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Dave

A mate is offloading a lot of gear and he's got this Rolan VS880 8 track recording thing. I could probably get it off him for 50 quid. I've never used one of these little recording unit things and wondered if it might be a bit more accessable than being tied to a computer, or if it might be useful for recording and then transferring the filesto the computer for final tweaks etc.

I suppose what I'm getting at is 50 quid buying me some nice easy to use recording ability and some extra flexability in general when combined with computer recording?
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BearBoy · Posted: Wed May 22, 2013 9:24 am Post subject:

Never used a VS880 but I've got a Boss BR-1180CD, which seems a similar kettle of fish. I really like it tbh. I find it much easier to record on that than on a PC although this may have more to do with me being a luddite than anything else. It also has some pretty nice built in effects.

You might want to do a bit of research if you're interested in recording tracks on the VS880 and then transferring them into a PC DAW for further editing etc as I am not sure how you would get the individual tracks off it. The BR-1180 has a CD-R drive but I think earlier models used ZIP drives or something so this might cause issues. You'd also need to check what file formats the individual tracks can be extracted from it in.
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Al_ · . Joined: 20 Apr 2006 Posts: 510228 Location: Vista, CA

Yeah, I think that thing uses zip discs. I'd reckon you could probably get a used Korg D1600 or something for about that price that can export tracks to CD-R more easily. Still, if you're ok doing everything "in the box" on that unit then it could be useful. It has some built-in effects and you can edit tracks on it.

Dave · Posted: Wed May 22, 2013 6:56 pm Post subject:

Hhmmm, good points. Weird that it doesn't have a USB or something, USBs are ancient
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BearBoy · Posted: Wed May 22, 2013 7:01 pm Post subject:

The VS-880 was released in early 1996 (I think). USB was released around the same time. I bought my BR-1180CD in 2003 and that doesn't have USB connectivity. I don't think that appeared on the Roland/Boss machines until the next generation.
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batsbrew · Posted: Tue Aug 20, 2013 7:15 pm Post subject:

i had a vs 880ex

bought it in 1999

it was a great sounding unit..

but all the backup shit is proprietary...

there is no output of any kind, for data, except a branded SCSI drive.

you have to have that, to burn 'back up discs', and there is no WAV output at all.

there is a cool place, called VS Planet, that has a LOT of data about these things

http://www.vsplanet.com/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php?ubb=cfrm
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BatsBrew
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