The proceudre described in the user manual for adding additional memory (SIMM) is not clear.
The slot is actually hiiden behind a piece of reflective black plastic on the expansion board. You need to carefully lift the (fairly rigid) piece of plastic, slide the memory behind it, and then install into the slot. The manual doesn't mention the black plastic!
I installed 512 MB of memory - which is vital to allow lengthy recorded audio (smapling mode).
I found a source on Ebay for 512MB of memory delivered for £20 to a UK address - well packed, too. It works, too.
This begs the question, why did Roland just no install a 512 MB SIMM as standard - really, £20 (and probably less as I paid postage) on a £1500-£2000 synth is nothing (surely?).
What was the rationale there?
Hi John,
I agree, it seems a strange area to cut costs and it's the same with the Juno-G. Also, there have been a few posts on different forums about memory compatability issues (including ones from me!) such as:
I understand that Roland could keep adding functions here and there and eventually bump up the initial retail price by £100. However, audio recording (rather than sampling) is a key feature of the Juno-G workstation, but is useless without at least 10 mins of recording capabilities, rather than the few seconds provided by the onboard 4Mb.
Good job I'm not trying to record a 25 min Prog Rock opus !!
The Juno G is still a great piece of kit and at least there is non-proprietary upgrade path for both workstations... I do have Fantom G envy though....
Hi there I just bought some memory off e-bay too for my fantom G, 512mb of sd ram,unfortunately mine doesnt work,It comes up with the wrong amount and doesnt see the 32mb onboard.Fortunately I found a stick of 128mb sd ram in my memory box that works ok so that will have to do for now.The memory only cost me £10 with free P&P;so its no big deal but before I buy some more from somewhere else,seen some for £14,is there a list of compatable ram anywhere.I dont want to end up with a pile of sd ram thats no use for anything else.My computer runs DDR 2 and when I get round to upgrading that it will probably be on DDR 3.so I'm not going to have much use for it.
On the other thread listed in previous posting (http://www.rolandforums.co.uk/forums/viewthread/490/#796), I mentioned that I talked to Roland customer support. They said they've only tested the memory from Crucial with the Juno / Fantom, and for more detail I should talk to Crucial (!).
You can get the 512Mb Crucial Dimm from:
http://www.crucial.com/uk/store/partspecs.aspx?IMODULE=CT64M64S4D7E
I spoke to Crucial memory, and the modules that they provide are only Low Density.
Like you, I also got my DIMM from Ebay for about £10 (rather than £43 from Crucial). I think (hoping) the big difference is that the DIMM I purchased is High Density. I'm sending back and swapping it out with a Low Density module. If that doesn't work, then I'll have to write off the cheaper module and splash out on the Crucial one.
It's "unfortunate" that buying a module to the exact spec provided by Roland just doesn't work. Further more, it's also unfortunate that the only advice from Roland support was "to buy from Crucial, or contact Crucial to get advice".
My view is that Roland should be providing excact specs and manufacturers of compatible modules, rather than leaving to consumers to find a working one by trial and error.
I'll post back in a week or so to let people know if the low density RAM made a difference, or if I've had to splash out further.
In the meantime, any input from a Roland specialist would be gratefully received!!
Hi Sneaky CS,
thanks for your reply,yes its a pity roland dont list a compatable memory list like Yamaha do.In computer terms sd ram is old hat,like you I have contacted another supplier on e-bay asking them for their advice on memory and like you I am trying to avoid paying for the more expensive crucial memory.Have you seen how much the 1gb crucial modules are its not as if they are of any use for anything else if the supplier wont take it back.I'll keep my eye out for your reply to see if you have some success.I'm fortunate in I mess with computers a lot and found some old sd ram,biggest I had was 128mb though but at least it works.lilchris
Not impressed at all.The memory I bought that doesnt work cost only £10 and they have offered to take it back but its not worth it by the time I pay for reg delivery and knock the price of postage off.But this could get expensive keep trying differant modules,is it true that Creatives will work because it quite a bit more expensive to buy,any one know,dont see much point in e-mailing Roland they havnt replied to my last querie yet.beginning to wonder if I made the right decision moving from Yamaha to Roland ( I paid about £2300,00 for my Demo model )the more expensive Motif is looking as if it might have been a better deal for getting support.
I feel your pain. I'm also doing exactly the same thing (sending mine back and paying for another 2 lots of postage etc). If it doesn't work this time, I'll have to suck it up and buy the Crucial RAM. I couldn't run to getting the Fantom G without selling my Korg Triton, and I couldn't bring myself to do that.So I went for an Ex-Dem Juno G to work along side the Triton instead. The RAM should be here in a few days... The Juno and Fantom are great products, but the support is letting them down at the moment. And still no input from Roland on this or any other thread on this subject to date.
Do try phoning Roland on 01792 702701 (Swansea).... My money says that whoever you speak to will tell you to get a Dimm from Crucial and leave it at that... but it might well be down to the individual you get on the day.
Anyone do please pst back with any success stories in this area !!
I hear your pain too, but find it hard to understand. You are buying obviously new or secondhand parts from ebay. Where is the quality assurance there? The problem you are finding is that trhere are so many manufacturers of ram out there, making dimm modules which do not necessarily conform to the 'standard' specification laid down. This is the issue with the items you have purchased from ebay.
Fitting is an easy process for anyone who uses computers and can install memory in those. The procedure is the same.
We always recommend using a good quality supplier who will happily take back any supplied memory if it doesn't work. There are some great companies out there. Try Crucial by all means. They are fantastic. I have ordered memory from them at about midnight, and had it posted through my letterbox by 9am the very next morning. They also provide a quality warranty, and will take it back if it is not suitable.
Perhaps the question should be, why would you scrimp a few quid on a memory expansion module by purchasing it on ebay? It could be completely unsuitable, and could even cause damage to the fantastic workstation you have purchased at over £2000. The one and only time I have purchased memory on ebay, it was completely unsuitable, was wrongly labeled, and didn't even fit the slot. Had I been inexperienced and tried forcing it in, I would have damaged either the memory, the computer, or both.
There are also other good suppliers out there too. Americanino have supplied quality memory to the pro-audio market for years now, again backed up by a quality guarantee. Roland give you a free 3 year warranty, so why jeapordise that with dodgy memory?
The only analogy I can think of is, you spend a couple of grand on a car from a reputable garage. They supply a good warranty with the car, but you decide you want to upgrade the engine. You go out and by a turbo tuning kit from ebay, but the one sent works well for a few days, but then the valves are knackered because they are put under too much pressure from the turbo you fitted. The supplier denys any responsibility and you don't have a leg to stand on with your warranty then. He should have supplied other parts to put up with the increased strain on the engine. Do you see what I mean?
A piece of gear is only as good as the components inside. Roland use quality components. Don't start mucking that up by introducing dodgy memory.
Oh and by the way, for your information, the Juno-G now samples. Just upgrade free to version 2 operating system. It has a very similar system to that of the Fantom-X so does bpm calculate and time stretching etc.
I work in IT, and do agree about installing quality components etc. However, the problem here is that ordering a component to the exact specification set down by Roland should work. If there are compatability issues with other brands (other than the 2 mentioned above and in the Roland PDF on their site) then they should list compatable brands including all the key players (Samsung, Kingston, Infinion etc). Also, there's nothing stating anywhere whether or not the memory needs to be High Density or Low Density.
I only found out that Crucial are providing Low Density Dimms by phoning them... not from Roland. The Dimm I purchased is a branded High Density 512mb module, but displays in the Juno as a 1024Mb Dimm... and the Audio functionality just stops working.
On a final note - thanks for the note about the OS upgrade on the Juno - I have indeed installed it, and it is superb - hence the RAM upgrade! I read about the OS upgrade before buying which is why I thought it would be a good cut down version to the Fantom X (although nothing can compare to the UI on the Fantom G!!).
Thanks guys for the reply and especially to John who seems to be the only guy with any connection to Roland who replies.I have been building computers for a good few years now,I have 3 machines running in this house all of which I have built.When I wanted to put a hardrive inside my Yamah Tyros 2 I bought my own from a reputable computer component supplier saving a fortune on drives from music dealers.The thing was Yamaha supplied a list of compatable drives and also a list of memory modules so you couldnt go wrong.
My computer supplier could only supply a PC133 memory module which actually was clocked a bit faster than normal PC133 so I knew that would be a waste of time.It might not seem like much saving but Ive just skint myself ( I had to buy the wife a three piece suite too for this )to get my Fantom G plus speakers and wanted some memory so I could load some WAV files which was easy on my tyros I just loaded as many as I wanted onto the 60GB hardrive.I have put 128mb of memory in at the moment, dont know how many WAV files I'll get on that I havn't had chance to try yet.
Any way a supplier as tody mailed me they can supply some compatable memory at a compatable price so I will keep you informed.I have today registered the keyboard with Roland Uk so Hopefully I can get some support if I have any problems not that I am expecting any,thanks once again guys.Chris
Firstly, sorry for the delay in posting back - I've been away on business - but I have good news:
I sent my original HIGH DENSITY DIMM back to the supplier and asked if they could swap it for a LOW DENSITY 512Mb so that I could try it.
The new memory is in my Juno G, and I have tested it by using the 'mix down' feature to record the MIDI tracks of a 5 min song into an audio file. This was then assigned to a Card slot on the Compact Flash card. I've reloaded it into a new new song and it all plays back perfectly!!
I haven't tried sampling / Audio recording yet, but I'm assuming the mixdown does the same thing but uses the internal sound engine as the source rather than the line. I know when i tried this before, I got the 'Memory Full' error after about 10 seconds, so this is definite progress... Actually, I should try some real audio recording....
[... 10 mins elspases]
Yep - just recorded a drum track on my Vdrums directly into the Line in in the Juno G also. Perfect !
So... The message here is that it doesn't seem to matter about the brand of memory (I've got Infinion I think), the key is to explicitly order LOW DENSITY DIMMs with the exact spec provided by Roland, NOT HIGH DENSITY. The low desntiy stuff is a bit more expensive (older tech), but ours was purchased from a reputable dealer on Ebay (Fast Flash Store), and it only cost £13.95. The guys there were very helpful and forgiving about my 'trial and error' approach!
So to recap - you need:
Type: SDRAM DIMM, Unbuffered
Slots: 1
Number of pins: 168-pin
Speed: 100 MHz (PC100 CL=2) 133 MHz (PC133 CL=3)
Voltage: 3.3 V
Capacity: 64/128/256/512 MB
Maximum Size: 512MB
Board height: 38 mm or less LOW DENSITY (32 x 8)
Happy hunting, and thanks to all of those who posted back.
It's good to see that you have got there in the end, and thanks for your valuable tips for other users. I am sure there will be others who will appreciate your help in the future.
Thanks craig, thats brilliant news.Ive been waiting paitentley since your last post.I think the company that mailed me was the same one,unfortunately the link they gave me said the memory was out of stock.Thanks once again.chris
No problems Chris - I hope you get your hands on the right DIMM soon and without too much more trauma. Oh, and my Juno is great but I still have Fantom G envy !!!!!!
The information about the spec of the RAM came from a a document on the Roland Site.
I just revisted it again and noticed that it's for the Juno G and Fantom X.....
I downloaded the Fantom G user guide and found this on PAGE 312:
Supports PC133, CL=2/3, 128 MB, 256 MB, 512 MB, 1 GB (3.3 V)
Number of pins: 168-pin
Board height:40 mm or less
The Fantom-G has been confirmed to work with standard
memory that meets the above specifications. However, we
cannot guarantee that all memory of these specifications will
work correctly. Please be aware that even with identical
specifications, differences in the design of the memory module
or the conditions of use may mean that a memory module may
not be usable.
(Nice disclaimer).
The spec looks the same as the Fantom X and Juno G, so I think the same rules should apply - i.e. Go for LOW DENSITY DIMMs.
Also... as an extra comment, the first time I installed the new DIMM, the Juno showed a message stating "CHECK DIMM". I simply uninstalled it and reinstalled it and it was fine. I think I hadn't quite got it seated correctly in the slot. Worth checking if, after all of this, you ever get the same message and start considering self harming !!!!
