VM-200 opinions

[Mike Nielsen]

I got in on the VR-800 blowout through Musician's Friend and now have a dandy digital 8 track with a 13 gig drive that cost me, all total, $350. Now I am thinking about getting a digital mixer, maybe a VM-200. Does anyone use one of these puppies and what do you think of them?

[Ricardo Monkeybum]

Yeah i've recently bought the VR-800 and the VM-200. haven't got then thing up and running yet as I've yet to find a suitably priced hard drive.

Also does anyone know whatkind of cable to use for the Word In/Out connections?

[Mike Nielsen]

Ricardo, I did get a hard drive for the VR800 at a good price by searching on Pricewatch. I ended up with a 12.7 gig EIDE Quantum drive. It cost only $85 with shipping. I forget where I ordered it from, but if you search
http://www.pricewatch.com for hard drives by brand you will find a load of Quantum drives there from various vendors.

[Ricardo Monkeybum]

Thanks Mike,

I'll check out pricewatch now. I'm sure you can imagine my frustraton at having this equipment but not being able to use it due to the lack of a few components. Do you know anything about the Word connection?

Thanks again,

Ricardo.

[Mike Nielsen]

Ricardo, I have the word out connector on the VR800 hooked up to the word in connection on my Tango A/D converter. If you look in the VR800 manual, they explain about hooking up the VR800 to an external ADAT lightpipe source. I think the VM200 has both word out and word in and that, assuming the word signal stops at the VM200, you need to set termination (75 ohm switch) to on.

Mike

[Ricardo Monkeybum]

Much obliged Mike!

One last thing, what sort of cable should be used for the Word onnections; the manual doesn't specify and when I ask in shops over here they tell me to use a phono jack.

Thanks

ricardo.

[Mike Nielsen]

A BNC to RCA adapter is needed if you go that route. And it helps to have a cable that is video (rather than audio) quality. They are coaxial and tend to handle the digital bandwidth of the word out signal better.

[phil-multitasker]

$350 Ouch. I don't think I'll own up to how much I had to pay for the VM200/VR800 in the UK. However the combination is superb. The VM200 is clean as a whistle with superb eq and effects, and a good control structure. Haven't seen any anomalies on either as yet. Manual leaves a lot to be desired, but the kits not so complicated that that is a problem. Possible would like to have is compression on the inputs which is not available at all.

Now looking at an ADAT import / export card and wav editor for the PC.

[Mike Nielsen]

Thanks, Phil. I took the plunge yesterday and bought the other half of the system, the VM200, which is on sale online at http://www.samash.com for only $500. So I got the whole system with 13 gig drive for less than $900. Seems like a great deal, given the 8 simultaneous record channels. I am waiting to see how it all works out. The mixer should be here next week and I will try to remember to post a review when I get it up and working.

Mike