VS1824CD - Recording in 48K

[Corvette]

Roland 880ex

[gtrmaster]

First, run a CD cleaner disc through the thing in CD play mode. Then, try a Taiyo Yuden CD, or a high quality mastering CD. The thing is very picky about media, and won't write to lots of cheap CD's. Try playing a commercial CD in it after you clean the lens, to make sure it can play some kind of CD. If none of that works, you have real trouble, because the CD-R drive will need to be replaced. The manual says you can use an external CD-R drive. Good luck with that, because it uses an obsolete SCSI connector, and if you can find an external CD-R drive that can talk to it, you're a better man than I am. So first, clean the lens, and verify that it can play a commercial CD. Then get some good quality mastering CD's, made in Japan, or anything by Taiyo Yuden. Just one more thing- When you insert a CD (any CD) into the drive, does the light on the front of the CD drive blink for a while, and then stop? This indicates that it is reading the CD. If you have no blinking light at all, most likely, the CD-R drive is kaput. Do all of that, and then tell me what happens, and we'll take it from there. Good luck. I'm there for you.

The ironic thing is that I've owned the thing for 10 years and never once burnt a CD. Never even used the player. So I don't know if it ever worked. But its never been used. I cant put a CD cleaner in it because it won't play. It wont accept an off-the-shelf music CD to play. Same message... Insert CDR Y/N. Pushing Y gives the same answer forcing me to hit N to abort. When I insert a CDR, the LED on the front of the player lights up as it seeks to recognize the CD. Can I try to clean the lense with alcohol and a Q-tip?

On the SPDIF, Roland to computer... I have a cable... but it's RCA on both ends... can you clarify what the PC end needs to be and what software I need in the PC? It sounds like I need some kind of custom cable.

[gtrmaster]

First, run a CD cleaner disc through the thing in CD play mode. Then, try a Taiyo Yuden CD, or a high quality mastering CD. The thing is very picky about media, and won't write to lots of cheap CD's. Try playing a commercial CD in it after you clean the lens, to make sure it can play some kind of CD. If none of that works, you have real trouble, because the CD-R drive will need to be replaced. The manual says you can use an external CD-R drive. Good luck with that, because it uses an obsolete SCSI connector, and if you can find an external CD-R drive that can talk to it, you're a better man than I am. So first, clean the lens, and verify that it can play a commercial CD. Then get some good quality mastering CD's, made in Japan, or anything by Taiyo Yuden. Just one more thing- When you insert a CD (any CD) into the drive, does the light on the front of the CD drive blink for a while, and then stop? This indicates that it is reading the CD. If you have no blinking light at all, most likely, the CD-R drive is kaput. Do all of that, and then tell me what happens, and we'll take it from there. Good luck. I'm there for you.

The ironic thing is that I've owned the thing for 10 years and never once burnt a CD. Never even used the player. So I don't know if it ever worked. But its never been used. I cant put a CD cleaner in it because it won't play. It wont accept an off-the-shelf music CD to play. Same message... Insert CDR Y/N. Pushing Y gives the same answer forcing me to hit N to abort. When I insert a CDR, the LED on the front of the player lights up as it seeks to recognize the CD. Can I try to clean the lense with alcohol and a Q-tip?

On the SPDIF, Roland to computer... I have a cable... but it's RCA on both ends... can you clarify what the PC end needs to be and what software I need in the PC? It sounds like I need some kind of custom cable.

[Richard Monroe]

I can only tell you so much. There are 2 types of S/PDIF connections- coaxial S/PDIF, which uses an RCA to RCA cable (use one made for digital connections, as for a TV cable box), and optical S/PDIF, which uses a fiberoptic cable known as a Toslink cable. I use optical when possible, as it is more or less immune to interference from power cables and radio sources. As far as how to connect to a computer, that depends on your soundcard. You need to have a soundcard that has a S/PDIF digital input. Note that on the Roland, you can set the type of S/PDIF input in "system parameters" Digital 1 is coaxial, and Digital 2 is optical, and the Roland has both coaxial and optical inputs and outputs. Those are for "inputting" digital signals. "Int" (internal) is for when the Roland is the master digital clock. In this case, that is what you would use. So- the next step depends on your computer soundcard. Personally, I would check with Roland tech support and see about getting the CDR-drive replaced, which you may be able to do yourself. It's a standard CDR-drive. Then you'll be able to burn backup discs, import CD tracks to the Roland, and a bunch of other stuff. Good luck. This can be done. I downloaded an entire album, 2 tracks at a time, to a laptop that way.

[Richard Monroe]

Oh yeah- one thing more worth noting. There is another closely related digital format, which is called AES/EBU. It is the same format as S/PDIF, but uses 3-pin XLR connectors. I have no idea what happens if you run a S/PDIF coaxial out to an AES/EBU input using an RCA to XLR cable. Maybe nothing. One of the better informed digital geeks on the computer recording forum will probably know the answer. Anyway, there are some relatively inexpensive sound cards, by M-Audio and others, that will accept a S/PDIF input.
Here's a good example appropriate for your purposes:

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