Roland FA-08 Music Workstation (88-Key)

Product Overview

Roland’s always been at the forefront of electronic instruments, from early electric pianos and synthesizers, to more advanced workstations and drum machines.

The original Fantom was groundbreaking during its run, essentially redefining the entire concept of the music workstation. The FA series of today originally hit showrooms in 2014, and yet again reimagines the tactile workstation. The series consists of three models – the 61-note FA-06, 76-note FA-07, and the fully weighted, 88-note FA-08.

Stream-lining the real-time control, the FA-08 music workstation offers much more simple operation than its predecessors. And if you’re not interested in compromising with regards to touch, you don’t have to since the FA-08 uses the Roland ’88-note Ivory G-Feel’ action, which greatly resembles the feel and mechanics of an acoustic piano action.

Add in Roland’s flagship INTEGRA-7 sound module with more than 2,000 sounds, along with Roland’s SuperNATURAL acoustic tones and synth tones and you’ve got the studio-quality sounds you need with this massive sound collection for any musical situation.

After that, we’ve got an arranger’s dream with a 16 track sequencer with non-stop loop recording, as well as the ability to save tracks as a complete mix on an SDHC card. Independent MFX engines can be applied to every one of the 16 total tracks, and there’s the Total Effects feature (TFX) to process and edit your output via the Sound Modify controls.

But the features don’t stop there since we’ve also got a sampler and seamless DAW integration, making the FA-08 useable as a USB audio interface. Factor all of this in along with the price and you’re left with a pretty comprehensive package for under $2,000 USD.

Action

The primary benefit of the FA-08 over its smaller counterparts – the FA-06 and FA-07, is its action and keybed. This keyboard workstation receives Roland’s: ‘88-note Ivory G-Feel Action Keyboard’. This action feels super authentic and features 88 weighted keys, textured key surfaces, and even has an advanced feature called ‘escapement’ which is something that professional pianists used to playing on grand pianos will appreciate. This is without questions the best action available in any Roland FA series piano

The Sound Engine
One sound engine? Two? Try 5 – yes, the FA-08 has 5 different sound engines on-board for maximum versatility. There’s the SuperNATURAL Synth engine, Acoustic engines and drum kit engines, as well as the PCM Synth and Drum Kit generators. All of this adds up to more than 2,000 pre-loaded tones, the majority of which are pro-quality for the stage and studio.

Polyphony tops out at 128 notes on most patches which is admittedly a bit light, but if you’re running this with a DAW it won’t matter. In terms of effects, there’s 68 total including reverbs, EQ processors, chorus, arpeggiator, and tweak tones.

There’s also full compatibility with the ever-expanding array of INTEGRA-7 synthesizer patches, which are accessible for free at Roland’s website, and you can add even more tones with the internal wave sound expansion slots.

Sound Engine

One sound engine? Two? Try 5 – yes, the FA-08 has 5 different sound engines on-board for maximum versatility. There’s the SuperNATURAL Synth engine, Acoustic engines, and drum kit engines, as well as the PCM Synth and Drum Kit generators. All of this adds up to more than 2,000 pre-loaded tones, the majority of which are pro-quality for the stage and studio.

Polyphony tops out at 128 notes on most patches which is admittedly a bit light, but if you’re running this with a DAW it won’t matter. In terms of effects, there’s 68 total including reverbs, EQ processors, chorus, arpeggiator, and tweak tones.

There’s also full compatibility with the ever-expanding array of INTEGRA-7 synthesizer patches, which are accessible for free at Roland’s website, and you can add even more tones with the internal wave sound expansion slots.

Connectivity

As would be expected from a workstation, all of the core connectivity options are represented – dual output jacks, stereo sub output jacks, headphone jack, stereo line, in, a mic line input, three different foot pedal jacks, as well as MIDI in/out, USB in/out and of course a DC in.

Notable Features

Without hesitation, the key feature of the FA-08 workstation from Roland is its action. What this machine can do is truly shocking, but then adding a key action as authentic as the ‘G-feel’ action truly puts this instrument in a category of its own. Roland has long been acknowledged for making some of the industry’s most popular digital piano actions, and the G-Action is no exception. 88, Full-Sized Weighted keys with textured key surfaces AND escapement; this workstation was truly built for pianists.

Conclusions

The only full-sized piano in the Roland FA Series, the FA-08 is a workstation that will give pianists the effortless real-time power and expressive real-time controls they need and won’t limit the creative/music-making process at all. Add it to your wish list!