roland vs880

[MechaLove]

Ugh okay I just bought another one, I don't have time to fix the first one I got

[UbiquitousCanuck]

Shoot^ Hadn't checked this thread in a minute. Too bad about the first vs you copped, nice to see you found another though. Had any luck learning it yet? I haven't really had any time lately, but I gotta get recording for my tape soon so I'll look into doing the sd swap and let you know how it goes mecha,
PEACE.

[MechaLove]

It should be coming through this week. Hopefully tomorrow. I guess it's a birthday present hee hee. The other one is just kind of collecting dust on my desk. I opened it up a few times, ambitiously trying to clean it out but I was having some trouble unscrewing one of the circuit boards from the one with the faders on it and figured what's the point. I got it for $50 and I'm hoping to just sell it as is. The second one I bought wasn't much more than that so I wasn't really put out by much. Other than that I haven't been messing with it.

[Ill Green]

Just cop an MV and deal with a basic version of the VS. Plus you get sampler and sequencer all in one. You'll be making beats in one box that does it all.

[UbiquitousCanuck]

Word man^ I've had my eyes on an MV(literally stared at the thing for an hour on multiple occasions in the store..), but I don't think I could ever save/convince myself of that large of a purchase. This VS is complicated though, gonna have to start skimming through a manual, this is all that's holding back finishing a tape right now.

[MechaLove]

Yay it came today. My birthday was yesterday so it was kind of a birthday gift lol. It seems to be working perfect. I hear you on the manual being the hold up lol. Luckily this one came with the hard copy of the manual so I can just grab it and flip through instead of having to go on the computer when I need help.

[a.D.]

Shit,an mv is what, at LEAST a grand? I'll stick with my sp and 8 track. For that matter-you can use the sp as a stand alone unit to record complete songs w/vocals -hook a good condensor mic to a decent phantom power pre-amp-run rca's from the pre into the sp and sample your own vocals with the instrumental in your headphones playing from a cd player/turntable--add effects, ad libs, the whole nine. Personally I could never spend over 500 bucks on something to make beats with or track shit out..or record vocals..I love making top quality shit on the lowest budget possible,lol. Nobody sleep on this boss br-900 though, this shit's pretty incredible.was able to get mine for 200!

[Jollyollyman]

yo.....
i just bought one of these off ebay, and unfortunately it seems that only the jog wheel thing and the master fader and various knobs work. none of the buttons work, couldn't get a song to play. but when i plug something in i can hear it fine, just not record.

the thing is, the vs power adaptor is supposed to be 15a 250v and i was using a 10a 125 v cord cus it was all i had. could that be the problem?

[sascha@samberg]

Hi all,
I've been following this forum for some time now and decided to perform the CF mod to both of my VS880 VExpanded (firmware 3.20B). Both were successful, no problem. I've also modified the HD carriage and front plate to enable me to remove the CF card without opening the VS, just like a built in CF reader for easy file transfer or even for archiving as CF cards are quite cheap. I see there is high demand for this mod; I can perform it for anyone interested, including parts + 1 x Lexar Platinum2 4 Gb CF card. This way you get 4 partitions; 3 x 1073Mb and 1 x 787Mb, no noise!

[Zė_Negrura]

Hi fellas, my first post here... I've been readin some posts for a while and i get dope info... Great forums!

About the vs880, i move to cuz my macbook died... This unit, expanded, and with a cf-reader installed is a beast!
Im a sp303 & Mpc2kXL user and now with a non-computer setup im having more fun than ever... plugins and all that stuff is great, but it doesnt work for me...

...well if somebody needs a lil help with the vs880 cf-mod maybe i can help...


Bye
&
Happy new year!

[sascha@samberg]

Hi negrura,
Happy New Year to you too.
I've installed the CF a while ago now and generally happy with it. Have done a few rehearsal recordings since and mastered some tracks. Only minor issue; I have to pull and reinsert the card a couple of seconds after the IDE red light starts flashing (when it's searching for the drive). The CF card says it doesn't support hot swap (while powered) but works anyway. if I don't pull and reinsert the the 880 won't find it and if I do it too soon it wants to force initialze the drive. Also, on every reboot it starts on the first partition. Any suggestions on that? I got used to this so happy to keep it as is but would prefer not to have to pull and reinsert the card at the right moment.
The card I installed is this one; http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/44-Pin-CF-to ... 23262ba034 and the cards are Lexar 4GB Platinum II giving me 4 partitions.
I modified the hard drive carriage, re-drilled holes to fit the CF reader and the card is sticking out of the cover plate by about 1cm so it's easy to swap cards or remove for storage & transport.

[Zė_Negrura]

Damn, that look tedious... Mine is internal, i only extract the card when i will to drop the tracks to reaper... But if youre lookong for a "hot swapable" drive i think it isnt possible on the vs880... The unit has no internal mem, so i think it needs a drive connected all the time for running

[sascha@samberg]

Damn, that look tedious... Mine is internal, i only extract the card when i will to drop the tracks to reaper... But if youre lookong for a "hot swapable" drive i think it isnt possible on the vs880... The unit has no internal mem, so i think it needs a drive connected all the time for running

Oh well, I got used to it.., thinking now; I actually prefer to be able to swap cards 'on the fly' than having to remove the plate to switch cards. I have several cards so can use them like tapes on a virtual tape multitrack. That's why I cut a slot in that front plate on right hand side (the drive tray cover), the card sticks out just enough for a comfortable swap. I realise 4GB is a lot of recording but I record all rehearsals, two hours or more at a time through an AKG3000 condenser, ambient in the centre of the room. Also, all my own rehearsals, recording vocals & key's on backing tracks, etc.
So, for the sake of having to pull and re-insert the card at boot-up; it's only about 15 seconds into the boot and then trouble free.
I'm sure the 880 has some kind of permanent internal memory to preserve all bios, firmware and general, also be able to write settings onto a new unformatted drive. Maybe the CF card adapter isn't 100% compatible?
I've used this CF card setup now for over 6 months, sometimes daily and had no problems with it. I was just hoping to be able to switch it on and forget about the hot swap thing but it's a small price to pay for the convenience of not having to clear the drive when full, CF cards are cheap enough these days to be used for archiving as well. I hope I'm not doing damage to the CF card adapter since it doesn't technically support hot swap but I did buy two so have a spare one. The way it chooses to always select partition 0 on boot up is no concern either, I can switch to any partition within seconds. All up it takes me an extra 10-20 seconds on boot-up to get to where I want. Just have to pull and reinsert the card within about 2 seconds of the 880 searching for the drive and I got that down to a T.
I've owned the VS880 V-Expanded since new, when they came out some 18 years ago, including the CD burner (which now seems like a dinosaur; taking a few hours to convert and burn a master to CD). The 880 is built like a tank and just keeps going, no problems ever.
Perhaps I should try different cards, if it's the card that doesn't get recognised on initial boot?
Can you succesfully restore back-ups from HD to CF card? I have several back-ups on CD from years ago but can't restore them to CF, I guess because the partitions are a different size.

[boombapp28]

I upgraded my old VS-840 to the EX/2.05 operating system and then had a friend install an ADIDECFB that I had purchased from Addonics into the unit. Those two things were the best upgrades I could've possibly invested in. Taking out that noisy zip disk drive was a blessing in itself. I am now armed with over 500 minutes of recording time with the right 1 gb CF cards and the VS-840 is a perfect complimentary piece to any of the Boss SP model samplers. Great results have been had with the 840/202 combo and the 840/505 combo thus far.

[sascha@samberg]

Yes, using CF makes it a truly portable unit with absolutely no noise whatsoever. You could even mount it upright which would make it easier to read the screen. I think the screen is now the only downside on the VS880, being flat and also no backlight. I use a clip-on snake light and have the 880 mounted on my keyboard stand at a pretty steep angle which was previously not recommended due to moving parts in the HD. Shake it as much as you like with the CF, no problem so you could have the unit right on top of a bass bin and the vibration won't affect it.
Shame Roland don't offer a CF card upgrade to fit directly into the drive bay, considering the VS series of digital multitrack are still one of the best portable all-in-one digital recorders out there, there is a market for it. VS recorders are still widely used around the world.