Roland VS880ex

J

JimmyofSND

New member
Hey guys, I have a few questions but fist i'm going to explain my set up so you know what i am working with;

Recording:
Roland VS880ex (digi recorder)

Mics:
(2) Shure SM57's
(1) AKG Perception 100 w/crack and pop filter

Instruments:
ESP Viper 50
ESP Explorer 260
Peavey Bass (don't know what model)
Ibanez Bass (don't know what model)
I'm a guitarist don't much care for bass.

Amps:
(2) Line6 Spider II 212
Ampeg Bass Amp
An old Crate Bass Amp

I've recorded a demo with my band (minus the drums) and it worked well but i found that i had a lot of problems...

My first problem is that I know i need more stuff (pre-amps, mixers) for recording, i just dont' know what i need, if anyone could help me out i would appreciate it, tell me what kind of mixer to get or what kind of pre-amps to make it sound better...

My next problem is getting the tracks from the Roland to a computer...
Here's what i did;

I recorded vocals, 2 guitar parts and a bass part on 4 seperate tracks, then i plugged the Roland into the "mic input" on my computers sound card via RCA to 1/8 jack, then i loaded Adobe Audition and i had to press play on the Roland and record on Adobe Audition at the same time... so the tracks came up off time and i had to go back through and fix the timing and whatnot. My question is how do i get the recorded tracks on my computer, I know i need a sound card but what kind? and do i still have to press play and record at the same time or is there a feature that will just automatically start recording?

My last problem was when i normalized the tracks on Adobe Audition they sounded really loud at -0.5dB so i had to normalize them to -3dB for them to sound good and even then they still sounded to loud and put pressure on my computer speakers, i was wondering if it was cause i did a bad job of mixing or if its cause i didn't go through a mixer or what, if you know how to fix this problem please inform me.

Any other suggestions would help or anyone with a Roland VS880ex set up please explain what i need to do...i'm still very new to all this so make sure you dumb it down for me ;)


Thanks,
Jimmy
 
OK, as you may or may not know, the preamps and AD/DA's on the EX are widely regarded to blow dogs. I would get a mid-range mixer used, and an ART DI/O. The ART is a shockingly decent converter for the money, and a used 16-20 channel mixer in the $300 range will have decent enough pres. Use the ART for your two most important tracks (whatever that may be at that time) as the converters will be pretty noticably grainy on the EX.

You may want to consider a few channels of compressors. The crappiness of the onboard pre's can only be completely bypassed on the digital inputs, so you want to have a real strong signal going in, so the input trim will be turned way down on the EX (reducing the crappifying effect of the onboard pre).

For going to the computer, I bought an Edirol UA1D for super-cheap when they were discontinued. There is a more recent version for like $100 or so. The Edirol is USB, so you won't need to upgrade your current soundcard. Record a loud transient noise (clap, stick hit, tap a mic with a carburator or something) on all 8 tracks simultaneously, before you record any music. Use the spike waveform to align all the transferred tracks on your computer.

The bad news: The mixer, ART, and Edirol will be at least $500, and you will probably want at least four channels of decent compression, say, an RNC and an RNLA, which would be another $500 ish. If you sell the Roland, and spend the $1k wisely, you could probably record direct to your computer, in 24 bit, and use software for whatever effects you like.

I fought with my EX for years, and I decided it was far too expensive to build up a pallette of outboard gear to make decent recordings. Now, I only haven't sold it because it isn't worth anything. Lucky for me: I needed it to patch some sound effects into a live show I was running the board on recently :D
 
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