VS-880 v-xpanded (old school)

[theflyingfoal]

Hi

Just got myself one of these old units at a knock-down price, and in process of putting together a small, indie studio with the 880 as the heart. From previous experience I know that with a little know-how and application some very good, professional sounding results can be had from one of these things.

first purchase after that was an SCSI external zip drive. I used an 840 in the past (pretty limited) and recorded lots of takes to 100mb zip drive. Was under the impression that the 880 could read 840 data with a tweak or two but 'not formatted' message appears. Some tech guy a little while back said there was a way around this, i.e. data recorded on 840, want to hear it on 880 (aside from getting another Roland!!!) If anyone knows the solution to this little problem I'd appreciate it...

now, I am from the old school of recording; battered old 4-track, dodgy leads, 60's capacitor mikes etc etc and am in the process of getting my head around what I need to do:

second purchase was a couple of pedals: for my guitar, distortion and delay / sampler for vocals and anything else

this little studio of mine will primarily be used for cutting demos of my songs, which are an indie / folk / experimental / punk / orchestral, and secondly be used to produce radio interviews for broadcast. The intruments are accordian, accoustic and dirty guitar, keyboard, midi via basic PC studio package, and vocals. After as warm a sound as I can get.

So, this leads me to the main problem:

I am mulling over microphone / preamp options for these applications. Thinking AT 4040 with VTB1 preamp as budget is pretty tight but frankly reading and posting a number of other threads I have so many options it's untrue, really need a kind and seasoned digi engineer / user to advise me on the best set-up for what I want, to get the best out of the 880.

I'd really appreciate some guidance on this, and any other budget pieces of kit I should be looking out for to help the sounds along...

Thanks

The Foal

[artlover]

Do you have any mics already?

[72fender]

Post your question over at VS-Planet http://www.vsplanet.com/cgi-bin/ubb/...?ubb=forum;f=6