Roland VS 1824CD

  • Thread starter Thread starter Davester
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You're right they do accept bal. 1/4. I forgot. No sense in degrading your signal with transformers. I need to buy some more cables!!! Can you tell me a little more about the digi002. i read about it all the time and I still don't know what it i really. Focusrite preamps, or recording software?

Davestr, still hope you are making progress and having fun.
 
Yo Phosphene- Check your PM's- I'll be happy to tell you about Digi002, but I don't want to hijack this interesting thread..-Richie
 
Thanks for the vote of confidence, Monty. How about- I'm not a *mercenary* prick. (no offense intended, Fletcher).-Richie
 
Am I Making A Big Mistake?

Hi Richie & Phosphene. I'm about to purchase a floor model of the VS 1824 tomorrow (fortunately they claim to have the FULL manual). In lieu of any literature on the Roland web site, I did a Google search and stumbled across you guys here. I was blown away by the amount of info that you guys have exchangedin helping Davester out! It was a bit scary, as I'm new to Home Recording.

A little about me. I have dabbled w/ Boss Dr. Rhythm Section and Cakewalk Midi Music Pack and what drives me nuts is trying to program. I'm a drummer and what would take hours and hours for me to program could be rattled off in 10 minutes behind my kit. I know how to dabble on other instruments ALMOST enough to be dangerous but by no means to I consider myself as able to play them. The thing that attracted me to the Boss 1600 was COSM and the voice toolbox. I probably won't be able to invest a ton of time into this effort and therefore, don't want to invest too much money either, in case it never materializes. So I figured, I grab a cheap guitar and use the built in effects as opposed to running out and buying a great amp and bunch of pedals.

My goal is to have a device at my diposal to:

1) get some ideas on tape whenever they come up (the BR-864 8-Track Compact sounded perfect for this, but limited in other areas)

2) Lay down a live drum track around which I can add other instruments

3) Try to make a demo of my music to share with my musician friends who...

4) Actually know how to play and will come back and record those tracks the "right" way.

5) The ultimate will then be to have a really great sounding CD of original songs

I'm approaching this as somewhat of a lifelong project. I want a machine that I won't outgrow anytime soon, but I want to be able to operate the thing effectively. The thing is, in a couple of years, kids will enter the equation and I will find it harded to justify spending the money on yet another hobby, not to mention getting authorization from "the boss" ;)

So my question to you guys is, "Am I getting in over my head from the get go?" :eek: Quite frankly, Richie's lengthy response to Dave was a bit intimidating to read. Should I reconsider? I'm scheduled to head to the music store Saturday morning. Your advice would be most appreciated.

Thanks guys!
Mark
 
Just out of curiosity, how much are you paying for the 1824? They sure have come down in price even since I bought my 1880 4 years ago. I think I paid $1800 (used) from some guy in Pennsylvania, and it included an EFX card.

You say you hate to program...well there is a bit of a learning curve, like anything, in learning to navigate the 1824. There are a million things you can do, and the manual is not the easiest to figure out. It's not rocket science, but it's written poorly if you ask me. You're going to have to devote some time to learning it, but when you "get it", you'll be good.

By all means, if you can afford the 1824, go for it. I haven't messed with the Boss recording stuff, but I'm sure the 1824 would be a better tool. Once you learn the routing (there's even an EZ ROUTING feature that lets you create templates for routing your inputs/tracks/effects...etc) you'll be able to record your ideas pretty quickly. I think you'll be able to meet all of your goals with the 1824. It's got everything you really need for what you want to do. It's got OK preamps (probably the only weak link in the machine, and you can upgrade to better outboard preamps if you choose), good a/d converters, mixer, pretty good, in depth effects that will do what you are wanting, 24bits, CD burner, scrub-editing, COSM mic/monitor modeling, Masering Tool Kit, little bells and whistles here and there that will take a little time to figure out.

I also asked Marlon Brando, and he said "Go for it"
 
Went With VS2000

Hi Richie and Phosphene. Thanks again to you both for you individual posts/e-mails (Did you get my e-mail reply, Phos?) The kicker on the 1824 was its lack of USB and inability to export WAV files to a PC in recognizable format. Even with the VS 2000, the very first thing you see when you open the box is a big yellow "IMPORTANT NOTE ABOUT THE USB PORT" It says that the software supports importing and exporting via USB port. However, it DOES NOT support backing up and restoring songs to the VS-2000 and that the built-in CD burner should be used for backing up files. It also says not to "DRAG" files to and from the PC using USB. I'm a little confused about the difference between "import/export" and "dragging to/from". I guess/hope this will become more evident as I read the manual. But anyway, I'm being told that the WAVs will be compatible with PC software when exported.

I'll let you know how its coming along. Again, thanks for the advice!
 
Glad to see you got something nice. I didn't get an email or private message. To what address did you send it to?
 
OK MDDRUMZ! I know I mentioned VS2400 but I didn't mention the VS2000 only because I know a lot less about it. I think it has more faders and more XLR inputs than the 1824 also. It looked to me at first glance like an upgrade designed to address some of the issues with the 1824 that I have had to work around. May it serve you well. Just the presence of a USB port should be a big help. It's no big deal if you can't backup to a hard drive by USB. The machine will back itself up to CDR just fine. Once you have the tracks in a PC program, if you want to back up there, you can use whatever software you are using to back it up from the PC. Enjoy your new machine!-Richie
 
Phosphene-The BBS doesn't show me your e-mail; jst an automatic pop-up window to write my message in. To answer your question from before, the floor model of the VS1824 was going for $1589. I ended up walking away with a new VS2000 for $1833. Not too bad, right?

Richie- Yes, you'd mentioned spending alittle more and going with the 2480. WOW! What a machine! There was one right next to the rack where my prospects & final choice were displayed. However, even the VS 1824 was more than I initially had planned on spending on this venture. But you get sucked in when you hear how each model does a little better than the last on sound quality, effects, etc. If I didn't "stop the madness", my wife would've given me the boot ;)

As an FYI to anyone interested, the one thing the VS 2000 didn't have built in that some of the Boss and the VS 1824 have is the Effects Pedal capability. The other units such as BR-864 and BR-1600 have both the footswitch and the expression pedal ports, The VS 2000 has only the footswitch. Other than that, from what I've noticed each model seems to build upon itself as you move up through the ranks of machines (except the USB Port issue that steered me away from VS 1824).

Phosphene & Richie - Thanks guys! I really appreciate the advice and useful information. I'll let you know how it goes. I started reading the manual earlier tonight (actually just the supplemental warning sheets that they throw in on colored paper) and I fell asleep instantly. LOL. Not b/c of the content, but b/c I had a long day of entertaining for the holiday weekend. So my aptitude for learning this machine has yet to be tested. The manual is over 400 pages plus Appendices, so it will be a challenge.
 
Ha! Been there, done that. Just from the differences I already know about, the 2000 is the better machine. 8 XLR ins and 16 channel faders, yeah. The VS1824 has 12 channel faders and 18 functional tracks. But, when you're "riding the faders", doing manual mixing on the fly, and you have more than 12 tracks, you have to move a few tracks to 13-18 that you won't be messing with, and it's a pain in the ass. My solution? I recorded the whole album on 12 tracks, like they would've in 1968 or so. Littledog, the mixing engineer, thought it was "quaint".-Richie
 
VS 1824CD Manuals

Davester

I am in a similar situation. I have a VS1824CD, but only the Owner's Manual came with it. I'd gladly make you a copy of my owner's manual if you still need it, and in return I would like copies of the other two appendices that came with your unit if you wouldn't mind. Please let me know if you can assist me.

Thanks
 
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ProTools to 1824

Our band did a recording, and we had it transferred from analog to proTools. Now everyone's taking a stab at mixing on their own system - one guy with Logic, I'm using audioDesk (which I really like) and one is using (or hoping to use) an 1824.

So here's the issue - what is the easiest way to get the ProTools WAV files into the 1824. The best we came up with is just playing them into the audio input, but I have to imagine there's some way to rip audio from a CD. Or is that a dream?

SK
 
It's time consuming, but you can do it. You have to put the tracks onto CD's 2 at a time, one CD for each 2 tracks, and use the CD capture function on the Roland. Problem is, that's from *audio* CD's, in other words, 16 bits, 44.1khz, not WAV files. The 1824 simply does not import or export WAV files.
That's what I thought- there must be some way. But there isn't. The 1824 is not built to talk to a computer. The VS2000 and 2480 are.-Richie
 
Levels

Are there ways of bringing the levels up more in the consol itself? I find my recordings coming out rather quiet. Thanks.
 
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Phosphene said:
Just out of curiosity, how much are you paying for the 1824? They sure have come down in price even since I bought my 1880 4 years ago. I think I paid $1800 (used) from some guy in Pennsylvania, and it included an EFX card.
Click to expand...

Payed $900 for my 1824CD, used, during a special Guitar Center liquidation sale - not bad :p (about 3 months ago)
 
Sorry I got to this message a little too late to be of help. What I would have said is- get the VS2000CD instead, because the thing has more XLR inputs, and exports WAV files. My only other initial advice is- get a good cheap preamp, like a DMP-3, and a TC Electronics M300, which is a good cheap multi-FX box that does pretty good A-D conversion. When you track your drums, send the overheads through the outboard preamp, convert to digital with the M300, and send those tracks to the Roland by S/PDIF. (yeah, I'll help you). Track any and all other drum tracks using the Roland's pres. Then add additional tracks using the same setup as the overheads. For guitar, just get a good cheap modeler, such as Behringer VAMP II. Send the line out of the VAMP to the line in on the M300, bypass the effects (it has a cool "bypass" button), and send the modeler signal to the Roland by S/PDIF. The more stuff you send to the Roland by S/PDIF, the better it will sound, because the digital ins bypass the Roland's preamps, and its A-D convertor. Best of luck. You know I'll be there for you. There are a lot of things I don't know, but what I do know is how to do basic tracking of commercial quality on a Roland VS1824CD.-Richie
 
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