your Own! (Part One)

Roland Fantom X6: Don't Like Synth Bass? Record Your Own! (Part One)
The Roland Fantom X6 is a very versatile synth workstation loaded with many beautiful sounds, but say you don't think the bass sounds real enough for you. Warren Harris of Roland US grabs a bass and shows us how to record audio into the Fantom X6 workstation and manipulate the bass tone as if it were one of the Fantom's built-in sounds.

Yamaha CS1x

The CS1x is Yamaha's first Analog Emulation performance keyboard for electronic and dance musicians (the CS line is back!). It's a digital synthesizer that emulates analog style, sounds and controls. All controls and parameters are real-time and MIDI controllable. As well as a superb set of quality synth bass, pads, voices, leads and arpeggiated sequences there are plenty of amazing drum sounds also with analog sound and control.

Some of the coolest features of the CS1x aimed at dance musicians will provide you with instant sonic gratification and hands-on real-time tweakability. There are 6 knobs for envelope attack, release, filter cutoff, resonance and 2 are assignable knobs. Two scene memories will remember the current state of the envelope and filters as set by the control knobs so they can instantly be recalled and you can even use the Mod-wheel to morph from one scene into the other, very cool! Scene Memory data is also stored with your synth patches. Built-in digital effects are great but the Arpeggiator steals the show with 30 inspirational patterns suited for techno, house, basslines and basic arpeg. patterns.

Plenty of memory (128 preset, 128 user) and MIDI control make the CS1x perfect for both live and studio use. Control the synth, arpeggiator and editing through MIDI control. The CS1x only has limited multitimbrality in which, when hooked up to a sequencer, MIDI channels 5-16 offer plain old Yamaha XG synth sounds but MIDI channel 1 holds the CS1x's main sounds and effects. It's already being used by Underworld, Bushflange, Jamiraquai, Skylab2000, Somatic Responses, and David Bowie.

Specifications
Polyphony - 32 notes
Oscillators - XG Format - 480 Normal Voices and 11 Drum Kits
#Instruments - 16 Part multi-timbral
Filter - YES (w/ real-time control)
Arpeggiator - Yes, including Hold and Split
Keyboard - 61 keys (velocity sensitive)
Memory - Preset: 128; Programmable; 128
Control - MIDI & computer interface
Date Produced - 1996
Est. Value - $500