Roland Fantom X Sounds

Hardware
1

Has anyone tried to import the Roland Fantom X Sounds into Zynthian? It has great sounds but I have no clue as to how to get those sounds into Zynthian. I basically have all sounds both internal as well as add on sound circuit modules. I would love to be able to use them in Zynthian directly and discarding my Fantom X

2

Hello @DrChelliah,

I am afraid that what you envisage is inherently not possible. Zynthian and Fantom X are two completely separate technological platforms. They can however share Midi data, and nothing prevents you from driving your Fantom through the currently evolving facilities of the Zynthian on-board sequencer, Zynpad. Be advised anyway that its features are for the moment incomplete, on the song arrangement side, and expected to be significantly expanded.

As for getting hold of some Fantom presets on the Zynthian, the only (toilsome) route would be to deep-sample and assemble them as soundfonts, then using them in Sfizz or Fluidsynth. I do not recommend this route, if only because despite much demanding work you would lose anyway the relevant dynamic complexity (velocity layers, performance controls etc.) of the sophisticated Roland sound design.

Regards

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Thanks for your input. Interestingly enough that is what I was thinking of doing but finding an expert to sample them into LV2 format. Interestingly enough I only need perhaps 25 different instruments from Roland Fantom X; perhaps even less than 20. Perhaps I can find some one who is willing to do it for a fee. I am willing to pay as long as the cost is not exhorbitant. Also I already have some great samples I purchased of Aahs and Oohs sampled in a professional lab but they are in the PC VST format. I wonder if there is a genius who can either convert the audio samples in to the LV2 format of perhaps even resample them in to the LV2 format. I can only hope!!! So far I have not been impressed with any of the sounds in Zynthian. They don’t sound professional except for the Pianoteq and possibly the Hammond Organ… It is a pity that I can only have one instance of the B3.

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Hi, I think that this needs to be clarified.

LV2 does not concern sampled instruments directly, as a plugin format for Linux-based music platforms, thus being basically an IT protocol, for embedding virtual synthesiser and effects programs in various music-making architectures, including Zynthian (in the Raspberry/Raspbian/Debian OS ecosystem).

SoundFont conversely is a class of file formats, for containers of sampled instruments. On Zynthian the Sfizz and Fluidsynth players read respectively SFZ (Plogue Sforzando) and SF2 (SoundFont 2) instrument formats.

See attached, for instance, the SFZ instruments specifications:

Assuming that you find a Music IT technician, available to deep-sample and script as soundfonts a select range of Fantom instruments for you, this free software could be very helpful, for organising and compiling correctly the sample base:

To be honest, you might realise that appointing someone appropriately skilled for the task could turn out to be quite difficult, and rather expensive. Besides, as I pointed out, such a time-consuming endeavour (generally undertaken as a sort of hobbyist pastime) would ultimately miss the desired goal, of transferring the synthesis complexity of Roland presets in a much more static sampled package, unless one invests an inordinate amount of time and effort, in scripting a very intricate multilayer instrument a-la-Kontakt, which is very hard if not maybe impossible to do on Arm64 Linux systems.

Regards :slight_smile:

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That is the key - it is possible to sample instruments but to get the desired level of control and articulation requires a lot of effort and specialist knowledge / experience. SFZ is a very capable sampling format, allowing extensive manipulation of sampled audio but only if someone has done the hard work of recording many versions of each sample and crafting the control files. The reason that sample packs cost money is that this process is costly of time and effort.

BTW, Fluidsynth also supports sf3 which mostly adds support for non-linear audio CODECs, e.g. ogg.

That is interesting. Zynthian has over 100 instruments and nearly 1000 audio effects. Quantity is definitely not an indication of quality but I have been using zynthian for many years and have still not tried all of these processors, but I have found a lot that sound fantastic. It does very much depend on what sound you want to create but the sample players like sfizz has access to many GB of sampled sounds with some very good real-life instruments. Analogue synth emulators like MiMi-d and Obxd have astounding soundscapes. Modern soft synths like SurgeXT provide wonderful sounds with almost infinite programmability options. All of those come with man (hundreds) of great presets.

As explained several times, there are technical constraints, not least that we are creating all of these sounds from a very low spec CPU, but that an instance of setBfree with multple manuals allows for multitimbral playing of the organ, with up to 3 separate MIDI channels, each controling a different manual. (Similar for the wonderful Aeolus pipe organ.) I can’t think of many musical instances where there are more than one Hammond B3 on the same stage - there may not be physical space for them and the insurance may be too high!!! :wink: There are many tonewheel organ emulators in zynthian, like sampled version in soundfonts (fluidsynth, sfizz, etc.) so you could complement an instance of setBfree with sampled organs if you need such massive layering.

Of course, our perception of sound is subjective. I would not say that all the sounds that zynthian creates are better or worse than those that a Casio VZ-1, or Roland SH-101 makes (to choose 2 “professional” synths I have in my studio). Some sound similar and most sound different. I can create soundscapes that may be used for professional purposes, whether that be music in a jazz band for live performance or recording, orchestral pieces for film score, organ recitals, etc. To be able to do so many things to such a high level of quality, often simultaneously with a single, $500 box is incredible. If one needed two (e.g. to have 2 instances of setBfree) you are still well below the cost of comparable “professional” equipment.

I encourage you to explore the available instruments and audio effects some more to discover the wonderful opportunities that this box offers. We hear a lot of user’s frustrations which we are fairly prompt to react to (with fixes, workarounds, etc.) but it is also good to hear of user’s successes, even if it is just, “I found that when I do this, I get that sound - which is what I was looking for / something unexpected and good”.

Zynthian is a small box packed with lots of magic as well as frustration. Putting in some effort can reap rewards. Enjoy the journey my friend.

2 Likes
6

Hi @DrChelliah !

Perhaps you could tell us what sounds are you looking for. Finding the right sound in the zynthian library is not easy and you could be missing some high quality sound you would find pleasant.

For instance, MDA EPiano is a cool, totally free, Rhodes Mark1 piano, very simple and very warm sounding. If you are looking for strings, i think the SCC Expressive Strings soundfont (sfizz) are quite nice too. If you are looking for orquestral sounds, zynthian includes the VPO3 library:

But perhaps you want to install others. I know some users are using VSCO2:

or SSO soundfonts:

Regarding synths, what to say? I don’t think nobody can say zynthian has not good synths. We have some very good VAS that can satisfy your needs.

Please, ask and we will try to guide you.

Regards,

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I would comply with everything @riban and @Aethermind said and summarize in short, that with musical devices there is often a compromise between freedom and user friendliness, where zynthian is clearly on the freedom side. It’s a computer, and you can use nearly everything that can be compiled on it.

On that kind of platform you might want to find solutions for your musical tasks one by one. If you are after the fantom sounds, knowing the machine has engines to play soundfonts, put something like this (I have not tried this myself) into your user soundfont directory and tweak it:

https://musical-artifacts.com/artifacts/3428

There are surely devices like stage pianos and workstations where you get your result faster, but not as flexible and probably not even better.

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Hi @hannesmenzel !

I was not aware of the existence of this soundfont collection. I’m curious about, so i started to download :wink:

Thanks,

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I didn’t know either, and cannot tell about its quality. Here’s another version.

https://musical-artifacts.com/artifacts/7265

I personally would of course always prefer a synth engine over a 8 (or 16) GB sample set of a synth.

P.S. I’m afraid you guys just DDOS’ed the page.

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Thanks for your thoughts

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Thank you for your thoughtful reply. All I am looking for are a few sounds that I use in my music:

  1. Realistic AAhs and OOhs, 2. Harmonica (the one I found in Zynthian does not sound realistic) 3. Saxophone 4. Flute 6. Rhythm Guitar 7. Lead guitar 8. Violin 9. Strings 10. French Horn 11. Trombone 12. Charang . I do have realistic AAhs and OOhs samples custom recorded in a studio as well as Hammond B3 samples in wave format I purchased. Is there any way I can pay some one to import them into Zynthian since they are already professionally sampled?
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By the way, how it turned out?