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ROLAND VS2000CD |
ROLAND VS2000CD
We should all by now be familiar with Roland’s VS or virtual-studio recorders. The music world was revolutionised with the release of the VS880 in 1996; an 8 track digital studio housed inside a small box. That legacy is now continued with their latest recorder the VS2000CD, an 18-track studio. Without resting on their previous successes, Roland have introduced some exciting features including a vocal harmonizer, programmable drum machine, USB 2.0, and support for software plug-ins; let’s find out where this takes us.
The VS2000CD has a fairly small footprint and will fit nicely onto a desk or into a setting where there is a minimal amount of workspace. After slotting in the VS20-VGA expansion board (optional), I plugged in a computer monitor and mouse and got to work. It goes without saying that this is the big draw-card for the VS range and Roland have created a machine that feels more like a computer than a stand-alone recorder. The display gives better viewing of fine detail (i.e. waveforms) and allows you to speed up your work process significantly.
The vocal harmonizer was first on my list of curiosity. The status-buttons above the faders can operate as a small keyboard to play in harmony-notes and I found this option sufficient for this purpose. Out of the box, the VS2000CD will allow for two harmony parts; adding two of the VS-expansion boards into the available slots gives you six parts. The surprise here was the piano-roll editor for recording/editing the harmony parts, which was right along the lines of what you would find in a typical MIDI sequencing package. After getting some vocal parts down I was able to bounce the harmony parts to a separate track so that I could mix and edit them independently to the main vocal part.
At last, a programmable rhythm machine! In this case the VS gives us the choice of a grid-style editor and a list editor for fine detail. To expand drum sounds you can also hook up a module or synth via MIDI and send your drum patterns out on any MIDI channel. The internal drums can also be beefed up significantly by applying the onboard effects (i.e. EQ, compression, gating), or bouncing drums to separate audio channels for greater control.
To coincide with the release of the VS2000CD Roland have brought out a new effect-expansion card — the VS8F3. I happened to have one of these on hand so I plugged the card in and… well, nothing happened. Basically the idea is that it supports software plug-ins, and five of these are included with the VS8F3 on a separate CD installer (including a superb reverb). You insert the installer CD into the VS and the plug-ins load onto the hard-disk. Once this is complete you can select plug-ins from a patch list as if you were using standard VS effects. This is a great idea and plug-ins have already been announced from Antares, Cakewalk, IK Multimedia, McDSP, Sound Toys, TC Electronic, Universal Audio and Massenburg Design Works.
It’s an easy task throwing together ideas with the VS2000CD, particularly with the new tools available. Roland have pushed the studio-in-a-box concept further along, and it’s now become much more of an open-ended tool. I’ll admit, I never saw the idea of add-on software for the VS coming but now that it’s here I feel optimistic. Will we end up with virtual instruments, better tools and effects? I certainly look forward to finding out, and I’m sure many VS users do also.