NEW TO THIS AND ALSO VS880ex

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Atom Bomb

Atom Bomb

Wtf is a PRS
Hi there. Im new to this site. but im happy as a clam to have found it . it looks like an intense place to have as a resource. anyhow upwards and onwards.

I am in the next month going to be getting a Roland VS880EX from an old band mate. we used ot use this frequently to record jams with and such but they always sounded like ass due to the fact we just plugged six dollar mikes in the inputs and hit record not knowing one thing about what we were doing.....anyhow he no longer wants it and im buying it becasue i have the intent to start recording small demos in hopes to pay for newer things to maybe someday have the resources to have a decent studio.

I have read a few different reviews on harmony central and other places on the VS880EX and its versatility as a home recording asset. and the general concensus is that its a decent starter unit. which is where im at.

for now being a vetren of the local punk rock scene the majority of projects i have lined up is alot of local punk rock acts. mainly the teenage crowd that is looking for a decent demo which i am more then confident i can pull off. a little ruff around the edges isnt going to hurt them at all.

Im just rambling now. sorry. but if there is anyone out there that can give me a few upfront pointers of thigns i should be aware of then please help me out as i am in the truest sence new to all this. and that manual is absolutely useless i hate it with a passion.

I have in my head right now an idea of how id like to work things. Like record and mix as much as possible on the Roland unit then uplaod them onto my computer for finer tuning and what not with cool edit pro. would this be ok for what i have lined up to do?

also .. anyone aware if the vs880ex has any worthwhile compressors built in it .... (was in a real studio myself and witnessed the power of compression )

as you can see i have alot to learn but im a sponge so please ... help this old punker out .....
 
I used to have an 880ex.

Nice unit,but I hope you checked E-bay on the prices for these things,they can be had dirt cheap.

It has 8 inputs,BUT 2 of them are digital,so if you want to do more than 6 tracks at a time you'll need something with a didital output.

Transfering tracks to a computer may be a bitch depending on how you're planning on doing it.

You can make a real nice recording with an 880,but it is a few years behind the times,this said the price of the unit would be the clincher.

I always liked the effects in the 880,although I never really touched upon the compressors that much,it has a nice variety of tools.

I always synced mine up to a drum machine giving me in effect 10 tracks.The 880 can function as a sixteen track mixer,using eight inputs and eight tracks.
 
I just upgraded from an 880 EX. It is an excellent unit, but be prepared to spend a while learning how to use it.

Are you getting the CD-RW that goes with it? You will need this for data backup. There are only a few types of CD-RWriters that Roland supports.

Also, you will want more than $6.00 mics, and a mic pre-amp. There are a lot of suggestions for reasonably decent budget microphones up in the mic forum.
 
The VS880EX is one of the coolest things mankind will ever produce. There are instances of songs done with the 880 having been used on albums and movie soundtracks. I would keep mine just for the effects alone. Want more tracks? Just sync some together with midi. I save the hard drives if there is something worth saving in that manner. They have optical outs for copying to computer. Don’t be fooled by the numbers game. These are neat little units, and can be utilized for professional results.
 
acidrock said:
It has 8 inputs,BUT 2 of them are digital,so if you want to do more than 6 tracks at a time you'll need something with a didital output.
Click to expand...

ok theres my first wrench in my plans. so if i were to mic a drum kit i was thinking 8 mikes ... but i guess judging by that comment i can only use 6.

what would be a suggestion to utilize these two tracks so i could have 8 tracks for drums.

I alos have no access to any preamps so im probably going to end up spending alot of time tweaking the piss out the intial setup and then going to town?? Im prepared for this.

dang it all.

But so far this has already been of great help. I can see me making a nice home here. . . . so much to learn ...
 
Atom Bomb said:
ok theres my first wrench in my plans. so if i were to mic a drum kit i was thinking 8 mikes ... but i guess judging by that comment i can only use 6.

what would be a suggestion to utilize these two tracks so i could have 8 tracks for drums.

...
Click to expand...
Well first off if you only have eight tracks,so if you record eight you have no way to bounce them to another track.
My suggestion would be to mic your drums to six tracks and bounce them to a stereo track,leaving you six tracks left.
You can save the six drum tracks as "virtual tracks" in case you want to remix them later.
Another option is to get a mixer that you could hook multiple mics,and create a submix saving you tracks,but taking away the option of remixing.

I alos have no access to any preamps so im probably going to end up spending alot of time tweaking the piss out the intial setup and then going to town??
Click to expand...
The VS has six preamps that will work with dynamic mics or self powered condensers.What it lacks is phantom power which you will need for most condenser mics.

Now you could buy a stereo preamp with a digital out and that would give you two phantom powered inputs and a way to utilise all eight inputs on the VS.

My biggest reccommendation would be to fiddle around with the VS and make sure you're comfortable with it before you go spending a lot of money.
Also if you haven't bought the VS yet I would strongly reccommend looking at other recorders with more tracks and phantom powered inputs,because by the time you spend money on the extra hardware you may be better off with a different unit.

Monty did make an excellent suggestion about syncing with another VS.It would give you extra inputs and tracks.
 
Jesus. . . . .

thanks man. And no, i dont have it yet. but i am getting a good deal on it. Dude had a kid and needs whatever he can get and in a hurry. Im also getting a Fender 65 Deluxe Reverb Combo amp for a cool 75 bucks canadian .... .so the deals are there and i was quite happy with the price of the roland. ..

Anyhow. Maybe i should let you know what my plans were for this recording. so someone can tell me if i m wasting my time ?? here is what i have at my resources aside form mikes. (which i have have since yesterday found some mikes can borrow from another home studio guy whos going on a tour of duty for a few months ..sigh)

a Rolandvs880ex
a 10 channel stereo mixer.
cool edit pro 2.0

my intent was to record the 8 tracks for the drums and then upload them to cooledit as individual tracks, after using the better effects of the roland and fine tune in cool edit. I understand that this not what most would do but in my situation and with the resources i have i figured it to be a decent way of going about things.

upon doing that id go back to the roland and try to bounce all the barebones drum tracks down to one track and use it as a scratch track for the rest of this band to record all the parts to. and agian upload the following guitars bass and vox blah blah tracks into cool edit. giving me a bit more room to work rather then fussing about with virtual tracks and alot of bouncing about on the Roland.....

in theory this all sounds good to me.. but i have a feeling im about to get schooled .... :)

i think im pretty capeable of all this except for getting the shit from the roland to cool edit. ... and i believe that someone mentined it can be a chore ... but i have no concept of whats involved ??

the mixer i was going to use as back up in case i ran out of tracks .. which is looking that way right now.

Looking forward to some insight.
 
Well a lot depends on the mixer and what kind of outs/busses it has.
I work alone and don't use a mixer so I can't give you much input there.

I would reccommend recording the drums into as many tracks as possible,then mixing them down to a STEREO track,or uploading them as seperate tracks into Cool edit.(even better)

Remember the HUGE advantage to an all in one box like a VS rather than a computer setup is portability.

The VS880 is kind of a tweener,because it has eight inputs,good for recording multiple tracks at once,but because it only has eight tracks it's in my opinon better suited for someone working with a sequencer or drum machine.

Still it's a nice little unit,and you're final product will depend more on your skills than your hardware.

Once again,I would just play with it and get a feel for it.You may be getting a bit ahead of yourself at this point.
 
It's not perfectly true that you can't record any more, once you've used up the eight tracks for drums...

You can select two different virtual tracks on two tracks and bounce up to 6 tracks to them. You might think of creating a overhead/tom submix and bounce to these two tracks. Which leaves you with the bass drum and the snare and a stereo track...

You see that with the vs, you have a lot of bouncing...

aXel
 
acidrock said:
,or uploading them as seperate tracks into Cool edit.(even better)
Click to expand...


this was my intent.

only thing is im not sure wow difficult this is to do. Im just going ot have to get it and play with it.
 
You want to be on vsplanet for this. Seriously. They know these things inside and out.

Your 8-input problem is solved with an ART DI/O. Dirt cheap, and sound good, you can then plug 8 of anything you want in. Supposedly, if you pull the t00b out of the ART, and replace the power supply with a much higher rated one, you end up with near-audiophile AD conversion, total investment, about $115.

You can record 8 tracks of drums: just bounce everything in a couple steps. Combine the toms and cymbols to two tracks, making sure the balance and panning is right, then combine the bass and snare with those two tracks, and you're done. It's all digital, so you're just copying 1's and 0's, no loss of quality. If you don't like the results, do it over.
 
ermghoti said:
You want to be on vsplanet for this. Seriously. They know these things inside and out.

Your 8-input problem is solved with an ART DI/O. Dirt cheap, and sound good, you can then plug 8 of anything you want in. Supposedly, if you pull the t00b out of the ART, and replace the power supply with a much higher rated one, you end up with near-audiophile AD conversion, total investment, about $115.

You can record 8 tracks of drums: just bounce everything in a couple steps. Combine the toms and cymbols to two tracks, making sure the balance and panning is right, then combine the bass and snare with those two tracks, and you're done. It's all digital, so you're just copying 1's and 0's, no loss of quality. If you don't like the results, do it over.
Click to expand...

Well that's one way of looking at it,or he could just buy another used VS and sync it up via midi and for the same price,double his tracks and inputs,plus have twice the effects at his disposal.Plus none of the hassle of bouncing.

I'm not a big fan of laying out cash to work around a units deficiencies.You may as well save your money to get a unit that does exactly what you need it to do.
 
gol dang.

o.k. well. that all sounds good but sadly my minscule budget is spent.

what is the most effcient way of getting each track of the VS to my cool edit/computer?

Does it have and export feature or anything ....?


thanks for all your patience .. im getting the unitand manual on monday so ill have that much more of a leg up but im still trying to wrap my head around things.
 
You'll most likely have to dump 2 tracks at a time to get it into the computer....unless you have more inputs on the computer side.
 
And you'll probably need some audio, a drum hit or something, at the beginning of each track so you can align them once they are in the computer.
 
cool.

but how?

do i like just line it out into my line in or mic jack on my sound card and hit record and record it in its own track in cool edit?

theres gotta be a more effiecint way to do it then that?
 
Atom Bomb,
my suggestion is that you just sit down with the machine and record yourself,or maybe someting less ambitious.
The VS is a v-e-r-y complicated machine that is capable of making very good recordings but in the end it's your experience that will make the difference.

Once you get familiar with the VS maybe you will have a clearer picture of what you want to do.

Just remember that in the big picture a VS880 is pretty much small time.
 
yea..

i have a tendancy to put the cart in front of the horse. and i realise that it is small potatoes. but im just getting a chubby thinking about it. And this forum is the best thing ever.

My own band has recoirded in a fairly upscale studio and they had a nice roland unit of some sort ... cant remembr which model and it prodced a decent sound .. but it also had the help of a wicked effin engineer. So yeaaa

Im sure ill let ya listen to the finished product eventually. let ya know how i make out.
 
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