VF-16 Direct Recording

N

Neptune

New member
Still struggling with the manual, but decided to start experimenting. I plugged in a mic and started recording in Direct Mode. I just pushed faders up & down while explaining into the mic what I was doing. Then played it back. I found out that in Direct mode the faders have NOTHING to do with the record levels. The signal goes direct to the hard drive, the levels only being under the control of the TRIM knobs and the volume of the unit going into the VF-16. The faders only control the volume of the signal going out to the monitors, phones, etc. The manual tried to say that the A-H faders in the bottom row (9-16) controlled the record level. That's only for Buss Record Mode. Look at the schematic in the back of the manual. If you can follow the signal route in the schematic, you'll see that the signal only goes thru the TRIM before it gets recorded onto the hard drive. That might seem obvious to some of you, but the manual had me all confused - and even when I thought I had it figured out from the manual it was wrong.
 
And I guess that's why in Direct Mode the INPUT SEL has to be set to Track instead of Input. Track is feeding you the signal AFTER the Hard Drive, but Input is bypassing the Hard Drive and just going to Monitor or Headphones. You can listen to Input signals in Direct Mode but not Record them. Now that I'm understanding some of this, recording on the VF-16 is FUN instead of frustrating.
 
Neptune; Please keep us up to date on the VF 16. I'm interested in hearing about what you think of it.
Does the mixer have two aux sends? If so, are they controlled by two separate knobs, or does a single knob force you to route the signal to only one or the other?Does the mixer even have knobs, or is it all menus?
 
Hey Neptune.. I too have a VF-16 and am learning as I go.. the manual doesn't get opened much cause that's just more frustrating. My question to you was, how has the sound quality been of your recordings? I'm just about done my first song and am astounded by how deep and big the sound is. (guess I'm used to the Roland compression on their machines) however, there is a slight bit of noise evident as the song starts that shouldn't be there as everything was recorded direct (so no room noise or hiss). It's not at all evident as the song starts, but I was wondering if you had come across anything similar.

thanks

ps - After reading the manual (you have to sometime) I went straight for the Buss record mode. Setting it up is a complete chore, but at least the faders and controls make some sense.... only some)
 
Twist - yes, 2 AUX sends but no AUX returns. That just means you use the mixer inputs for your AUX returns. That could be a problem for someone who records many instruments at one time and still wants AUX returns, but no problem for me. I'll be rarely using external effects since there's built-in effects in the VF-16. Plus, I'll primarily be recording electric guitar thru my POD Pro and it has it's own effects. Also, no knobs - it's all done with menus. Once I learned which buttons to push it's no problem quickly changing settings with the JOG wheel. The only knobs on the VF-16 are the TRIM knobs to adjust the input signal.
Ranchfield - I hadn't noticed any noise on my recordings, so I'm guessing it's not the VF-16. I haven't recorded a lot yet, but I did make some quick guitar mono tracks to experiment with the effects and to get to know the unit. They were clean recordings. I've been mostly using the VF-16 to record some of my old cassettes from the 70's, and EQing them to fix the muddy sound so I can make CD's from them. After that I'll start making new recordings. I've also decided to mostly use the Direct Record Mode and just add effects and pan and stuff later. It seems the easiest and fastest way to get the music into the recorder initially.
 
Twist - just a bit more about the AUX sends. It's actually very versatile. One button push and you can see on the display a picture of all 16 tracks with how much signal is being sent to the AUX1 from each track. One more button push and you see the same thing for AUX2. Ditto for both internal Effects units. The display on the VF-16 might look a bit small, but it really does show a lot of info at one time. I thought it was cool to hit the SCRUB button and see the waveform for whatever track I picked, and scrub thru it with the JOG wheel.
 
Neptune,
Whatcha got for outputs? Analog (how many), S/P DIF, optical and connector type. Please be complete and specific.
Thanks a million. Looks like a pretty cool machine.Did you get black or white? And lastly, are the effects standard, or an option?
Twist
 
Outputs on back of unit: AUX send 1 & 2 on a 1/4" TRS jack. Stereo out is 2 RCA jacks @ -10dBV. MIDI in & out. Digital in & out is 2 S/PDIF optical connectors (can also do ADAT optical signals). 1/4" Footswitch jack for Punch in/out. SCSI connector, half pitch D-sub, 50-pin female. On the top of the unit is the Headphone jack and L & R 1/4" monitor outs. I got a Black one. I think that's all they make, in spite of the preliminary pictures with the white chassis. And the effects are standard, not optional. 2 effects units built-in with the standard reverbs, chorus, flange, delay....
 
Thanks for the info Neptune! Keep us posted with any pros and cons you find. I could not find much other detailed info on this unit yet.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top