#966649 - 07/10/01 01:02 PM
digital mixers / roland VM3100Pro?
|
robb.
MP Hall of Fame Member
Registered: 06/10/00
Posts: 3473
Loc: detroit, MI, united states
|
Offline
|
|
for a long time i was convinced i wanted to buy a fostex VM200 digital mixer and a frontier designs dakota ADAT interface. now, however, roland has released the studio pack that is a roland VM3100Pro digital mixer with an RPC-1 PCI interface (proprietary). the roland solution is about $150 cheaper.
who out there uses a digital mixer for their DAW setups? does anyone use either of these particular mixers? should i have any specific questions or concerns about using this mixer to track and mix in SONAR?
thanks.
_________________________
modernlull, indie rock from the dirty city of detroit.
|
|
Top
|
|
|
|
|
#966650 - 07/10/01 04:51 PM
Re: digital mixers / roland VM3100Pro?
|
Jason Poff
Senior Member
Registered: 05/11/01
Posts: 330
Loc: Lexington, Ky.UNITED STATES
|
|
Offline
|
|
Run, don't walk from the roland. Don't know who designed the interface but they certainly weren't human.
Jason
|
|
Top
|
|
|
|
|
#966651 - 07/10/01 06:04 PM
Re: digital mixers / roland VM3100Pro?
|
vintagevibe
Gold Member
Registered: 05/24/01
Posts: 548
Loc: ,,UNITED STATES
|
|
Offline
|
|
I have the Roland Studio Pack. The mixer is quite easy to understand and use. The Drivers work well on my Win ME system. I don't use Logic RPC. I use Cakewalk 9.03 and every thing works fine. I had Sonar but it was such a mess that Cakewalk refunded my money. The RPC-1 card is actually an M-Audio card with tweaked drivers. WDM drivers are included but I use the MME drivers and it sounds great. The FX seem to be more programmable than my VS880EX FX but are basically the same. It provides me with 12 analog and 8 digital channels, 2 stereo multi FX units and 2 extra (stereo linkable) compressors. Best $600 investment I've ever made. (from BPM Music)
This message has been edited by dino321 on 07-10-2001 at 03:07 PM
|
|
Top
|
|
|
|
|
#966652 - 07/11/01 03:58 AM
Re: digital mixers / roland VM3100Pro?
|
Anderton
MP Hall of Fame Member
Registered: 01/28/00
Posts: 7346
|
|
Offline
|
|
<>
I use a Panasonic DA7 with Sonar and a Frontier Designs board, it has been a stable and good-sounding combination. The DA7 has very good-sounding EQ and reasonably good dynamics, as well as enough aux busses to keep me happy. I also love the fact that I can save presets of everything. It's pricier than a lot of other boards but the sound is excellent to my ears.
|
|
Top
|
|
|
|
|
#966653 - 07/11/01 11:56 AM
Re: digital mixers / roland VM3100Pro?
|
vintagevibe
Gold Member
Registered: 05/24/01
Posts: 548
Loc: ,,UNITED STATES
|
|
Offline
|
|
I'm really enjoying the hardware based mixing after doing most of my work on the PC for a while. No latency, real knobs and sliders and rock solid dependability. I let my computer concentrate on playing waves and MIDI. This is truly the best of both worlds IMO. for very intricate panning or volume rides I can easily draw non destructive envelopes in Cakewalk. for may main setup (EQ, main levels and FX) I save it all in mixer snapshots. I can have several mixes/snapshots to choose from and can easily A/B them.
I think Roland has a killer concept here...for the same price as a Layla type unit and break out box you can have a real digital mixer. If I had the bucks I would probably go with Craig’s Panasonic or the Mackie Digital but I thing I would still use a PC for audio data. Even with the Alesis, Mackie and Tascam dedicated 24 track units available I still need a computer for MIDI so why not do MIDI and 30+ tracks of audio? I can also use my DirectX pluggins when needed, document song lyrics/changes and burn CD’s so for me I think I finally found the Holy Grail home studio combo!
|
|
Top
|
|
|
|
|
#966654 - 07/11/01 03:42 PM
Re: digital mixers / roland VM3100Pro?
|
robb.
MP Hall of Fame Member
Registered: 06/10/00
Posts: 3473
Loc: detroit, MI, united states
|
|
Offline
|
|
as much as i would like a DA7 or a yamaha, i don't think i have the cash for it. from what i've read (a lot) everyone loves them.
having an outboard mixer is almost self-evident. i'm set on buying one, i just want the best bang for my buck. what does the roland sound like? the promo literature said "it uses the roland's best 24-bit converters." i have six outboard channels of mic preamp, so i don't really need the mic preamps. how does the MMC work?
thanks, again.
_________________________
modernlull, indie rock from the dirty city of detroit.
|
|
Top
|
|
|
|
|
#966655 - 07/12/01 06:42 PM
Re: digital mixers / roland VM3100Pro?
|
vintagevibe
Gold Member
Registered: 05/24/01
Posts: 548
Loc: ,,UNITED STATES
|
|
Offline
|
|
I haven't set up the MMC for Cakewalk but it seems to work fine in the included Logic RPC. I hit Stop, Play and Rewind on the mixer and Logic responds immediatly. You can also "go to last marker" I think. It also has a handy pop up time code display. Haven't synced it to my VS880EX yet.
It sounds quite good. I think I hear a bit more "liveness" compared to the VS880EX's 20 bit but it's very subjective. I've always been happy with the VS880EX's converters. They were an improvement over the original VS880.
This message has been edited by dino321 on 07-12-2001 at 03:45 PM
|
|
Top
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
