Newbie here, tell me all about the VF80?

[weatherboy]

These are looking better to me all the time. The only thing I've seen about them is the collapsed button thread.
Can you all tell me about them? Are they good?
Thanks,

[billisa]

Fine machine, very stable operating system, excellent sound quality. Lot's of effects (that I think are very good if not over done). Operates like a tape machine in that when you're finished working, you just turn it off -- everything is saved as you go. No need to save, defrag the drive, optimize the drive. This is done as you go.

It's funny, because the collapsed button thread is the first I've heard regarding the VF80 (the MR8's have had this problem). The REC,PLAY,<<,>> buttons don't feel as though they have a whole lot of support underneath that assembly. On the other hand, fairly light pressure is all that's required to activate them.

The rest of the machine has a very solid "feel" -- the best in it's price class, in my view. Also, the burner is extremely accurate.

The manual could be better written, but once you get the hang of things, the machine becomes very intuitive.

[gatorhaus]

Yea I'm looking at the vf80 also. I currently have a MR8 and purchased a preamp for my condenser mics. Shoula got a vf80 in the first place. I will probably sell my mr8 soon.

larry

[squeezil]

Other than that..The VF80 has been great for me. Very dependable, great sound (given youre using good mics/pres) easy to use, Professional quality effects-though you can use only one at a time....(I have to tell the members of my band this every week ("hey thats a cool delay, now can you put some flange on it"). You will be happy if you purchase this unit.....Oh and tread lightly on the play button!!!!

[weatherboy]

It does have mic preamps built in right??

[billisa]

Originally posted by weatherboy
It does have mic preamps built in right??

Yes, very transparent ones. Plus phantom power for when you use condensor mics.

The only thing I would add... The VF's are setup to save and optimize the drive as you go. This is an excellent feature, because in the unlikely event of a system freeze (which all machines will experience) you don't lose data.

The ONLY time I've had a freeze was when I started pushing buttons while the HardDrive was being accessed. Waiting an extra second alleviates this. Procedures on the VF are not always instantaneous, but you can be fooled into thinking they are. There's a little light that blinks when the HD is being accessed -- after taking note of it, you'll get a sense of how long certain procedures take. Naturally, cuts and pastes involving several minutes and tracks of material can take a while to complete, but there's a countdown display to let you know how much material is left in the remaining paste sequence.

In all the edits I've done, they all came out with a seamless result, no clicks or pops, ever. Same thing with the punch-in mode using the footswitch (an item you should get along with the VF80). Never a pop or click.

When burning a CD, let the machine setup for each step before pushing menu options... In all the CD's I burned on my VF80, NONE had any skips when finished. My PC can't compare.

[weatherboy]

Thanks so much for the replies...I won't be doing half of that stuff. I don't know how.

Here's a long question I have, maybe you can answer it..

I may want to record drums on tracks 1&2 and pan track 1 to the left and track 2 to the right. Put rhythm guitar on 3&4 and do the same. then maybe guitar solo on 5&6, again panned left and right.
My question...when I bounce all that over to 7&8 will it still sound "separated"? Can I then do the same things on tracks 1&2, 3&4, 5&6 with keyboards, bass, and vocals?? and then burn to my external CD recorder?

That's all I'll ever use it for.
Thanks for the time.

[billisa]

Originally posted by weatherboy
Thanks so much for the replies...I won't be doing half of that stuff. I don't know how.

Here's a long question I have, maybe you can answer it..

I may want to record drums on tracks 1&2 and pan track 1 to the left and track 2 to the right. Put rhythm guitar on 3&4 and do the same. then maybe guitar solo on 5&6, again panned left and right.
My question...when I bounce all that over to 7&8 will it still sound "separated"? Can I then do the same things on tracks 1&2, 3&4, 5&6 with keyboards, bass, and vocals?? and then burn to my external CD recorder?

That's all I'll ever use it for.
Thanks for the time.

Yes, yes, and yes. Pans hold during mixdown.

Burns onto CD's are made from Masters done after mixdown to 7/8. So, here's what you do...

Mixdown 1-6, with pans set onto 7/8. Then exchange tracks 7/8 with the virtual tracks 9and 10. Record new things onto 1-6. Mix them down as before onto 7/8. Exchange the new 7/8 with 1 and 2, pan them hard left and right. Exchange tracks 9 and 10 with tracks 3 and 4, pan them hard left and right. Do a mixdown of 1-4 onto 7/8. Master 7/8. Upon finishing the master, the VF80 automatically creates a new stereo program of this finished master called "MST...." You then burn a CD from this Master.

The steps outlined above can be repeated ad infinitum, but keep your tracks clean or you will build up noise with all the tracks combined. In other words, get good hot levels when recording, and edit out any "silent" passages that have hiss or amp noise, or breathing etc...

[weatherboy]

Gee, thanks! I had no idea it would be that flexible.
Can't wait to pick one up!

[a12stringer]

While the VF-80 does have built-in mic pre-amps, they are not the best. You will see that many of the other VF-80 owners who post to this forum will readily concede this point also. So plan on purchasing an outboard mic pre-amp with phantom power.

[gmiller1122]

I got one, I got one! (VF80)

It arrived yesterday, and reading the manual put me to sleep. I'm no dummy, (ok, my wife might disagree), but holy crap, it seems complicated with all this talk of hard drives and all that.

All I've used to this point is nTrack -- I love the simple interface. Going to a tiny 1-color screen is going to take some getting used to. (Is it possible to use the spdif outlets to hook up a big monitor? -- I know, I know, RTFM )

I know it will take some time to figure all this out, and I just wanted to say that I have VERY high expectations for this machine from all the great things I've heard and read.

Can I also say that I love how small it is?! It's so portable, yet very heavy and solid.

BTW, I couldn't get the carry bag -- they are on a long backorder. Any suggestions? Would something like this work?

Soft Briefcase

Thanks, all. Now to go read more. Jeesh, I thought high school French was a difficult language to learn.

Re-chord on,

G

[weatherboy]

Originally posted by a12stringer
While the VF-80 does have built-in mic pre-amps, they are not the best. You will see that many of the other VF-80 owners who post to this forum will readily concede this point also. So plan on purchasing an outboard mic pre-amp with phantom power.

This might be getting off topic a bit, but I am a dummy and have to ask..

What is a mic preamp? Why are they necessary? and why don't they just include an amp in the mic itself? stupid questions, but I'm autistic that way...
Why would I want to spend hundreds on a mic pre when they are built into the recorder? This is just a hobby!
Thanks

[a12stringer]

Why use an external pre-amp? for the simple reason that the internal pre-amps in the VF-80 do not boost the signal enough to record. My experience has been that (without the pre-amp) I typically have to push the gain knob to the 5 o' clock position to have a strong enough signal. That is almost the maximum gain--so it leaves no room to improve the strength of the signal.
And one does not have to spend hundreds of $$ to find a good pre-amp. Many who post to this forum swear by the Behringer Eurorack UB-802 mixer as an excellent pre-amp with phantom power for condenser mics. The current street price at Musicians Friend or AMS is about $60.
There are several other options as well--all for less than $100 which are suitable for pre-amping mics, whether you purchase a dedicated pre-amp or an external mixer, some of which have built-in FX as well, allowing the flexibility of recording the tracks with FX instead of adding them in the mixdown or mastering stage. With the VF-80, most of the FX are only available at the mixdown stage. If I've read the manual correctly, the only FX which are usable in the recording stage are distortion, amp sim, and mic sim.

[Lawrence Bulloc]

Just my two cents worth for the newbie re: the VF80.

By the way, I'm a newbie as well.

I bought one in January and find it easy to use. I did a recording without really reading the manual at first (just the basic startup section), hoping that my knowledge of recording (picked up here and there over the years--mostly analogue, but in 8 and 16 track studios so there was a basic understanding of the concepts) would at least allow me to begin. It did.

Now, having spent a while with the machine, I am going back and reading the manual thoroughly so as to take advantage of all the goodies.

Bottom line? I feel my money was well spent, I feel anyone can start recording with the unit right away (unless you have absolutely NO experience with multitrack recording, in that case, you might want to read through the basic startup section more than twice) and I have yet to have a (KNOCKS WOOD HERE) problem with it.

[a12stringer]

As someone who had no prior multitracking experience prior to my purchase of a VF80 a year ago, I have found it relatively easy to work with. The menus are very intuitive.
I do recommend to any newbie that with the purchase of any multitrack Studio-in-a-Box that it would be money well spent to purchase the book "Home Recording for Musicians for Dummies" by Jeff Strong. The owner's manual may tell you what the machine can do, but Strong's book tells the how and why, such as what compression settings work best for which instrument/situation. When it is better to use a dynamic mic, a large diaphragm condensor mic, or a small diaphragm condensor. Until I have the experience to do everything by rote, these books are on the table beside my equipment when I am mixing and mastering.