Okay I have to ask has anyone here actually tried one ?
I have today and I also tried a Montage 8 for the first time.
I will sum it up with Korg is rolling around the floor laughing at what Roland has done and taken them so long to do.
The Keyboard is way over priced for what it is and the only reason to buy it is for the Roland sounds if you like that. I like Roland sounds, but this is only forcing me to go buy an Integra 7, all they have done is repackaged the same Roland tech into a new keyboard with a new screen and some new features for keyboards like the TR stuff, the sequencer is humm.. This is coming from a Kronos user mad about the sequencer on Kronos.. The Piano roll part is not very well done, my old Technics KN3000 still had a better piano roll sequencer and shocking that a keyboard with that size screen and resolution shows very little of the piano roll. The other DAW like part of the sequencer is not for me either and actually was annoying to use, maybe due to the work flow style, because I'm more of a classic sequencer user. Ohh also the sequencer has no audio recording like the Kronos 16 track audio on the Kronos sequencer.. Again how is it a workstation in 2019 with no audio tracks in the sequencer, it only has 16 track midi (welcome to 1990), that shocked me actually that one and was like really your older products had 128 midi tracks and audio tracks too.
Okay now the layout to me was a lot better than Montage but again the colour scheme and the silly knobs right under the screen was very annoying in use and I felt in the way of accessing the screen.
Now I spoke to a Roland rep that was at the store and was told the sampling will come with a future update and not just the limited form it is in now, but have been burned by Roland in the past with such promises that never materialized but again same with KORG and the Kronos with their future updates to engines and new engines .. humm..
Now back to Montage and the only reason Montage got so many updates so quickly was there was no reason to buy a Montage over a Kronos and they quickly started to add features that were missing and fixing many of the broken things on the first release.
Anyways I got to try out two Keyboards I never had my hands on and came out of the store thinking thank god I ordered the Kronos and I ordered the Kronos only by watching Youtube videos and reading reviews and the manual to see what it could really do, without once having my hands on it. I still like the RH3 keybed over the Montage 8, but I have to say I have a little love for the RD2000 keybed and the same keybed on the Fantom 8. I do like the escapement on that keybed but again no aftertouch :-/ on that keybed, only the semi weighted 61,76...
Also I kept pushing for an answer of polyphony from the Roland rep and got not a lot out of him apart from V-piano is infinite and the synth part he had no idea and the rompler was 256 to his knowledge but can't confirm :-/...
Honestly I left with a really bad taste in my mouth after talking with this rep and found it very hard to answer simple questions. When questioned he would try show me some pretty graphics on a screen with a circle on it and how he could move the sound around with his finger for four different sounds I was like my Kronos does that with a joystick..
Anyways lets hope they do what Yamaha did and rush out some updates and some features that make it a real workstation, it is not a workstation when it can't sample and can only do sample to the pads or do audio track recording in the sequencer and not having aftertouch on the 88 key model is beyond real.. I was shocked at Korg with the Kronos LS missing aftertouch after they had it on their other Kronos models and was basically a downgrade for a lighter 88 keybed.
One nice thing was it is really nicely built and nice amount of outputs and inputs at the back of it... But £3520 for it or a new Kronos 2 that is £2730 at most places and that leaves you with £790 to go to the Korg store and add the sounds you want with the remaining money.. humm easy decision for me, if I was buying now a new workstation it would be the Kronos 2 .. but as you all know I already have one. The Montage was never in the running for me and thank god I didn't buy one from videos on the internet as in real use it annoyed the hell out of me the onscreen rubbish and how to do certain stuff.. and people complain about the Kronos being not user friendly (Kronos is my only purchase from Korg and never owned anything else from them, now I love the logical approach on the Kronos, yes some things are confusing but logical once you understand why, how and where).
Anyways one good thing came out of the store visit I finally got a Rode M3 mic for the Kronos and hope to play with the vocoder and sample some acoustic instruments too... You know something a real workstation can do
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Sadly was hoping for great things with the Roland to maybe make Korg and Yamaha up their game... but sadly Korg has nothing to worry about but Yamaha should have some concerns with the Montage after me having a play with one.
Also to add I am not a fanboy of any company and never will be for any type of product, I always buy the best from any company making any product at the time of purchase and if something comes out better than my purchase I will let others know not to waste their money on what I have and get X.
I actually walked out sad with the thought in my head that the Kronos maybe my last workstation keyboard in my lifetime and may be too old in the future when they finally make something I want to buy and can actually still physically play.
OKAY got some new information regarding the Fantom 8 keybed, Roland site states "88-note, aftertouch-sensitive, PHA-50 progressive hammer-action keybed with escapement" , so the Roland rep was of great help instore 
stated was the same keybed as the RD2000, the RD2000 doesn't have aftertouch though 
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So it has aftertouch for the 8 model, so ignore what I said about that for the 8 model.
