Your input please...

[j.harv]

Out of curiosity, I decided to check the online classifieds local to me. One came up. The seller is saying these cost $20,000 new! and each tape can record about 2 songs worth of material. Is this true??
20k seems a little much no?

http://www.kijiji.ca/v-ipod-mp3-pla...er/1177092459?enableSearchNavigationFlag=true

 

[jpmorris]

Out of curiosity, I decided to check the online classifieds local to me. One came up. The seller is saying these cost $20,000 new! and each tape can record about 2 songs worth of material. Is this true??
20k seems a little much no?

http://www.kijiji.ca/v-ipod-mp3-pla...er/1177092459?enableSearchNavigationFlag=true

Here's the brochure:
https://www.acc.umu.se/~polarn-p/irr/99musik/Akai_dokument/Akai_katalog_blandat_1986.pdf

If I'm reading this right, you get 10 minutes at 7.5ips and 20 minutes at 3.75ips.

 

[sweetbeats]

@j.harv: yeah I don't know for certain what the MSRP was, but of the references I've seen the ones that presented as more reliable were more like $8,000-$10,000.

@jpmorris: yep...10mins per tape at 7.5ips, or 20mins at 3.75ips.

 

[RFR]

Was almost 10 grand in LA at the time.

 

[altruistica]

I once sold a Roland VS880 (the small first VS machine) to a guy who had a 1212 in his flat. He recorded mandolin and acoustic guitars to his and it sounded good. He wanted the VS to be able to cut and paste stuff. I was surprised at the size....and the weight! You didn't lift one of those yourself Cory, did you? A friend of mine used one once back in the day and he said the sound was really excellent. My only worry would be, that I've heard many engineers struggle with this machine, so if you manage to sort out what caused all the problems, then there's more than one feather waiting to be inserted in your cap. The difference is, you're doing this as a learning curve / curiosity thing, whereas an engineer would be doing it as a paid job to get the thing working and out the door. GOOD LUCK!

 

[sweetbeats]

I once sold a Roland VS880 (the small first VS machine) to a guy who had a 1212 in his flat. He recorded mandolin and acoustic guitars to his and it sounded good. He wanted the VS to be able to cut and paste stuff. I was surprised at the size....and the weight! You didn't lift one of those yourself Cory, did you? A friend of mine used one once back in the day and he said the sound was really excellent. My only worry would be, that I've heard many engineers struggle with this machine, so if you manage to sort out what caused all the problems, then there's more than one feather waiting to be inserted in your cap. The difference is, you're doing this as a learning curve / curiosity thing, whereas an engineer would be doing it as a paid job to get the thing working and out the door. GOOD LUCK!

No I had help loading and unloading. they have really nice hand-holds built into the thick side panels. I don't think I'd want to try moving it around myself. I can handle the weight, but the depth and width make it a problem. I've hauled a 388 a time or two around by myself, but they aren't as deep as the MG1212.

I used to have a VSR-880...the rackmount brother of the VS-880. The interface was cumbersome, but it actually sounded really nice.

 

[altruistica]

I know the VSR880....After the VS2480 I had, I then moved onto a system that had a Roland VMC7200 desk with two VM7200 processors with cascade card and R-Buss card in each, with 3 x VSR880 on one processor and 3 x RPC-1 PCI bus cards in a custom built computer on the other processor. Total overkill......after this system I then used the AKAI DPS24 for about six years....it was the prodigal son of the system you're looking at resurrecting. I could never figure out how Roland could have made the VS2480 and the VSR880 but never come up with a 24 track stand-alone-recorder.........then Alesis went and cornered the market with the HD24.

 

[sweetbeats]

I know all those products. The Roland 7200 stuff was always really cool I thought. And I always had the impression the DPS24 was well made and featured...it's actually one of the points, albeit a minor one, that has made me curious about the MG1212.

 

[famous beagle]

I could never figure out how Roland could have made the VS2480 and the VSR880 but never come up with a 24 track stand-alone-recorder.........then Alesis went and cornered the market with the HD24.

I thought the 2480 was a 24-track recorder. Am I missing something? From Roland's site:

The VS-2480 24-track Digital Studio Workstation is the first self-contained recording workstation to offer 24-track/24-bit digital recording with 64-channel digital mixing, onboard effects processing and optional CD burning. This revolutionary workstation also boasts 17 motorized faders, a VGA monitor output, plus mouse and ASCII keyboard inputs-taking the V-Studio concept to an entirely new level.

 

[sweetbeats]

He was talking about standalone 24-track recorder. The 2480 is a mixer/recorder combo.

 

[famous beagle]

He was talking about standalone 24-track recorder. The 2480 is a mixer/recorder combo.

Ohhh, gotcha.

 

[altruistica]

I know all those products. The Roland 7200 stuff was always really cool I thought. And I always had the impression the DPS24 was well made and featured...it's actually one of the points, albeit a minor one, that has made me curious about the MG1212.

The MKI DPS24 (silver / champagne) was the best 24 track all-in-one ever built, but Roland beat them on the marketing side. The MKII machine (all black) was cheaply built with poor quality control. It's like the Tascam SX-1 (which I had a couple of after the DPS24).....brilliant machine but no support from Tascam UK....in fact you had more chance of getting an MSR16 or MSR24 repaired than you did an SX-1. Now it wouldn't phase me as much as I know a bit more about repairing stuff myself, but then, a dead SX-1 was a real worry. I've now gone back to the Yamaha AW2400 which I used between 2011-2014. The USB2 transfer makes it easy to get files off the machine, although loading wav files into it is cumbersome.......The DPS which came out four years before the AW2400 had a brilliant 'grid' system whereby the WAV files all showed in a list and you would fill in the grid (which showed I think the 24 tracks as three banks of eight) directing the files into the right track.It also had Broadcast Wav Files so you didn't end up with wasted space........

 

[mdainsd]

10 minutes per tape!? An interesting curiosity, but pretty obvious why they didn't catch on.

I am sure you will have fun with them though! I am curious why you put all these esoteric projects ahead of your core "keeper" pieces?

 

[j.harv]

10 minutes per tape!? An interesting curiosity, but pretty obvious why they didn't catch on.

I am sure you will have fun with them though! I am curious why you put all these esoteric projects ahead of your core "keeper" pieces?

Curiousity

 

[sweetbeats]

Curiousity

I think that's really a big part of it. Another part might be some fear of the continuous challenges with the "keepers"...I have such a high standard, and some of the keeper projects have big challenges and I can't let it go until it is figured out and "right". It can be frustrating and discouraging sometimes...and I know there will be more challenges. Maybe it's fun to have a project focused on something in which I'm not as vested. I'm not sure, but I think this is part of it. But it is fascinating to me to dissect a strange piece of gear and see how it was put together...how the circuits were designed, how the chassis was engineered...what components they used...there's always some neat discovery...like a treasure hunt.