Will the Roland Fantom S88 fuction without memory or computer connections? It’s a recent purchase, its vintage, and Roland no longer supports these. I’m trying to get this one started.
Depends on what you mean by “function”. Will you be able to make music with it? Certainly, it comes with presets and apparently you already have the SRX-09 expansion installed, which adds even more presets and ROM samples to the synth.
If you meant to ask whether specifically the sampling portion will function: According to the specs the Fantom S88 comes with 32MB built-in sample RAM that you should be able to use immediately. The depicted RAM slot can be used to expand this to up to 288MB (looks like standard 72-pin RAM modules just like in other Roland samplers of the time). You should be able to load samples via a SmartMedia card or USB, which would indeed require a PC with either a SmartMedia card reader, or a USB stick or similar. Roland may no longer support this device but you can still download the manual here: https://www.roland.com/us/products/fantom-s88/support/ - it should contain the answers to most of your questions.
Thanks, this is my first real synth and didn’t know how to approach any issues with a used one. I’ll stick to this one as it was a deal and I ordered a power cord so I should get results by weeks end. Thank you again.
Then I can wholeheartedly recommend to check out the owner’s manual linked above - Roland manuals of that era are very well written and very rich with information, so it should help you getting started with the device easily.
Thanks again. Got the download and I have started reading. 