new to me mutitrack recorder

[karpathion]

so i just bought a roland vs-840gx on fleabay for 50 bucks.
now my problem is this zip drive. i'm gonna use the roland to record the tracks. and then dump them track by track to my pc software, which is orion 6.2. what i need to know is how to take it from the zip drive onto the pc. if anyone knows this stuff help me out. the unzip software is big it will take up to much room on my hard drive. is there a way to go straight into the pc. via usb or midi. without having to unzip it. something like just push play and let it record to the orion software. but then it all goes to one track. i want to be able to master mix on the pc.

 

[StillLearnin']

Re: new to me mutitrack recorder

You have a zip drive on your PC? Is it a 250M zip drive on the Roland? zip drives have nothing to do with the archival .zip format. If you don't have a zip drive on your PC, then you'll have to get one... I have a couple of old internal mount PC zip drives stuffed in a drawer somewhere if you need one but I don't even know if they make those anymore - it was a 90's - early 2000 PC thing - i.e. transient technology.

 

[Vetteboy]

Re: new to me mutitrack recorder

Definitely not by MIDI, and probably not by USB.

Do you have a zip drive for your computer?

Not sure what you mean by 'unzip software'...but if you think any software is too big, just wait until you start filling up your hard drive with uncompressed .wav files...

 

[karpathion]

Re: new to me mutitrack recorder

yeah its 250m zip drive. and no i dont have one on my pc. it's starting to look like i'll have to just use the roland for everything. did they make an external zip drive back in the day? i could probably get one on ebay pretty cheap. the only thing i really dont get, is the roland is suposed to turn it into a wav. file for you. so do you still need the zip drive for the pc?

 

[karpathion]

Re: new to me mutitrack recorder

Definitely not by MIDI, and probably not by USB.

Do you have a zip drive for your computer?

Not sure what you mean by 'unzip software'...but if you think any software is too big, just wait until you start filling up your hard drive with uncompressed .wav files...

yeah that was a stupid comment. i got confused in some stuff i was reading.
so there is no other way to do this without a zip drive huh?

 

[Vetteboy]

Re: new to me mutitrack recorder

yeah that was a stupid comment. i got confused in some stuff i was reading.
so there is no other way to do this without a zip drive huh?

That's about the jist of it. Or do like you said and play each individual track into the computer and record it from the Roland using your recording software.

I use a VS880 for all my stuff (check my soundclick link if you're interested, 'the good stuff' and 'new instrumental' are the most recent tracks). I do all the mixing etc. on it then record it as a 2-track master onto the computer. From there I'll trim the start/end, maybe add some overall mastering stuff, etc.

 

[karpathion]

Re: new to me mutitrack recorder

That's about the jist of it. Or do like you said and play each individual track into the computer and record it from the Roland using your recording software.

I use a VS880 for all my stuff (check my soundclick link if you're interested, 'the good stuff' and 'new instrumental' are the most recent tracks). I do all the mixing etc. on it then record it as a 2-track master onto the computer. From there I'll trim the start/end, maybe add some overall mastering stuff, etc.

so you know this vs gear pretty good then? can i use it stand alone and keep a good sound quality. and if not how are you turning them to wav file's via the zip drive? i've wanted one of these things since, well they came out. it's not an 880 but it is the 840 gx it's pretty much the same just less effects and it has 128 v tracks.

 

[innerdreamrecords.co]

Re: new to me mutitrack recorder

There is an optional scsi card for the Roland I'm pretty sure that allows you to transfer .wav files to an external device.

 

[Vetteboy]

Re: new to me mutitrack recorder

so you know this vs gear pretty good then? can i use it stand alone and keep a good sound quality. and if not how are you turning them to wav file's via the zip drive? i've wanted one of these things since, well they came out. it's not an 880 but it is the 840 gx it's pretty much the same just less effects and it has 128 v tracks.

I've been using this particular one since 1997. :scratchch

You can definitely get some decent quality out of them. The built-in effects are pretty good and I don't really have any gripes about the preamps either, although the lack of XLR/phantom power is a pain sometimes. My biggest limitation is only being able to record 4 inputs at a time, and I've been sort of keeping my eye out for a 1680 on eBay to fix that problem.

Here's my setup:

Mine doesn't have a zip drive. I run the RCA master outs through a few pieces of rack gear and then into the PC. The recording software just treats it like any other line input device...basically I make a new stereo track on the PC, hit 'record', hit 'play' on the VS880, and that's about it.

 

[karpathion]

Re: new to me mutitrack recorder

There is an optional scsi card for the Roland I'm pretty sure that allows you to transfer .wav files to an external device.

hmmm... i'll see if i can find one. this would be alot easier if it had a hd on instead. but 50 bucks i'm not complaining.

 

[karpathion]

Re: new to me mutitrack recorder

I've been using this particular one since 1997. :scratchch

You can definitely get some decent quality out of them. The built-in effects are pretty good and I don't really have any gripes about the preamps either, although the lack of XLR/phantom power is a pain sometimes. My biggest limitation is only being able to record 4 inputs at a time, and I've been sort of keeping my eye out for a 1680 on eBay to fix that problem.

Here's my setup:

Mine doesn't have a zip drive. I run the RCA master outs through a few pieces of rack gear and then into the PC. The recording software just treats it like any other line input device...basically I make a new stereo track on the PC, hit 'record', hit 'play' on the VS880, and that's about it.

now your talking my language. i can run out of the 840, into my board then to my pc. push record on the software and play on 840. problem solved.
thanks.

 

[innerdreamrecords.co]

Re: new to me mutitrack recorder

now your talking my language. i can run out of the 840, into my board then to my pc. push record on the software and play on 840. problem solved.
thanks.

As I recall I use to sync up my VS880 to Logic, start Logic and hit play and they played in sync. You could look into that.

 

[karpathion]

Re: new to me mutitrack recorder

As I recall I use to sync up my VS880 to Logic, start Logic and hit play and they played in sync. You could look into that.

now that is a good idea. i'll see what i can find. thanks man.

 

[StillLearnin']

Re: new to me mutitrack recorder

yeah its 250m zip drive. and no i dont have one on my pc. it's starting to look like i'll have to just use the roland for everything. did they make an external zip drive back in the day? i could probably get one on ebay pretty cheap. the only thing i really dont get, is the roland is suposed to turn it into a wav. file for you. so do you still need the zip drive for the pc?

The external interface is what you used to get it to .wav format

A quote from a Harmony Central review from back in 2000...
"Another welcome feature of the VS-840GX is its ability to convert audio files to the .WAV file format via the optional VS4S-1 SCSI port. Simply connect an external Zip drive via SCSI, and the VS-840GX will save its data to the disk in .WAV file format. Users can then insert the disk in a PC for creating audio CD’s or MP3 files to post on the Internet."

 

[karpathion]

Re: new to me mutitrack recorder

The external interface is what you used to get it to .wav format

A quote from a Harmony Central review from back in 2000...
"Another welcome feature of the VS-840GX is its ability to convert audio files to the .WAV file format via the optional VS4S-1 SCSI port. Simply connect an external Zip drive via SCSI, and the VS-840GX will save its data to the disk in .WAV file format. Users can then insert the disk in a PC for creating audio CD’s or MP3 files to post on the Internet."

now that is cool. thanks.