Copyright (c) 2013 ExpressionEngine tag:rolandforums.co.uk,2013:05:22 tag:rolandforums.co.uk,2010:forums/viewthread/.1532 2010-10-08T21:55:29Z Barnaby Thwaites 1) You will find a list of compatible IDE drives on the www, but I found the Toshiba MK4309MAT which is a 4.3gig drive. You can buy it from a company called com-com. They sourced it and delivered it (new) within 2 days. Just go to their website http://www.com-com.co.uk/ It cost £59 plus postage.
2) Fitting was easy. First back-up the contents of your original drive if you want or need to. Undo the thumbscrews on front panel. Pull out existing drive using that wire handle. Dont get a shock at this point! Yes the new drive looks very different. Thats because the drive is supported in a holder that incorporates a connector. This holder is a part called the "HDP88-DLE mounting kit". I phoned Roland, no they could not supply one, so you need to take the old drive out of it and put the new in. Touch a radiator to discharge any static from your person. Then unscrew the 4 screws holding the drive in the mount. The drive comes out easily, but remember exactly how it fits together - there were two felt spacers in mine. Put new drive in holder, screw 4 screws in, and push the new drive firmly into slot and re-attach cover.
3) When you boot up, it will recognise the new drive, and basically you say "yes" to the initial displayed question, and after that remember to specify a partition size of 1000MB (not 500), as on page 106 of the user guide. It will take about 1hour to initialise.
4) What a relief!
So what would anyone use a VSR-880 for these days? I'm going to mount mine in a rackbox and use it in the field as a location recorder. Quite frankly its a million times prettier than any computer, but even I would admit the latter is a bit more user friendly!! ]]> tag:rolandforums.co.uk,2013:forums/viewthread/.6270 2013-05-22T17:57:23Z AndrewGSnow tag:rolandforums.co.uk,2013:forums/viewthread/.6269 2013-05-21T16:48:21Z kg2304
I use logic to produce and would like to take my productions live. Does roland provide good samplers to re-create my track?

Thanks
k ]]> tag:rolandforums.co.uk,2013:forums/viewthread/.6255 2013-05-11T04:44:08Z 2013-05-11T07:44:06Z Wilbury
I'm trying to find a companion for my iPad to make a simple desktop studio. One possible candidate is Roland Duo Capture. If there are any users of this combination - Duo Capture + iPad - could you please share your experience. In particular, I'm interested in the following:

1. How easy or difficult it was to pair Duo with iPad?
2. Are there any latency issues, especially if a MIDI keyboard is connected to the Duo?
3. How clean is the line out signal (some users reported hiss on Duo's outputs).
4. Does the Duo allow to connect an external sound source with a line out (e.g. digital piano)?

Thanks! ]]> tag:rolandforums.co.uk,2013:forums/viewthread/.6247 2013-05-07T15:52:07Z Mr Bond
They'll probably be something like 2.5mm x 5.5mm x 12mm or 2.1mm x 5.5mm x 12mm.

Thanks. ]]> tag:rolandforums.co.uk,2013:forums/viewthread/.6216 2013-04-16T16:49:39Z samplophone I am interested in getting a sound card for my laptop so to be able to play music outdoors with my MIDI controller.

It looks like the "Duo capture Ex" (http://www.rolandus.com/products/details/1248) would perfectly fit my needs: it is cheap and it runs on batteries: that would spare the main laptop battery, perfect for outdoor usage. Also, I don't need more than two inputs (those are too much already!).
BUT, in its feature list there is no mention to latency.

Oppositely, the "Quad" (http://www.rolandus.com/products/details/1166) description boasts ultra low latency drivers. This card would be more expensive and would not run on batteries, also I don't need all of those inputs and outputs.
BUT, I really care about not introducing any extra latency to my setup.
What is the reason why there is no mention to this subject into the "Duo capture ex" description? Is it because that card is actually not as performant as the "Quad" in this regard? I am lead to think so, but I'd love to know that for sure.

Thank you very much for your clarifications! ]]> tag:rolandforums.co.uk,2013:forums/viewthread/.6231 2013-04-26T14:49:40Z 2013-04-26T17:38:06Z Tripod This is combination with the fact that from that day on the Quad Capture refused to be used on 96khz anymore made me think i'm dealing with a hardware problem here.

Software wise i tried EVERYTHING including reinstalling Windows.

The thing is i finally went back to the store and they can take my Quad Capture back but i will be without one for 5 weeks! This is also no option.
At least not i can still record and play guitars. Drums are impossible with the current settings.

I wonder if there is an option to reset the card. I can't find anything about it so i guess not...any tips would be appreciated.

Thanks. ]]> tag:rolandforums.co.uk,2011:forums/viewthread/.2836 2011-12-10T23:02:55Z Winyard Productions
For anyone who hasn't heard about VirDIS well firstly I would like to say that Roland US has it listed on their compatible media guide under ASC (Advanced Storage Concepts) found here: http://cms.rolandus.com/assets/media/pdf/VSCompGuide.pdf

So what does VirDIS do?

Their website: http://www.virtualscsi.com/virdis.htm

VirDIS fools the VS2480 into believing that it has SCSI devices attached to it's SCSI port. Devices include CD Burner and External Hard Drive. But it does much more than this!

VirDIS allows you to do all this within the PC virtually. There is one cable between the VS2480 and the PC, eliminating bulky external SCSI devices.


Let's take away the word 'virtual' for a moment and let’s look at what VirDIS adds.

1. VirDIS adds an external SCSI/IDE Hard Drive

2. VirDIS adds an external CDRII Burner

When you open the VirDIS software within a Windows PC you get a 'Graphical User Interface' or 'GUI' similar to the one featured below.

This is an older screen shot of a beta version not the fully functional version.

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y271/paulmiller/VirDIS.jpg

So the software is opened.

You select the VS Machine you want to work with see (Select Recorder Model) top right. In this case the VS2480.

Then you are presented with the option to "Enable a Virtual Device" - see top left of GUI - vHD + vCD-R

This is where you can choose a vHD (Hard Disk) and/or a vCD-R (CD Recordable)

By doing this you are really just adding an External Hard Drive to the VS2480 and a CD-RII Burner.

So functionally the VS2480 now treats the vFILES (vHD + vCD-R) as it would an external SCSI Hard Drive or a CD Burner. But due to the NON-Mechanical nature of Virtual Files things happen faster than their hardware cousins.

So let’s look closer at the vHD and vCD-R side of VirDIS (Virtual Disk Image Server)

As you can see there are names in the Drive-image file[*.HDD] and Disc-image file[*.BIN]

(Left) Drive-image file[*.HDD] reads - VirDIS.HDD

(Right) Disc-image file[*.BIN] reads - testmaster.BIN

The process for making both vHD and vCD-R files is simple.


vHD procedure is as follows:

1. Click the ‘Select/Create vHD drive image file’ button

2. Select ‘Disk Size (MBs)'

This could be any size you choose from say 50MBs to 140GB (140,000MBs) however we have found it best to stick to a size that you can store on to a DVD-R so 4.5GB (4500MBs) is a good size to use. But once again your choice!

3. Give the file a name.

4. Push ‘LOAD EMULATION’

The VirDIS software now Pre-formats the named vHD file in a VS2480 data structure to save time. The VS2480 only needs about 30 seconds to format vHD files due to this VirDIS implementation – the PC Pre-formats the vHD fast!

The VS2480 now locks to the vHD file and the VirDIS software indicates it’s locked by showing a RED “vHD medium: LOCKED” and GREEN “vHD Emulation: RUNNING”.

So now you can do a number of things with this vHD file:

1.You can copy VS2480 Projects to it and they will play and can be edited by the VS2480.
2.You can record to the vHD files as you would an internal VS2480 HDD.
3.You can store or delete projects from the vHD file.
4.You can copy projects within vHD files back to the VS2480.

So, with a vHD (.HDD) file you can treat it like you would the VS2480s internal HDD and also as you would an externally attached SCSI HDD. The vHD files remain on any of the PC HDDs, and if you want to back them up you can copy them to DVD-R, USB Storage, another HDD, anything really as long as the PC can use it and there’s space for the vHD file.

The file extension for the vHD is .HDD so you can easily search for this .HDD extension and all your vHD files will show up even if you have vHD files on a number of different HDDs.

This pic shows you what a .HDD file looks like on my PC screen. The name of the vHD (.HDD) file in this case is ‘FILE-ICON.HDD’ with close to 4.2GB in this file. 4,195.200KB to be exact.

Now let’s move on to vCD-R files also featured in the pic below with .ISO and .BIN File (With CUE File)

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y271/paulmiller/VirDISFiles.jpg

.
Looking at our GUI again let’s look at the right side - (Right) Disc-image file[*.BIN] reads - testmaster.BIN


http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y271/paulmiller/VirDIS.jpg

You will notice in the “CD-Recordable Emulation Section” there are two choices of “v-Disc format type”.

1.CD Audio Master
2.ISO file Format

We have already seen what these files and their extensions look like on my PC but what is their purpose?

The CD Master is the same as a physical CD-R Master that you might produce with a CD Burner but you don’t need to have a physical CD-R (CD-Recordable Disc) in order to produce it. A vCD-R .BIN + .CUE file is fixed at not greater than 80min/700mb.

As you would combine all your recorded tracks and mix down to two tracks and then burn these to a CD-R via a CD-RII Burner. You can eliminate the CD-RII Burner completely and just go direct to PC HDD.

The vCD-R file is seen as a .BIN + CUE File

The .BIN file contains all the 16 Bit/44.1kHZ information and CUE file gives a list of CD Tracks and Track Times just like a CD-R Master. The VS2480 can now play this Virtual CD just as though it had been placed in the CD-RII Burners CD Tray. Yep, that’s right the VS2480 thinks it’s a normal CD with tracks listed etc…

The beauty of this is that you can have a number of Master Mixes on your PC as vCD-R (Virtual CDs) or even a number of the same Master with slightly different Mixing variations and you can listen to them and compare these before a final CD-R Burn before duplication or replication.

And not one CD-R needs to be burned until you want it. So how do you get the vCD-R Masters on to a CD-R once you’re happy with them? Easy, just use NERO or similar program and burn it via the PCs CD or DVD Burner.

An amazing product! ]]> tag:rolandforums.co.uk,2013:forums/viewthread/.6227 2013-04-24T01:37:31Z slooky tag:rolandforums.co.uk,2013:forums/viewthread/.6222 2013-04-19T15:10:38Z Monsterworks
I use the onboard drum loops which are great....but they do not cater for (fast) metal particularly, i.e. no double bass or blast beats!

So my question is, are there any libraries around that have files suitable for importing to a BR-80 (I believe the format is SMF)?

My knowledge of MIDI is fairly limited and I have not been game enough to try and generate my own (like through Fruity Loops which I used to use for basic drum programming). Also, I am not sure if it is possible to do short loops you can chop and change with onboard loops or whether you have to program the whole song for import as an SMF. I read something a while ago (not sure where) that made me think that was the case.

If there is no simple solution for getting metal drums into the BR-80 I guess my final question is: What will supersede the BR-80 and when? And will this have expanded drum sounds/loops.

The BR-80 really opened a Pandora's box of possibilities and it is almost perfect for what I need.....except for the limitations in the drum programming (max speed is 250bpm too so I can't make a "cheat" blast beat approximation).

Cheers ]]>