Tascom 788 vs Roland VS 880EX

Snagglefinger

New member
Hi Everyone,

My name's Snagglefinger, a guitarist/bassist/struggling singer, and I'm new to the world of home recording. I'm planning on purchasing a digital workstation soon. I've been mostly intrigued by the Roland VS 880EX but a trusted salesman at a local music store recommended the Tascom 788 stating that it has all the same features, but with the 7.4 gig hard drive, its information is not compressed, making it easy to transfer tracks onto an ADAT tape later, plus it has more virtual tracks. It also is supposed to has a better backlight to work with. Wow.

Does anyone have any opinions on these two machines? Are they that similiar? The pricing on a new Tascom is about the same as a used Roland. I'd assume the Roland has better effects although I have a Lexicon I can use should I be underwhelmed by the quality of any particular effects on either machine.

I also plan to learn how to record my guitars though amps in a live room rather than just plugging in and playing.

So...whad'ya say?

Thanks.
 
Yo Fingers of Snaggle:

Roland has a new box: the VS-890, just advertised in this month's EM.

Looks pretty cool.

I don't own a Roland but maybe this new box is the one I might want if it doesn't take five years to learn how to use.

The photo of the unit looks pretty straight forward and I'm sending in for the free video of the unit.

You can do the same by getting on the Roland site.

Green Hornet
 
though i hAve worked with those specific models,i have worked with both brands and am pretty loyal to both,also i was pondering the 788.i think they both have a lot of pros and cons.with the roland,they have easy routing and coinfiguring,but they make it so that you are going to benefit more by using the onboard effects they offer you ,and it offers some decent effects,but can limit you if you are looking for something they don't have.i don't know if yer familiar w/roland,but they got some cool aligorithms,amp modeling,good sounding modulation,and tube EMULATION,their mic preamps are onboard and are kind of weak(so i have been told).so roland is basically a studio in a box.they make it so that you don't have to really spend a lot of time and money on extras and doohickeys,all the way down to the mastering(don't they have the optional cd burner?or is that one model up?)but still can limit you if you have some high expectations.

the tascam,now that's gonna be their latest version of a studio in a box(probably pressure from competition)but,they also have the effects loop to fine tune to each track and channel.you have the lexicon,that'll work perfect w/the tascam,plus their backup scsi is more compatible with a computer if you plan on upgrading or interphasing.also the roland is more guitar friendly in the way that you just plug in and choose an amp,which i believe you said you didn't want.the tascam is more geared to a transparent sound.personally i like the tascam because it still remains like a good studio tool,where adding things and so forth is crucial to discovering your own sound.i just played with the tascam over the weekend and i was amazed at how tiny a machine it was!plus,i was very impressed at the warm sound they got on the band,though it was a cheesey white boy rock blues song,the sounds were all live and easy to imagine how each part was tracked.go play with each.though i think you need more time than in a store to reaolly make these babies shine.i probably might have said things you already knew,but,i guess it all boils down to what you want specifically.they both definitely serve their purpose and are about as good as you're gonna get for the money.
 
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