Multi-track recording is fun!

David Porter

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So yeah... I'm just sharing.... to share.

I had this nearly twenty year old tracked performance data stuck on a 100MB zip disc and I have wanted for years now to revisit that track, clean it up, and fix and redo some things. It was stuck because it was recorded on a first generation Roland VS840 - and I had no way to convert the specialized Roland format to .wav. If I could just get this data into the DP-32SD (or Reaper) - I could, hopefully, fix some things - including the drums and the crudely recorded mono vocal track in particular.

So... acting on a tip from - who else - Phil Tipping... I recorded a sharp percussion hit at the same time mark on several of the tracks in the Roland. Then I recorded the tracks in real time one by one into the DP. Simply lined them up... and voila - now I had them in a platform that allowed me to work on them.

I first tweaked, compressed, and EQ'd the drums. Still not perfect as there is only so much lipstick that can be applied to this pig - but MUCH better.

But what I did with the crappy vocal track is where this became a worthwhile endeavor.

I took this crudely recorded vocal track which originally had been laid down with the singer standing in the closet of my apartment at the time - SM58 direct into the Roland VS840 (regretfully - for some GD reason I printed some reverb with that track - damn it) - and I sent it out through a Warm Audio TB12 preamp and added subtle amounts of analog hair and warmth - and back into the DP - compressing generously on the way back in. Then I sent this mono track out through a stereo digital delay - I have a couple to work with but I just grabbed my Boss DD-6 floor pedal - and set the delay for a subtle doubling effect... keeping the level of the delayed signal just barely noticeable... and sent that back to a stereo pair. It worked out great! Huge improvement. Very happy with my results.

So yeah... there you have it. :)
 
That sounds like a lot of fun indeed, I like those kinda projects!
 
I do too. At 49, I'm not a very good songwriter and only a mediocre guitar player... so while I still enjoy performance recording I have found that I really enjoy the sometimes tedious trial and error process of digital editing and manipulation.

Just occurred to me... this thread would probably be better titled: "Digital editing is fun!"

So yeah... the next thing on this project is redoing the guitars entirely which will leave me with drums, bass guitar, and vocals... all recorded approx 18 years ago -- and brand new fresh guitar tracks. We'll see how it goes. One step at a time. I'm an air conditioning contractor in north Texas - so I have limited time for this sort of thing this time of year.
 
Well done jimi... think you've just shown how rewarding a bit of patience can be, no matter what gear you've got. Some people are quick to 'rubbish' gear if they don't get instant results, and don't realise the whole recording & engineering process takes time and patience, from room & mic choice & placement through to the (as you say, 'sometimes tedious') crafting of the audio after recording - and that's on top of learning the limitations & quirks of the gear in the first place. May your skills continue to grow... keep having fun and keep sharing!
 
Jimi ... how does the 840 hold up? I have wanted to entertain the idea of finding one. It was my first machine and for whatever reason I feel like it was a better recorder than my upgrade to the vs-890 at the time. I still have a few zip discs floating around.
 
The Roland VS840 was/is a great little machine. I think the most common issue over time with regular use was the failure of the mechanical zip drive. Remarkably, mine still works - but is noticeably noisier I noticed.... the last couple of times it was turned on. Many years ago I bought the after market upgrade kit that allowed the use of a floppy cassette disc which was cool because it eliminated the noisy zip drive and could store way more data on one disc (which was one of the biggest limitations of the first generation VS840 - only 100MB!). I never got around to installing the kit and and by the time I did newer tech options rendered that mostly a waste of time, IMO.

The DP machines are far superior as stand-alones. They're easier to navigate and operate.... and far more powerful.
 
Going back to the original post, you actually can convert VS-840 files to .WAV with a handy (and free) utility available here:
https://www.roland.com/us/support/knowledge_base/201944979/

I've used it and it works great. I swapped out my Zip drive for a card reader a long time ago, which makes using the VS-840 noiseless and viable.

Gary
 
Thanks, Gary! My problem is that... apparently.... that conversion software only works with Windows XP or 2000 - and I have been unable to find someone with either one of those older versions. I gave up a long time ago.

And as a correction.... it was the card reader kit that I have - not a floppy drive as I indicated above - my mistake.

I am a long time member at VS Planet (perhaps you are too) - and regretfully I could never find a solution.

If you know something I don't please let me know. I'd still love to convert those files. At this point I don't care about the card reader install to the VS840 much... I just want to be able to work with those old VS files as wav's. I've got a bunch of them.... song and performance data frozen in time.
 
I'm using the utility on Windows 10 without a problem, for what it's worth. If you haven't already done so, give it a try. It might be fine. And don't forget that Windows has an emulation mode that allows it to work like previous versions of Windows. I don't think I had to invoke that though.

Gary
 
I will try it again. Thanks!

Update:

Regretfully - I'm still having problems with this. My computer sees the drive - but I cannot access it. I'm using an old Iomega Z100ATAPI with a Sabrent USB-DSC5 USB to 40-pin plug. This may be my problem. I'm going to keep trying.
 
Last edited:
As mentioned above, I don't use a Zip drive at all. I converted to a card reader and simply insert the cards into my computer.

Gary
 

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