Installing Roland Fantom-X USB Drivers in Windows 10

If you are a Fantom X-series user, you may have noticed that Roland hasn't published official drivers for Windows 10. What a shame! Synth workstations, gladly, are designed to last for very long, and we need to update our computer-based music studios. I bought my Fantom X6 fifteen years ago and it's still in pretty good shape. I haven't used its sequencer too much to be honest, but I love combining its MIDI capabilities with its Windows sound editor and Cubase.

The Windows 8 driver doesn't work properly, but there's an easy hack that can help you bring an extra life for the Fantom in modern Windows.

0. Log as admin!

1. Download the Fantom-X driver for Windows 8 from the official download page.

2. Unzip the file (fanx_win8d_v100.zip) and find "fanx_win8d_v100\Files\64bit\Setup.exe" folder. Press right click, "properties" and, in the compatibility tab, set it to compatibility mode for Windows 8.

3. Find "RDIF1045.INF" in the "fanx_win8d_v100\Files\64bit\Files" folder. Open it in a text editor. Find the "Manufacturer" section and edit it this way:

 

As you can see, I've changed the last parameter in %MfgName%, setting it to 6.7, and have copy-pasted the values from NTam64.6.2 to this new NTamd64.6.7, marking it as Windows 10. Save the changes.

4. Windows 10 won't let us install unsigned drivers by default, so we need to reboot the computer activating this option. There are different methods to achieve this.

5. Install the driver using "fanx_win8d_v100\Files\64bit\Setup.exe". If you have tried the Windows 8 driver before, you would have noticed that the installation gets stuck when you have to plug the usb cable and turn on the synth. That should be fixed now.

Voilà! You should have your Fantom-X working in Windows 10! With great power comes great responsibility! :P

And now, as a final thought: think twice about purchasing software or hardware that may not be supported *somehow* in the future. How many vst-is will be compatible with the system that we will have ten years in the future? MIDI connectivity based in DIN connectors is old and not as convenient as a modern USB cable, but you can still use the full power of a Juno 106, released in 1984, in a modern environment. Will we be able to say the same thing about modern synths and controllers with non-class-compliant MIDI USB support? Fantom X needs USB2 ports to get working... For how long will we have USB compatible ports?

Have fun!