Roland VS 1680..thoughts? Reviews? SHOULD I BUY IT?

[Even]

The Roland VS digital recorders are designed to be stand alone, portable recorders. Your question is pretty broad.."should I buy it". You are hungry and driving by McDonalds should you stop? What do you want to do with it? The VS deals are top notch machines for a home recording dude. Set up idealy for a solo dude to multitrack, add effects and overall mix a tune. Personally I think the quality is excellent. I have an 880EX and sit happy as a bug laying down a heap of tracks. The biggest downside is going blind reading the tiny screen. Not a killer issue because one can pump it out to a pc. As far as comparing it (The VS) to other mediums, that depends on your needs. PC's can be set up to do everything the roland does and be expanded. But a PC is not nearly as portable. Compared to the Korg D-8, well there is no comparison. The korg is trash next to the rolands. You shine a light on what your long and short term goals are and we can answer yer question more in detail.
Even

[Masala]

Im looking for something and the salesman at the music store wanted to sell me the Roland vs- 1680. I have no idea how it compares to anything else. Any help?

[nyaben]

The 1680 is awesome. Check out the site www.vsplanet.com

[Masala]

Thanks for he replys , and sorry not spelling out my situation.

basically, all my recording experience is on Tascam Porta studios and that was about 5 or 6 years ago. I have some cash and am looking to get set up, and I would like to bump up the quality a bit.

I have never used digital anything regarding music recording, though , of course, I do have a computer and am semi-litterate.

The learnig curve of such a machine as the 1680 does scare me a little, as well as concern for the quality of the sound. I have also been considering an old Tascam 388 reel to reel.

I am a one man show and will be laying tracks with my guitar, bass, keyboard, drum emulator, etc.

I love the idea of having so much control over the music , with a machine lick the 1680, but I want to be able to actually use the thing.

Question; is it true that to burn CDs, you need to buy the specified Roland equipment?

[Even]

Ok good news, now we are up to speed here. Firstly, no you do not need to record specifically to the Roland cd burner. Once you have you tunes all nice and tidy as you want it you can send that signal anywhere. The VS units have a scsi port out, and a few rca outs. So you can pump the tune to most any outside medium be it your PC or a dedicated burner. The learnig curve is not so bad as one initially fears. I nabbed my 880 with no damn manual. It took a couple of days and a heap of frustration, but it is actually pretty simple. I plug in my drum machine and record a track, save it. Play the drums back and record my guitar on a second channel... save it and so on and so forth. The great thing is that you can record the track clean (dry) and add a wealth of effects after the fact (if you get it with the card). A heap of variety at the touch of a few buttons. Now as far as which machine goes, I am a happy dude with the VS880ex. I had my choice as far as budget goes, but did not see a need for the 1680 for me as a solo performer. The 1680 is sweet in that you can plug in more dudes and playback more at once. But I am alone and just mix and multitrack. sounds about the same for you. One VS unit and a good set of near field monitors and you are on the way. Digital buddy... I love it. Once a track is recorded and saved I can do what I will with it and not fear ruining it. 2 gig hard drive gives me gobs of room to create and store.

[Brad]

Hey Masala,

I will use this opportunity to answer your questions about the 388 that you posted in that other forum.

First: If you have the financial resources to get your hands on something like the 1680, then forget the 388. It is a great analog machine, and by that I mean, I think it was the first machine that gave the "home recordist" the ability to make a pro sounding demo or album. The fact is, it is old and the new stuff, although it may take some head wounds in your walls, is worth it. Like I said, I paid about 5 G's for it in 1986. With five grand today, you could make the 388 beg for mercy on it's knees in a puddle. Do you see? Don't be afraid of the new technology. if you can learn it, you can destroy anything that you could have done on a 388.

One last word: I still have my 388, because of sentimental value and the fact that I want to digitally re-master some of the recordings I did way back when. It was a great machine, but it's day has come and gone.

Listen to what these guys have to say about the new equipment available to you. I was scared as hell to go digital at one point and the Dragon said something so brilliant one day on this BBS and I haven't had a problem since. He said "tracks is tracks" and that may not seem as epiphonial to some, but it wiped out my fear of the new aged technology, and hey, he was right! It is all the same, but (since going digital) my recordings are just cleaner and brigter, didn't lose the "rich, warm" tone at all.

Brad

"Tracks is tracks"

[Masala]

Thanks guys! You really helped.

"With five grand today, you could make the 388 beg for mercy on it's knees in a puddle"

hahaha Im rolling

Ok then, I am taking the digital plunge...see you guys in about 10 days; I'll be pastey white, have lost about 15 lbs from pure neglect, and will probably have permanent caffine shakes...but I'll have some tracks!!!!

[monty]

A question for Even. What do you hook your SCSI cable to on your computer? Do you copy data to your computer or TRANSFER data? Do you do this for storage or can you edit the data when it is in your computer?

[Even]

Hey there. Truth be told I don't think you can plug the scsi direct into the PC. The Roland guy told me it could not be interfaced with that, so I never tried. I hook a CD recorder up to my scsi. But to answer the other elements of the question... I run from my 880's RCA outs into my pc interface. Those are the "aux A-B outs" on the 880. Personally I have an Event Layla so it is really cut and dry. But I imagine you can plug into most any sound card if you finagle adaptors or whatever. I play back my recordings same as always and load them into my N-tracks. I have all the time in the world so I have done this playing each track seperate and dry (no effects) so that I can doodle with the tracks on the pc. In otherwords I just pump in a track as a standard input would be done. That way I can modify the sound and edit the whole wav. After I get a few tunes polished up and need to clear my Rolands Hard drive, I imagine I will be playing the tunes back as the full 8 track mix just to store them. You can do it either way though. One track, two.. or the whole mix. Like I mentioned I have a duel set up: Roland and PC. It just offers me flexability. I by far rather look at a full sized monitor to do my editing. I know theres an interface on the market that somehow lets you plug the pc monitor into the roland or something. I will see if I can't maybe find more information for you. I am still new enough to the game that I have not gotten to that stage to need it just yet. Hope this helped.
Even

[monty]

Hey Even. That's what I understood to be the case with SCSI. I use a Gadgetlabs sp/dif card to COPY data into Cakewalk. I would, however, like to be able to TRANSFER data.

[monty]

Oh yes, I forgot to mention I also use Datasonics VSPro Toolbox for on screen editing of the VS880EX. It's certainly easier than all that button pushing mumbo jumbo.