Roland VS1680

In the space of just two years, Roland have doubled the power of their hard disk multitrack concept, going from the eight tracks of the VS880 to the 16 of their latest baby. Paul Nagle admires the VS's sparkling new options.

Roland's VS880, released in early 1996, was a great hit for the home and semi‑professional studio, providing 8‑track playback of digital audio, optional internal effects, comprehensive synchronisation, and SCSI as standard. There were only a few gripes with it — namely that it didn't have a backlit LCD, didn't have phantom power, and its small screen and menu layers made some operations initially confusing. It used Roland's own compression algorithm to coax more recording time from the hard disk in 8‑track mode, which was usually perceived as a drawback by those who hadn't heard the results. A succession of enhancements to the VS880 included new effect types, the playback of six (as opposed to the original four) uncompressed tracks, and even a CD‑writer system. But even Roland's programmers could only squeeze so much from the VS880 and, inevitably, a new model was needed. The VS1680 addresses many of the shortcomings of its smaller ancestor, boosting the spec to 16 channels of 24‑bit audio (each with up to 16 virtual tracks), adding a large backlit display and offering clearer, more logical operation. There's also two new data‑compression modes: a high‑quality 24‑bit mode, and an extended‑play, low‑quality mode (see 'Compress Me' box). Supplied as standard are the VS8F2 internal effects card and a 2Gb internal 2.5‑inch IDE hard disk, and the whole system costs about the same as the original, fully‑loaded VS880 did. You can also record to an external SCSI hard disk with the VS1680, but even though disks of up to 8Gb are now becoming available the VS1680 imposes a maximum disk partition size of 2Gb. Songs cannot overlap partitions, and with 16 real tracks and up to 256 virtual tracks available, this might become an issue if you work on very long songs.

Since many of the basic principles of the 1680 are the same as the 880, I'll refer to the older model quite often. If necessary, check out March 1996's original review, and May 1997's and January 1998's updates for a refresher.

The Outer Limits

With so much going on inside, most of the controls inevitably have to cover more than one function.

At approximately 21 x 13 x 4 inches, the VS‑1680 is just four inches longer than its sibling. Considering the power within, this is an exceptionally compact package. It weighs a little over 14lbs and is portable enough to use on location or even on stage.

Before we leap into the internal details, we'll do our customary tour of the externals. Immediately you'll be drawn to the large backlit screen — its resolution of 320 x 240 dots is a far cry from that of the VS880, facilitating the use of graphics, icons and even a mini waveform display for detailed editing. A small contrast knob to its right provides a decent range of adjustment.

Underneath the display are six function buttons ('soft keys') which speed up navigation to key points on the screen or leap directly to other areas. There's a Page button to toggle any of the screens which have multiple pages, and a Play/Display button which always returns you to the main window, even if you've managed to lose yourself. Four cursor buttons aid navigation around the screen; on some pages, the large alpha dial performs this function too. Usually, turning the dial scrolls the current song position backwards and forwards in time — hold the shift key to move around in larger steps. In the various edit screens, though, the dial serves to change parameter values. Regular play, record, rewind and fast forward transport controls also have dual functionality, courtesy of the shift key. Hold successive transport keys plus shift to access Song Store, Song Start (or End) Position, Shutdown, Restart and Automix Record. Song Store, in particular, should be used after recording or making a series of edits, as it saves the current state of play to disk — handy in case of power loss or other unexpected problems. (Inexplicably, the VS1680 totally froze on me once. I don't know why, but I was not able to reproduce this problem.)

Dedicated buttons for Vari Pitch and External Sync are positioned next to the large MIDI/Disk Activity indicator LED, and directly above the transport controls are the locator and marker banks, which store song positions to which you can instantly jump. There are 64 locator banks, in eight sets of eight, and 1000 markers. Mixer scenes are stored here too — up to eight of them — and these allow instant recall of all mixer settings, although not during playback. A further means of storing basic mixer configurations is available in the new EZ Routing feature, but we'll come to that a little later. The Preview/Scrub section is invaluable for making fine edits, replaying a short section for you to scrutinse. The Loop button allows you to set an area of your song to loop continuously, perhaps to try several variations of a solo part.

If I had not chosen my hard disk recorder, I think the VS1680 would be the number one contender.

The rear panel features nine inputs: two balanced XLR connectors, six balanced line input jacks, and one guitar (Hi‑Z) jack which, if connected, overrides input 8. A switch turns on Phantom power (+48V) for condenser microphones. Digital I/O is provided, with both optical and co‑axial connectors.

The analogue output section features eight phono sockets in total, namely: two Main outputs, two pairs of stereo Auxiliary outputs, and a separate stereo monitor output. These can function as individual outputs for tracks 1‑8. (Version 1.01 of the operating software arrived, in the form of a series of MIDI files, as I was putting the finishing touches to this review; this allows the remaining eight tracks to be directed to these outputs too, so if individual outputs are necessary to you, make sure you have this software version.) Incidentally, I'm not sure why Roland have a fascination with phono connectors, but personally I'd prefer at least the master outputs as standard quarter‑inch jacks. And speaking of quarter‑inch jacks, there's a stereo phones output here, on a jack.

The onboard cooling fan is a little quieter than that of my PC, but still noisier than is ideal when recording close by. Fortunately, Roland have seen fit to allow it to be automatically turned off, either during playback or during record and playback. Oddly, there is no option just to turn it off during recording, which seems the most likely thing you'd want. With MIDI in and Out sockets, the SCSI connector, footswitch (for remote control of start/stop/record, and so on), mains connection and on/off switch, we complete the rear panel tour.

Mix Controls

Turning to the mixer section, things are a little sparse‑looking, with just 12 channel sliders and a master level slider. As you can see from the photo, channels 9‑16 are configured as stereo pairs, each pair sharing a single volume slider. This is a useful space‑saving option, but you're free to choose whether to unlink the tracks and have them function independently, in which case access to each track is gained by toggling the track select button. Three rows of 12 buttons positioned above the sliders are used to control input, track and track status. Gone are the VS880's rather confusing Input/Track and Input/Mix select modes; instead, a single button sets whether the sliders control input level or track level.

The input section features eight knobs which adjust between Line and Mic levels, with a small LED to indicate overload. Seperate Monitor and Phones levels are available, as are facilities to solo a track or tracks, and mute channels. The dedicated pan control found on the VS880 has been dropped.

Display

As mixers go, you're probably thinking that the VS1680 is lacking in physical controls, and you'd be right. However, this is where the display screen comes into its own.

The top line holds the large‑text time indicator, complete with a bar/measure display. In Play mode, the screen resembles the now universally‑adopted 'sequencer arrange window' look, with scrolling parts moving across the screen. Tiny blocks representing recorded data show at once which tracks and virtual tracks are active or have something recorded on them. You can switch to a song information page, get details of the amount of disk space used, display input status or track status (complete with a small graphic of the channel levels), and so on. Because the screen is such a decent size, it's now possible to show thescrolling arrange window and the track bar meters simultaneously, with room to spare.

The display, the 24‑bit resolution, 16 tracks, eight inputs, the amount of recording time available — all these add up to a very desirable recording tool.

Hitting an Input or Track select button produces a graphical display of the associated parameters. These screens show volume levels, EQ, effects, pan, and more. Each channel has a status button, which switches between track monitor (lights green), input monitor (yellow), record (red) and mute (off). Keep it held down for a moment and a graphical screen materialises, illustrating the signal routing with lines drawn between the active connections. From here you can redirect, for example, an input to a track as easily as holding down the appropriate buttons; a line appears on the screen, verifying that the connection is made. It's this sort of attention to detail that helps make such a powerful and complex machine manageable. The graphics are clear but never over‑fussy, and are the key to an easy grasp of signal flow.

A wave display soft key causes a small but serviceable graphical waveform view, used in fine‑editing, to appear. As with the main song display, a number of zoom options are available, and this function alone is a significant improvement on the VS880 version (which simply featured a series of level bars). It's no replacement for a computer‑based audio editor, but it gives you the tools to do the job. (I suppose when the VS3280 is invented it will have a colour screen, mouse and built‑in sequencer program.)

EZ Does It

A number of VS880 users found themselves baffled by the machine's internal buss structure, or unsure of how to make recordings which included the output from the effects processors. The VS1680's manual still attempts to explain the situation by means of a water pipe analogy (complete with a diagram of toilet, water heater, sink and bath), but Roland have also programmed into the recorder a new step‑by‑step guide through the more typical functions. This is 'EZ Routing', and with it, even someone without a background in plumbing should be able to get up and running in the minimum of time. The EZ Routing button brings up a menu offering "easy" guides through Recording, Mixdown or Track Bouncing. Helpful graphics are presented along the way, as are options to save 29 of your own favourite configurations for later use. As an example, let's look at the supplied Recording Template, which consists of the following steps:

Step 1: Route Inputs to Destination Tracks
This screen has simple graphics showing inputs, tracks and virtual tracks. Connect them however you want, by pushing the relevant button(s).

Step 2: Set Levels & Pans For Source Inputs
Here you see only the inputs chosen in Step 1 and set the recording levels.

Step 3: Select Effects
Choose from the two stereo effects available and decide whether effects should be pre‑fade, post‑fade or insert. Then set levels and pan for each.

Step 4: Record The Effects
Simple graphics depict the routing of effect outputs. They're re‑routed with a push of a button.

Step 5: Send Inputs To The Auxiliary bus
This is pretty self‑explanatory (the Aux buss may be used to connect external effects if you wish).

Step 6: Set Master Section
Here you set the monitor output, EQ type, whether direct outputs are used, and any master insert effects. Then apply the changes you made, and you're ready to record.

Because EZ Routing guides you through the process in this way, it should be possible to produce your first masterpiece almost as easily as with a conventional mixer and tape deck. I thought that EZ Routing was a useful introduction, but — probably because I'm used to the VS880 already — found it almost as straightforward to simply arm the tracks I wanted to record and go.

Up to eight tracks may be recorded at once, each recording being stored as a Take, which can be undone if you wish to revert to the earlier version. The VS1680 features 999 levels of undo and one level of redo. The VS880's excellent virtual track concept has been continued, with up to 16 of these now available, although only one virtual track per real track can play at once. Different virtual tracks cannot be swapped during playback.

A 2‑band parametric equaliser is provided for each of the eight inputs and all 16 tracks. In addition, up to 16 of the input or track channels can utilise a 3‑band equaliser. The EQ is pretty versatile, especially the 3‑band version, but annoying crackles are produced if you tweak it during playback. The solution suggested in the manual is to make adjustments "while the sound is not playing". I think I'd have preferred a less fancy EQ that I could use without this penalty. If you work with a series of stereo channels, Stereo Link allows you to manage two channels with a single control — for level, EQ, effects, and so on. As we've already seen, tracks 9‑16 are initially configured as pre‑linked, since they use shared sliders.

Editing

As you'd expect with a hard disk‑based system, a number of fine‑editing tools are on hand. Having made a recording, you're free to copy and move complete tracks or sections of tracks, insert spaces, and erase or cut out sections as if you'd physically chopped tape with a razor blade. New to the VS1680 is the ability to define musical phrases for editing. These are areas of a track set by you — perhaps a drum loop or bass riff, which you can name and, of course, copy multiple times (doesn't anyone play anything all the way through any more?). A recorded phrase's start and end points may be trimmed, perhaps to produce a smooth loop. Copying with Quantise ensures that the phrase always aligns to the start of a bar/measure boundary. Up to 99 copies may be made in a single operation. A time compression/expansion option has a range of 75‑125%, but the extreme values have quite an adverse effect on sound quality. Original pitch may be preserved if desired, but if you merely want to slow down a recording or match it to an existing pitch, the playback Varipitch option, which supports a range from 22.05kHz to 50.43kHz, may be a better solution than permanently altering the data. One cool thing you can do with it is slow down a 44.1kHz backing track to half speed, then get the singer to make a recording at this tempo. When you turn Varispeed off again, everything returns to its natural pitch, except the vocal you just recorded. Who knows — it could magically transform a mediocre ballad into something suitable for selling jeans...

The main thing that bugged me in operation was the inability to alter EQ during playback without getting tiny pops and crackles.

Effects

The VS1680 is supplied with a new effects card, the VS8F2. This card provides two stereo processors, known internally as EFX1 and EFX2. An optional second VS8F2 can be installed, to give four simultaneous stereo effects. Their quality is superb: the effects card in the VS880 was surely a significant factor in its success, and the new model, although very similar in scope, now gives 24‑bit resolution. With 210 supplied preset effects, and memory locations for a further 200 user patches, there's a lot to get through. Mostly they are the same as on the 'old' card — a generous selection of reverbs, delays, microphone simulators, Roland's 3D RSS process, and many more. There are some new algorithms too, namely the 3‑band frequency "Isolator", Tape Echo, Analogue Flanger and Analogue Phaser. Of these, the Tape Echo even has simulations of the distortion and wow/flutter that we now need to warm up our perfect digital recordings!

The setting up and editing of effects is very easy. Handy icons suggest effect types: a strange long‑haired being of uncertain gender represents the Vocal Multi and a small guitar and amp denotes (guess) the Guitar Amp Simulator. Again, the graphical display makes things so much clearer — setting up a compressor as an insert effect for the whole mix, for example, becomes as easy as a very easy thing indeed.

CD Writing

The VS1680 software features the same method of CD writing as appeared on the VS880. To use this facility requires Roland's optional SCSI CD writer, which then permits you to create CD masters from any two tracks of the hard disk recorder. How you get those tracks together is up to you. If you're using all 16 tracks, you might want to mix down to DAT, then transfer this back digitally, perhaps to two free virtual tracks, from which you cut your CD. Fortunately there's no SCMS to get in your way: a few dialogues remind you of the importance of copyrights and so on, but basically once you've promised to behave yourself, you're free to copy anything you wish from any digital source.

In common with the VS880, the CD‑writing process requires that you first create an image file, from which subsequent copies are made. I didn't have the CD writer to test, so I can't report whether the engineers have found a way to speed up the data conversion, which is very slow on the VS880. Copies are made at twice normal speed and the image file must reside on the internal IDE drive, so there must be enough space to accomodate both the finalised song data and the image. Once the image‑creation process has ended, you are free to make one or several CD‑R copies but, annoyingly, there is no way to save the image file for future CD creation (just as on the VS880). This means that you must reload your finished songs, recreate the image, then perform the write on any future occasion you wish to produce a CD. I can't believe Roland haven't sorted this out. Happily, the VS1680 does address one other omission of the VS880 CD writer, in that it allows you to archive and restore song data to CD‑R. This is a major improvement on Zip backup and light years ahead of DAT backup (both of which are options too). Blank CD‑Rs are now very reasonably priced (the Roland system can use the cheapest computer blanks, optimised for writing at double speed) and this means you need never worry about securing your songs for later work ever again.

If you don't have the CD‑writer, an external SCSI hard disk is also a good option for backup and, unlike with the VS880, the VS1680's SCSI 'self' ID can be changed. Song import from the VS880, and even the cut‑down VS840, is possible, although there are certain limitations. Similarly, export for use by the VS880 (with restrictions) can be done, and, of course, data can be transferred digitally between them. While I'm on the subject of data export, you can create a new song from chosen tracks in an existing song — a bonus if you want to make radical new versions of a composition without touching the original.

Automate The Mix

All's well on the MIDI front, each important mixer parameter being accessible via a MIDI controller. This means that you can produce a complete automated mix from a computer or hardware‑based sequencer with ease. The VS1680 will also send its mix settings via the MIDI Out, with the appropriate tick in one of its global settings. If you don't have (or don't want) a computer or sequencer involved, there are onboard facilities for recording mixer movements. While this is not, perhaps, as visually appealing as a mouse‑drawn controller curve or an animated on‑screen slider, the facility is integrated into the recorder and performs well enough. Once you've recorded some slider movements, these can be edited using Micro Edit, which, in appearance, resembles the Event List provided by most sequencer programs, with the time, measure and object value presented in a list.

Synchronisation is well catered for, too — the VS1680 can function as MIDI Time Code (MTC) and MIDI Machine Control (MMC) master or slave. It can even transmit MIDI clock, but since MIDI clock is simply a series of pulses, it is not possible to synchronise the VS's audio to incoming clock, basically because there's no way for it to know when the next pulse will arrive. The VS provides an additional track, the sync track, for recording MIDI clock from an external sequencer, and if you wish to align the song's measure, beat and tempo with another MIDI recorder, a tempo map can be made. The unit has an internal metronome or can send clicks to external MIDI gear.

The manual provides guidelines for synchronisation to Cakewalk Pro Audio where Cakewalk is MMC master and MTC slave. For audio sequencers which can transmit MTC, it's probably best to set the VS as MTC slave, so that onboard audio from the computer stays in sync with its MIDI and with the audio of the VS. This method has worked reliably for me for some time, providing the VS receives a stable source of MIDI Time Code.

I breathed a sigh of relief when I found that one of the three supplied manuals contained MIDI information. Some of Roland's newest gear omits this valuable tome, despite the fact that for some people it's more important than the now obligatory 'Quick Start' book. The manuals are still a little brief, considering the machine they're describing, and the index is hardly in the optimum position, situated halfway through the separate Appendices manual. Nevertheless, they're an improvement on the manuals supplied with the VS880.

One final thing I should mention: the VS1680 has an internal clock and calendar. This is actually very useful, because it automatically stores the time and date of any recording made with the unit. A weird offshoot of this is that the VS1680 can function as a deluxe message scheduler, waking up to present you with a greeting on a given date.

With the VS1680, finding the strengths is an easy matter, but weaknesses are a little more elusive.

Conclusion

It's my task, when writing a review, to present a balanced picture of all the strengths and weaknesses I can see in a product. With the VS1680, finding the strengths is an easy matter, but weaknesses are a little more elusive. The display, the 24‑bit resolution, 16 tracks, eight inputs, the amount of recording time available — all these add up to a very desirable recording tool. On the negative side, the lack of individual mixer controls means that youdon't get the instant overall view of settings (as you would with one knob per function), I'd prefer jack outputs to phonos, and the 2Gb partition limit on the hard disk seems an unnecessary restriction. But the main thing that bugged me in operation was the inability to alter EQ during playback without getting tiny pops and crackles.

The VS1680 has similar CD‑writing capabilities to the VS880, but with one big plus — you can back up song data to a CD. This is a far better solution than Zip backup and DAT backup, and indeed the latter hardly seems a sensible option for any but the shortest songs. However, the fact that there is no option to save the image file at all strikes me as crazy The fact that only eight tracks are available in uncompressed audio mode seems largely irrelevant, because the new 24‑bit Multi‑Track Pro recording mode sounds so clear (see 'Compress Me' box). I'd say it sounds at least as good as 16‑bit uncompressed audio, and better than any analogue tape system I ever heard. With both optical and co‑axial digital inputs and outputs available, and an internal signal path of 24 bits (including mixer and effects processor), it's becoming feasible to keep the whole mix in the digital domain.

So do I like the VS1680? You bet! Will I be replacing my own VS880? Probably not, as my VS880 does everything I currently need to do, but if I had still not chosen my hard disk recorder, I think the VS1680 would be the number one contender.