Anybody use any of the Roland VS 2480 machines?

[parlormusic]

I posted this in the Computer World (DAW & computer recording) but got no useful replies. Maybe it belongs here, so here goes...

The VS 2480DVD has caught my eye. It has most everything I want in a compact recording rig: plenty of channels, automation, editing, keyboard moust & monitor outputs, CD burning, backup capability - it does sooo much. Do any of you have hands-on experience using any of these? And what's your take on the pros & cons of them?

[auralman]

Have one, love it.

Things I like:
-recording 16 inputs at once into a machine that doesn't crash
-(amazingly) the sound of the Roland RDAC on drums
-zero latency
-portability
-Full routing ability

Things I don't like:
-The mix bus, which overloads easily and sounds terrible
-Getting anything out of the box (burning CDs, tedious)
-Anything the box purports to be or accomplish outside of being a recording device. It's a terrible mixer, has crap mic pres, terrible editing, crap effects, etc.

Overall - I would have either bought something like an HD24 with a Speck or something like that-style mixer, headphone amp, etc. or this. The cost won out, and I've never been disappointed. I'll confess to some stuff:
-I use all outboard pres
-I use an external clock
-I will never mix in the box. Ever.
-I never even AUDITION effects in the box. They suck to an unreasonable degree.
-I use a power conditioner to run it. I love the whole "single platform" thing, but I just don't trust power.

It works for me. The situation I'm in means I track drums and bass, then do overdubs, which 16 simultaneous tracks is fine for. I'll typically bounce a 2mix from PT back into the 2480 to do some overdubs for the portability factor, the zero latency (I use PTLE), and the ease. I'll take everything I've done and edit it PT, mix in PT, and never look back. I've come close to selling it a couple of times - it loses value fast - but I really can't justify a replacement that can do 16+ tracks of simultaneous recording without crashing for <$3000.

[apropos of nothing]

Good thread about the pros and cons of the smaller numbered x80s here:
http://messageboard.tapeop.com/viewtopic.php?t=31219&

I have an 1880 that I like a lot. Getting stuff off of it kinda sucks (mines full at the moment, and so once I get my project plate cleared off, I'm going to have to do a mondo dump to get it empty again).

Still, the "throw it under the arm" factor rules and rules and rules.

The sound is good though. Roland knows what they're doing on that front, anyway.

[Wolfman Sack]

I just bought a VS2400CD and started using it a month ago. Previously I owned an 001, 002r, Firepod, and Firebox (owned and used in that order) used with a PC and running Pro Tools, Cubase, then SAW studio.

I finally realized that 95% of my time was spent troubleshooting the computer or software. I'd be in the middle of a take and have it hiccup on me and ruin the track, I'd try to mix and it would freeze or give me overrun errors. I may be exaggerating slightly but not much. My work output slowed to a crawl. I was so frustrated I was ready to give up.

So I finally chucked it all and went hardware. the 2400CD has a VGA output so you can use a monitor, and while the interface on screen isn't as sexy as others, it's nuts and bolts and gets the job done with editing. It never stalls, crashes, hiccups, nothing. Just smooth recording, focus back on music.

The guy above said the preamps are crap and he's entitled to that opinion, but to me they sound no worse than any sub-$1000 multi preamp unit. They are solid and certainly not Neve, but I can lose the audiophile edge that pricey preamps would afford me and just go for solid and good and have a higher work output cuz I spend my time writing and recording and not computer troubleshooting.

If you're frustrated by workflow on a DAW, you'll be amazed at the sense of relief you'll have by getting one of these. No nonsense, just track. An HD24 would be a great choice too if you have a mixing board, although there's no visual reference then and you would deal with a DAW for editing anyway.

A bonus with the VS2400CD is the plugin board, you can use Autotune, Massenberg EQ, TC reverb, and the 1176 and LA2A plugins all over your tracks without crashing, slowing down, bogging down the CPU.

And lastly, the Vfire interface converts your Rbus into a firewire interface to interact with another computer or hard drive to back up, so you're really not limited to the CD burner to back up. It is additional $, but so is computer hardware.]

And having flying faders is unbelievably cool. To get that you'd spend $1000 anyway on the Mackie control surface. With the Roland, throw in another $800-900 and you get 24 tracks of recording as well, and with the virtual tracks and takes it's more like 300 tracks you can record and use for editing. It's insane.

Not making you drink the Roland Kool aid or anything, just my personal experience from someone that's been on both sides. I love the Roland and I've gotten more done in the month I've owned it than the past year with a DAW. YMMV.

[linus]

It's been a couple years now but I owned a VS1680 in the past. We got great results by:

Tracking Drums in a decent studio (our room sucked at the time)
Doing all the other tracks to the 1680
Using outboard pres as much as possible
Then going back into someone elses studio and exporting the tracks to their system and mixing on a real desk with real effects.

But unlike the previous poster I have to admit that I really liked the COSM guitar amp simulators for a number of things. They wouldn't usually be the ONLY thing I used on a track but I often used them for the doubled guitars or more background guitar tracks.

In particular I really liked the "clean twin" and the "tweed blues" (I think those are the names). They required tweaking the parameters to the exactly what I was looking for (usually adjusting gain/distortion) but I really liked them.

[orbb]

www.vsplanet.com has forums for all the various Roland products, but it's not a Roland site, so people are pretty straight shooters about the good and the bad. The folks there are definitely the Roland experts - Roland customer support refers people there. People will give you the goods and the bads, and all the work arounds.